The Nail in a Sure Place
(No. 3402)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1914.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a
glorious throne to his father's house. And they shall hang upon him all
the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all
vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the
vessels of flagons. In that day, says the Lord of Hosts, shall the nail
that is fastened in the sure place be removed and be cut down and fall;
and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the Lord has
spoken it." Isaiah 22:23-25.
WE have read, in your hearing, the occasion of these words. Shebna the
scribe, having become proud and vainglorious, was to be put away and
his place to be occupied by a better man on whom God promised to
establish His favor. When Shebna the scribe was put away, it was like
the drawing out of a nail which, apparently, had been well fastened,
and all that had been hanging upon it came down with its fall. Thus did
Shebna's family suffer for his sin. It is just so in the world at this
day. It were well if some men who have gone into evil ways had
considered this. It is not they, alone, who suffer. Such is the order
and constitution of the commonwealth of manhood, that when the husband
sins, the household must feel much of the smart. Oftentimes, for wife
and children, there has been wrung out a cup of bitterness, of which
they have been made to drink, not through their own fault, but through
the fault of the head of the family. Should there be any men here who
have strayed into this house, tonight, who contemplate putting forth
his hand to that which is not good, though he might dare to risk the
consequences for his own sake, yet, for the sake of the children of his
loins and the wife of his bosom, let him pause lest, perhaps, he fill
their lives with bitterness, or send them to their graves prematurely
in poverty and shame.
That is not, however the subject upon which I shall talk at this time.
When Shebna was removed, there was room for Eliakim. Let this furnish
the key to a spiritual lesson. It has been generally propounded and
admitted by commentators and expositors that Eliakim is a type of our
Lord Jesus Christ. While this passage literally refers to Eliakim,
himself, it may, with very great instructiveness, be used as applicable
to the Lord Jesus–and so I use it. The first point will be this–
I. IN ORDER TO MAKE ROOM FOR JESUS CHRIST, THERE MUST BE AN OVERTHROW
OF SOMEBODY ELSE, just as in order to make room for Eliakim, Shebna,
who seemed to be like a nail fastened in a sure place, must be pulled
out and there must be a downfall of his glory.
Beloved, whenever Jesus Christ comes into the heart, before He rides in
state into the Castle of Mansoul, there is a battle, a strife, a
struggle, a casting down of the image of sin, and a setting up of the
Cross in its place. All men, by nature, have some kind of
righteousness. There is no man so vile but he still wraps himself up in
his rags and cajoles himself into the belief that he has some degree of
excellence, spiritual or moral. Before Christ can come into the heart,
all this natural excellence must be torn to shreds. Every single stone
of the wall upon which we have built before, must come down, and the
foundations must be utterly destroyed before we shall ever build right
and for eternity upon the Cornerstone of Christ Jesus. All our conceit
about our past righteousnesses must be completely overthrown. Perhaps
we flatter ourselves that all is well because we have been baptized or
have come to the Communion, like one who was visited, a few days ago,
by an Elder. Seeing that she was sick and ,near to die, he asked her,
"Have you a good hope?" "Oh, Sir, yes! A good and blessed hope." "And
pray," he asked, "what is it?" "Well," she said, "I have taken the
Sacrament regularly for 50 years." What do you think of that in a
Christian country, from the lips of one who had attended a Gospel
ministry? Her confidence was built upon the mere fact of her having
attended to an outward ceremony to which, probably, she had no right
whatever! There are hundreds and thousands who are thus resting upon
mere ceremonies! They have been Church-goers or Chapel-goers from their
youth up. They have never been absent, except under sickness, from
their regular place of worship. Good easy souls! Are these the boats
upon which they hope to swim in eternity? They will surely sink to
their everlasting destruction! Some base their confidence on the fact
that they have never indulged in the grosser vices. Others that they
have been scrupulously honest in their commercial transactions. Some
that they have been good husbands. Others that they have been
charitable neighbors. I know not of what poor flimsy tissue men will
not make a covering to hide their natural nakedness! But all this must
be unraveled–every stitch of it! No man can put on the robes of
Christ's righteousness till he has taken off his own. Christ will never
go shares in our salvation. God will not have it said that He partly
made the heavens, but that some other spirit came in to conclude the
gigantic work of Creation, much less will He divide the work of our
salvation with any other! He must be the only Savior as He was the only
Creator! In the winepress of His sufferings, Jesus stood alone–of the
people, none were with Him–no angel could assist Him in the mighty
work. In the fight He stood alone–the solitary Champion, the sole
Victor! So, too, you must be saved by Him, alone, resting entirely on
Him and counting your own righteousness to be dross and dung, or else
you can never be saved at all! It must be down with Shebna, or else it
cannot be up with Eliakim! It must be down with self, or it can never
be up with Christ! Self-righteousness must be set aside to make room
for the righteousness of Jesus–otherwise it can never be ours.
We must, with equal thoroughness, be ready to give up all confidence in
our own resolutions, or vows, or endeavors for the future and come to
rest the future where we rest the past–on Christ, and Christ alone. I
know it is the idea of many that albeit they have slipped and fallen in
the past, yet they shall be able to stand upright in the future. Have
they not resolved it? Can they not do it? Are they not able to do as
they will? As they have had much ability for evil, have they not an
equal ability for good? So self-sufficiency talks. But when a man comes
to know himself, and to know Christ, he sings another note. "Ah," said
an aged saint, as he heard of men that were taken to the police
station, and of some that were condemned to die, and others that were
transported–"Ah," said he, "he today, I tomorrow if the Grace of God
did not prevent." So every truly humbled man will say, when he hears of
the great offenses of others, "They today, and I tomorrow, unless Grace
shall intervene to keep me from following their evil example." Brothers
and Sisters, our only hope for the future lies in this–that those who
trust Jesus are in Jesus Christ's hands and that He is able to keep
that which they commit to Him. Those who trust in Jesus have this
promise that the Holy Spirit shall dwell in them and walk in
them–writing a law upon their hearts making their hearts new–molding
their natures into the nature of Christ, causing them to hate evil and
to choose that which is good. You will never kill a single evil passion
through your own strivings apart from the precious blood of Christ!
Those vipers within our bosom will never die till they are sprinkled
with the blood of the Great Sacrifice–and then they all depart. Jesus
comes and fills the heart and then evil is crushed beneath His foot and
is utterly slain, so that Christ becomes fully formed in us the hope of
Glory!
Now, it is hard for a man to give up these two things–all glorying in
the past and all hope for the future in himself. It is hard to be a
pauper and to knock at Mercy's door and ask for alms, and yet only as
paupers can we come. I do not allude exclusively to you that have been
great sinners, outwardly only, but I mean you moral men and women, you
that are good and excellent in a thousand ways. You must still come,
just as the poor publican came, with, "God be merciful to me, a
sinner." These are God's terms and He will accept you on no other. Oh,
be not proud enough to kick at them, but submit yourself to the
dictates of Eternal Love and let your vanity and self-opinion be abased
that Jesus Christ may be All-in-All to you!
Before I leave this point, let me remark that as this is to be done
before we come to Christ, so all our life long it is one of the things
about which we must always be vigilant, for the tendency of human
nature, as long as we are in this world, is to get something to rest
upon in ourselves. We can hardly be indulged with the light of
Jehovah's Countenance before we begin to make a confidence of it–and
if our graces for a little while bud and bloom like seeming flowers, we
very soon begin to compliment ourselves upon our imaginary goodness!
Though every excellence is borrowed, we begin to be proud of it and to
forget that in Him is all our salvation, and all confidence. This
knocking down has to be persevered in, for the flesh lusts against the
Spirit and yet as fast as we can, in our pride build up anything in
which we can glory, the Lord sends a terrible blast of some kind or
other against the wall, and sweeps it all down, that Jesus Christ may
alone be exalted in our experience.
Thus much upon the first point. There must be a down-throwing, a
pulling out of one nail before there can be another for us to hang
upon. Now, let us turn to a second thought, which is this–
II. THE NATURE OF OUR TRUE DEPENDENCE, as set forth in the words of the
23rd and 24th verses.
The reliance of a really saved soul is upon the Person, the work and
righteousness of Jesus Christ only. This dependence is warranted by
God's appointment. Turn to the 23rd verse–"Iwill fasten him as a nail
in a sure place." That other nail, in the 25th verse, God never
fastened, but this is one that God fastens and what God does, lasts
forever! Do you, dear Hearer, rest your soul's salvation alone upon
Jesus? Then, mark you, He can never fail you, for if He did, then would
it be true that God had been mistaken. It were blasphemy to think it!
If the Lord appoints Jesus Christ to be a Propitiation for sin, and yet
He does not make that Propitiation, then there is a mistake somewhere.
If God bids me lean my whole weight upon His Son, and I do so lean, and
yet am not sustained, then is there a great mistake, not on my part
only, but on the part of Infinite Wisdom! But we cannot suppose that.
The Lord knew what He was doing when He appointed the Only-Begotten to
be the sinner's pillar of strength, upon which he might lean. He knew
that Jesus could not fail–that as God, He was all-sufficient. That as
perfect Man He would not turn aside. That as a bleeding Surety, having
paid all the debt of our sin upon Calvary, He was able to save to the
uttermost all them that come unto God by Him. I come into this pulpit
so continually that it is a place to which I am more accustomed than
any other in the world! And this is the one cry I am always uttering in
various shapes and ways–it is this one Truth of God I present with
unwea-ryingly interest–Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the Cross
of Calvary, bearing upon Himself the sin of all that trust Him, and for
all that trust Him, He has made a full Atonement, so that their sins
are forgiven! Christ has paid their debts, they are free! He was
punished for them! They cannot be punished. God cannot punish the same
sin twice! If He punishes Christ, He will not punish any for whom
Christ died! Now, if these statements were my own invention. Did I
promulgate it as coming out of my own thoughts, it were worthy of no
acceptance–but inasmuch as God reveals it in His Word–oh, this is the
soul and marrow of the Christian religion! Rest on it and if you are
deceived, were such a thing possible, what a consolation would you have
in appealing to the proclamation of Divine Mercy as an answer to all
the terrors that menaced you! But that can never be! Impossible! It is
the Truth of God, O Sinner! However guilty you may be, believe this
Truth–that Christ is able to save you–and go and cast yourself on
Him! Rest on His finished work, and as God is true, He will not, He
cannot, turn aside from His solemn oath and promise–"He that believes
in Christ is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned
already because he has not believed on the Son of God." The Christian's
dependence, then, is of Divine appointing.
Moreover, the Believer's dependence is of God's sustaining, for note,
"I will fasten Him as a nail in a sure place, and He shall be for a
glorious throne to His father's house." God ensures the future–that
Christ shall always be to His people their glory and their defense. You
know how we like good names to be attached to great compacts. In all
commercial dealing, especially in large transactions, we like good and
safe men to trust in, though, indeed, where are they to be found
now-a-days–since the best of them are sharper than a thorn-edge? Oh,
Honesty, you are fled, perished, buried years ago, and the very rags
you once did wear are rotten! But, here, if nowhere else, here in the
Gospel, we have a name in which we may trust the name of the
thrice-holy God that cannot lie! And He declares that He will sustain
His Son as the Savior of His people. Need I urge any rational spirit to
depend where God pledges His Word? "Let God be true, and every man a
liar," and if you have God's Word for it, cast yourselves unreservedly
upon His Word! You shall not find Him fail you! You shall rejoice as in
Heaven you sing of the faithfulness of the God that spoke and the
everlasting righteousness with which He fulfils every Word He has
spoken!
Further still, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Believer's great
foundation and confidence, is also the Christian's fountain of glory.
"He shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house." All his
father's house was to be ennobled through the ennobling of Eliakim and
so is the Christian ennobled through the ennobling of the Lord Jesus
Christ. By nature what are we but despicable? If we consider the
heavens, the work of God's fingers, we are so minute as not to be
worthy to be called specks in Creation! If we look at our sinfulness,
we are reduced still lower in the scale. And if we see our continued
tendency to fresh sin, we are obliged to say, "Lord, what is man, that
You are mindful of him at all?" But yet man is an honorable creature
when he lays hold on Christ! Then he is lifted up and made to have
dominion over all the works of God's hands. All things are put under
his feet in the Person of Christ Jesus. There is no honor in the whole
universe–no, not the honor of the angels, themselves–that can exceed
the honor that is put upon the man who believes in Jesus Christ. I wish
we always thought so, for indeed, it is so. In the olden times, when
one was brought before the magistrate to be accused and adjudged to
death for his Christianity, he blushed not to avow his soul's
attachment to his Savior with open face. When they asked him what he
was, he said, "A Christian." "And what is your name?" He said, "My name
is Christian." "And what is your occupation?" "My occupation is a
Christian." "And what is your wealth, whatare your degree and rank?" He
said, "I am a Christian." And to every question they put, he gave but
this one answer, "I am a Christian. I am a Christian." All the wealth
and all the glory of this world are nothing compared with the glory
that comes to the very meanest man who is really allied to Christ and
can truly be called a Christian! Lift up your heads, you poor and
needy! Rejoice, you downtrodden and oppressed, you toiling workers, you
forgotten ones among the sons of men, for if your destiny is linked
with the Person of the once crucified, but now exalted Savior, you
shall partake of His Glory in the day of His appearing and forever be
sharers of the splendor which eternally shall surround your Lord!
Here, then, is much to comfort us. He upon whom we depend is divinely
appointed, divinely sustained, and all His Glory He sheds on us! But
now, pass on and note that–
III. THE CHRISTIAN'S WHOLE DEPENDENCE IS PLACED UPON THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST as declared in the 24th verse. The metaphor is this–There is a
pin in a palace and upon this there may be hung up suits of armor, or
whatever else the owner of the palace chooses to put there. But instead
of that, there are hung golden wine cups and goblets. Some of them are
small vessels of not much capacity. Others of them are great flagons
adapted to hold large quantities, but they are all hanging upon this
bracket–all suspended there as trophies. If the nail is taken out, the
smaller vessels fall, and so do the larger ones, too, for they all
equally and alike hang on that nail. Their only support from falling
and being bruised upon the floor is that one pin which holds them all.
Such is Christ to all His people! All Christians are not alike
capacious vessels of Grace. Some can receive much–they are full of
knowledge, zeal, hope, joy, faith. Others will never be anything but
little vessels. They have believed, but their faith is mixed with
unbelief. They "can do but little, they have but few talents, their
knowledge is obscured, their progress in the Divine Life is but small.
Still, for all that, they rest on nothing less than Christ. They need
not rest on anything more and the great ones depend on nothing less
than Christ, nor can they rest on anything more. The little cup is
quite as safe, for it hangs on the nail as the flagon does. Truly, one
might be ambitious to be a flagon, to hold a deeper draught for its
Lord's pleasure, but the littleness of the tiniest vessel does not
affect its safety. The safety of all that hang there lies in the
fastness of the pin, the strength and security of the nail. Not in the
littleness of the one, nor the greatness of the other is there either
safety or danger, but all rest on that pin. So is it with the whole
Church of God. We are all hanging upon the finished work of Jesus
Christ. If we have served Him well and served Him long, yet we have
nothing whereof to glory, but we cast all aside, and rest, as helpless
sinners upon the blessed Savior! If we have but just begun to serve
Him, and so are babes in Grace, we rest entirely upon Him. If we have
fallen into sin and have been backsliders, yet still we come again and
look to His merits that we may be restored. Or if we have lived a
blameless life through His abundant Grace, yet still, for all that, we
have no other dependence than the rest of the saints, but entirely,
solely rest in Jesus! This is very simple Doctrine, expressed in very
simple talk, but I do wish that somebody had told me this years before
I heard it, for I always had the notion that I was to be saved by
something I did, and something I felt. I supposed it was a great
mystery, a matter that took months and years to solve, and that even
then, it was attended with imminent risk and that the dreary search for
this inestimable prize might end in disappointment. Oh, I wish I had
been told earlier that there was nothing whatever for me to do of
myself, but simply to come, just as I was, and cast myself upon what
Christ had done for me, and for sinners like me, and that if I rested
wholly upon Him, I would be saved from my sins and from the tendency to
sin–and be made holy in Christ Jesus! Now I feel inclined to state,
whenever I am talking of it, into the simplest language and the
shortest sentences, in order that if there should be a lad here, a
child here, that is seeking salvation, he may not be kept in darkness,
as I was, month after month, and year after year, trying to know what
to do to be saved! Man, woman–whoever you may be–what is to save you
is done! Christ has done it all! The robe you have got to wear in
Heaven is already spun–you have not got to sit at the loom, working
away and making a garment with which to cover your sins! The fountain
in which you have to be washed you have not got to fill, nor even to
drop a tear into it to make it perfect! There it is–filled with blood
drawn from Immanuel's veins, and all you have to do is but to step into
it by simply trusting it. Trust Christ! Rely on Christ! Depend on
Christ and it is done! And you are saved! The flagons and the cups put
on the nail are safe there. You that put on Jesus Christ now are safe,
now, safe tonight, safe all your life and safe in Glory everlasting!
Now, I should like to ask a question of two or three classes, and then
send you home. There are a great many of us here tonight who are
teachers of others. Some of you are deacons, Elders, Sunday school
teachers, street preachers. I thank God that you are a busy people and
you are doing much for Christ. There is a question I want to ask of
you, and of myself–Are we who teach others sure that we have believed
in Christ, ourselves? Are we quite, quite sure that we are saved? It is
well to ask that question! It is a very dangerous thing, indeed, for an
unsaved man to begin to work for Christ, for the probabilities are that
he will take for granted what he ought diligently to have proved. In
many cases he neverwill seek to be saved, but go on, on, on, never
pausing to examine himself and so, while professing to work for God, he
may be a stranger to the work of God on himself! There is an old story
I recollect reading somewhere of a lunatic in an asylum, who one day
saw a very lean cook. Accosting him, he said, "Cook, do you make good
food?" "Yes," said the cook. "Are you sure?" "Yes." "And does anybody
get fat on it?" "Yes," again was the reply. "Then," said the man, "you
had better mind what you are after, or else when the governor comes
round, he will put you in along with me, for if you make good food, and
yet are so thin yourself, you must be mad, for you do not eat it, or
else you would get fat, too!" There is some sense in that. You teach
others, you say you give them spiritual food, but why not feed on it
yourselves? Master, what right have you to teach if you will not first
learn? Physician, physician, heal yourself! Brother, it will go hard
with you and with me if we are lost. What will become of us teachers of
others if, after having led others to the river, we never drink–after
bringing others the heavenly food, we perish of spiritual famine
ourselves? I cannot go round to all the members of this Church and all
the workers, and take them by the hand and say, "My dear Brother or
Sister, be not deceived and do not go on deceiving us." But I sometimes
wish I could do that, and I wish you would take it as done tonight, for
there are some awful hypocrites among us! There are some who come in
and apparently behave right well, who are nothing better than
abominable hypocrites, rotten through and through! And yet in our
charity we never suspect them, and if we occasionally discover one, we
stand amazed and say, "Lord, shall I be the next to be a Judas and
betray my Master?" There never was a Church in which such hypocrites
have not at all times been exposed to view unless they were all in the
gall of bitterness together, dead in an empty profession. And then it
is no marvel that there should be little inclination to exercise
discipline. Christ's twelve had a Judas, and all churches must expect
to find the chaff that must be driven away into the fire when the wheat
is purged by the great Master's fan. I do beseech you, my dear Brothers
and Sisters, let not membership with this Church, or any other Church,
assist you in self-delusion, but do–oh, how shall I put it, how shall
I put it?–do, before you think about the conversion of other people,
see to it that your own conversion is accomplished! Count yourself no
way safe till you hang on that nail! You need not talk to others about
trusting in Christ till you have first trusted yourselves!
Out of the many hearers who have listened to me so long, may there not
be a great number who though taught in the Doctrine of the Word have
never yet been obedient to it? For a man to perish before knowing the
Gospel will be a dreary thing. But for him to die when he knows the
Gospel is something horrible–to be drowned with the life belt within
reach! To perish in the dark, when the light is to be had! To die of
famine, like Tantalus, with the golden apples close to one's lips! To
perish of thirst with the water gurgling at one's throat! Oh, it will
forever be a sound of horror in the lost ones' ears when they shall
hear the echo of the Sabbath bells–if such sounds can penetrate the
murky regions where lost spirits dwell–the sound, I say, of the
Sabbath bells reminding them of Lord's-Days wasted and neglected! The
sound familiar to them when on earth of the preacher's voice as he
pleaded, entreated, thundered, threatened, wept, begged men to be
saved! If there could be silence, there, and all could be forgotten,
there might be a lull in the fierce hail-storm of Almighty Wrath! But
they can never forget, for it is said, "Son, remember. Son,
remember"–and they shall remember that they were called, but would not
come, that they were invited, but declined the feast, that they were
instructed, but shut their eyes–that they were wooed, but they
hardened their necks and chose their own delusions! Oh, by the mercy of
the blessed God, write not your names, my Hearers, among the guilty and
terrible multitude!
And may there not be some who come merely as casual hearers now and
then, who, instead of gleaning anything that is good out of what we
have tried to say, only remember our mistakes, our mannerisms, our
faults of gesture or of style? It may be sport to some of you to sit
and hear, but it is awful as death for us to stand and preach. I mean,
it is no child's play for a man to feel, "I stand in God's place to
that people this night, and as though God did beseech them by me, I am
to pray them, as in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God." He that
can toy with his ministry and count it to be like a trade, or like any
other profession, was never called of God! But he that has a charge
pressing on his heart and a woe ringing in his ears, and preaches as
though he heard the cries of Hell behind him, and saw his God looking
down upon him–oh, how that man entreats the Lord that his hearers may
not hear in vain! Yet, alas, alas, by how many who come to hear, all
that is good is forgotten, and only some worthless thing is treasured
up? As among those who go to the goldsmith's shop, while one is looking
at a pearl, and another admires a ruby, and another would gladly
purchase a diamond, there may be an idiot who picks up a coal from the
floor and thinks that shall be his–takes it home with him and blackens
his fingers with it, and then goes his way and finds fault with the
jeweler who dropped it–so are you foolish people and unwise who are
attracted by nothing that is precious in the Gospel, but are diligent
to collect any refusethat drops in the pulpit! Oh, Sirs, if you must
find fault with us, do so, and welcome, as much as ever you will, but
do not forget that there is the Truth of God in the sentence that if
you are to be saved, you must rest alone upon the work of Jesus! You
need saving! You need it tonight! There may never be another occasion
on which you may have an opportunity of finding salvation! The
opportunity is given to you now. May the Holy Spirit give you the will
as well as the occasion, and may you now say–
"I'll go to Jesus though my sins, Have like a mountain rose! I know His
courts, I'll enter in Whatever may oppose. Prostrate I'll lie before
His Throne And there my sins confess. I'll tell Him I'm a wretch undone
Without His Sovereign Grace." God bless these words for Jesus' sake.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 41:1-18.
God enters into a controversy with those who had fallen into the
worship of idols.
Verse 1. Keep silence before Me, O islands, and let the people renew
their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak: let us come
near together to judgment. He challenges them to a debate. He gives
them breathing time–bids them prepare themselves and come with the
best arguments that their minds could find.
2, 3. Who raised up the righteous man from the east? Who called him to
his feet, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings?
Who gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his
bow? He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had
not gone with his feet Who was it that raised up Cyrus and who made him
strong to defeat the foe? Did the false gods do it? Could they claim
any share therein? He puts it to them.
4. Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the
beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am He. Long
before Cyrus was born, God thus spoke of him! It is declared what work
he should do. What better proof could there be that God is God? Do the
false gods foretell the future? Are their oracles to be depended upon?
Yet the Lord's Word is true and stands fast forever. "I Jehovah, the
first, and with the last, I am He."
5, 6. The isles saw it, and feared: the ends of the earth were afraid,
drew near and came. They helped, everyone, his neighbor; and everyone
said to his brother, Be of good courage. When men fight against God,
they get united. What a very sad thing it is that God's children should
ever fall out. There is one sin that I never heard charged upon the
devils– the sin of disunity. Of all the evil things we have heard, I
have never heard that among the principalities of the Pit there has
ever been any division into sects and parties. Oh, sad that in this
respect we should fall short of them! The enemies of God helped
everyone, his neighbor, "and everyone said to his brother, Be of good
courage."
7. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smoothes with
the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the
soldering. And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
What a sarcastic description of god-making this is! There is the
carpenter and then the goldsmith to spread the plates of gold over the
wood. And then it is soldered and it has to be fastened with nails. The
simple facts about the making of gods are sufficient to pour ridicule
upon idolatry! God deliver us from idolatry of any shape or form,
whether it comes from Rome or Canterbury! May we have no symbol–no
visible object of worship, whatever–but get rid of all that and before
the great invisible Spirit let us bow, worshipping Him in spirit and in
truth! For the least touch of the symbolic soon lends on to the
idolatrous! And what at the first seemed harmless, soon comes to be so
harmful that well does the Law say, "You shall not make unto you any
graven image for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God." Oh, to keep
clear of this great and heinous sin!
8, 9. But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen. The
seed of Abraham, My friend. You whom I have taken from the ends of the
earth, and called you from the chief men thereof, and said unto you,
You are My servant I have chosen you, and not cast you away. The people
of Israel were reserved by God that they might worship Him. While other
nations went to their idols, the Israelites were to be His servants,
chaste in heart towards Him. It is so with the Lord's believing people.
You are elected and selected, chosen and ordained, and set apart. You
may fear the Lord and notgive your hearts to any other. May God grant
that we may be true to this, our sacred trust. Notice how very sweetly
in this text the Lord alludes to His friendship to Abraham, "The seed
of Abraham, My friend'" When the Lord makes a friend of a man, He means
it, and He keeps up that friendship to His children and His children's
children! Happy are they who have a father who is a friend of God! Just
as David did good to Mephibosheth for the sake of Jonathan, so,
doubtless, many blessings come to the children for the sake of their
parents. The Lord keeps mercy to the third and fourth generation, yes,
and throughout all generations to them that keep His Covenant.
10. Fear you not, for I am with you. What cause for fear now? If I am
with You, you need not fear all the men on earth, nor all the demons of
the Pit! Fear you not, for I am with you."
10. Be not dismayed: for I am your God. " YourGod." Lay the stress
there if you will, or, "your God, therefore your All-Sufficient
Helper–your Immutable, Faithful, everlasting Friend."
10-12. I will strengthen you: yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold
you with the right hand of My righteousness. Behold all they that were
incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as
nothing; and they that strive with you shall perish. You shall seek
them and shall not find them, even them that contended with you. They
that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing. Go
on, then, child of God! All your foes that resist your salvation shall
disappear before your onward march. "Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you." Advance to meet your cares and God shall take your cares
away. Only be you strong and of a good courage, and rest in the
everlasting arm, and you shall be more than a conqueror!
13. 14. For I, the Lord, your God, will hold your right hand, saying
unto you, Fear not: I will help you. Fear not, you worm, Jacob. Poor
worm! How can it take care of itself? Even a bird can destroy it. "Fear
not, you worm, Jacob." You know what a worm does for its defense. It is
all that it can do–it hides itself in the earth. Hide yourself in your
God! Get you into the rock and there be hidden till the danger is past.
"Fear not, you worm, Jacob."
14. And you men of Israel: I will help you, says the Lord and your
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel How many times the Lord puts it, "I
will help you"! How again and again He says, "Fear not"! For
despondency is deeply engraved in some spirits. There are some minds
that seem to gravitate that way, again and again, and again–and even
the Divine assurances have to be given repeatedly before they feel
comfort! Have any of you been troubled because your children do not
learn the first time you teach them? See how you are towards your
heavenly Father! How many times He has to teach you, line upon line,
precept upon precept–here a little and there a little–and if He has
patience with our infirmities, we may very readily have patience with
the infirmities of our little ones!
15. Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having
teeth. He will make poor feeble worms to be like that great corn-drag
which they were accustomed to draw over the straw to bruise out the
wheat.
15, 16. You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall
make the hills as chaff You shall fan them and the wind shall carry
them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice
in the LORD, and shall glory in the Holy One of Israel. Truly, when
mountains are beaten into chaff and blown away with the winnowing fan,
there is room for rejoicing and magnifying God! If there were no
difficulties, there would be no victories! If we had no trials, we
should have no tests of Jehovah's strength! But out of our afflictions
we get our joys. The deeper our sorrows, the higher our exultations
when God helps us through them.
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their
tongue fails for thirst, I, the LORD, will hear them. I, the God of
Israel, will not forsake them. What a blessed promise that is! God
thinks of poor and needy men. When they are in their greatest
extremity, with nothing to quench their thirst, and they are ready to
die, then He is pleased to make the rocks run with rivers in order that
they may be supplied.
18. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of
the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry
land springs of water.