The Convocation of the Nations
‘«Triumphant Faith!
Who from the distant earth looks up to heaven,
Seeing indivisibility suspending
Eternity from the breath of God.
Lo! with step erect
She walks o’er whirlpool waves and martyr fires,
And depths of darkness and chaotic voids.”
E. TATHAM.
(ISAIAH xli. 1.)
4{HE conception of this passage is superb. Jehovah is represented as summoning the earth, as far as the remote isles of the west, to determine once and for ever who is the true God: whether He, or the idols and oracles of which there were myriads worshipped and believed in by every nation under heaven.
The test proposed is a very simple one. The gods of the nations were to predict events in the near future, or to show that they had had a clear understanding of the events of former days. ‘Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and declare unto us what shall happen; declare ye the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things for to come.” On the other hand, the servant of Jehovah was prepared to show how fast-sealed prophecies, committed to the custody of his race, had been precisely verified in the event, and to utter minute predictions about Cyrus, “the one from the East,” which should be fulfilled before that generation had passed away. Not, as in Elijah’s case, would the appeal be made to the descending flame; but to the fitting of prophecy and historical fact.
Immediately there is a great commotion, the isles see and fear, the ends of the earth tremble, they draw near and come to the Judgment-seat. On their way thither each bids the other take courage. There is an industrious furbishing up of the dilapidated idols, and manufacturing of new ones. The carpenter encourages the goldsmith; and he that smooths with the hammer him that smites the anvil. They examine the soldering to see if it will stand, and drive great nails to render the idols steadfast. The universal desire is to make a strong set of gods who will be able to meet the Divine challenge — much as if a Roman Catholic priest were to regild and repaint the images of the saints on the time-worn altar of a fishing hamlet, in the hope of securing from them greater help in quelling the winter storms.
History furnishes some interesting confirmations of this
‘contrast between the predictions of heathen oracles and the clear prophecies of Old Testament Scripture, which were so literally and minutely realized. For instance, Herodotus tells us that when Croesus heard of the growing power of Cyrus, he was so alarmed for his kingdom, that he sent rich presents to the oracles at Delphi, Dodona, and elsewhere, asking what would be the outcome of his victorious march. That at Delphi gave this ambiguous reply, “That he would destroy a great empire,” but whether the empire would be that of Cyrus or of Croesus was left unexplained: thus, which ever way the event turned, the oracle could claim to have predicted it. This is a fair illustration of the manner in which the oracles answered the appeals made to them by men or nations when in the agony of fear. How striking a contrast the precise prediction of these pages, which give us the name of the conqueror; the quarter from which he would fall upon Babylon; the marvellous series of successes, that gave kings as dust to his sword, and as the driven stubble to his bow; his reverence towards God, his simplicity and integrity of purpose (verses 2, 3, 25; xlv. 1).
We are learning to lay increasing stress on prophecy. What miracles were to a former age, the predictions of the Bible are to this; and, unlike the miracles, the evidence of prophecy becomes stronger with every century that passes between its first utterance and its fulfilment. Probably there is an unrealized wealth of attestation lying in the ancient records of Egypt and Babylon, which is on the eve of being made available against the attacks of infidelity.
How sad, on the other hand, it is to mark the trend of opinion, in quarters where we should least expect it, towards the muttering of oracle and the whispering of familiar spirits; the rehabilitation of that lying system which filled the world at the incarnation of Christ, but which Milton at least supposed had for ever vanished before the rising beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
‘‘So when the sun in bed,
Curtained with cloudy red,
Pillows his chin upon an Orient wave,
The flocking shadows pale
Troop to the infernal jail,
Each fetter’d ghost slips to his several grave;
And the yellow skirted fayes
Fly after the night-steed, leaving their moon-loved maze.”
Amidst the excitement of this vast convocation the idols are dumb. We can almost see them borne into the arena by their attendant priests, resplendent in gold and tinsel, flashing with jewels, bedizened in gorgeous apparel. They are set in a row, their acolytes swing high the censer, the monotonous drawl of their votaries arises in supplication. Silence is proclaimed, that they may have an opportunity of pronouncing on the subject submitted to them; but they are speechless. Jehovah pronounces the verdict against which there can be no appeal, “Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you” (verse 24). As Jehovah looks, there is no one. When He asks of them, there is no counsellor that can answer a word. “Behold they are all vanity; their works are nought; their molten images are wind and confusion.”
Whilst this great cause is being decided, the people of God are addressed in words of tender comfort, which are as fresh and life-giving to-day as when first spoken by lip, or written by pen.
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH GOD ADDRESSES HIs PEOPLE. — They are poor and needy; they seek water, and there is none; the heights are bare, and the valleys verdureless; the track of their life lies through the wilderness; they are surrounded by incensed enemies who strive with them; they are powerless as a worm. It is amongst such that God has always found his chosen. Not the wise and prudent, but the babes; not the high and mighty, but the lowly and obscure;
not the king, but the shepherd-lad; not Eli, but Samuel. He finds them in their low estate, cast aside and disowned by the world, and adopting them, He makes for Himself a name and a praise.
It is necessary that God should have room in which to work. Emptiness to receive Him; weakness to be empowered by Him. It is into the empty branch that the vine-sap pours; to the hollowed basin that the water flows; the weakness of the child gives scope for the man’s strength. The need of the countless multitudes that thronged Christ’s earthly life gave Him opportunity for the working of his miracles, and the putting forth of his power. The lower the platform, the greater the proof of what God can be and do to those who trust Him. Take heart, therefore, if thou canst discover thyself in any of those that are summoned to thy view by the enumeration of
want, and weariness, and sin. The prime blessedness of the
kingdom of heaven is for the poor in spirit, the persecuted and the tempted, the wandering sheep, and the famishing child.
Il. THE ASSURANCES THAT HE MAKES TO THEM. — No height, however bare, nor depth, however profound, can separate us from His love. He whispers, amid the gloom that has settled down upon the landscape of our life, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee.” No enemies, however numerous or enraged, need dismay us; for He is still our God, bound to us by covenant relationship, able to throw reinforcements into the citadel of our heart, succouring us with horses and chariots of fire. Heart and flesh may fail; but He will strengthen. Difficulties may seem insurmountable; but He will help. The feet may be cut and bleeding with the desert march; but He will uphold with his strong right hand (13, 14).
There is a striking passage in one of the psalms which dilates with all the pride of the Jew-patriot upon the glories of Jerusalem, the city of the great King, in which God had made Himself known as a refuge. The kings of the nations, intent upon her destruction, assemble themselves and pass by her frowning battlements; but as they see the inviolable protection of God flung around them, they are dismayed, trembling takes hold of them, and they haste away. So, when strong enemies threaten the life, the purity, the well-being of God’s elect, He flings around them so complete and inviolable a defence that foes become as nothing, and as a thing of nought. And the beleaguered soul entrenched within its strong fortifications is reassured by the repeated refrain of Jehovah’s voice, “Fear not; I will help thee.”
And when God sets his hand to save any of his saints, He does not stay with this; but goes on to use the saved one for the blessing of others. Hence He not only comforts the few men of Israel with the assurance of his ready help, reiterating the words, as though never weary of repeating them; but He promises to make of them, worms though they were, a new sharp threshing-instrument, having teeth which would thresh the mountains and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff. This prediction has been marvellously fulfilled in the history of the Jewish nation, which has exercised such a formative influence on the history of the world; and there is a similar experience awaiting all who will surrender themselves absolutely to the hands of God. In thine own estimation thou mayest be nothing more than a worm; yet if thou dost yield thyself absolutely to God, He will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth (15, 16).
Who is there that does. not long to be renewed, to have a fresh baptism, a fresh beginning in work and energy of life? Who is there that does not wish to be delivered from the bluntness and obtuseness which come from long use? Who is there that does not desire power to thresh the mountains of sin and evil, until they are dissipated, like the heaps of chaff on
The Dibine Secret. - 33 the threshing-floor before the evening breeze? Let such take to their comfort the assertion of Jehovah, “J wll make.”
There is nothing that thou canst not do, O worm of a man, if Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One, takes thee in hand.
III. THE DIVINE PROVISION FOR THEIR NEED. — Life is not easy for any of us, if we regard the external conditions only: but directly we learn the Divine secret, rivers flow over bare heights in magnificent cascades; fountains arise in the rock-strewn sterile valleys; the wilderness becomes a pool, and the dry land springs; the plain is covered with noble trees, and the desert with the beautiful undergrowth of a forest-glade (17, 18).
To the ordinary eye it is probable that there would appear no difference. Still the tiny garret, and the wasting illness; still the pining child, with its low moan of continued pain; still the monotony and lovelessness of a lonely desolate life; still the straitened circumstances — still the deferred hope. But the eye of faith beholds a paradise of beauty, murmuring brooks filling the air with melody, leafy trees spreading their shade.
What makes the difference? What does faith see? How is she able to work such transformations?
(1) Faith is conscious that God is there, and that his presence is the complement of every need. To her eye common desert bushes burn with his shekinah.
(2) Faith recognises the reality of an eternal choice, that God has entered into a covenant which cannot be dissolved, and that his love and fidelity are bound to finish the work He has commenced.
(3) Faith knows that there is a loving purpose running through every moment of trial, and that the Great Refiner has a meaning in every degree of heat to which the furnace is raised; and she anticipates the moment when she will see what God has foreseen all the time, and towards which He has been working.
(4) Faith realizes that others are learning from her experiences lessons which nothing else would teach them; and that glory is accruing to God in the highest, because men and angels see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (20).
Some readers of these words may be wearily traversing the wilderness in their daily experience. They seek water, and there is none; and their tongue faileth for thirst. But if only they would look up with the eyes of faith, they would behold, as Hagar did, wells of water, and the fertility of the Land of Beulah. Many pilgrims pass through that land and see nothing like what Bunyan describes — no sun shines for them; nor birds sing; nor ravishing beauty charms the sense. These entrancing delights are all around; but they are unseen, un-. known. While others find paradise in the unlikeliest surroundings. The difference between these experiences arises from the presence or absence of the faith that takes
‘soa true meastire
Of its eternal treasure.”
Therefore comfort thy heart: Wait patiently. Let faith have her way. Hope to the end for the grace to be brought unto thee. Ponder these things till, in thy case also, what seems only a desert to other eyes, to thine shall be as the garden of the Lord.