BY THE REV. WILLIAM MATHESON, GLASGOW.
(Taken down by a hearer at Edinburgh.)
“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God.”—ISAIAH xl. 1.
NO doubt all of you will have noticed something that has been remarked upon from the earliest times about this book, that at this 40th chapter, a distinctly marked change comes in, and there is, generally speaking, more like the language of the Gospels in these concluding chapters than in the preceding chapters of this book. That is not to say that there are not portions also in the preceding chapters that are very much like what we find in the chapters from the 40th onward.
Now, I am not to speak of a certain sort of questioning that has arisen from this, but we ought to try to see its meaning. You will notice that in the 39th chapter, we have a certain incident recorded—a very strange thing. The godly Hezekiah, who had been sick unto death, and whom the Lord had restored to health, adding fifteen years unto his life, nevertheless, after such a gracious act of God toward him, had entertained certain messengers from a heathen country, and had shown them favour that displeased God exceedingly—that stirred up His holy jealousy to burn like unto a fire. Now, if you will go back, you will see how the people of Israel were determined to be like the people round about them. They said, “We must have a king, in order to be like the people round about us,” and they would go to idolatry. It is a thing that is remarkable, when you read this divine account by men who belonged to the Jewish people, how it sets forth their naked shame; how they would persist in turning aside to idolatry. Even Aaron did it, and that one step of Aaron’s, ah, how costly it was to Israel, for it was the example that Jeroboam took up when he made the calves! For this, what is associated with his name is, “Jeroboam, that made Israel to sin.” So we see what an awful condition of mind they were in. It is the condition in which man is naturally. It was self-will, because they did not think themselves to depart from the God of Israel. That was not what was in their minds. We must remember that. It was not in their minds that they were going to depart from the worship of Jehovah the God of Israel, but they were going to have a manner of worshipping their God, like the method the heathen had of worshipping their gods. They were going to have idols made. They were persisting in this, although the Most High, who never afflicts willingly, and never grieves the children of man out of his heart, but because of the necessity with which they wring these things from Him, put stroke after stroke upon them. Yet they would do it. Now, here is Hezekiah, and see what he did.
Well, God said He was going to give Israel over, over to
centuries, we might put it, of darkness and tribulation. He was going to put them through a fiery furnace, heated seven times, and men, when God will be putting peoples and nations through such a fiery trial, who fear Him, and who are loyal in their hearts, will be scorched, and they will be feeling the heat of the trial, as well as those who are careless and indifferent, and who blaspheme His holy name. They have to taste bitter things exceedingly. There was just one king we read of after this, who did seek the Lord, and that was the godly Josiah, but it was just like a dying flicker, so to speak, as the light seemed to die out in the dark centuries, so that from 400 B.C., onward, we have a blank, as it were, in God’s speaking by His prophets to Israel, and they used to mourn that there was not a prophet among them. God was here then, we may say, when Hezekiah acted like this, going to give them over as a people to those years that have not yet ended for them, because, when the Messiah came, they rejected Him, and so plunged themselves under the curse, when they said, “His blood be on us and on our children,” and to this day they are in that deplorable state.
Now, God spoke after this manner, “I have my people among them, and they are my people, and I will not forget them, though they are going to have troubles many, and not few, and though they are going to pass through a fiery furnace heated seven times.” So He said to Hezekiah, “Behold, the days come that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.” Hezekiah had a warning of the terrible days that were to come. But now, when the prophet delivers this message, as it were, God says, “I will not let my people, the heart of my people sink, sink down under this heavy burden, under this declaration of woeful days that are to come, and so I will give another message unto my servant Isaiah; he will deliver it unto them, but it will be a message of days long forward—centuries shall pass. I will tell what is to come in the latter days.” So far as Israel is concerned, they have postponed the enjoyment of these glorious days by their unbelief in rejecting Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God, but the Word of God stands true yet. They shall yet know the meaning of these words, for we must remember that, in a peculiar way, the Jewish people are yet, “My people.” They stand out by themselves the world over, and, when God says, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,” it certainly has first reference to the Jews, but, in holding out this comfort to them under these peculiar circumstances, and so giving the glorious revelation of Christ crucified that is given as the comfort they yet shall enjoy as a people, He also has given it unto the Gentile world.
Now, just a word or two about “My people,” and about their comfort, and the source of their comfort, “saith your God.” As I have said already, there is no doubt the Jewish people are, in a
peculiar way, the people of God. He declares that he did not know any other people as He knew them. He did choose the seed of Abraham, His friend, and give them a place in history such as no other people had, or ever shall have, in the world. He separated Shem, even after the flood, and gave him a peculiar place over Japheth, as well as over Ham, and then He separated out Abraham and Abraham’s seed through Jacob, and they are His peculiar people, and the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. He does not do things as men do. They will do a thing and then repent and change their mind, but God does not, and though the Jews are suffering, as they are, yet there is a glorious future held before them in the Word of God, for He will take the veil off their eyes, and they will see Jesus of Nazareth, whom they crucified, as none other than the anointed of the Lord, and they shall say in that day, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
But you see in Israel a type of God’s people. That is a thing that the Apostle Paul emphasises in the Epistle to the Romans, that they were a typical people, for even all the people of Israel were not of Israel. There were many of them lost. There was only, as it were, a remnant, a chosen remnant, even among them, though they were a chosen people, to whom the living oracles of God were given. They represented a chosen people, whom God has in the world, had from the beginning, and shall have to the end; a people concerning whom, it is true, that He is taking some of them home continually by death. Yet He is raising, at one time many, at another time few. Many even in a day, like the 3000 on the day of Pentecost, and thousands on days following and later days as well—sometimes more, sometimes fewer. They are being called and added, each being called according to the great purpose that is running through the history of the human race from its beginning in Adam, until at last this heaven and earth, as it is, shall have passed away. They are those whom He calls “My people.” They are His witnesses. You see, He will sometimes speak to them, “Ye are my witnesses that I am Jehovah.” That word “Jehovah” is mysterious. It is a great sum up of all that God is, the self-existent One from whom all things have their being. When man sinned against God, what did it mean? It was the same as a trying to deny what God is, for who would think to run on the thick bosses of Jehovah’s buckler? When men sin it is to deny Him to be Jehovah, and so He says to them, “Ye are my witnesses that I am Jehovah. You are a people who know the living God, and you have bowed your knee to me, and you have said of me that I am your portion, that I am all in all. You are my witnesses.” That is the very purpose of the Church of God on earth. They are God’s witnesses in the world. “For the fool says in his heart, There is no God.” They are the witnesses in the world that the God of Scripture is Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, over-ruling One.
Well, He says, “My people.” These are not all mankind, though all have come from His hand. These are a peculiar people, chosen from among the great mass of mankind, as it is said, “called according to God’s purpose.” God had a purpose of grace, a purpose of salvation, when man sinned and fell into ruin. God yet had a purpose, and, as it were, it is like a line running through—it is drawn by the Gospel—and, as it is running through the history of the human race, it is drawing sinners, sometimes a whole family, sometimes only one from a family unto Christ. That purpose of God is drawing them out, through the call of the Gospel; separating them unto Himself, and making them peculiar in the world, as Christ said to His disciples, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” What fruit? That they would just live to Him like the blessed Apostle Paul. “The things I used to count gain, these I counted loss for Christ.” Some people will say, “What is Christ? He is only as a root out of a dry ground.” But look at the Apostle Paul, though he was getting a great place as a religious man in his day, yet when he got a view of Christ, what took place? Christ captivated his heart, captivated his mind. Christ captivated him wholly, so that from that day till he went to Heaven to be with Christ for ever, he lived only for Christ. He did not care for the comforts of the body; he did not care for luxuries that the natural man delights in; he did not care for the honour that men would give him; he did not care for anything, but that he would win Christ and be found in Him, not having his own righteousness. It was thus Christ had captivated his heart. Christ had captivated his mind. He was separated from the world. He lived altogether differently from the world, for he was separated unto Christ. No passing fancy, my friends, no passing fancy at all! Something had taken possession of him in the great depths of his soul, and that just through a view of Christ in the Gospel. Now, such are “My people.” Just a people of that character are they who will bring forth fruit unto God in the world, proving to the world that God in Christ is all in all unto them.
And now, how are they the people of God? He says, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” They are His first by His discriminating love. There you have a family—and it is a solemn thing to think of it,—one may be taken from that family, and will get a view of Christ, so that that person will live henceforth no longer to himself or herself, but unto Christ; and the rest of the family, surrounded with privileges and opportunities most precious, will go on to be lost. What discriminated? Well, it is that love of God which God speaks of when He says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” And there is, therefore, in this discriminating love, which distinguishes between its object and all other objects, the principle that, although God be good unto
all men, as the Psalmist declares, yet here is love that stands by itself toward its object, and is of such a character that it cannot endure the loss of that object. No, no; the Son of His love must come in human nature to suffer and die the cursed death of the Cross, rather than that object should be lost; “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him (and these shall believe in him), should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
And, again, they are His, as I have said already, by ransom. They were under the curse of the law; they were as ill-deserving as any in the world. Says the Apostle Paul, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came unto the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” There will be none greater sinners, so far as their original sinfulness is concerned, in the place of the lost than there will be on the right hand in glory. All were unworthy, all were under the curse. All must first be ransomed, if they are to be saved, and He gave the ransom, and the Apostle Paul speaks like this of those who believe in Christ to the saving of their souls: “You are not your own, you are bought with a price.” What price? The ransom price of the blood of Christ. “My people,” because they are ransomed.
Another thing: they are His by power. Once if they would hear of the love of God, commended so wondrously in the gift of Christ, they were as dead to it as their next neighbour. They had no interest in it. But another day came when the Word of the truth, that was darkness to them before, became light in their understandings. They came to see the meaning of the law of God, and the meaning of the Gospel of God’s grace. They came to see their need of this Christ, of this precious Saviour, and rest they could have none in their souls. “Give me Christ,” they would cry, “or else I die,” and no soul ever had this cry, “Give me Christ, or else I die,” but received Christ. A day of His power came—for there must be the almighty power of God put forth to break the bands of sin and of unbelief that chain us down. That is plain, is it not, my friends? For it is a fact that we might sit listening to the Word of the Gospel, listening, even although angel voices declared it to us, though the voice of those who had drunk deepest among men out of the river of the water of life, were declaring this precious truth to us, and we should rest as indifferent to Christ as if it was something pertaining to angels, and not to men, that was being declared to us. Ah, the awful effect of sin and unbelief, the awful darkness of the understanding, must be removed. So they are His by power, His Spirit making them willing in a day of His power, to come unto Christ. You see what a claim He has on them—His own dear Son given
for them, and the chains wherewith they have been bound broken by the power of His own Spirit freely given, and all flowing from His own discriminating love.
But they are His in another way—by their willing gift. They gave themselves to Him. He never has any of them, but they gave themselves to Him. May He not say, “My people,” when they gave themselves to Him? Who can deny His right to say, “My people,” when this is so? And, oh my friends, the willingness wherewith these people gave themselves unto Him in the day of His power can’t be described. It is such a willingness that the human heart can know nothing else equal to it. In the Scriptures it is set forth under the figure of marriage, true marriage, wherein the true and living bond of honest and sincere love exists. How willingly, in such a case, one party gives himself or herself to the other! That is only a faint representation of the soul’s free willingness, when a soul sees Christ in the love that He reveals, as the Apostle says, “He gave Himself for me.” Ah, well, that makes a willing heart, in giving oneself to Christ, that cannot be described, that can only be understood by those who taste it. And I will point again to that blessed Apostle when he gave up everything for Christ. Was that not a willing giving? Did he begin to say, “Could I not have Christ at less cost?” No, no; he says: “I count all things but dung that I might win Christ.”
Now, do you think He will ever forget them? Do you think He will ever forget them? Do you think it? “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” They have hard things to pass through. They are going to have many difficulties, many pains, and many troubles, but has He forgotten them? No, do not let their hearts sink. If they have to go through fire and water, like holy Job of old, or like blessed David, they will come out like pure gold at the end, and eternity will swallow up the little blink of time that they had here in trouble. What is time in the view of eternity? It is nothing. It will look long to us here, but ah, my friends, when you will stand at the border line of time and bid good-bye, will it not be only as a moment? So, where is their comfort? It is in the Lord. He claims them and He will have them, and, as He will have them, do you think He will let any evil befall them? No, no; none.
Who is the source of their comfort? (We must draw to a close.) It is He. Read the rest of the chapter. He is the incomparable God; He has power; He does not get faint; He does not grow weary. Never. When they are in trouble and difficulty, as He is the source of their comfort, He will open to them thoughts of the vast scope of His dominions, for every thing that being hath His kingdom doth command. What are you, what am I, among even the myriad thousands of mankind? Nothing! And yet when we will not get our way, how readily we complain against God! But think of the vast scope of His
dominions; and then the purpose of God that brings everything within that scope. He has numbered the hairs of the head of His people, and they may think of the purpose that runs through all His vast dominions and controls all; and, as they are His, in that purpose, all things must be working together for their good, though they cannot see it now. How little we can see of things!
And then the comfort is not a passing comfort of this world. It is for eternity. Oh, that God would teach us to think in terms of eternity! May He grant us to get a view of the meaning of such a word as this, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” Oh, to get a view of this! He will never forget them: never, never lose sight of their interests. They only are truly blessed among men who are in such a case as this—whom God calls “my people.” They are His for eternity. To get any understanding of this is to be won unto the Lord, for “they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.”