BY REV. D. MACFARLANE, DINGWALL.
“FEAR not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
“Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
“Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.”—Is. xli. 14-16.
This chapter begins by the Lord calling upon the isles, whose inhabitants were Gentiles and idolaters, to “keep silence” till He would speak to them by way of rebuking them for their idolatry. When the Lord spoke to them they were dismayed and afraid that their false gods would fall at the voice of the Lord, and they diligently set to work and helped one another, to keep up idolatry in defiance of God; “the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying it is ready for the soldering, and he that fastened it with the nails that it should not be moved” (verse 6). Idolaters are afraid of the Word of the living and true God, and the more He speaks to them, the more diligent they are to strengthen and establish their superstition. Then the Lord speaks to His own people, who were better taught of the privileges which He conferred upon them—“But thou Israel art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not cast thee away” (verses 8-9). In speaking from the words of our text, we shall notice—
I. The name by which God calls His people here—
“A worm.”
II. The promise He gives them to encourage and strengthen them against their enemies and
III. The result of their victory—“They shall rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.”
I. The name, “worm.” When the Lord speaks comfort to His people, He names them according to their condition. They were now weak and oppressed, and He calls them “a worm.”
(1) A worm is a very weak creature; so are the Lord’s people; they are weak in themselves, and sometimes weaker than other people. Without Christ they can do nothing, as He told them. They are sometimes weaker than at other times, and are brought very low in their own experience. In themselves they are helpless creatures, but their God says, “In me is thine help.”
(2) A worm is exposed to many dangers. A worm crawling on the road is in danger of being crushed to death by the feet of men or animals; and by the wheels of all sorts of vehicles. If you saw a worm live from year to year in the midst of such dangers, you would say it was a miracle it was still living, but God, who is the protector of life, cares even for the life of the worm. The Lord’s people are exposed to many dangers from Satan and his host of persecutors, and it is a wonder to themselves that they have not been crushed to death by these enemies, but the Lord who undertook for them from all eternity, preserves them alive in the world, till they are ripe for heaven.
(3) A worm is a loathsome creature. If you saw a pretty bird lying on the road, you would take it up in your hand, but you would not take up a worm, because you consider it loathsome. The Lord’s people are loathsome in their own estimation, because sin dwells in them. As a plague, it makes them hateful to themselves. They are loathsome also in the estimation of the world that hates them. They never take them up in their arms to show kindness to them; they hate them, avoid their company, and would put them to death if they could; but they are precious in the sight of God, and in the sight of one another.
(4) There are some worms that in winter can only crawl on the ground; but in summer they get wings, and you may see them flying in the air. So it is with the Lord’s people. Sometimes they cleave to the dust, and cannot rise above the earth, but at other times, when by the wings of faith and hope they rise in their thoughts and affections above the things of time and sense towards things above, where Christ sitteth at the right-hand of God. We find this experience in the Psalms. The Psalmist is sometimes complaining that his soul cleaves to the dust, at other times he is spiritually minded, and one would think that he was like Paul in the third heavens, but this is not an ordinary worm, it is the “Worm Jacob.” From Jacob descended the twelve tribes of Israel, who were a type of the Church of God. There are some generations in which the Lord’s people are fewer than in other generations, and then on many accounts they may be called worms. Have you ever considered yourself a worm, helpless and surrounded by enemies who seek to crush you to death, and yet preserved by Him who preserves man and beast, and have you been thankful to the God of providence for your preservation? This much at present on the first head.
II. The promise. The Lord prefaces the promise by a word of encouragement. He says:—”Fear not, thou worm Jacob.” This was a word in season for His people on that occasion did fear. “Fear thou not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel,” because you are few in number. In times of persecution they are liable to many fears, and for fear of their enemies they had to hide themselves in dens and caves of the earth. Even Elijah, though a giant in faith, fled to hide himself from Jezebel, who threatened his life, but the Lord’s almighty hands were about him to protect him from his enemy; and He came to him in his hiding-place, and spoke a word of encouragement to him, and told him that his enemies would be destroyed, as we are told they were; and Jezebel, who threatened his life, had a miserable death. Satan is busy in every age, harassing the Lord’s people, while he leaves alone those who are his own children. He lulls these asleep, and is afraid that if he trouble them in the least they shall begin to cry to God for deliverance. There were others in the land in which Job lived, but Satan passed by these without disturbing them; but he did not deal with Job in that manner, and the reason was that Job was a true worshipper of God. The child of God has many fears, but God says—”Fear not.” There is nothing that gives true comfort to one in trouble like the Word of the Lord. One may fear that God is not his God, but He that comforts says: “I am thy God.” Are you afraid that He is not your covenant God? Many are not troubled about this important matter, because they are dead, but the Lord’s people are not so. Some of His people have many other troubles and trials, but their hope that God is their God is not interfered with. This is a great blessing, and supports them to bear the trial, however severe. Job was tried to the quick, yet he did not doubt his interest in God as his Redeemer, so that he was able to say—”Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” He had troubles in connection with his body, but he was sure of the salvation of his soul. If you are sure of the salvation of your soul, why are you afraid of what will become of your body? for Christ said: “Fear not them that kill the body.” The answer to this is that man is weak like a worm, and is liable to many doubts and fears, some of which are groundless, and are the result of distrust in God as the God of providence. Such fears are permitted as a trial, like the trial the Apostle Paul had when he got a thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan to buffet him.
How is the Lord preparing the worm Jacob for this? By making it a new threshing instrument having teeth. Threshing instruments have teeth in order to thresh the corn. When the Lord helps His people He will make them a new instrument. A new instrument can do better work than an old one. He promises to supply them with teeth to thresh the mountains. What are the teeth? The teeth mentioned here may be taken as the Scriptures, or to use the Scriptural figure, the sword of the Spirit, by which they are to fight with their enemies and overcome them. Christ used this sword in His combat with Satan in the wilderness. He gave him heavy blows by saying: “It is written.” Satan cannot stand the Word of God, its edge is too sharp for him. Some have found, when much harassed by the Evil One when they were engaged in speaking from or writing of the Word of the Lord, Satan had to keep behind the wall, so that they would like to be always day and night engaged in that exercise. When the worm was to be made thus a new threshing instrument it was to do a great work in the hand of the Almighty God. “It was to thresh the mountains and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff.” What are the mountains and the hills? Ungodly men in high positions in the world. Pharaoh was a great mountain, oppressing the Lord’s people in Egypt, who were as helpless in themselves as worms. And what is a worm before this mountain? But when God took this worm in His own hand, it overcame and overthrew Pharaoh and his host, so that they were drowned in the Red Sea. Satan’s kingdom is a great mountain, and is very strong in our day, but it shall be threshed down and beat small by the Church in the hand of God, the Church using the Sword of the Spirit to do this work. It is by the word of the Gospel the kingdom of Satan shall be destroyed. It was by the preaching of the Gospel that the kingdom of Satan in Europe was beat small at the time of the Reformation, and as this was so in the past, it shall be so in the future. We are sure of this, because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Christ must increase, but all who are opposed to Him shall decrease. This is an encouragement to preach the Gospel. Every individual to whom the Gospel is blessed diminishes the kingdom of Satan. The hills may be taken to mean ungodly men, who have less power to injure the Church than kings, but both are to be beaten to dust by the worm Jacob in the hand of God. When the mountains and hills are threshed, then the worm Jacob shall fan them. And in the process of fanning the wind shall carry them away.
Unbelief is a great mountain which often oppresses the Lord’s people, though it gives no trouble to those who deceive themselves. Every time the Lord gives the victory to His people over it, that mountain is beat small, though it is not destroyed till the death of the believer. Have you ever stood at the foot of this great mountain, and were you afraid that you could never get over it to the rest that remains to the people of God? It stands before you daily till your death, and as you cannot remove it, you try to climb up to the top of it, “to see the King in His beauty and the land that is far off” (Isaiah xxxiii. 17). Sometimes you succeed in reaching the top, and see the object of your desire, but at other times, before you can climb up half-way, you fall to the bottom again, and you may expect these ups and downs during your time in the wilderness.
The carnal mind is another mountain. “It is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” This mountain is so obstinate that the teeth of the worm, sharp as they are, cannot take an atom out of it, so that it confronts you daily, and the only way to escape its evil influence is to be delivered from its reigning power as believers are; but it shall at last be overthrown and left behind them. It shall perish suddenly in a day. Doubts and fears are mountains and hills which oppress the Lord’s people, and against which they have to fight in the state of imperfection, but they shall get the victory at last from these oppressors, and then they shall express their thankfulness with the Apostle Paul, saying: “Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I. Cor. xv. 57).
III. Their exercise after their victory over their enemies. God, who addresses them in our text, foretells what their exercise shall be—”Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel. They shall rejoice in the Lord. He is the fountain of their rejoicing and the cause of it. They could not rejoice when they were oppressed; they were sorrowful and mournful, but every time they get their victory over these enemies they are joyful, and they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and they shall ascribe all the glory to Him. They do this in the words of the Psalmist :—
Now blessed be the Lord our God,
The God of Israel,
For He alone doth wondrous works,
In glory that excel.
And blessed be His glorious name
To all eternity;
The whole earth let His glory fill,
Amen, so let it be.
If this be their exercise after minor victories, what shall we say about their exercise after their final victory? They shall then ascribe glory to God more perfectly than they could do in this world. Their joy shall be full in heaven, and their ascription of glory to God shall be perfect, and both shall continue without interruption throughout eternity. The worm Jacob shall be no more a worm, for He shall “raise up the poor out of the dust, and lift the needy out of the dunghill. That He may set them with princes, even with the princes of His people” (Ps. cxiii. 7-8). If this be the happy end of the Lord’s people, is it not more desirable to be a worm than to be the potentates of the earth, who mind earthly things, and whose end shall, without repentance, be everlasting destruction? We are travelling on to eternity, and we are now on this Sabbath Day nearer death than we were last Sabbath. Are we more prepared to meet death now than we were then? Are we through grace overcoming the mountains and hills, or are these powerful enemies overcoming us? This is a question that concerns each and all of us; and it concerns especially the unconverted, who, if they die in that condition, must be lost for ever. The great majority in this generation are wholly engrossed with the things of the world, and neglect the things which pertain to their everlasting peace, but as Christ said—”What shall a man be profited though he gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Be awakened out of your indifference, and give no rest to yourself till you find rest in Christ, who says—”Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. xi. 28). We leave these things with you, and knowing from God’s Word the terribleness of being lost, we beseech you in the name of Christ to be reconciled to God. Amen.