Judges 5:31 So let all your enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might… I. THE TRUE CHARACTER AND CERTAIN DOOM OF THE UNGODLY. 1. The term "enemies" will apply to all the unrenewed portions of mankind. The heart is positively hostile, etc.. "Carnal mind is enmity against God," etc. (1) There are the daring enemies of God, who sceptically treat His revelation, yea, deny His being. They attack His rule; despise His word; rail at His servants; try to subvert His cause. (2) There are the profane and reckless enemies of God, who defy, contemn the Most High — Pharaoh, Belshazzar, Herod. (3) There are those who are wickedly neutral, and who temporise in religion. 2. Now as to the doom of the enemies of God they will all perish except they repent; all have one condemnation, sentence, woeful abode. It will include — (1) Utter shame and confusion; (2) total wretchedness and misery; (3) eternal ruin and despair. II. THE ILLUSTRIOUS REPRESENTATION GIVEN OF THE FRIENDS OF JESUS: "Them that love Him." In the enemy we look for hate; in the friend, love. Now love to Jesus is — 1. A Divine principle of God and from God. The result of regeneration. 2. A pre-eminent principle. Above all, it has the centre, it reigns, it subordinates. 3. It is manifest. Lives, breathes, speaks, acts. Moves all the springs of the heart. Affects all the machinery of life. Loosens the tongue, employs the hands and feet. Mark the representation — "Let them that love Him be as the sun," etc. Now, the metaphor will apply — (1) To the exalted station which they occupy. Sin debases, sinks, etc. Religion exalts. (2) To the spiritual rays they diffuse abroad. "Ye were once darkness," etc. Now lights, etc. "Arise, shine," etc. (3) As fertilising and beautifying all around. Now, believers shed moral beauty all around. Holy virtues, heavenly graces, Christ-like feelings, all tend to expel the winter of moral evil and misery, like the sun. (4) Irresistibly advancing in their glorious career. (5) Like the sun setting in celestial radiance and moral splendour. However bright the career, it must cease on earth. See the aged Christian declining, etc.; at last it sets — but watch the scene. No stormy sky, no threatening tempest, no cloud ; all still and tranquil and clear; the whole horizon mellowed with the golden glory. (6) As the sun rising in another hemisphere and shining in fairer worlds. Is that setting sun annihilated? He rises in another land as he sets in this. So with those who once shone here, etc. They are lost to us but they still live, and are more radiant, shine brighter, etc. Application: 1. Let the subject be the test of character. Are we enemies? etc. 2. Learn the supreme excellence of true religion. Godliness leads to honour, usefulness, blessedness, and glory. 3. Let the enemies of God consider. "Kiss the Son lest He be angry," etc. 4. Let the professed friends of Jesus exemplify their principles. (J. Burns, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years. |
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