Isaiah 28:16-17 Therefore thus said the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone… The Hebrew word for the "making haste," means quite as accurately the being ashamed, or, the being confounded. Accordingly, when St. Paul is arguing with the Romans he sets forth Christ as the foundation. stone promised by Isaiah, affirming that "whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed"; and when St. Peter is exhorting the strangers, he counsels them to build themselves up "as lively stones" on the redemption provided in the Gospel, quoting the verse from the prophet as if it stood thus, — "He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded." There is wonderful significance in this ambiguity, or, rather, interchangeableness of meaning. This will be our subject — the deliberateness, and, therefore, the solidity of all those who are "God's building." 1. It has really passed into a truism, as regards temporal and common affairs, that haste is dangerous, and that slowness, for the most part, is sureness. If there be one attribute in the works of the Creator Himself more universal than any other it is that of doing things by degrees, and never despising in His own government "the day of small things." Now take the case of the Christian on the highway of the Gospel. No doubt there is one sense in which he travels with the utmost velocity. In the sense of mortality we are all "making haste." But we limit you to the moral pilgrimage of the soul going towards Heaven, with its perfection, whether of holiness or of happiness, and we are reminded by the very character of a "believer" named in the text that we must avoid hurry, or bustle, or impatience. Faith in its own nature consents to travel slowly, and agrees to the interval between the being "justified" and the being "glorified." There would remain no one behind to be the "salt of the earth" if every new convert "made haste" from the mercy seat of repentance to the land of the palm and the crown. 2. Now we turn to the "making haste" considered rather as an affliction than as an error, and the "not making haste" rather as a privilege than as a duty. There is quite as much of a promise as there is of a counsel in the words we are considering, more especially if you couple them with the New Testament paraphrase about the being "ashamed" and the being "confounded." It is not only wrong to be impatient and neglect the duties of the passing moment, it is, moreover, very distressing and very costly. What is the reason why some person of your acquaintance never seems to be at ease in other people's company, carrying an appearance of perpetual flutter, and the crimson mounting to the face for no reason at all? That is often a symptom of ill-health; but the ill-health is generally the excess of self-consciousness — a morbid suspicion that everyone is observing and pronouncing upon me. It is a great affliction, and very often beyond very much control; but we merely give it you as a sign of self-absorption and a token that there is not enough to depend upon in one's self when the features and the manners of your friend seem to be always "making haste." Apply that doctrine higher up, to the moral and spiritual nature, and you will come at the reasons for instability, for fickleness, for sudden panic, and for half the disorders of the Christian life. (H. Christopherson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. |
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