Isaiah 1:21-31 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. We have here - I. DEPLORABLE DEGENERACY. 1. Degeneracy of character. "How is the faithful city become an harlot!" etc. (vers. 21, 23). There is nothing more melancholy than the sight of a people or city or of a human being fallen from spiritual and moral integrity to a depth of sin and folly - devoutness exchanged for impiety, conscientiousness for unscrupulousness, self-restraint and self-respect for laxity or even for licentiousness, spiritual excellency for moral unloveliness. But many illustrations confront us, both in history and experience. 2. Degeneracy of power. The result of this spiritual decline is weakness: the silver becomes dross, the wine is mixed with water (ver. 22). The sinner is not long before he finds that there is "no might in his hand" (Deuteronomy 28:32). Sin saps the life-blood from the soul, and leaves it strengthless and useless. It makes him to be as an Oriental garden from which the life-giving waters have been withdrawn, as a tree whose leaves have faded and fallen (ver. 30) - everything is parched, barren, fruitless. II. DIVINE VISITATION. This includes: 1. Punishment; the outpouring of wrath upon the wicked, involving (1) personal ruin (vers. 24, 28); and this (2) the result of the sinner's evil deeds: the man himself is as tow, and his work (not the maker of it) is as a spark which enkindles it (ver. 31). The "work" of the drunkard, i.e. his intemperance, consumes him - it wastes his estate, it enfeebles his strength, it reduces the number of his friends, it brings him to destruction; and so with other vices which are the "works" of the unholy; they burn and they consume, and nothing quenches them. One part of the Divine punishment is (3) the shame with which the guilty are confounded: "They shall be ashamed... and confounded" (ver. 29). It is one of the constant penalties of sin that, when enjoyment is over, then comes shame and confusion of face. The soul is smitten with a sense of abasement; it suffers the smartings of conscience, the pangs of remorse. 2. Purification. (Vers. 25-27.) God would turn his hand - his hand that healed and saved; and, in his purity, would purge away the dross, and restore to the favored city its ancient righteousness. Penalty would become correction, and correction would end in transformation and redemption. Whether God visits (1) nations, or (2) churches, or (3) individual souls, it is that they may "come to themselves;" that they may return unto him; that they may be purified of their iniquity, their pride, their selfishness, their worldliness, their self-indulgence; and that they may rejoice in his holy service. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. |
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