Isaiah 59:9, 10 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness… A course of conduct or a principle of action is rightly judged by the issue to which it tends. All is well that ends well, and all is ill that ends ill. If we look far enough and deep enough in our estimate of consequences, we shall always find that the goal of guilt is wretchedness and ruin. It ends in - I. A SENSE OF WRONG. The nation feels that "judgment and justice" are lacking and the enemy is triumphant; the individual feels that he is injured, that his rights are withheld from him, and he goes on his way dispirited and complaining. II. DEEP DISAPPOINTMENT. "We wait for light, and behold obscurity," etc. Men who seek not their refuge and their portion in God and in his service are always subject to a profound dissatisfaction. Life does not yield the good they crave. They look for success, and behold failure; for joy, and behold weariness, heartache, ennui; for sweet communion, and behold isolation and loneliness; for laughter, and behold disgust. III. AGGRAVATED BLINDNESS. "We grope... like the blind... we stumble at noonday," etc. It is one of the saddest consequences of sin that the power of spiritual perception continually lessens; the "eyesight" of the soul becomes weaker and weaker. Great truths are less clearly apprehended. Confusion takes the place of distinctness, until at length good is mistaken for evil, and evil for good: "the light that is in us becomes darkness;" the very organ of spiritual understanding misleads us. And the aggravating circumstance is that this failure of the soul's sight takes place "at noonday," when others are walking and rejoicing in the light of the Lord. IV. DEATHFULNESS. "In desolate places [or perhaps rather, 'in luxuriant fields,'] we are as the dead." The thought of Christ and of his apostles is that to live in selfishness, in ungodly pleasure, is death in life. To exist apart from God; to be severed from him in thought and feeling, in speech and act; to be utterly regardless of his will and then defiantly antagonistic to his cause; - this is death indeed, and it is consummated in the death which is eternal. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. |
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