Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand… The expression plainly intimates that there are dangerous bypaths on both hands, into which the people of God are apt to turn aside. I. ON THE RIGHT HAND, there are erroneous principles and practices which are mistaken for that truth and holiness whereof they are really destitute. Such are — 1. Professed confidence in God's pardoning mercy, disjoined from the acknowledged necessity of His sanctifying grace. 2. High pretensions to faith which are not verified by solicitude to maintain good works. 3. Flaming profession of piety toward God, unaccompanied with the exercises of justice, mercy, and charity toward men. 4. Great pretended zeal against public vices, attended with indifference as to secret personal transgressions. 5. Loud approbation of discourses that expose infidelity, hypocrisy, and iniquity, whilst these sins are indulged in heart and life. II. ON THE LEFT HAND there are also pernicious principles and dangerous practices into which men are prone to deviate. Such are — 1. The confession that holiness is indispensably requisite to the enjoyment of God, whilst the necessity of atonement for sin is denied or overlooked. 2. Strenuous assertions of the importance of good works, separate from a proper regard to faith, the active principle from which they proceed. 3. High respect for the duties of justice, mercy, and charity, joined with criminal indifference and neglect of the exercises of piety and devotion. 4. Partiality to their own favourite sins and unaffectedness with the transgressions of other people, whereby God is offended, His law transgressed, and His truth dishonoured. (R. Macculloch.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. |
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