Isaiah 9:10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Jesus said, "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light," meaning by the statement that they excel them in the shrewdness and tact with which they manage their business when that has taken an adverse turn. Men of the world do not readily submit to defeat and failure, but strive to convert defeat into victory, and failure into success. Of this the text affords illustration. I. These children of this world PROCEED WITH A DEFINED PURPOSE, and in this are worthy of imitation. The bricks mentioned as having fallen down were not a heap of burned clay which had got piled up, no one could tell how. They had been built by human hands, and the builders had heads as well as hands. We are not told what sort of buildings they were which "Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria" had constructed, and which had "fallen down." They may have been dwelling houses, or a temple, round which the sycamores would be planted for groves in which idolatrous Israel worshipped the gods of her own evil devising and choice, and for which she had forsaken the God of her fathers. But let this be as it may, now that the bricks had fallen, and the sycamores were out down, in making up their minds as to what should be done — being anxious to repair the ruin and desolation — they proceed with a defined purpose. The architect precedes the builder: the head leads the hand. So when they set to work they know what they are about. Now, the same principle should underlie the building up of all Christian character and work. Knowledge and zeal should ever be in partnership. II. These children of the world WERE INSPIRED WITH HOPEFULNESS, and, therefore, are worthy of imitation. Their bricks fell down, but their spirits fell not into the pit of despair. Their sycamores were cut down, but their ambition was not. Is not that the spirit of the world today as then? In 1865 men said England and America shall be connected by the electric telegraph, and they went to work. But the cable snapped, and for the present the enterprise failed. Were the promoters daunted, and persuaded that their scheme was beyond the reach of possible things? No, not they. The next year saw them again at their work, and saw not only a new cable successfully laid, but the broken one, searched for in the great "wilderness of waters," at length found, after which it was lost and found again several times over, until the 2nd September, when it was at last secured, and the following telegram flashed along its wire. I have much pleasure in speaking to you through the 1865 cable." So the Christian ought to be hopeful. You have fallen! Say, I will rise again. Your schemes have failed! Say, I will try again. You are afraid you have laboured in vain! Say, In labours I will be more abundant. You have stormed the citadel of indwelling passion and evil, and still you have to confess, "The good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do." Say again, By the grace of God I shall meet my spiritual foes. Have you with earnest soul entered the Holy of holies, desirous to know "the deep things of God," and where you expected light, lo! great darkness; and where you sought for peace, and sunshine, and beauty, and harmony, lo! seeming contradiction, the howling waste, cloud, and storm? You searched for a way out of your intellectual doubts and difficulties, and behold mystery has added itself to mystery. Still hope thou in God. III. These children of this world SHOW A SPIRIT OF INDUSTRIOUS PERSEVERANCE, and are therefore worthy of imitation. Their hands responded to the impulse of their hearts. They dreamed not that by mere wishing their ruined walls would rise again, or their gardens, laid waste, would blossom with the rose, and be made beautiful with the cedar. The moral here is plain. "Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord (so hoping to enter), shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father." Hoping will not do everything. It must be backed by earnest effort. IV. These children of the world IMPROVE MATTERS, and are, therefore, worthy of imitation. These tumble down buildings were, after all, but brick; but now they would build, not with bricks, but with hewn stones. Around them had flourished the sycamores, but now that these were cut down, they would plant no more sycamores. They would do better than that; they would plant cedars. In three different places (1 Kings 10:27; 2 Chronicles 1:15; 2 Chronicles 9:27) the value of the sycamore as compared with the cedar is given as the value of stones compared to that of silver. Such is the spirit of the world. Is not this the spirit which ought to animate us Never to rest satisfied with present attainments in self-culture or success in our work. (A. Scott.) Parallel Verses KJV: The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. |
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