Isaiah 39:8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which you have spoken. He said moreover… He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days. "Hezekiah not only acquiesces in the will of Jehovah. like Eli (1 Samuel 3:18), but congratulates himself on his own personal safety. It would, no doubt, have been the nobler course to beg that he alone might bear the punishment, as he alone had sinned. But the principle of the solidarity of the forefather and his posterity, and of the king and his people, prevails almost throughout the Old Testament." Self-delusion is very common in the matter of submission. I. SOME THINK THEY SUBMIT WHEN THEY HAVE ONLY CEASED TO CARE. The two things are quite distinct. A man only truly submits while he keeps his care, and has his personal desire and wish still vigorous. True submission is the voluntary giving up of one's own wish because we accept the wish of another. The glory of it is that it is hard. It is easy enough when we have ceased to care. II. SOME THINK THEY SUBMIT WREN THEY ONLY LIE DOWN UNDER GOD. As dying people, if asked whether they submit, will often say, "Oh yes; there is nothing else I can do." God is too big for them - that is all. If he were not, they would still struggle against him. This is the Mohammedan form of submission. "Allah Akbar!" - "God is great!" "Islam" - "We must submit to him." The exaggeration of this kind of submission is found in the Eastern doseh. Men lie down on the ground side by side, and let the king ride on horseback over their shoulders. Our God asks for no such submission as that. III. SOME THINK THEY SUBMIT WHEN THE BURDEN IS LIFTED FROM THEM TO REST ON OTHERS. A very comfortable, but very mean, sort of submission. A selfish submission that acquiesces in a will of God that shields ourselves, whatever others may have to suffer. This was Hezekiah's submission. "Good is the will of the Lord in judgment, for he has shifted it over to make things comfortable for me." It is impossible to give Hezekiah much credit for so poor a submission as that. IV. TRUE HEARTS THINK THEY SUBMIT ONLY WHEN THEY LOVINGLY ACCEPT THE HOLY WILL, WHATEVER THAT WILL MAY INVOLVE. Submission is the expression of confidence, the breath of trust, the sign of perfect love. It is the uttered child-heart. It cannot make any qualifications. Its unceasing refrain is, "My Father knows." The one sublime example of submission is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though the holy will involved bitterest personal suffering, could sincerely say, "Not as I will, but as thou wilt." After Christ the world's great figure of submission is the venerable Moses, ascending Nebo to receive the kiss of God and die, "with Canaan's goodly land in view." - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days. |
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