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We should see in these verses a strictly personal reference. Some parties, especially among the leaders of the people, could see nothing good, nothing wise, in Isaiah's teachings and warnings. They thought them babyish, untimely, leading to a false security. They valued statesmanship, political wisdom, and the subtlety of setting one great nation against another, so that their kingdom might be let alone. The kinds of scorning and sneering in which they indulged are described to us in Isaiah 28:9-13. Here Isaiah utters his complaint of their suspiciousness and unreasonableness. "They make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate." There are no members of society more disagreeable to society than the suspicious, who can so keenly discern evil when there is none to discern; and find evil motive in actions of transparent sincerity. If men praise, the suspicious-tempered call it flattery. If men reprove, the suspicious-tempered say they are jaundiced. Suspiciousness comes to be a disease, a mania. It is absolutely opposed to the spirit of considerate brotherliness and heavenly Divine charity, which "thinketh no evil, and is not easily provoked." Matthew Henry, describing the people referred to here, says, "They made a man, though he were ever so wise and good a man, though he were a man of God, an offender for a word, a word mischosen or misplaced, when they could not but know that it was well meant. They caviled at every word that the prophets spoke to them by way of admonition, though ever so innocently spoken, and without any design to affront them. They put the worst construction upon what was said, and made it criminal by strained innuendoes. Those who consider how apt we all are to speak unadvisedly, and to mistake what we hear, will think it very unjust and unfair to make a man an offender for a word." As the illustration and enforcement of this subject must greatly depend on the experiences and observations of each preacher, we only give suggestive divisions.

I. THE SUSPICIOUS TEMPER MAY HAVE ITS ROOT IN NATURAL DISPOSITION.

II. THE SUSPICIOUS TEMPER SWIFTLY GROWS WITH INDULGENCE.

III. THE SUSPICIOUS TEMPER LEADS MEN TO MAKE MISTAKES.

IV. THE SUSPICIOUS TEMPER LIMITS A MAN'S ENJOYMENTS.

V. THE SUSPICIOUS TEMPER MAY MAKE IT NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN' TO TRUST IN GOD. - R.T.

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KJV: For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:

WEB: For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off—