Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus said the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone… A precious Cornerstone, a sure Foundation (Revised Version). It is characteristic of prophetic messages that, however severely sins may be denounced, and judgment declared, in the very midst of the message some word of love and hope and cheer is put in for the sake of the true and faithful ones. God is ever mindful of his elect remnant. Those who are striving to be obedient and righteous in a degenerate age, and in the midst of abounding self-indulgence, are within his observation, and they shall never want the encouragement of his smile, or the cheering, comforting word of his promise. This text is a message sent to such faithful ones. It contrasts the grounds on which the confidence of the true Israel rests with the grounds of confidence which those were trying to fashion for themselves who wished to live in sin and self-will. Whatever might be the appearances of things, their foundations would surely prove in the day of trial to be "refuges of lies." However it may be despised, the old Zion-Foundation would be found to abide firm - a tried Stone, a sure Foundation, in the days of flood and storm. The best of all commentaries on this text, and its associated verses, is found in the figure with which our Lord closed the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord translated the Zion-Foundation for us, setting it out so plainly that none need misunderstand. God's safe foundation is just this - Hearing his words, and doing them. He that builds his life and his hope on that foundation "shall never be moved." I. THE FOUNDATION-PRINCIPLE OF MORALS AND RELIGION. By "morals" we mean right relations with our fellow-men. By "religion" we mean right relations with God. Both these lie on one and the same foundation-principle. The prophet spoke to the men of Jerusalem and Judah, who were familiar with the temple of Solomon. He bids them look at its foundations, and especially observe how all the temple was reared upon the majestic stone laid at the corner that juts out into the valley, the massive stone that lies in its place today just as they set it in Solomon's time - a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. But he reminds them that the temple, its courts, and its worship, represented and symbolized the Jewish people, as a nation consecrated to God, and so that foundation-stone represented the first, the essential principle of the national life, which was this - full consecration to God, in trust, obedience, and righteousness. They were a people pledged in a covenant with Jehovah. Their pledge was the foundation stone of their national life. That pledge they expressed thus: "The Lord our God will we serve, and him only will we obey." When they passed to a life of self-will they shifted from the true foundation. But so long as that old temple stood in the center of the land, it spoke out, day and night, its unceasing reproach. "Other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid." Translated into Christian form by St. Peter (1 Epist. 2:6, 8), the spiritual Foundation is Christ; and we are to be building day by day, stone by stone, on the foundation-principle which Christ laid for us in his own consecrated life - the principle of full obedience to God, rendered in a spirit of trustful, childlike humility and love. There is really but one antagonistic principle of life to this. It may gain various forms and expressions, but they are shapes assumed by one body. The principle is this - life for self, the making of self our foundation. II. THE POSSIBILITY OF RAISING A NOBLE LIFE ON THIS FOUNDATION. Foundations usually do no more than give stability to a building, but a moral foundation does more than this - it gives character to all that is reared upon it. Let a man's foundation for life be a determination to win material success, and it will surely tone everything he does with energy and perseverance. Life touched and inspired with this principle of trustful obedience to God cannot fail to be noble, because it will: 1. Be pure; the charm of the "right" will lie on everything. 2. Be generous; because living out of self and for God involves living out of self and for others. 3. Be God-like; for the very things which God approves and seeks we also shall approve and seek. III. THE SECURITY OF THE CHARACTER AND LIFE RAISED ON THIS FOUNDATION. This is expressed in the figure of the last clause. As repeated in Scripture it takes three forms. 1. Shall not make haste, or hurry out of his house when calamity seems to threaten. 2. Shall not be ashamed when the angels come to test the character of the life. 3. Shall not be confounded when the days of storm threaten to overwhelm. We are each one of us raising a temple - the temple of a character, of a life. Concerning our work we may well ask two searching questions. It is on the one sure Foundation? Are we raising it in a manner that is worthy of the Foundation? - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. |
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