My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim. Sermons
II. ITS BEARING ON THE POOR. They are always the first to suffer from political or international conditions which affect manufacture, trade, or agriculture. Living upon daily wage, and, when thrifty, only able to provide in limited degrees for depressed times, the poor are most dependent on the preservation of peace, security, order, and mutual confidence. Demagogues urge the poor to a disturbance of social relations, with the promise of material advantage. In the interests of the poor themselves we plead that war, disturbance, revolutionary change, never even temporarily serve their interest. So grievous is the effect of political convulsions on the poor, that no class of the community should more intensely demand the knitting of laud to land by commerce and brotherhood, and the correction of social and political evils by processes which do not disturb the sense of national security. Of the poor the words may well be used, "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." II. ITS BEARING ON THE RICH. They are always the aim of attack in lawless times, whether the evil come through aggressive enemies outside the nation, or through turbulent people inside the nation. The one wants "booty," and the other wants excuse for robbery. The rich need national security (1) for the retention of what they have; (2) for the increase of what they have; (3) and for the enjoyment of what they have. National distress becomes especially afflictive to the rich, because by training and association they are unfitted for self-help when their riches are taken away. III. ITS MISSION AS SENT BY GOD. It is often that which we find illustrated in the case of Moab. National distress, circumstances that unite the whole land in a common grief, and in a common sense of helplessness, is the Divine corrective of the evils which attend prolonged peace, security, and luxury. Those evils may be traced: 1. In the sphere of men's thought. The material is exaggerated, the unseen and spiritual are at disadvantage, and cannot hold their due place and proportion. 2. In the sphere of social life. In prolonged times of peace and prosperity, the separations between classes of society are grievously widened, and there grows up a painful contrast between the few who are unduly rich and the many who are miserably poor. National distress brings rich and poor together, in mutual dependence and service. 3. In the spheres of religion. Like the voyager, men can easily dismiss the thought of God when, for long times together, seas are calm and heavens are clear; but when the skies are black, and the wild waves shake the frail ship, and fear whitens every face, the soul begins to cry for a sight of God and a touch of his protecting hand. We are with God as our little children are with their mothers. They run about and play, taking little heed of her, until the head aches, and the pulse is high, and pain wearies; and then there is nobody in all the world will do but their mother. National distress brings nations back to the thought and love of God. The atheist, the agnostic, and the secularist have their chance when the sun shines; nobody wants such vain helpers when the tempests rage. Then nobody will do but the God of our fathers. IV. ITS SHAME, IF CAUSED BY MAN'S WILFULNESS OR MAN'S NEGLECT. And these are too often the immediate causes of national distress. War is almost always the issue of somebody's willfulness or masterfulness. Nobody would need to go to war if they did not hanker after something to which they had no right, or were not compelled to resist these envious, masterful folk. And such distresses as come by prevailing disease are usually traceable to men's neglectings of social and family and household duty. God makes even man's errors and sins serve his purpose, but he never ceases to declare woe unto him by whom the offence cometh. - R.T.
My heart shall cry out for Moab. Too often have God's servants spoken with dry eyes and hard voices of the doom of the ungodly; and have only made them more obdurate and determined. We never need so much brokenness of spirit as when we utter God's judgments against sin. In his autobiography, Finney says, "Here I must introduce the name of a man whom I shall have occasion to mention frequently, Mr. Abel Clary, He was the son of a very excellent man, and an elder of the Church where I was converted. He had been licensed to preach; but his spirit of prayer was such, he was so burdened with the souls of men, that he was not able to preach much, his whole time and strength being given to prayer. The burden of his soul would frequently be so great that he was unable to stand, and he would writhe and groan in agony. I was well acquainted with him, and knew something of the wonderful spirit of prayer that was upon him The pastor told me afterwards that he found that in the six weeks I was in that church five hundred souls had been converted."(F. B. Meyer, B. A.) (F. B. Meyer, B. A.). People Isaiah, ZoarPlaces Ar, Beer-elim, Brook of the Willows, Dibon, Eglaim, Elealeh, Heshbon, Horonaim, Jahaz, Kir, Luhith, Medeba, Moab, Nebo, Nimrim, ZoarTopics Ascent, Cries, Crieth, Cry, Crying, Destruction, Distress, Eglath, Eglath-sheli-shijah, Eglath-shelishiyah, Eg'lath-shelish'iyah, Eglath-shelishi-yah, Fled, Flee, Flight, Fugitives, Heart, Heifer, Horonaim, Horona'im, Lament, Luhith, Moab, Mounting, Nobles, Raise, Reach, Road, Ruin, Shelishiyah, Slope, Surely, Third, Wake, Weeping, Zoar, Zo'arOutline 1. The lamentable state of MoabDictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 15:5 5319 fugitives Library The Sea of SodomThe bounds of Judea, on both sides, are the sea; the western bound is the Mediterranean,--the eastern, the Dead sea, or the sea of Sodom. This the Jewish writers every where call, which you may not so properly interpret here, "the salt sea," as "the bituminous sea." In which sense word for word, "Sodom's salt," but properly "Sodom's bitumen," doth very frequently occur among them. The use of it was in the holy incense. They mingled 'bitumen,' 'the amber of Jordan,' and [an herb known to few], with … John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Tiglath-Pileser iii. And the Organisation of the Assyrian Empire from 745 to 722 B. C. Isaiah Links Isaiah 15:5 NIVIsaiah 15:5 NLT Isaiah 15:5 ESV Isaiah 15:5 NASB Isaiah 15:5 KJV Isaiah 15:5 Bible Apps Isaiah 15:5 Parallel Isaiah 15:5 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 15:5 Chinese Bible Isaiah 15:5 French Bible Isaiah 15:5 German Bible Isaiah 15:5 Commentaries Bible Hub |