Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have not been in labor or given birth. I have not raised young men or brought up young women." Sermons
I. ALL LANDS HAVE THEIR RIVERS. Think of the Tiber, the Tigris, the Thames, the Rhone, the Rhine, the Nile, the Niger. Cities rise on their banks which are, like Tyre, populous and prosperous. The harvest is vast indeed. Ships which are freighted with necessaries and luxuries, with the works of art, the spoils of the sea, and the produce of far-away lauds, all come up the river. What wonder that the river should become a type of the blessings of the gospel - that the prophet should tell us "living waters shall flow out of Jerusalem!" II. THE HARVESTS ARE MANIFOLD. We are so accustomed to think of the golden sheaves of the corn-fields when we mention the rivers, that we are liable to forget how indebted we are to the broad estuaries which bear on their bosom the wealth of many nations. How manifold, too, are our harvests under the gospel! Where that comes philanthropy lives, and social purity flows, and justice is sacred in its rivers of righteousness, and salvation comes, delivering us from sensuality and sin. Harvests? Surely the Christian should notice how wide and vast the gospel waters are. III. THEIR DRYING UP IS DEATH. We cannot live without rain and rivers. Cattle perish. Verdure withers. Man himself dies. No wealth can purchase what God gives so plentifully. "Hath the rain a Father?" Oh yes. Not a mere Creator, but a Father; for it is rich in evidences of his universal care and love. God gives "the former and the latter rain," and all through the ages the rivers flow into the sea. So God's truth remains! The living water flows, and the voice is still heard, "He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." - W.M.S.
The sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea. God, through the wildly wailing winds, and loudly surging waves, has often uttered a voice of warning and of woe to cities filled with corruption and vice. And how, too, through these winds and waves, has the sea spoken in its strength to crushed and broken hearts, when its surface has been thickly strewn with shattered wrecks, and the floating and sinking bodies of its helpless victims.I. But the sea often speaks to us in other language than this, addressing us, as it does, through the eye as well as the ear, and CALLING UPON US TO ADORE AND LOVE GOD for the beauty with which He clothes and overhangs it, and for the blessings which, by means of the sea, He conveys to us, no less than to tremble and bow down before Him in view of the vastness and the majestic grandeur of the ocean in its more excited and terrific moods. II. The sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, by ITS VASTNESS AND FORCE AND GRANDEUR OF ITS MOVEMENTS. III. The sea hath spoken, too, and will, we trust, thus ever speak, through THE ELECTRIC WIRE, which here and there lies far down in its lowest depths, and which, in coming years, will be more widely extended abroad. IV. Yet again the sea hath spoken, in that IT APPEALS TO OUR KIND CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY AND INTEREST in behalf of those who, as seamen, go forth upon the deep. V. When the sea in its strength thus speaks to us, with the voice of wailing, lamentation, and woe, HOW OUGHT WE TO PRAY FOR SEAMEN AND THOSE CONNECTED WITH THEM, with all the power of faith which God shall give us, that He would save them from a watery grave, or, if they thus perish, that He would comfort those who mourn their loss, and that in the day in which the earth and the sea shall give up the dead that are in them, they may all together enter the haven of eternal rest. So, too, should we ever pray that the time may soon come when the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto God, and the isles shall wait for His law. (C. Rockwell.) Scientific Illustrations and Symbols. The sea, as a rule, is tranquil. Yet what awful power it possesses when it is aroused to fury! Blocks of stone weighing over thirteen tons have been known to be hurled by it a distance of more than thirty feet, and blocks of three tons to more than one hundred yards. Jetties and bridges are dashed about like toys. The entire harbour of Fecamp was destroyed by its rage, and the mass of earth torn from the north side of Cape la Heve was estimated at more than 300,000 square yards. Yet these are only among the trifling achievements of the sea when it passes from its peaceful to its furious mood. Violence often slumbers under an appearance of serenity. A crowd of joyous holiday makers today may become tomorrow a foaming mob of insurrectionists!(Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) ( T. Guthrie, D. D.) He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.(George Herbert.) People Assyrians, Isaiah, Kittim, Tarshish, ZidonPlaces Assyria, Canaan, Cyprus, Egypt, Nile River, Shihor, Sidon, Tarshish, TyreTopics Ashamed, Birth, Bring, Care, Child, Daughters, Forth, Fortress, Growth, Kept, Labor, Nourish, Nourished, O, Pained, Reared, Saying, Shamed, Sidon, Sons, Spake, Speaks, Spoken, Strength, Strong, Stronghold, Travail, Travailed, Virgins, Watch, ZidonOutline 1. The miserable overthrow of Tyre15. Her restoration and unfaithfulness Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 23:4Library The Agony, and the ConsolerIs this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? Isaiah xxiii. 7. It is difficult to describe the agony of terror which fell on the wretched inhabitants of the gayest city of the East when they awoke to a sense of the folly into which they had been driven. These soft Syrians had no real leaders and no settled purpose of rebellion. They had simply yielded to a childish impulse of vexation. They had rebelled against an increase of taxation which might be burdensome, but was by no means … Frederic William Farrar—Gathering Clouds: A Tale of the Days of St. Chrysostom A Prayer for the Spirit of Devotion How those are to be Admonished who have had Experience of the Sins of the Flesh, and those who have Not. On the Interpretation of Scripture The Essay which Brings up the Rear in this Very Guilty Volume is from The... Isaiah Links Isaiah 23:4 NIVIsaiah 23:4 NLT Isaiah 23:4 ESV Isaiah 23:4 NASB Isaiah 23:4 KJV Isaiah 23:4 Bible Apps Isaiah 23:4 Parallel Isaiah 23:4 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 23:4 Chinese Bible Isaiah 23:4 French Bible Isaiah 23:4 German Bible Isaiah 23:4 Commentaries Bible Hub |