Instead of bronze I will bring you gold; I will bring silver in place of iron, bronze instead of wood, and iron instead of stones. I will appoint peace as your governor and righteousness as your ruler. Sermons
And thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. It is singular and significant that Jehovah should here be so closely identified with Jacob, and not, as usual, with the three great patriarchs. We are to get our ideas of him as a Saviour and Redeemer precisely from what he was to Jacob, and what he did for Jacob. Now, the striking thing in the life of Jacob is that he had much more trouble with himself than with his circumstances. The cursory view might make much of the changeableness and the hardships of Jacob's checkered life; but he easily mastered his circumstances. The deeper view sees throughout the career a constant struggle with the bad self, which never gets more than a partial victory, until life draws near to its close, and then the hero of a thousand fights with the bad self is enabled to speak of "the angel that redeemed me from all evil." That angel the prophet suggestively calls the "Mighty One of Jacob." This, then, is our point. The glory of God our Redeemer is that he can redeem us from our bad selves. Show what is meant by and included in the "bad self." I. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE BAD SELF IS A SECRET STRUGGLE, We do not talk about it. We do not put forth any signs of it. Men think our earthly troubles are our great troubles, but the truth is that no cry goes forth from us with such intensity of passion as the cry which no fellow-creature hears, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Nobody knows how hard we are trying to put away the "old man with his corruptions." II. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE BAD SELF IS A HOPELESS STRUGGLE. It is if we carry it on in our own strength. "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" What Jacob-like man or woman ever yet sang a victory-song over his own giant self, and praised the weapons and the skill that gained the triumph? Jacobs that try to get quit of the bad self in their own strength end in the dust, under giant Self's foot. III. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE BAD SELF IS JUST THE STRUGGLE IN WHICH WE MAY HAVE, AND SHOULD REJOICE TO HAVE, A DIVINE HELPER. He, the "Mighty One of Jacob," has access to souls, and influence on souls. He "strengtheneth us with strength in the soul." He will not cease his gracious working until his people are "all glorious within." Of this we may be sure, in this we may have supreme consolation-over the secret inner strife of our souls, the Lord, the Saviour, the Redeemer, graciously presides. - R.T. For brass I will bring gold. This passage occurs amid the glowing prophecies concerning the millennial kingdom. It has, however, its application to the kingdom in its present state. I. THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST RECOGNIZES DIFFERENT GRADES, QUALITIES, VALUES, USES. Each of these is most effective in its own place. We would much sooner commit ourselves to a vessel of steel than to one whose hull was made of gold. No greater calamity could happen to the world than to turn all substances into gold. In the Church variety of talent and gifts, differences of classes are essential to prosperity. God never repeats- Himself. Equality is impossible, and if possible would be disastrous. II. ALL THINGS TAKE ON ENHANCED VALUE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. "For brass I will bring gold," etc. Wherever the Church of Christ comes, instantly all things leap into higher value — property, schools, trade, institutions, government, the family, the individual. You may interrogate in just four different directions — Nature, the Rational World, Sin, the Kingdom. Nature replies: "I change nothing. I furnish the ore; I cannot bring out the metal; I can't change even the place of a stone." Rational World replies: "I can change the shapes, the places, the combinations of things, but I cannot change the substances. I cannot turn iron into silver, wood into brass, stones into iron." Sin rises in its black monstrosity, and says: "Yes, I have power to change. I can reach up, lay my hand on the twenty-two carat gold and drag it down to silver; I can drag the silver down to brass, the brass to iron, the iron to stone, the stone to wood, the wood I can burn with the torch of hate, and scatter the ashes on the red-hot floor of hell — I can do that!" Sin can drag the genius or the archangel down to the abyss of a hopeless hades. It is only the Kingdom that can say: "Everything I touch shall increase in value. I can take even the devil's outcasts and change them into burning seraphs.' III. THIS ENHANCEMENT OF VALUES IS BY AND THROUGH SUCCESSIVE GRADES — wood, stone, iron, brass, silver, gold. God's method of working is by development through grades. There is no such thing as reaching perfection at a bound. It is a walk, a race — meaning steady progress by steps. IV. THE DIVINE AGENCY IS EMPHASIZED. "I will bring." Transformations in human nature are effected through Divine power and grace. () Homilist. The golden age of humanity is in the future. This age is here represented as so far excelling all future ages as gold excels brass. Morally this may include three things. I. THAT FOR PRACTICAL ATHEISM THERE WILL BE GODLINESS. II. THAT FOR DOMINANT MATERIALISM THERE WILL BE SPIRITUALITY. III. THAT FOR CONTROLLING SELFISHNESS THERE WILL BE BENEVOLENCE. () Homiletic Review. This seems like a very unthrifty kind of commerce. It promises only the most speedy and utter bankruptcy. Surely one making such an offer must have great treasures, and great love. There must be a perfect confidence that there can be no exhaustion of treasure, nor any exhaustion in the delight of perpetually giving others the best end of the bargain. No one can have such confidence and feeling but God. It is God, the infinite, who proposes to give gold for brass. It is just what He is constantly doing in nature, giving out the best for the worst. God always sees and seeks the highest possible thing in every nature. And He wants us to catch His penetrative insight. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived the glories God hath prepared for those who love Him." But God is constantly trying to reveal them unto us by His Spirit. He is ever trying to give us gold for brass, and silver for iron. This ought to be good news for man. He is always willing to get the best end of a bargain. Now there are various kinds of life, and many degrees of each kind. There is what is known as physical, mental, emotional and spiritual life. Evidently there is life that is as clay, as ore, as iron, as brass, as silver, as gold. God all the time offers to every man to change his hard iron of life into brass his brass into silver, his silver into gold. How does He propose to do it? On precisely the principles that man acts in every-day life. Indeed, God has made it impossible for men to succeed at all in the life that now is, except in the laws that give success in the life to come. Just as man gives muscle for bread, or exertion of muscle that all the delights of life may be his, just as he gives a few midnights So study that he may be everlastingly wise, just as he gives self-denial that he may have exuberance of strength, just as he gives all the things that he hath, in order that he may keep his life, so God always asks your iron when He would give brass, asks your brass when He would give silver, asks your silver when He would give gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich, and have crowns of eternal glory. The trouble with men is they give their muscle for bread, but will not give iron. to God for brass. I think it is a statement capable of vindication, that God does not enrich by legacy, but by exchange. Every one that is endowed is in great peril. Look at the great heroes that God has made in our history: they fill the earth and rise into the skies. Were they endowed? Not one, except with faculties; they had to develop their virtues. So in the case of all moral greatness. God gives the Conditions, the opportunities; but man must work with God. Did the human soul that Christ associated with Himself submit to this plan of development, and especially did the Son of God, begotten in holiness and perfection, submit Himself to this law that has been applied to all men? If this shall be answered in the affirmative, we must conclude that there is no other possible way to greatness and road to perfection. It is evident at first glance, that the man Christ Jesus constantly accepted this law. He was obedient to His parents, giving up His will to them. His announced principle of life was: "I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. ' He gave up the riches of silver, anal for our sakes became poor. He vacated the throne of the universe and became Seryant of servants of men. The Lord of life became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. He gave up all silver, brass, iron, stones, and wood. Was there any gold in return "Wherefore, because of this, God hath highly exalted Him." There can be no mistake. We see plainly the way to highest strength of character and greatest height of glory. It is not the way of present gratification, of selfishness, of the pursuit of personal and family ends, but a giving up of personal good for God's higher good, a selling of lower for higher. Once God opened the windows of heaven and poured out water enough to drown a world. Then He takes that great deluge of abundance and makes it an emblem of the abundance of spiritual blessings. Bring the tithes into the storehouse, the little tenths of daily gain, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.()
People Ephah, Isaiah, Jacob, Kedar, Nebaioth, TarshishPlaces City of the Lord, Ephah, Kedar, Lebanon, Midian, Nebaioth, Sheba, Tarshish, ZionTopics Administrators, Brass, Bring, Bronze, Exactors, Gold, Governor, Inspection, Instead, Iron, Judge, Magistrates, Officers, Overseer, Overseers, Peace, Righteousness, Ruler, Rulers, Silver, Stone, Stones, Taskmasters, WoodOutline 1. The glory of the church in the abundant access of the Gentiles.
15. And the great blessings after a short affliction
Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 60:17 4303 metals
4306 minerals
4312 bronze
4333 gold
4336 iron
4363 silver Isaiah 60:9-20 4212 astronomy Isaiah 60:15-22 1235 God, the LORD Library October 16. "Whereas Thou Hast Been Forsaken and Hated, I Will Make Thee a Joy" (Isa. Lx. 15).
"Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, I will make thee a joy" (Isa. lx. 15). God loves to take the most lost of men, and make them the most magnificent memorials of His redeeming love and power. He loves to take the victims of Satan's hate, and the lives that have been the most fearful examples of his power to destroy, and to use them to illustrate and illuminate the possibilities of Divine mercy and the new creations of the Holy Spirit. He loves to take the things in our own lives that have …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth Walls and Gates
'Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise'--ISAIAH lx. 18. The prophet reaches the height of eloquence in his magnificent picture of the restored Jerusalem, 'the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.' To him the city stands for the embodiment of the nation, and his vision of the future is moulded by his knowledge of the past. Israel and Jerusalem were to him the embodiments of the divine idea of God's dwelling with men, and of a society founded on the presence of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Sunlit Church
'Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 2. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. 3. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.'--ISAIAH lx. 1-3. The personation of Israel as a woman runs through the whole of this second portion of Isaiah's prophecy. We see her thrown on the earth a mourning mother, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Morning Light
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. O ne strong internal proof that the Bible is a divine revelation, may be drawn from the subject matter; and particularly that it is the book, and the only book, that teaches us to …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1 Marvellous Increase of the Church
The church, when she uttered these words, appears to have been the subject of three kinds of feeling. First, wonder: secondly, pleasure: thirdly, anxiety. These three feelings you have felt; you are not strangers to them; and you will understand, while I speak to you as the children of God, how it is that we can feel at the same time, wonder, pleasure, and yet anxiety. I. First, the church of old, and our church now, appears to have been the subject of WONDER when she saw so many come to know the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856 22D DAY. An End of Weeping.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "The days of thy mourning shall be ended."--ISAIAH lx. 20. An End of Weeping. Christ's people are a weeping band, though there be much in this lovely world to make them joyous and happy. Yet when they think of sin--their own sin, and the unblushing sins of a world in which their God is dishonoured--need we wonder at their tears?--that they should be called "Mourners," and their pilgrimage-home a "Valley of Tears?" Bereavement, and sickness, and poverty, and death, …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser Second Sermon for Epiphany
Showeth on what wise a man shall arise from himself and from all creatures, to the end that God may find the ground of his soul prepared, and may begin and perfect his work therein. Isaiah lx. 1.--"Arise, O Jerusalem, and be enlightened." [45] IN all this world God covets and requires but one thing only, and that He desires so exceeding greatly that He gives His whole might and energy thereto. This one thing is, that He may find that good ground which He has laid in the noble mind of man made fit …
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler Rev. Mr. Nichols's Address.
The Rev. W. F. Nichols, Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, and chaplain to Bishop Williams in his recent visit abroad, spoke of the first day of the commemoration at Aberdeen: He said it would be useless to deny that there was an individual pleasure in having this welcome to round out the happiness of getting back to one's home and one's work, as there was an individual pleasure at the honor the diocese had put upon those whom it had sent with the bishop to Aberdeen, and an individual appreciation …
Various—The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary The Birth of England's Foreign Missions
1785-1792 Moulton the Mission's birthplace--Carey's fever and poverty--His Moulton school--Fired with the missionary idea--His very large missionary map--Fuller's confession of the aged and respectable ministers' opposition--Old Mr. Ryland's rebuke--Driven to publish his Enquiry--Its literary character--Carey's survey of the world in 1788--His motives, difficulties, and plans--Projects the first Missionary Society--Contrasted with his predecessors from Erasmus--Prayer concert begun in Scotland in …
George Smith—The Life of William Carey The Last Days of the Old Eastern World
The Median wars--The last native dynasties of Egypt--The Eastern world on the eve of the Macedonian conquest. [Drawn by Boudier, from one of the sarcophagi of Sidon, now in the Museum of St. Irene. The vignette, which is by Faucher-Gudin, represents the sitting cyno-cephalus of Nectanebo I., now in the Egyptian Museum at the Vatican.] Darius appears to have formed this project of conquest immediately after his first victories, when his initial attempts to institute satrapies had taught him not …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 9 No More
Gerhard Ter Steegen Is. lx. 20 O past and gone! How great is God! how small am I! A mote in the illimitable sky, Amidst the glory deep, and wide, and high Of Heaven's unclouded sun. There to forget myself for evermore; Lost, swallowed up in Love's immensity, The sea that knows no sounding and no shore, God only there, not I. More near than I unto myself can be, Art Thou to me; So have I lost myself in finding Thee, Have lost myself for ever, O my Sun! The boundless Heaven of Thine eternal love …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others Athanasius under Julian and his Successors; Fourth and Fifth Exiles. Feb. 21, 362, to Feb. 1, 366
(a) The Council of Alexandria in 362. The eight months of undisturbed residence enjoyed by Athanasius under Julian were well employed. One of his first acts was to convoke a Synod at Alexandria to deal with the questions which stood in the way of the peace of the Church. The Synod was one of saints and confessors,' including as it did many of the Egyptian bishops who had suffered under George (p. 483, note 3, again we miss the name of the trusted Serapion), Asterius of Petra and Eusebius of Vercellae, …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius That the Grace of Devotion is Acquired by Humility and Self-Denial
The Voice of the Beloved Thou oughtest to seek earnestly the grace of devotion, to ask it fervently, to wait for it patiently and faithfully, to receive it gratefully, to preserve it humbly, to work with it diligently, and to leave to God the time and manner of heavenly visitation until it come. Chiefly oughtest thou to humble thyself when thou feelest inwardly little or no devotion, yet not to be too much cast down, nor to grieve out of measure. God ofttimes giveth in one short moment what He …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ The Restoration of Israel is Only Made Possible by the Second Advent of Christ.
Under this head we shall seek to prove briefly three things--that Israel as a nation will be restored, that Israel's restoration occurs at the Return of Christ, that Israel's restoration will result in great blessing to the whole world. That Israel as a nation will be actually and literally restored is declared again and again in the Word of God. We quote now but two prophecies from among scores of similar ones:--"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, …
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return The General Spread of the Gospel
"The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters covers the sea." Isa. 11:9. 1. In what a condition is the world at present! How does darkness, intellectual darkness, ignorance, with vice and misery attendant upon it, cover the face of the earth! From the accurate inquiry made with indefatigable pains by our ingenious countryman, Mr. Brerewood; (who travelled himself over a great part of the known world, in order to form the more exact judgment;) supposing the world to be divided …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions Twentieth Day for God's Spirit on the Heathen
WHAT TO PRAY.--For God's Spirit on the Heathen "Behold, these shall come from far; and these from the land of Sinim."--ISA. xlix. 12. "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall haste to stretch out her hands to God."--PS. lxviii. 31. "I the Lord will hasten it in His time."--ISA. lx. 22. Pray for the heathen, who are yet without the word. Think of China, with her three hundred millions--a million a month dying without Christ. Think of Dark Africa, with its two hundred millions. Think …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession The Temptation of Jesus
The proclamation and inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven' at such a time, and under such circumstances, was one of the great antitheses of history. With reverence be it said, it is only God Who would thus begin His Kingdom. A similar, even greater antithesis, was the commencement of the Ministry of Christ. From the Jordan to the wilderness with its wild Beasts; from the devout acknowledgment of the Baptist, the consecration and filial prayer of Jesus, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the heard …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Order of Thought which Surrounded the Development of Jesus.
As the cooled earth no longer permits us to understand the phenomena of primitive creation, because the fire which penetrated it is extinct, so deliberate explanations have always appeared somewhat insufficient when applying our timid methods of induction to the revolutions of the creative epochs which have decided the fate of humanity. Jesus lived at one of those times when the game of public life is freely played, and when the stake of human activity is increased a hundredfold. Every great part, …
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus Brave Encouragements
'In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, 2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, 3. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? 4. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Extent of Messiah's Spiritual Kingdom
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever! T he Kingdom of our Lord in the heart, and in the world, is frequently compared to a building or house, of which He Himself is both the Foundation and the Architect (Isaiah 28:16 and 54:11, 12) . A building advances by degrees (I Corinthians 3:9; Ephesians 2:20-22) , and while it is in an unfinished state, a stranger cannot, by viewing its present appearance, form an accurate judgment …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2 Links Isaiah 60:17 NIV
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