No longer will you be called Forsaken, nor your land named Desolate; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be His bride. Sermons
I. THIS IS A DIVINE REPLY. A reply to what? Why, to Zion's utterance in Isaiah 49:14, "The Lord hath forsaken me." Not, mark you, that there have been no Divine footprints in the past, no Divine provision and protection in Zion's yesterday; but now he hath forsaken us. Study life, especially what is called religious life, and you will find that this is always the foolish cry of the Church. It will live in the past. It will not believe that there are prophets and righteous men to-day. It will decorate the sepulchres of the fathers. It did so in Isaiah's time; it does so now. It glorifies the days of Wickliffe and Luther, of Whitefield and Wesley, forgetful that God is the living God, and his voice is heard, his hand outstretched, his purpose working now. I know nothing in which the human mind is so fatally biased as in this backward looking and longing, whilst he is still nigh us in our breath and in our heart. Forsaken? No, there are prophets of truth still; heralds of mercy still; national seers still, who search the very heart of nations. Wherever the Spirit of Christ is, there he is. There are wars, vices, wrongs, still; but their time is not so easy as it was - not so easy, indeed, as in some past ages which we glorify. The Spirit of Christ is becoming more and more the test of good and evil, of wisdom and unwisdom, of the real and the false, of the righteous and unrighteous. There is a light shining to-day that no breakers can put out, no wild storms of passion extinguish. "The Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world" is here. Christ's arm is not shortened; more worn and weary spirits lean on it than ever. Christ's mercy is not exhausted; his forgiveness is still the good cheer of millions of hearts. His revelations of immortality have not faded through the lapse of years. He alone has given to the world its all-covering sky. We feel that whilst we still believe in him and cleave to him, the prophetic words are real and true, "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken." II. A DIVINE HARMONY. The words do not stand alone. They are not merely a beautiful text, or an isolated flower, or a separate jewel. We have to take the moral strain of a book to see into the mind and meaning of the plan. We do not interpret Mendelssohn or Mozart by separate passages, neither should we so treat Isaiah. He is evidently the prophet of a golden age, no matter whether there are ten hands visible in the work or one. We test truth by its voice, not by its mere speaker. All prophets were not to be listened to and obeyed simply because they were prophets. "I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evil-doers... Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord" (Jeremiah 23:14, 16); and again, "Let not your prophets deceive you" (Jeremiah 29:8); and again, "Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies" (Ezekiel 13:9); "Thus saith the Lord God: Woe unto the foolish prophets O Israel, thy prophets are like foxes" (Ezekiel 13:3, 4). Yes; there was a moral test then; an instinct which revealed the true prophet, as it reveals the true Saviour. Our Lord rested all on this: "If ye were of the truth, ye would hear my voice:" "My sheep hear my voice." A remarkable instance of this moral test is given us in Ezekiel 13:22. The people were to set their faces against the prophets. Why? "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." That which was against righteousness and assisted evil was not to be believed. Why will men be so afraid of this test? Why do they seek to rest authority on the authors and writers of books, and not rest it, as God does, and ever did, and only could, on the truth itself? It was Isaiah's way, it was our Lord's way, it was St. Paul's way. "Commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." I thus come to my word "harmony." It is harmonious with all within us. Isaiah is a prophet of righteousness, of Divine forbearance, of Divine forgiveness, of Divine pity, of Divine ministry, of Divine sacrifice. If asked - Is this a God to be trusted, worshipped, loved? the whole inward being exclaims, "Amen, and amen." III. A DIVINE CONSOLATION. It is really part of the "comfort ye" strain, as that reaches to the depths of our being. Not forsaken. The same Isaiah is here. We feel sin. Israel felt it. We cannot by any philosophy of heredity escape from the consciousness of personal guilt. Alone the flame burns. At night the thorn pierces through the pillow. Are we left to bear the great sorrow unpitied and unaided? Out of Zion the Deliverer shall come. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." We feel social evils; we are hurt by unrighteousness, galled and wounded by selfishness. Amid all, fierce wars seem again and again to stir the mad passions of humanity. What thought can light our gloom, can give strength to our hopes? Only this - "A King shall reign in righteousness." If there be no hope for the supremacy of the Christ, all is lost, for beside him there is no Saviour. But are there not signs that a better spirit is abroad? I think so. Men are sighing for a Prince of peace, and with the sigh there is a sob too, "O Lord, how long?" We feel our own solitude. We seem to be forsaken. Change comes. Fortune is turned to misfortune, health to sickness. But there are restful hours in all Christian hearts. Say what men' will of the mysteries, let them ponder the facts; there is a touch of Christ, there is a tender sense of an encircling arm, there is a consciousness of the good Shepherd's care and love. We want to bring home the music of this promise to weary hearts. If we want to exercise more influence than philosophers and moralists, we must have a better message. When Ulysses passed by the island of the syrens, the classic story tells us that, to save himself from their snares, he bound himself with mighty thongs to the masts, and secured his sailors' safety by filling their ears with wax, that they might not be bewitched. But when the sweet singer, when Orpheus, voyaged by the same syren island, he bound himself to no mast. He started a sweeter, nobler music than the syrens could ever reach, and so sailed by in triumph. If we are to win men and keep men - men who have been charmed with the syren voices of the world all the week - our melody must be one that comes down from heaven; the music of forgiveness and mercy, of grace and help, of God's love, and God's care, and God's everlasting throne. We are in him that is true, in him of whom all prophecy is full, who was the Spirit of it all. In life with all its mysteries, and in death with all its leave-takings. We shall never be termed "Forsaken." - W.M.S.
Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken. "No more shall it be called to thee (shalt thou be called) Azubah (Forsaken), and thy land shall no more be called Shemamah (Desolate); but thou shalt be called Hephzibah (My delight is in her), and thy land Beulah (Married), for Jehovah delights in thee, and thy land shall be married. The joyful change of condition is expressed in the prophet's favourite manner, by significant names. The common version not only mars the beauty of the passage, but renders it in some degree unintelligible to the English reader, by translating the first two names and retaining the others in their Hebrew dress. It is obvious that all four should be treated alike, i.e. that all the Hebrew forms should be retained, or none. Henderson prefers the latter method, on the ground ,that "the names are merely symbolical, and will, never be employed as proper names. It is probable, however, that they were all familiar to the Jews as female names in real life. This we know to have been the ease with two of them (1 Kings 22:42; 2 Kings 21:1). It is better, therefore, to retain the Hebrew forms, in order to give them an air of reality as proper names, and at the same time to render them intelligible by translation. In the last clause there is reference to the primary meaning of the verb, viz. that of owning or possessing; and as the inhabitants of towns are sometimes called in Hebrew their "possessors," its use here would suggest, as at least one meaning of the promise, thy land shall be inhabited, and so it is translated in the Targum.(J. A. Alexander.) I. CHOICE. In all nations there has been the instinctive rule that the initiative choice is not with the bride, but with the bridegroom. Its spiritual parallel is in the declaration of Jesus to His disciples, "Ye has not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." "I am jealous over you," said Paul, "with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." At the same time all are bound, because all are invited, to "seek the Lord while He may be found," to "choose this day whom ye serve;" then the farther element in the marriage symbol will be verified. II. DEVOTION. You will love Him because He first loved you. It is often observed in ordinary married life, how the mutual love of husband and wife enables them to bear, not only without bitterness or mutual recriminations, but with a greater clinging to, and confidence in each other, the trials, sorrows, and burdens of life. Love lightens the load, when each one, for the other's sake, cheerfully takes his or her share. The love of Christ endears Him to the believer, and the believer to Him. III. INSEPARABLE UNION. Earthly ties of man and wife are liable to many incidents of severance. Necessities of particular callings in life sometimes separate them, lands and seas asunder. Guilt, aversion, insanity, disease and death, often dissolve the union, which once bid fair to be firmly riveted "till death them should part." The believer's union with Christ is liable to no such disastrous issues. Not that this consolatory doctrine dispenses with the necessity of a faithful, obedient, and devout course of effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and in righteousness of life. The Divine idea of marriage is a united family, basing its bond of union on the unity of its parentage. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother," etc. True spiritual union with Christ involves an ascendency of affection. "If any man love father or mother more than Me," etc. In a deep sense it may be said of Christ and His disciple, "They twain are one Spirit." (J. B. Owen, M. A.) Thy land shall be married. i.e. it shall become fruitful again and be replenished.1. Her sons shall heartily espouse the land of their nativity, and the interests of it, which they had for a long time neglected, as despairing ever to have any comfortable enjoyment of it. Thy sons shall marry thee, i.e. they shall live with thee, and take delight in thee. When they were in Babylon, they seemed to have espoused that land, for they were appointed to settle, and to seek the peace of it (Jeremiah 29:5-7); but now they shall again marry their own land, "as a young man marrieth a virgin" that he takes great delight in, is extremely fond of, and is likely to have many children by. It bodes well to a land when its own natives and inhabitants are pleased with it, prefer it before other lands; when its princes marry their country, and resolve to take their lot with it. 2. Which is much better, her God shall betroth her to Himself in righteousness (Hosea 2:19, 20). ( M. Henry.) I propose to name some of the suitors who are claiming the hand of this Republic.1. There is a greedy, all-grasping monster who comes in as suitor seeking the hand of this Republic, and that monster is known by the name of Monopoly. His sceptre is made out of the iron of the rail-track and the wire of telegraphy. He does everything for his own advantage and for the robbery of the people. Such monopolies imply an infinite acreage of wretchedness. Great monopolies in any land imply great privation. 2. Another suitor claiming the hand of this Republic is Nihilism. He owns nothing but a knife for universal blood-letting and a nitro-glycerine bomb for universal explosion. He believes in no God, no government, no heaven, and no hell, except what he can make on earth. He slew the Czar of Russia, killed Abraham Lincoln, and would put to death every king and president on earth, if he had the power. (T. De W. Talmage, D. D.) People Hephzibah, IsaiahPlaces Jerusalem, Jerusalem's, ZionTopics Beulah, Cried, Delight, Delighted, Delighteth, Delights, Deserted, Desolate, Espoused, Forsaken, Hephzibah, Hephzi-bah, Longer, Married, Named, Pleasure, Termed, WasteOutline 1. The fervent desire of the prophet to confirm the church in God's promises.6. The office of the ministers in preaching the Gospel 10. And preparing the people thereto Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 62:4 1210 God, human descriptions 1070 God, joy of Library The Heavenly Workers and the Earthly Watchers'For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest ... I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest'--ISAIAH lxii. 1, 6, 7. Two remarks of an expository nature will prepare the way for the consideration of these words. The first is that the speaker is the personal Messiah. The second half of Isaiah's prophecies forms one great whole, which … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A Call to Prayer and Testimony The Ministry of Intercession God Seeks Intercessors The Watchmen that Go About the City Found Me, to whom I Said, Saw Ye Him whom My Soul Loveth? And the Manner of his Entry into Jerusalem, which was the Capital of Judæa... Man's Crown and God's Sixth Day for the Spirit of Love in the Church Twenty-Fourth Day for the Spirit on Your Own Congregation A Model of Intercession "And He is the Propitiation," An Obscured vision Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem The Cavils of the Pharisees Concerning Purification, and the Teaching of the Lord Concerning Purity - the Traditions Concerning Hand-Washing' and Vows. 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