Isaiah 63:11-14 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying… I. A SACRED, LOVING REMEMBRANCE. The people remembered what God did to them. What was it? 1. He gave them leaders. "Where is He that brought them up out of the sea?" etc. Moses and Aaron, and a band of godly men who were with them, were the leaders of the people, through the sea and through the wilderness. We are apt to think too little of our leaders. First of all we think too much of them. We seem to swing like a pendulum between these two extremes. There have been epochs in history that were prolific of great leaders of the Christian Church. No sooner did Luther give his clarion call, than God seemed to have a bird in every bush; and Calvin, and Farel, and Melancthon, and Zwingle, and many besides joined him in his brave protest against the harlot-church of Rome. The Church remembers those happy days, with earnest longing for their return. 2. God put His Spirit within these shepherds. They would have been nothing without it. A man with God's Holy Spirit within him, can anybody estimate his worth? 3. Then there was, as a happy memory for the Church, a great manifestation of the Divine power. "That let them by the right hand of Moses." "The right hand of Moses," by itself, was no more than your right hand or mine; but when God's glorious arm worked by the right hand of Moses, the sea divided, and made a way for the hosts of Israel to pass over. What we want to-day is a manifestation of Divine power. 4. Then there came to God's people a very marvellous deliverance: "That led them,, through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble. Understand by the word "wilderness here, an expansive grassy plain; a place of wild grass and Kerbs, for so it means. And as a horse is led where it is flat and level, and he does not stumble, so were the hosts of Israel led through the Red Sea. God has done so with His Church in all time. Her seas of difficulty have had no difficulty about them. 5. As a blessed ending to their trials, God brought them into a place of rest: "As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord causeth him to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people. In the desert they rested a good deal; but in Canaan they rested altogether. As the cattle come down from the mountains, where they have been picking up their food, when the plains are fat with grass, and they feed to their full, and lie down and rest, so did God deal with His people. I read it, first, literally as a sketch of Israel's history; next, as a sketch of the Church a history. The same thing has happened to us as individuals. II. AN OBJECT CLEARLY SHINING, like the morning star I see, through the text, God's great motive in working these wonders for His people. 1. It was God who did it all. But then, why had God done all this? Did He do it because of His peoples merits, or numbers, or capacities? 2. God works His great wonders of grace with the high motive of making known to His creatures His own glory, manifesting what He is and who He is, that they may worship Him. III. AN ANXIOUS INQUIRY, which I find twice over in my text. Believing in what God "has done" and believing that His motive "still" remains" the same, we begin to cry, Where as He that brought them up out of the sea with the she herd of His flock?" etc. 1. This question suggests that there is some faith left. "Where is He?" He is somewhere, Then, He lives. 2. The question implies that some were beginning to seek Him. Where is He? 3. It shows that she has begun to mourn over His absence. I like the reduplicated word. "Where is He? Where is He?" Not, "Where is Moses? Where are the leaders? The fathers, where are they? But where is He that made the fathers? Where is He that sent us Moses and Aaron? Where is He that divided the waters, and led His people safely?" Oh, if He were here! One hour of His glorious arm; just a day of His almighty working, and what should we not see? 4. Where is He, then? Well, He is hidden because of our sins. 5. For your comfort, the next verse (ver. 15) tells you where He is. He is in heaven. They cannot expel Him from His throne. 6. "Where is He?" Well, He is Himself making an inquiry; for, as some read the whole passage, it is God Himself speaking. He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people; and when He hid Himself, and would not work in wrath, yet He said to Himself, "Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock?" When God Himself begins to ask where He is and to regret those happier days, something will come of it. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? |
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