The Day of the East Wind.
xxvii. 8. In measure, when Thou sendest it forth, &c. (Margin).
We have often complained of the bitterness and depressing effects of the “east wind.” In Bible lands it was scorching and destructive (Job xxi. 18; xxvii. 12; Gen. xli. 6). Israel is represented in this chapter as a vineyard, of which God was the proprietor and guardian (ver. 3). The removal of the people to Babylon seemed to contradict this declaration. They presented the appearance of a vineyard uncared for, forsaken, neglected, and spoiled. The east wind, sweeping over it, marred its beauty and checked its growth, and its desolation seemed complete. The question arises, Does God really mean what He says when He engages to keep His vineyard with continued care? In reply to this question the prophet speaks here. He justifies the ways of God to man, explaining the Divine procedure, and showing the purpose of that afflictive dispensation which He visited upon His beloved vineyard. What a consoling subject, is here presented,—the trials of the godly (1), in their severity, and (2), in their mitigation.
I. The severity of Christian Trial. Our seasons of sharp distress and loss are fitly set forth as “the day of the east wind,” biting and piercing, when the heart is joyless and depressed. God, who sends it, means us to feel its keenness. The severity of our trials appears—1. In the time when they overtake us. The east wind prevails with us in the early spring. So in our experience of life, when all is full of fair promise, our hopes are blasted. A young and tender faith is often sorely tested. We would push adversity into old age, with youth as a course of uninterrupted joy; but at the most unlikely periods the day of the east wind sweeps over us. 2. In their violence. The wind of adversity seems to us cruel and devastating. We speak of a reverse or bereavement as “a sad blow.” 3. In their continuance. We could tolerate an occasional day of east wind, but when it blows persistently for weeks, we begin to grumble. Afflictions sometimes follow each other in rapid succession. The night of weeping is long and dark, and it seems as if the morning of joy would never break (H. E. I., 52, 53). 4. Because of the aspect in which God appears to us when we are under them. He seems to be contending, “debating” with us, to be opposed to us. This gives the keenest poignancy to our griefs. How unworthy, often, is the view we form of God’s character in the day of the east wind, charging Him with partiality and injustice. Of all ingredients that embitter the cup of suffering, this is the most bitter, but it is an ingredient which the sufferer puts in with his own hand. As in the time of east winds weak and cheerless people fall into dull, moody fits, the sighing breezes chiming in with the dull music of their own spirits, so in the day of adversity the soul sometimes loses its sense of the Divine Love.
II. The mitigating, alleviating circumstances. 1. The day of the east wind is well timed. It blows at the right season, in the early spring. It may nip a few opening buds, but if it did not come out then, it would retard vegetation to a fatal extent afterwards. The youth may complain of his hard struggle, but it nurses a manly character. 2. Trial is limited in its duration. The east wind does not blow all the year round. These cold blasts usher in the spring. 3. God moderates its severity. “In measure” (1 Cor. x. 13). Sorrow is nicely adjusted to the heart on which it falls (H. E. I., 187, 188). 4. The following verse suggests a further alleviation, viz.:—The gracious purpose accomplished by trial, to purge iniquity, and take away sin. God appoints our sorrow for the uprooting of our sin. The physician finds it necessary to adopt sharp measures, but his operation is wise and kind. A proneness to idolatry was Israel’s sin, and, to check this, the nation is sent into exile. Though He removed it with “His rough wind in the day of His east wind,” the fruit or effect was to uproot a besetting sin (H. E. I., 85–89, 116, 211). 5. Another mitigating circumstance is found in verse 7. God makes a distinction between His people and the world. Great as Israel’s sufferings were, the judgments which descended on their enemies were far more terrible, not corrective, but destructive (1 Cor. xi. 32). The surly blasts of the east wind may howl and chafe and spend their rage on God’s vineyard, but they are only the last remnants of the dreary winter. To those who are in covenant with God every wind that blows is charged with blessing (H. E. I., 108).
Concluding Remarks. 1. When the east wind of trial begins to blow upon us, let us hasten, not to blame God, but to examine and blame ourselves. Though trials are not always punitive, or even corrective, they are very frequently so; and in our case, as in that of Israel, the reason why the east wind is blowing probably is because there is iniquity in us that needs to be purged away (ver. 8; H. E. I., 114). 2. When the east wind is blowing upon us, instead of murmuring let us recall the mitigating circumstances of which I have reminded you, and let us thank God that He loves us too much to leave us under the power of iniquity (Heb. xii. 5–10; H. E. I., 162–165).—William Guthrie, M.A.