viii. 11–15. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, &c.[1]
God’s people are to be “a peculiar people.” Their whole life is to be governed by Divine principles. 1. By these principles they will be saved from the grievous practical heresy of abstention from public life.[2] Civilised life, especially in a free community, is a partnership, and no man has a right to take all the advantages of a partnership and evade all its labours and obligations. “Owe no man anything.” We are bound to labour as well as pray, that God’s will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. The result of abstention on the part of Christian men from public life is the domination of bad men, and the employment of the resources of the community for evil purposes (Ps. xii. 8). If we need example in this matter, we have the example of the prophets, who were much more than preachers of a monastic piety: they were active politicians, and yet politicians of an utterly unworldly type. 2. By these principles they will be guided and kept aid all the duties and difficulties of public life. They will be uplifted above party spirit in all its narrow and debasing forms. Theirs will be that true patriotism which consists in a steady loyalty to truth, and righteousness, and mercy.
If we are to be Biblical politicians, and this is the duty of every man among us, I. We shall not necessarily be found on the side of the majority (ver. 11). How often God’s people have been called to stand in what is called “a miserable minority!” (Exod. xxiii. 2). II. We shall not necessarily adopt as our own the popular cries (ver. 12).[3] Vox populi is often far other than Vox Dei. III. We shall not necessarily share in the prevalent feelings of our time, whether they be those of fear or of hope (ver. 13). We shall know that no permanent hurt can be done to our nation while it is in pursuit of righteousness, and that no real advantage can be gained by methods that will not bear the Divine scrutiny. IV. Our supreme desire will be, not to conciliate men, but to please God (ver. 13). We shall consider all public questions, and vote for, and withhold our vote from, all public men, as in His sight (Heb. xi. 27). This may cause us often to cut ourselves off from our “party,” but this will not trouble us. Hostility may thus be excited against us—will be excited against us, for such “impracticable men” are the abhorrence of mere politicians; but then God Himself will be to us “for a sanctuary.”[4] V. We shall never lose sight of the fact that the penalty of ungodliness in public life is ruin (vers. 14, 15). The real Ruler of the world is God, who governs it according to a plan of truth, righteousness, and mercy; and every human “policy” which is not consistent therewith, though it may win for its authors a short-lived triumph, will inevitably plunge those who accept it into disaster. From those who fight against God, utter defeat cannot be far off.
When these facts are inwrought in the understandings and consciences of God’s people and have become influential in their public and political life, much will have been done to usher in the millennium for which we daily pray, and of which Isaiah himself has given us such glowing pictures (chaps. ii. 4, xxxii. 16, 17; lx. 17).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] There was a general panic among the people: “their heart was moved as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind,” when they heard that Syria was confederate with Ephraim; their cry was everywhere, “A confederacy has been made against us, and we must meet it by a counter-alliance with Assyria;” and the prophet says that he too should have fallen under the influence of this panic, if Jehovah had not laid hold of him with a strong hand, to keep him in the way of dependence on Himself, and if He had not taught him to escape the fear which possessed his fellow-countrymen, by making the Lord of hosts his fear and his dread, by sanctifying Him himself, as he now in His name calls on them to do. To sanctify Jehovah is in mind and practice to recognise Him as the holy God, the Lord who is absolute (absolutus), free from the limitations which hinder all other beings from carrying their wills into full operation, and to believe with the whole heart that God does and can govern all things according to the counsel of His own will, and that what He determines does certainly come to pass, however probabilities and appearances may be against the belief (Num. xx. 12; Deut. xxxii. 51; Isa. xxix. 23). To the nation which thus sanctifies Jehovah, He (says Isaiah) will be their sanctuary—their protection against all their enemies. Such was His original covenant with both the houses of Israel, and it still holds good. If, therefore, they will break and renounce it, it becomes a stumbling-block to them. When their statesmen endeavour to remedy present mischief and secure future prosperity, by craftily playing off against one another the nations who they cannot hope to match by force, they are attempting to go counter to the whole plan of Jehovah’s government, and they will do it only to their own confusion.—Strachey.
[2] H. E. I. 4137–4139.
[3] The prophet, and such as were on his side, were not to call that kesher which the great mass of the people called kesher (cf. 2 Chron. xxiii. 13, “She said, Treason, treason! Kesher, kesher!”) ; . . . the reference is to the conspiracy, as it was called, of the prophet and his disciples. The same thing happened to Isaiah as to Amos (Amos vii. 10) and to Jeremiah. Whenever the prophets were at all zealous in their opposition to the appeal for foreign aid, they were accused and branded as standing in the service of the enemy, and conspiring for the overthrow of the kingdom.—Delitzsch.
[4] Mikdash generally means the sanctified place or sanctuary, with which the idea of an asylum would easily associate itself, since even among the Israelites the Temple was regarded and respected as an asylum (1 Kings i. 50; ii. 28). . . . Mikdash is really to be taken in this sense, although it cannot be exactly rendered “asylum,” since this would improperly limit the meaning of the word. The Temple was not only a place of shelter, but also of grace, blessing, and peace. All who sanctified the Lord of lords He surrounded like temple walls; hid them in Himself, whilst death and tribulation reigned without, and comforted, fed, and blessed them in his own gracious fellowship (chap. iv. 5, 6; Ps. xxvii. 5; xxxi. 20).—Delitzsch.