Expositor's Dictionary of Texts In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. The Day of the East WindIsaiah 27:8 I take our text as a poet's thought. Translated, then, I read these meanings in it: Firstly, Our trials are timed. Secondly, Our sufferings are measured. Thirdly, Our lives are compensated. I. Our Trials are Timed.—'He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind.' It is something to know the east wind has its day. To everything under heaven, even the blighting scourge out of the east, there is a time. In its larger aspects we are all agreed on that There are whole classes of trials that have their season as surely as seed-time and harvest have. God in the life means order, means succession, means changing discipline for changing years. When I once see that trials have their times, I gain a new stability and peace. Take no anxious thought about tomorrow. Do not go out to meet your troubles half-way. Till the day of the east wind dawns it cannot blow. When its morning comes, a sovereign God will summon it II. Our Sufferings are Measured.—The rough, rude, boisterous gale is on a man. He never could stand the blight of the east wind now. God sees: God knows: God willeth not that any man should perish. If the east wind must blow, the rough wind shall be called home that morning. And that is a poet's image of God's tender mercy. III. Our Lives are Compensated.—The east wind blows. Is life worth living Today? Can there be any compensation for that searching gale? Just on account of that east wind, God kept the rough wind in its chains this morning. It is heaven's compensation for the one that the other shall have no liberty to blow Today. I want you to believe God's ways are equal. We should fret less, we should worry less, we should have sweeter hearts, and far, far kindlier tongues, if we but realized God's compensating hand. You have been crying out bitterly against the east wind; you have quite forgotten that the rough wind is stayed. You have no iron will, no masterful character; you are impressionable, yielding, almost weak. So is the sea impressionable, yet there are glories unspeakable of light and shadow on it, and a highway for the great navies there. —G. H. Morrison, Flood-Tide, p. 220. References.—XXVII. 12.—J. A. Baird, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. 1906, p. 148. XXVII. 13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. 1. No. 2868. XXVIII. 1-13.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—Isaiah, p. 125. XXVIII. 3-5.—Ibid. p. 132. XXVIII. 5.—Ibid. p. 136. XXVIII. 5, 6.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. p. 85. T. McCrie, Sermons, p. 304. XXVIII. 10, 13.—D. Fraser, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 189. In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem. Nicoll - Expositor's Dictionary of Texts Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission. Bible Hub |
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