Isaiah 29:8

The general truth taught by these words is this: wrong-doing promises much, but it certainly ends in bitter disappointment. The good to be gained by sin is seen and tasted and handled only in dream. It is never actually possessed, and visible disappointment is the bitter fruit of transgression.

I. The very nature of sin suggests this fact. (1) Sin is a wandering from the way which God has appointed for us—the way which was in His mind when He made man—the only way which has ever been in His mind as the right way. There is no adaptation in nan's real nature to any way but one, and that is obedience to a Father in heaven, the result and fruit of true love for that Father. (2) Sin is a practical withdrawing from the protection of Divine providence. It thus wounds, sometimes instantly, and always eventually, the transgressor himself. It is as when a hungry man dreameth, and awaketh, and behold, he is faint.

II. Look at a few recognised facts about sin. (1) The angels who kept not their first estate left their own habitation. So far as we can understand the matter they sought freedom, but they found chains. They sought light; they found darkness. They sought happiness; they found misery,—as when a hungry man dreameth and eateth, and awaketh and finds himself famishing. (2) Our first parents, in yielding to the first temptation, sought equality with God; but they soon found themselves fallen below the natural human level. (3) The general history of sin is found in epitome in the life of every sinner. In families and churches and nations, in societies of all kinds, we see illustrated the truth that sin everywhere, by whomsoever committed, is the occasion of most bitter disappointment.

S. Martin, Penny Pulpit, No. 621.

Isaiah 29:11-12I. There is something of truth in the representation that the Bible is a sealed book. We always regard it as a standing proof of the Divine origin of the volume, that it is not to be unfolded by the processes which we apply to a merely human composition, and that every attempt to enter deeply into its meaning, without the assistance of its Author, issues in nothing but conjecture and confusion. The Bible is addressed to the heart, not merely to the head. Revelation is designed not only to convey to the intellect a few definite notions of things which its own sagacity is unable to discover, but to act upon the affections, and win them over to the service of God. The very fact that unless the Holy Spirit explains the Bible it is impossible for the student to enter into its meaning, may be seized on by those who seek an apology for neglect; and men may retort upon an adviser who says, "Read this, I pray you," by asking, "How can we, since on your own showing the book is sealed?" The Bible is a sealed book to all who interpret it by their own unaided strength. But "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." Hence the key is within reach. You are taught how the flame may be kindled by which the seals shall be dissolved. Can it, then, be any justification for the neglect with which Scripture is treated that any of its statements overpass our unassisted comprehensions?

II. If one great body of men excuse themselves by pleading that the volume is sealed, another will take refuge in their own want of scholarship. Here, again, the excuse is based on a truth; but yet it in no degree justifies neglect. The well-educated man has undoubtedly advantages over the uneducated, when both are considered as students of Scripture. The poor may be deterred by positive inability from reading the Bible, and thus be dependent upon their children or neighbours for acquaintance with its chapters; and even where there has not been this total want of common instruction, and the poor cottager is able to read the Bible for himself, it is not to be questioned that he will find many difficulties which never meet the better educated. Here comes in with fresh force all our preceding argument in regard to the office of the Spirit as the interpreter of Scripture. If the understanding of the Bible, so as to become morally advantaged by its statements, depend on the influences of the Holy Ghost, it is clear that the learned may search much and gain no spiritual benefit, and the unlearned may read little and yet be mightily profited. The instant you ascertain that the book cannot be unsealed by mere human instrumentality, but that an agency is needed which is promised to all without exception who seek it by prayer, you place rich and poor on the same level, so far as "life eternal" is concerned, which is the knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2129.

References: Isaiah 29:11, Isaiah 29:12.—Old Testament Outlines, p. 191. Isaiah 29:13.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 40. Isaiah 29:13, Isaiah 29:14.—Pulpit Analyst, vol. i., p. 207. Isaiah 29:18.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 115. Isaiah 30:1.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. ix., p. 103.