Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return to me; for I have redeemed you. I. A DESCRIPTION OF SIN. Man's transgressions are as a thick cloud. 1. In their number. (1) The sins of the wicked — murders, revellings, debaucheries, and the like. (2) The sins of the' moral man — intellectual sins, worse than the animal — avarice, pride, ambition, unbelief. (3) The sins of the good. The lives of the best of men may seem, to the natural eye, holy and good; but, seen under the microscope of God's law, these are full of impurities. 2. Because they intervene between God and man. 3. Because they engloom the earth. 4. Because they contain the consequences which we dread. Out of the cloud the angry lightnings flash, and in the cloud the fury of the tempest sleeps. II. A DESCRIPTION OF FORGIVENESS. "I have blotted out," &c. You have witnessed the dispersion of a storm. This is a symbol of God's forgiveness. 1. It is so because it is the work of God only. It is a transaction in which man has no share. 2. God's forgiveness is a complete forgiveness. 3. May we not learn that all sin is overruled to our good? After the storm has gone over us, have we not found the atmosphere purified? Can we not see that the world is disciplined by the deluge of evils which pours forth from the clouds of sin? 4. This is a symbol of God's forgiveness in respect to the gladness which succeeds the storm. The prophet represents the whole earth as awakening, after the dispersion of the storm, to exultant joy. "Sing, O ye heavens," &c. Such is the joy of the world on account of God's forgiveness. III. A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONDUCT OF THE FORGIVEN. "Return unto Me," &c. (H. M. Jackson.) Parallel Verses KJV: I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. |
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