Isaiah 15:7














The picture is a striking one. In the national fright, the people are seen picking up what they can of their treasures, and escaping for life to the border districts; learning the lesson that "riches take to themselves wings, and flee away." The word "abundance," in the text, should be replaced by the word "remainder;" and the most probable meaning of the verse is that the Moabites shall carry what they can save of their possessions into the land of Edom. The picture suggests two topics.

I. THE INSECURITY OF THE MAN WHO IS RICH IN WHAT HE HAS. Illustrate from riches

(1) in land;

(2) in money;

(3) in houses;

(4) in goods.

How dependent he is on a thousand things for the retention and use of all! The lesson of Job is that no form of earthly possession can possibly be secure. Land is unlet; money cannot be profitably exchanged; houses get out of repair, and eat up rentals; and goods deteriorate in the warehouses. When ordinary forces leave our property alone, the heavens can send fire; the earth can heave and quake; and by mysterious influences we can be made to learn our lesson, that "this is not our rest."

II. THE SECURITY OF THE MAN WHO IS RICH IN WHAT HE IS. No human and no supernatural forces, here or hereafter, can deprive a man of his possessions in what he is. Character, piety, are beyond reach of moth, or worm, or rust, or storm, or earthquake, or death. It is said of knowledge that a man "only possesses what he understands." It might be said of a man's wealth that he "only has what he is." When calamities come, the man of character never has to gather his treasures hurriedly together and make off for the border-land. Wherever he is, he has his riches with him. Stripped of all his so-called wealth, he is not deprived of one grain. He holds it all, and his riches none can take away. The Lord Jesus men called poor. He was the only truly and perfectly rich man that ever lived; and such as he was we would desire to be. - R.T.

My heart shall cry out for Moab.
Too often have God's servants spoken with dry eyes and hard voices of the doom of the ungodly; and have only made them more obdurate and determined. We never need so much brokenness of spirit as when we utter God's judgments against sin. In his autobiography, Finney says, "Here I must introduce the name of a man whom I shall have occasion to mention frequently, Mr. Abel Clary, He was the son of a very excellent man, and an elder of the Church where I was converted. He had been licensed to preach; but his spirit of prayer was such, he was so burdened with the souls of men, that he was not able to preach much, his whole time and strength being given to prayer. The burden of his soul would frequently be so great that he was unable to stand, and he would writhe and groan in agony. I was well acquainted with him, and knew something of the wonderful spirit of prayer that was upon him The pastor told me afterwards that he found that in the six weeks I was in that church five hundred souls had been converted."

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

(see also Isaiah 16:9): — These are the men who prevail with men. In the early part of the sixteenth century there was a great religious awakening in Ulster, which began under a minister named Glendinning. He was of very meagre natural gifts, but would spend many days and nights alone with God, and seems to have been greatly burdened with the souls of men and their state before God. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that, under his pleading, multitudes of hearers were brought into great anxiety and terror of conscience. They looked on themselves as altogether lost. They were stricken into a swoon by the vower of God's Word. A dozen in one day were carried out of doors as dead. These were not women, but some of the boldest spirits of the neighbourhood "some who had formerly not feared with their swords to put the whole market town into a fray." This revival changed the whole character of northern Ireland. Would that God might lay on our hearts a similar burden for our Churches and our land!

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.).

People
Isaiah, Zoar
Places
Ar, Beer-elim, Brook of the Willows, Dibon, Eglaim, Elealeh, Heshbon, Horonaim, Jahaz, Kir, Luhith, Medeba, Moab, Nebo, Nimrim, Zoar
Topics
Abundance, Acquired, Arabim, Brook, Carry, Cause, Gained, Got, Gotten, Laid, Poplars, Ravine, Store, Stored, Stores, Stream, Torrent, Water-plants, Wealth, Willows
Outline
1. The lamentable state of Moab

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 15:6

     4460   grass
     4819   dryness

Library
The Sea of Sodom
The bounds of Judea, on both sides, are the sea; the western bound is the Mediterranean,--the eastern, the Dead sea, or the sea of Sodom. This the Jewish writers every where call, which you may not so properly interpret here, "the salt sea," as "the bituminous sea." In which sense word for word, "Sodom's salt," but properly "Sodom's bitumen," doth very frequently occur among them. The use of it was in the holy incense. They mingled 'bitumen,' 'the amber of Jordan,' and [an herb known to few], with
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Tiglath-Pileser iii. And the Organisation of the Assyrian Empire from 745 to 722 B. C.
TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE FROM 745 to 722 B.C. FAILURE OF URARTU AND RE-CONQUEST Of SYRIA--EGYPT AGAIN UNITED UNDER ETHIOPIAN AUSPICES--PIONKHI--THE DOWNFALL OF DAMASCUS, OF BABYLON, AND OF ISRAEL. Assyria and its neighbours at the accession of Tiglath-pileser III.: progress of the Aramaeans in the basin of the Middle Tigris--Urartu and its expansion into the north of Syria--Damascus and Israel--Vengeance of Israel on Damascus--Jeroboam II.--Civilisation
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 7

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Isaiah 15:7 NIV
Isaiah 15:7 NLT
Isaiah 15:7 ESV
Isaiah 15:7 NASB
Isaiah 15:7 KJV

Isaiah 15:7 Bible Apps
Isaiah 15:7 Parallel
Isaiah 15:7 Biblia Paralela
Isaiah 15:7 Chinese Bible
Isaiah 15:7 French Bible
Isaiah 15:7 German Bible

Isaiah 15:7 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Isaiah 15:6
Top of Page
Top of Page