Or let them lay claim to My protection; let them make peace with Me--yes, let them make peace with Me." Sermons
I. IN WISDOM, and the effectuating power which results therefrom. It is in virtue of his wisdom that the elements of nature have their various attributes, and the processes of nature their constant laws - that seeds sprout, and shrubs and trees bear flower and fruit; that living bodies grow, and minds advance, and souls mature. We take hold of God's strength of wisdom when we do our human, instrumental part in these his workings - when we plough and sow and weed; when we observe and study; when we use the privileges of devotion. II. IN MAGNANIMITY. God is strong indeed in this grace. Provoked by everything in man that is fitted to arouse his anger, he has withheld his retributive hand (Psalm 103:10). He has not sentenced us to eternal exile; he has continued his loving-kindnesses even to the most obdurate and rebellious (Matthew 5:45). He has shown himself willing to receive again the sons and daughters that have wandered farthest away from his home. We take hold of this his strength when we avail ourselves of his merciful overtures, and hasten in penitence and faith to his feet. III. IN COMPASSION. God is strong in pity. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so he pitieth," etc. His commiseration, his tenderness, his parental responsiveness to our various sorrows, is quick, is immediate, is perfect; there is great strength of loving sympathy in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:15). We take hold of his strength when, in our dark days, in our heavier sorrows, we unburden our hearts to him, realize the fullness of his compassion, make our earnest, confident appeal for his sympathy and succor. IV. IN UPHOLDING POWER. In such a world as this with all its allurements and its dangers, with such a nature as is ours with all its frailty, there is required great power to preserve us in our integrity and to build us up on the foundation of our faith. But God is able to do this; he is able to "make us stand" (Romans 14:4), to "keep us from falling, and present us faultless," etc. (Jude 1:24). We take hold of his strength when we act with such obedience and wisdom that we place ourselves in the path where that power is acting - the path of reflection, of moral safety, of Christian fellowship, of worship, of holy activity. V. IN TRANSFORMING POWER. It is impossible for us to make even Divine truth effectual to the regeneration of a sinful soul. But God is mightier than we; the things which are impossible to us are possible to him (Matthew 19:26). His strength is not unequal even to the softening of the hard heart, the bending of the proud and stubborn will, even of the hardest and haughtiest of souls. We take hold of this his strength when we faithfully plead with our fellow-men that they should return to God, and when we earnestly plead with God that he should put into exercise that renewing and transforming energy. - C.
Let him take hold of My strength. I. THE INVITATION. "Let him take hold of My strength." This becomes an imperative duty — a duty universal in its application.II. THE REASON of this invitation — "that he may make peace with Me." 1. Observe how very unselfish it is, if we may so call it with reverence, on the part of God. It is not that He Himself may be benefited, but that the sinner might. 2. Consider, too, the cogency of this reason, resting as it does in that which all men most need, and most of us long for — "peace." 3. Regard also the sublimity of this reason — peace with "God." III. THE POSITIVE ASSURANCE, or the certainty of the promise. "And he shall make peace with Me." Nothing shall prevent it. Comply with the conditions, and then all is certain. Even the greatest enemies to God among men are permitted to make peace with Him. (W. Horwood.) Homilist. Some substitute the word "protection" for "strength" here, and suppose the words refer to the horns of the altar which fugitives often laid hold of as an asylum. But the refuge of safety for any moral intelligence is nothing without God's strength. For an insignificant creature like man to lay hold upon the strength of Omnipotence seems at first not only an absurd, but a blasphemous thought, and yet the thought is not without support in the Word of God. What meaneth the expression, "Let Me alone, Moses," etc.?I. It is POSSIBLE for man to lay hold on the strength of Omnipotence. In what does the real strength of a moral intelligence consist? Not in material bulk or muscle, if he has them; but in the leading disposition of his heart. This is the soul of strength, the sap in the oak, the steam in the engine, the vis in the muscle. He that can take hold of this in a man takes hold of his strength. Vanity is the leading disposition in some men; and if you would take hold of their strength you must flatter them. By adulation you will grasp them body and soul. Greed is the leading disposition in others. Avarice controls them, works their thoughts, and concentrates their energies. Minister to this greed and you will take hold of their strength, you will have them in your hands. Philanthropy is, thank God, the leading disposition of others. Present to them the claims of down-trodden slaves, of broken-hearted widows and starving orphans, and you will take hold of their strength. Now, the leading disposition of God, if I may so say, is benevolence. He not only loves, but is love. He, therefore, who appeals to His compassion takes hold of His strength. See how Omnipotence halted as Abraham prayed. See how in Christ it stood still on the road when two blind beggars said, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me." Thus let the poor sinner go stricken in penitence and appeal in all his misery to the Great Father, and he will take hold of His strength. II. It is NECESSARY for man to lay hold on the strength of Omnipotence. The only hope of sinful, dying man is to appeal to God's compassion. "If My people which are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin." "Ye shall seek Me and find Me when ye search for Me with all your heart." Elijah prayed, and God unsealed the heavens for him. Stephen prayed, and the Father drew the curtains of the invisible world and revealed to him the Son of God in all His glory. (Homilist.) Homilist. How can a man take hold on the strength of God? The following facts may give meaning to the phrase.I. The pleading of the PROMISE OF ONE WHO IS FAITHFUL will take hold of his strength. If a man of incorruptible truthfulness were to make me a promise, and I pleaded the fulfilment of that promise, should I not, in a very emphatic sense, "take hold of his strength" in pleading it before him? I should seize not his mere limbs or any particular faculty, but himself, his inflexible sense of truthfulness. II. The pleading of a RIGHT CLAIM TO ONE WHO IS RIGHTEOUS will take hold of his strength. If you have a righteous claim upon a righteous man you lay hold of him by urging it. You do not want law with such a man to enforce your obligation. He yields it by the necessity of his nature. There are claims which all moral beings who are commanded to love God with their hearts, souls, and strength have upon Him. III. The pleading of MISERY TO ONE THAT IS LOVING will take hold of his strength. Thus the cry of a babe will take hold of the strength of a father, though he be the commander of armies, or the monarch of mighty peoples. By suffering and sorrow you can take hold of the most noble men on earth, and the most noble are the most loving. (Homilist.) Homilist. Coriolanus was a mighty man. He is thus described by Shakespeare: "The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corset with his eye, talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity, and a heaven to throne in." And yet his mother and wife, by appealing to the love in his nature, took hold of his strength; and hence we hear him exclaim, "Ladies, you deserve to have a temple built you. All the swords in Italy and her confederate arms could not have made this peace."(Homilist.) People Isaiah, Israelites, JacobPlaces Assyria, Brook of Egypt, Egypt, Euphrates River, JerusalemTopics Hold, Lay, Peace, Power, Protection, Rely, Strength, Yea, YesOutline 1. The Deliverance of IsraelDictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 27:4 4422 brier Library The Grasp that Brings Peace'Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; yea, let him make peace with Me.'--ISAIAH xxvii. 5. Lyrical emotion makes the prophet's language obscure by reason of its swift transitions from one mood of feeling to another. But the main drift here is discernible. God is guarding Israel, His vineyard, and before Him its foes are weak as 'thorns and briers,' whose end is to be burned. With daring anthropomorphism, the prophet puts into God's mouth a longing for the enemies to measure … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Twelfth Day for the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ; The Desire of the Righteous Granted; How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin? "But we are all as an Unclean Thing, and all Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags," Covenanting Confers Obligation. The Mercy of God The River of Egypt, Rhinocorura. The Lake of Sirbon. The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly What Messiah did the Jews Expect? The Great Shepherd Isaiah Links Isaiah 27:5 NIVIsaiah 27:5 NLT Isaiah 27:5 ESV Isaiah 27:5 NASB Isaiah 27:5 KJV Isaiah 27:5 Bible Apps Isaiah 27:5 Parallel Isaiah 27:5 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 27:5 Chinese Bible Isaiah 27:5 French Bible Isaiah 27:5 German Bible Isaiah 27:5 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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