For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you. Sermons
I. THIS IS A DIVINE REPLY. A reply to what? Why, to Zion's utterance in Isaiah 49:14, "The Lord hath forsaken me." Not, mark you, that there have been no Divine footprints in the past, no Divine provision and protection in Zion's yesterday; but now he hath forsaken us. Study life, especially what is called religious life, and you will find that this is always the foolish cry of the Church. It will live in the past. It will not believe that there are prophets and righteous men to-day. It will decorate the sepulchres of the fathers. It did so in Isaiah's time; it does so now. It glorifies the days of Wickliffe and Luther, of Whitefield and Wesley, forgetful that God is the living God, and his voice is heard, his hand outstretched, his purpose working now. I know nothing in which the human mind is so fatally biased as in this backward looking and longing, whilst he is still nigh us in our breath and in our heart. Forsaken? No, there are prophets of truth still; heralds of mercy still; national seers still, who search the very heart of nations. Wherever the Spirit of Christ is, there he is. There are wars, vices, wrongs, still; but their time is not so easy as it was - not so easy, indeed, as in some past ages which we glorify. The Spirit of Christ is becoming more and more the test of good and evil, of wisdom and unwisdom, of the real and the false, of the righteous and unrighteous. There is a light shining to-day that no breakers can put out, no wild storms of passion extinguish. "The Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world" is here. Christ's arm is not shortened; more worn and weary spirits lean on it than ever. Christ's mercy is not exhausted; his forgiveness is still the good cheer of millions of hearts. His revelations of immortality have not faded through the lapse of years. He alone has given to the world its all-covering sky. We feel that whilst we still believe in him and cleave to him, the prophetic words are real and true, "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken." II. A DIVINE HARMONY. The words do not stand alone. They are not merely a beautiful text, or an isolated flower, or a separate jewel. We have to take the moral strain of a book to see into the mind and meaning of the plan. We do not interpret Mendelssohn or Mozart by separate passages, neither should we so treat Isaiah. He is evidently the prophet of a golden age, no matter whether there are ten hands visible in the work or one. We test truth by its voice, not by its mere speaker. All prophets were not to be listened to and obeyed simply because they were prophets. "I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evil-doers... Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord" (Jeremiah 23:14, 16); and again, "Let not your prophets deceive you" (Jeremiah 29:8); and again, "Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies" (Ezekiel 13:9); "Thus saith the Lord God: Woe unto the foolish prophets O Israel, thy prophets are like foxes" (Ezekiel 13:3, 4). Yes; there was a moral test then; an instinct which revealed the true prophet, as it reveals the true Saviour. Our Lord rested all on this: "If ye were of the truth, ye would hear my voice:" "My sheep hear my voice." A remarkable instance of this moral test is given us in Ezekiel 13:22. The people were to set their faces against the prophets. Why? "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." That which was against righteousness and assisted evil was not to be believed. Why will men be so afraid of this test? Why do they seek to rest authority on the authors and writers of books, and not rest it, as God does, and ever did, and only could, on the truth itself? It was Isaiah's way, it was our Lord's way, it was St. Paul's way. "Commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." I thus come to my word "harmony." It is harmonious with all within us. Isaiah is a prophet of righteousness, of Divine forbearance, of Divine forgiveness, of Divine pity, of Divine ministry, of Divine sacrifice. If asked - Is this a God to be trusted, worshipped, loved? the whole inward being exclaims, "Amen, and amen." III. A DIVINE CONSOLATION. It is really part of the "comfort ye" strain, as that reaches to the depths of our being. Not forsaken. The same Isaiah is here. We feel sin. Israel felt it. We cannot by any philosophy of heredity escape from the consciousness of personal guilt. Alone the flame burns. At night the thorn pierces through the pillow. Are we left to bear the great sorrow unpitied and unaided? Out of Zion the Deliverer shall come. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." We feel social evils; we are hurt by unrighteousness, galled and wounded by selfishness. Amid all, fierce wars seem again and again to stir the mad passions of humanity. What thought can light our gloom, can give strength to our hopes? Only this - "A King shall reign in righteousness." If there be no hope for the supremacy of the Christ, all is lost, for beside him there is no Saviour. But are there not signs that a better spirit is abroad? I think so. Men are sighing for a Prince of peace, and with the sigh there is a sob too, "O Lord, how long?" We feel our own solitude. We seem to be forsaken. Change comes. Fortune is turned to misfortune, health to sickness. But there are restful hours in all Christian hearts. Say what men' will of the mysteries, let them ponder the facts; there is a touch of Christ, there is a tender sense of an encircling arm, there is a consciousness of the good Shepherd's care and love. We want to bring home the music of this promise to weary hearts. If we want to exercise more influence than philosophers and moralists, we must have a better message. When Ulysses passed by the island of the syrens, the classic story tells us that, to save himself from their snares, he bound himself with mighty thongs to the masts, and secured his sailors' safety by filling their ears with wax, that they might not be bewitched. But when the sweet singer, when Orpheus, voyaged by the same syren island, he bound himself to no mast. He started a sweeter, nobler music than the syrens could ever reach, and so sailed by in triumph. If we are to win men and keep men - men who have been charmed with the syren voices of the world all the week - our melody must be one that comes down from heaven; the music of forgiveness and mercy, of grace and help, of God's love, and God's care, and God's everlasting throne. We are in him that is true, in him of whom all prophecy is full, who was the Spirit of it all. In life with all its mysteries, and in death with all its leave-takings. We shall never be termed "Forsaken." - W.M.S.
for as a young man marrieth a virgin. It is difficult to see how any real parallel can exist between an intellectual interest or reasoned sense of duty to a public cause or institution, although prescribing exertion and even sacrifice, and the spontaneous, glowing, fervid devotion of a young man to his chosen bride. Say you so? Then let me say that as yet you know not some salient features of human nature. As a matter of fact abstractions, as we call them, do provoke passion; the passion of love and the passion of hate, no less truly than do concrete and visible objects. Millions of human beings have worked, suffered, fought and died for these very abstractions; for a political or social doctrine, for the fame of a fallen dynasty, for the credit of some secret club or association, for a country that has been crushed out of existence, for some wild undemonstrable theory, for some baseless or grotesque superstition, no less than for a true and soul-inspiring faith or principle.(H. P. Liddon, D. D.) I. AN UNRESERVED, WHOLE-HEARTED DEVOTION; a devotion which bestows on its object its best and its all. "With my body I thee worship; and with all my worldly goods I thee endow," is the language not only of a Christian Church formulary, but of the human heart in its better mood, throughout all time; and it marks the first characteristic of that devotion to the Church of God which Isaiah saw in vision across the centuries. Undoubtedly a partial fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy may be recognized in the love and service which Israel after the flesh received from a long line of patriot children. Noblest among them were the Maccabees; but they were only samples of a spirit which was shared, in their day and afterwards, by thousands of their countrymen. That temper was indeed too often mingled with moral alloy that sullied its purity. But the men who saved their country from the cultured Paganism of Antiochus Epiphanes, and who even after the utter ruin of their sacred house by Titus, rose once and again to pour out their blood like water in an unavailing struggle with Imperial Rome at the epoch of its greatest military power, were assuredly not men only under the sway of a common or sordid motive. In their love to "Jerusalem the Holy," whose name was stamped upon their coins, they surely exhibit the careless self-abandonment of the passion which gives itself without stint to the object of its choice. The Lord had chosen Zion to be a habitation for Himself, and this choice made her, to those who had faith in it, the object of a passionate attachment in some respects without a parallel in history. Now, our Lord proclaimed and founded, within the Jewish nation, yet with a capacity and, indeed, an internal necessity of passing beyond its bounds, a new Society, which was to be more to the intellect and heart of man than the Greek πόλις, or the Roman World Empire, or the Jewish theocracy itself, ever had been or could be; yet which should sanction and satisfy, in ample measure, those instincts of union, brotherhood, improvement, order, of which earlier forms of association among men were the outcome and assertion. This Society, in virtue of its origin, its object, and its compass, He named the Kingdom of Heaven. Certain is it that the Church of Christ has inspired millions of Christians with mingled love and enthusiasm. If we believe that Christ's Church, though built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, has for the chief cornerstone, Himself; if we see in her, not a self-formed collection of individuals who agree in following Him, but, as Scripture says, His Body, instinct with His life; if for her He shed His most precious blood that He might present her glorious and immaculate in the realms of purity; then, in making much of her, we surely are doing no wrong to Him. Only because, notwithstanding the sears and stains which mark her sojourn here below, she is yet so intimately His, should she be so precious to His servants; — drawing the noblest souls into the highest paths of service. II. THE DEVOTION WHICH ISAIAH PREDICTS WILL BE DISINTERESTED. The truehearted bridegroom marries, not that he may win rank or wealth, or public recognition, or any outward advantages whatever., he weds his" bride" for her own sake, because she is what she is, because in wedding her he finds the joy and satisfaction of his heart. It is "for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health." So was it also to be with the espousals of the soul. The Holy Bride is wooed for her own sake, and not for anything that she may bestow on those who would win her. III. AND THE PROPHET'S COMPARISON SUGGESTS A DEVOTION THAT WILL LAST TILL DEATH. "Till death us do part." Weariness, impaired health, diminished opportunities for usefulness may come with years; but the tie of sacred service to the cause and Church of Christ can only end with life. (H. P. Liddon, D. D.) People Hephzibah, IsaiahPlaces Jerusalem, Jerusalem's, ZionTopics Bride, Bridegroom, Builders, Espouse, Espouseth, Glad, Husband, Joy, Maiden, Maker, Married, Marries, Marrieth, Marry, Rejoice, Rejoices, Rejoiceth, Sons, Takes, Virgin, WifeOutline 1. The fervent desire of the prophet to confirm the church in God's promises.6. The office of the ministers in preaching the Gospel 10. And preparing the people thereto Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 62:5 5659 bride 1070 God, joy of Library The Heavenly Workers and the Earthly Watchers'For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest ... I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest'--ISAIAH lxii. 1, 6, 7. Two remarks of an expository nature will prepare the way for the consideration of these words. The first is that the speaker is the personal Messiah. The second half of Isaiah's prophecies forms one great whole, which … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A Call to Prayer and Testimony The Ministry of Intercession God Seeks Intercessors The Watchmen that Go About the City Found Me, to whom I Said, Saw Ye Him whom My Soul Loveth? And the Manner of his Entry into Jerusalem, which was the Capital of Judæa... Man's Crown and God's Sixth Day for the Spirit of Love in the Church Twenty-Fourth Day for the Spirit on Your Own Congregation A Model of Intercession "And He is the Propitiation," An Obscured vision Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem The Cavils of the Pharisees Concerning Purification, and the Teaching of the Lord Concerning Purity - the Traditions Concerning Hand-Washing' and Vows. ' Among the People, and with the Pharisees Isaiah Links Isaiah 62:5 NIVIsaiah 62:5 NLT Isaiah 62:5 ESV Isaiah 62:5 NASB Isaiah 62:5 KJV Isaiah 62:5 Bible Apps Isaiah 62:5 Parallel Isaiah 62:5 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 62:5 Chinese Bible Isaiah 62:5 French Bible Isaiah 62:5 German Bible Isaiah 62:5 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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