I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break
in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
And I will give thee the treasures of darkness,
and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I,
the LORD, which call thee by thy name,
am the God of Israel. Isa 45:2-3
in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
And I will give thee the treasures of darkness,
and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I,
the LORD, which call thee by thy name,
am the God of Israel. Isa 45:2-3
Man must go. Each man is accomplishing a journey, going through a process. The only question is—How? Man may go, either with God or without Him. Whether we go with God or without Him, we shall find crooked places; we had better clearly understand this, lest any one should turn round after he has walked the first mile of Christian life, and say he expected there would have been no such places in all the course. Life is crooked; we ourselves are crooked; there is nothing in all human experience of which we can certainly say, This is perfectly straight. God Himself often inserts a crook in the lot. We should regard the text as a warning. There are crooked places.
The text is also a promise. "I will go before thee." God does not say where He will straighten our path; He does not say how; the great thing for us to believe is that there is a special promise for us, and to wait in devout hope for its fulfilment. He who waits for God is not misspending his time. Such waiting is true living—such tarrying is the truest speed.
The text is not only a warning and a promise, but also a plan. It is in the word before that I find the plan, and it is in that word before that I find the difficulty on the human side. God does not say, I will go alongside thee; we shall go step by step: He says, I will go before thee. Sometimes it may be a long way before us, so that we cannot see Him; and sometimes it may be just in front of us. But whether beyond, far away, or here close at hand, the great idea we have to live upon is that God goes before us.
(1) Let us beware of regarding the text as a mere matter of course. There is an essential question of character to be settled. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."
(2) Let us beware of regarding this text as a license for carelessness. Let us not say, "If God goes before me, and makes all places straight, why need I care?" To the good man all life is holy; there is no step of indifference; no subject that does not bring out his best desires. "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground" is the expression of every man who knows what it is to have God going before him.
(Parker, City Temple, 1870, p. 4)
The text is also a promise. "I will go before thee." God does not say where He will straighten our path; He does not say how; the great thing for us to believe is that there is a special promise for us, and to wait in devout hope for its fulfilment. He who waits for God is not misspending his time. Such waiting is true living—such tarrying is the truest speed.
The text is not only a warning and a promise, but also a plan. It is in the word before that I find the plan, and it is in that word before that I find the difficulty on the human side. God does not say, I will go alongside thee; we shall go step by step: He says, I will go before thee. Sometimes it may be a long way before us, so that we cannot see Him; and sometimes it may be just in front of us. But whether beyond, far away, or here close at hand, the great idea we have to live upon is that God goes before us.
(1) Let us beware of regarding the text as a mere matter of course. There is an essential question of character to be settled. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."
(2) Let us beware of regarding this text as a license for carelessness. Let us not say, "If God goes before me, and makes all places straight, why need I care?" To the good man all life is holy; there is no step of indifference; no subject that does not bring out his best desires. "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground" is the expression of every man who knows what it is to have God going before him.
(Parker, City Temple, 1870, p. 4)
A Warning-a Promise and a Plan
| AS A WARNING. There are crooked places. One could wish that we could make one’s own the experience of those that have gone before; but each man must run his own course. There are crooked dispositions,—men of whom you can make nothing. Let the young, especially, be forewarned, and so forearmed. There are those to be met with in life, who, when you think you are walking in the line of their sympathies, will turn perversely upon you. |  |
Men who, in the midst of your strenuous efforts to serve them, will be as unthankful and ungracious as the rock or the sand that is unblest by all the rich rains of Heaven. There are crooked places in circumstances.
When we think we are proceeding most satisfactorily, we sometimes come to knots and difficulties of which we can make nothing. Crooked places are found in the uncertainties of life. No man can certainly say what will transpire during the next hour; and so, again and again, to our disappointment and mortification, we are compelled to withdraw from our methods, and to abandon that on which we had set our heart.
When we think we are proceeding most satisfactorily, we sometimes come to knots and difficulties of which we can make nothing. Crooked places are found in the uncertainties of life. No man can certainly say what will transpire during the next hour; and so, again and again, to our disappointment and mortification, we are compelled to withdraw from our methods, and to abandon that on which we had set our heart.
As a Promise- “I will Go Before Thee.”
This was a Divine promise made to Cyrus; and God has made the same promise to all who put their trust in Him. It is surely something to have a Father’s promise singing in the heart. Many know the inspiration even of a human promise. We need the triumphant faith that says definitely to God, “Thou didst promise this, and we wait for its fulfilment.” We need patience, too; patience that comes of faith, that God may, so to speak, have time to fulfil His promise. God does not say when He will straighten our path; nor how. He who waits for God is not misspending his time; such tarrying is the truest speed. If we could believe that, how calm, how quiet, how strong, how sublime would be our life.
AS A PLAN. We should regard the text as a scheme—a method, a special way of doing things; “I will go before thee.” The word before shows the plan; and it also expresses the difficulty on the human side. God does not say, “I will go alongside thee;” nor, “I will go behind thee;” but before thee. Sometimes, it may be, so far before, that we cannot see Him. There is sovereignty here; but there is love and tenderness too, as when the mother goes before her child that is just learning to walk. The idea of God going before every man, as if he were the only man in the world, does not dwarf God, but rather exalts Him exceedingly. “My Father and your Father,” said Christ, “my God and your God.”
CONCLUSION - Let us beware of regarding the truth of the text as a mere matter of course. There is an essential question of character to be considered: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord;” “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Let us beware of regarding this text as a license for carelessness. “The place whereon thou standest is holy ground,” is the expression of every man who knows what it is to have God going before him.
(Joseph Parker, D.D., The City Temple, pp. 4–12)
AS A PLAN. We should regard the text as a scheme—a method, a special way of doing things; “I will go before thee.” The word before shows the plan; and it also expresses the difficulty on the human side. God does not say, “I will go alongside thee;” nor, “I will go behind thee;” but before thee. Sometimes, it may be, so far before, that we cannot see Him. There is sovereignty here; but there is love and tenderness too, as when the mother goes before her child that is just learning to walk. The idea of God going before every man, as if he were the only man in the world, does not dwarf God, but rather exalts Him exceedingly. “My Father and your Father,” said Christ, “my God and your God.”
CONCLUSION - Let us beware of regarding the truth of the text as a mere matter of course. There is an essential question of character to be considered: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord;” “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Let us beware of regarding this text as a license for carelessness. “The place whereon thou standest is holy ground,” is the expression of every man who knows what it is to have God going before him.
(Joseph Parker, D.D., The City Temple, pp. 4–12)
Christ-The Treasures of Darkness
It ought not to be difficult for us to believe that there are spiritual treasures that we have never even got a glimpse of yet. Christ spoke of treasure “hid in a field.” That surely must have been among the treasures of darkness. And the Apostle Paul, long after, spoke of the “unsearchable riches of Christ.” What he had himself freely taken from this store made him feel himself rich indeed; so rich, that he had not the least inclination for anything that the world could give. One of the saddest and most mournful of all things for us would be to settle down contentedly with the notion that God had no treasures to bestow but what we see all about us with the utterly inexperienced eye! To think the common experience of life, to think our own experience, the limit of all things, would be to make life a very poor thing indeed.
God must have infinite treasures and pleasures which He does not want to keep in darkness unused. That ought to be an axiom with us. If we should never dream of speaking of ourselves as spiritually rich, it cannot be because either God has nothing better to bestow, or that He grudges to bestow it.
We seem to believe readily enough that the future may reveal to us glories that we cannot forecast. But why be content to postpone to a future state the higher degrees of true blessedness? Why not possess some of the treasures now?
The phrase suggests to us that what we deem empty, void, and even repellent as darkness, may contain things unspeakably precious. We speak of the “night of sorrow.” But it only requires a very moderate faith in God to believe that He is too good and kind ever to let a single sensitive being pass through such trials as are the lot of not a few, unless it were that only so can they be prepared for, and put in possession of, choicer good. But there is a darkness far blacker than the night of affliction and sorrow. It is this awful gloom, this darkness that may be felt, which we all feel at times to involve the moral world. This is a world of tremendous mystery to the morally sensitive soul. Let a man ever come to see that a world which he cannot but feel to be evil to the core, is nevertheless the very best possible school for man in the early stage of his training for immortality; that this discipline of evil is absolutely essential for a while; that he would clearly be a poorer creature without it; that it is the conflict with evil which brings out some of the most precious qualities of the soul; that without evil, good itself could not be known; that God Himself could not be so gloriously revealed to the heart as He is through the occasion that every man’s sin affords; that the greatest proof that God is Love must have been for ever wanting, had He, by restraint and force, mechanically prevented the entrance of evil into the universe. Only let one—this one—little ray of light fall upon the darkness, and you will feel how priceless are the treasures of darkness.
But the darkness can be made to yield up treasures only to those who will listen for the voice Divine. To the upright there will arise light in darkness. It is only the children of light who can go into the darkness, and from it fetch out the hid treasures. “God is light: in Him is no darkness at all.” Christ is the Light of the World: whoso walketh with Him shall have the Light of Life. (H. H. Dobney)
God must have infinite treasures and pleasures which He does not want to keep in darkness unused. That ought to be an axiom with us. If we should never dream of speaking of ourselves as spiritually rich, it cannot be because either God has nothing better to bestow, or that He grudges to bestow it.
We seem to believe readily enough that the future may reveal to us glories that we cannot forecast. But why be content to postpone to a future state the higher degrees of true blessedness? Why not possess some of the treasures now?
The phrase suggests to us that what we deem empty, void, and even repellent as darkness, may contain things unspeakably precious. We speak of the “night of sorrow.” But it only requires a very moderate faith in God to believe that He is too good and kind ever to let a single sensitive being pass through such trials as are the lot of not a few, unless it were that only so can they be prepared for, and put in possession of, choicer good. But there is a darkness far blacker than the night of affliction and sorrow. It is this awful gloom, this darkness that may be felt, which we all feel at times to involve the moral world. This is a world of tremendous mystery to the morally sensitive soul. Let a man ever come to see that a world which he cannot but feel to be evil to the core, is nevertheless the very best possible school for man in the early stage of his training for immortality; that this discipline of evil is absolutely essential for a while; that he would clearly be a poorer creature without it; that it is the conflict with evil which brings out some of the most precious qualities of the soul; that without evil, good itself could not be known; that God Himself could not be so gloriously revealed to the heart as He is through the occasion that every man’s sin affords; that the greatest proof that God is Love must have been for ever wanting, had He, by restraint and force, mechanically prevented the entrance of evil into the universe. Only let one—this one—little ray of light fall upon the darkness, and you will feel how priceless are the treasures of darkness.
But the darkness can be made to yield up treasures only to those who will listen for the voice Divine. To the upright there will arise light in darkness. It is only the children of light who can go into the darkness, and from it fetch out the hid treasures. “God is light: in Him is no darkness at all.” Christ is the Light of the World: whoso walketh with Him shall have the Light of Life. (H. H. Dobney)
