The difference between what God asks and what God gets.
The original terms of this verse contain a very striking play upon words, which can but imperfectly be rendered into English. "He looked for judgment (mishpat), and behold oppression (mishpach); for righteousness (tsedakah), and behold a cry (tseakah) of the oppressed for help." Dr. C. Geikie translates the verse thus: "And he hoped for deeds of good, but, behold, there are only deeds of blood; for righteousness, and, lo! there is only the cry of the oppressed." The appeal of God is applicable to all the ages, and, taken in a large sense, may be also applied to us. It should be our exceeding distress that so often we give to God quite other things than he asks of us.
I. GOD ALWAYS ASKS FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. The reference in the text is to public justice; right dealing between man and man; due considerateness for others; and the faithful administration of laws, both social and ecclesiastical. The people ought to be honest in all their dealings, and the magistrates just in all their decisions. But God asks for "righteousness" in a much higher sense than this. The creatures he has made in his imago he wants to he like himself. "Be ye holy, for I am holy;" "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." The righteousness that he asks from us he has shown us in the person and the life of his dear Son. It is for us no vague thing, gathered up into a great and somewhat mysterious word; it is, plainly and practically, our being changed into Christ's image, and bringing forth fruits of goodness like his. This may be fully worked out and illustrated along three lines. The righteousness God asks of us is
II. GOD OFTEN GETS "OPPRESSION" AND A "CRY." Here, too, the first suggestion is of social and national evil; injustice of magistrates, and masterfulness of the strong and wealthy over the poor. Everything was carried by clamor and noise; wickedness had usurped the place of judgment. But here, too, the response made to God may be dealt with in a larger way. The essence of all "oppression" and "cry" is somebody's self-seeking spirit and self-seeking ways. In this we grieve God. He asks life for him, and for others in service to him; and we give him life full of self, that can even trample over his poor in accomplishing our own self-ends. So we, too, come under the Divine reproaches and judgments.—R.T.