The people of God in their prosperity.
These verses are primarily applicable, and they are more or less true as they are applied, to the return of the Jews from captivity, and their residence in their own land. But they find a larger fulfillment in the condition of the Church of Christ in its last days. Possibly they anticipate the felicities of the heavenly future. We refer them to the Church in its prosperity, and conclude—
I. THAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE THOSE THAT HAVE KNOWN A TIME OF TROUBLE. Dark days have passed over their heads; there has been "the breach of his people, and the stroke of his wound" (Isaiah 30:26). God once made them to "eat the bread of adversity," etc. (Isaiah 30:20). They have passed through grave spiritual anxieties; they have felt the burden of unforgiven sin; they have sighed for the sense of God's favor; they have known the miseries of separation from God, and the weariness of a life unbrightened with sacred joy.
II. THAT IN THEIR DISTRESS THEY MADE EFFECTUAL APPEAL TO GOD. (Isaiah 30:19.) God is never deaf to the cry of sorrow; but to the appeal of the penitent spirit, longing to return unto him, his ear is peculiarly alive; he will be "very gracious" at the voice of that cry—"when he shall hear it, he will answer thee." No loudest sounds will drown the sigh of the contrite spirit, no multiplied activities will prevent the heavenly Father from giving it his immediate regard.
III. THAT THE DAY OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE IS ONE OF VERY BLESSED ILLUMINATION. In the day of its prosperity there should be abundance of light for the Christian Church. Its teachers should not have to hide in obscurity, but should be visible and accessible to all (Isaiah 30:20); and there should be times when the light of Divine truth would be not only clear, but brilliant and powerful, making other clays to seem dark by comparison (Isaiah 30:26; see 2 Corinthians 3:9, 2 Corinthians 3:10). Compared with the condition of heathen lauds, or even with the state of Israel under Samuel or David, or even with many Christian countries now, how blessed the state in which the gospel of the grace of God shall be made known in its freedom and its fullness in every town and hamlet, and in every cottage home!
IV. THAT THIS DAY OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE WILL BE ONE OF KIND AND FAITHFUL WATCHFULNESS. (Isaiah 30:21.) The vision is one of high, but not heavenly, blessedness; of advanced, but not absolute excellency. The citizens of the holy kingdom will be found walking in the King's highway, but there will remain a tendency to "turn-to the right hand or to the left," to go off into by-paths of error, or mistake, or unwisdom, if not of actual transgression. In this case there will be the faithful monitor, the Christian teacher, who will be ready with the timely intervention, "This is the way, walk ye in it." This readiness to intervene at the moment of digression ought to characterize our own times; it should be the holy habit, the careful acquirement, of the Christian pastor. On the other hand, a readiness to be admonished is one of the graces of a godly character.
V. THAT THE TIME OF TRUE PROSPERITY WILL BE MARKED BY THE DECISIVE INTOLERANCE OF EVIL. (Isaiah 30:22.) They that name the Name of Christ will not only "depart from all iniquity," but they will reprobate it; they will thrust it away; they will not like even to allude to shameful things (Ephesians 5:3)—these will be hateful, intolerable to them. We may measure our nearness to God by the degree of our abhorrence of evil (Hebrews 1:13; Romans 12:9).
VI. THAT THE TIME OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE WILL BE ONE OF ABOUNDING JOY. (Isaiah 30:23-25.) This language is clearly figurative; it is the utterance of exultation. Everything contributes to joyous prosperity—the timely rain, the large increase of seed, the rich pastures, abundance of food for cattle as well as for man, unfailing "brooks that make the meadows green." The land will laugh with exuberance, the nation will exult in overflowing wealth. In the days of unfettered liberty and universal privilege the Christian Church will delight itself in God; its songs of peace and of hope will arise from every valley; its life will be touched and lighted with the sunshine of a holy gladness. The light of God's countenance will rest upon it, and it will rejoice greatly in his salvation.—C.