Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 30

Verses 9-10

Isaiah 30:9-10

I. A chief part of the work of the pulpit is the plain and fervent teaching of daily-life morality. Despite the opinions of those who are ready to say that morality is not the Gospel, I say that there is no Gospel without morality, and that the morality of Christ, that is, a morality whose inspiration is the Spirit of Christ, is a very large part of the Gospel indeed. What of our Lord's own teachings? Are they chiefly moral teachings or theological? It is needless to answer the question. What do we mean when we talk of being saved from sin? Just what the words say; that sin shall be taken away; that is, that men shall obey God's law instead of the devil's; that is, that they shall live pure, virtuous, and moral lives.

II. And do not morals occupy a very foremost place in the welfare of mankind? What is it makes the world often so miserable? It is sin, that is immorality; and if we can do away with the sin and immorality, and bring in virtue and morality, then we shall do much to diminish the miseries of our fellow-men. And if it is important that morals should be taught for the welfare and happiness of mankind, who are to teach morals, if not the ministers of religion? If there were other teachers to do the work, we might well stand excused. But if we do not teach morals, they will not be taught at all; there are no authorised teachers except the ministers of religion; and it is for us to educate the public conscience, until men feel each moral distinction as a solemn fact, until the force of public opinion fall heavily upon him who violates the moral law, until a fairer morality takes its place among us.

III. But if this be one part of our work, and a very great part, why have we succeeded so ill? why is the general morality so low? It is because the people have said, "Speak unto us smooth things," and we have yielded to their words. If you tell men the faults which are diseases in their characters, slowly but surely bringing them down to the grave, they cannot bear it, but keep the disease and dismiss the physician. Whether it hurts or not, the truth must be said, if men are to be saved from the error of their ways.

W. Page-Roberts, Reasonable Service, p. 28.

References: Isaiah 30:7 . Outline Sermons to Children, p. 89. Isaiah 30:11 . Preacher's Lantern, vol. ii., p. 229. Isaiah 30:14 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. i., p. 357.

Verse 10

Isaiah 30:10

What was the utility of the Hebrew prophet, and what were the errors to which he was more particularly exposed?

I. It was the duty and the privilege of Israel to keep alive monotheism in the world. It was no less the duty of the prophetic school to preserve in the chosen nation itself the spirituality of religion. Both agents were in the same relative position a hopeless minority. And both had but an imperfect success. Yet the nation and the institution served each an important purpose. Monotheism languished, but did not die. And though the prophets were not very successful in imbuing the nation generally with their own spirituality, yet they kept the flame alive. They served to show to the people the true ideal of spiritual, not ritualistic, Judaism, and thus supplied a corrective to priest-taught Judaism.

II. What was the great source of error in the prophet's utterances? What was the great pressure that pushed, or tended to push, him aside from the path of duty? The text has told us: "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things." The desire of man king or peasant to hear from the prophet, or the courtier, or the demagogue, not truth, but flattery, it was that fatal longing which led them to put a pressure on the prophet which often crushed the truth within him.

III. Prophets exist no longer. But flattery exists still, and the appetite for it can be as strong in a people as ever it was in a king. If nations have not prophets to flatter them, they have those whom they trust as much. Far from attempting to correct their faults, the guides whom they trust are constantly labouring to impress on them that they are the most meritorious and the most ill-used nation in the world. Eyes blinded to present faults; eyes sharpened to past wrongs, there is no treatment which will more completely and more rapidly demoralise the nation which is subjected to it. There will be no improvement where there is no consciousness of fault; and no forgiveness where the mind is invited, almost compelled, to a constant brooding over wrong. With the growth of such feelings no nation can thrive; and he who encourages them is not the saviour but the destroyer of his country.

J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, and Other Sermons, p. 114.

Verse 15

Isaiah 30:15

(Philippians 4:7 )

The protecting power of peace.

I. "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Quietness is the opposite of excitement; confidence is the opposite of mistrust. The two pairs of qualities have their place in human things; they have their place also in the things of God. In both realms the maxim is true, that strength is in the one pair of qualities and weakness is in the other. (1) Quietness is strength. It is the quiet nature that works. It is the quiet spirit that influences. It is the quiet life that impresses and that assimilates excitement, talks and bustles and pushes. But excitement, if it in any sense stir's the world, cannot move and cannot guide it. There is only one kind of excitement which has permanence. Its proper name is not excitement, but enthusiasm; and enthusiasm, being interpreted, is the having God in us; and where God is, there is quietness and there is strength. (2) Confidence is strength. This confidence must be, first, a confidence rightly directed; and, secondly, a confidence stoutly held. The confidence which Isaiah wrote of was, of course, set upon God. And being thus rightly directed, it was a confidence which knew no wavering as to its right to trust, and as to its acceptance with its object.

II. In the New Testament "quietness and confidence" become the peace of God. If you would be happy, if you would be holy, if you would lead a good life, if you would be an influence for good in your generation, you must "seek peace and ensue it." The peace of God Himself must be your prayer, your effort, your ambition. We know where it is to be found in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; in Jesus Christ, and Him glorified.

C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 496.

I. There are two kinds of character the fervent and the contemplative; the enthusiastic and the peaceful and each of them is admirable and each necessary for the progress and well-being of the world. But each of these is liable to a certain degeneracy which is very common; so that instead of fervour we find restlessness; instead of quietude, lethargy.

II. The fussy, flurried, restless character has no perspective about it, no silence, no sobriety, no self-control; it values no blessing which it has, because it is always yearning for some blessing which it has not; it enjoys no source of happiness in the present, because it is always fretting for some source of happiness in the future. It is the restlessness and discontent bred by a soul which has no sweet retirements of its own, and no rest in God, no anchor sure and steadfast on the rushing waves of life.

III. Now to both these common characters this text offers an antidote: to the self-satisfied, a confidence which is not conceit, a quietude which is that of a glassy sea, not that of a stagnant and corrupting pool; to the restless and anxious, a quietude and confidence which are nothing else than a calm faith and a happy trust in God.

F. W. Farrar, In the Days of Thy Youth, p. 72.

References: Isaiah 30:15 . Preacher's Monthly, vol. vi., p. 344.Isaiah 30:18 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 281; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1766; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 344; J. R. Wood, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 145; A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 126. Isaiah 30:19 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1419; D. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 113.Isaiah 30:20 . M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 245; C. Morris, Preacher's Lantern, vol. iii., p. 229. Isaiah 30:21 . J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 382; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1672; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 1; Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., p. 376. Isaiah 30:29 . J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories, p. 138. Isaiah 30:32 . J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Prophets, vol. i., p. 93.Isaiah 31:6 . J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 225.