Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 6:13

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 6:13. A tenth — This passage, though somewhat obscure, and variously explained by various interpreters, has, I think, been made so clear by the accomplishment of the prophecy, that there remains little room to doubt of the sense of it. When Nebuchadnezzar had carried away the greater and better part of the people into captivity, there was yet a tenth remaining in the land, the poorer sort left to be vine-dressers and husbandmen, under Gedaliah, 2 Kings 25:12; 2 Kings 25:22, and the dispersed Jews gathered themselves together, and returned to him, Jeremiah 40:12; yet even these, fleeing into Egypt after the death of Gedaliah, contrary to the warning of God given by the prophet Jeremiah, miserably perished there. Again, in the subsequent and more remarkable completion of the prophecy in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dissolution of the commonwealth by the Romans, when the Jews, after the loss of above a million of men, had increased from the scanty residue that was left of them, and had become very numerous again in their country; Hadrian, provoked by their rebellious behaviour, slew above half a million more of them, and a second time almost extirpated the nation. Yet after these signal and almost universal destructions of that nation, and after so many other repeated exterminations and massacres of them in different times and on various occasions since, we yet see, with astonishment, that the stock still remains, from which God, according to his promise frequently given by his prophets, will cause his people to shoot forth again, and to flourish. - L.

A tenth, עשיריה asiriyah. The meaning, says Kimchi, of this word is, there shall yet be in the land ten kings from the time of declaring this prophecy. The names of the ten kings are Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah; then there shall be a general consumption, the people shall be carried into captivity, and Jerusalem shall be destroyed.

For בם bam, in them, above seventy MSS., eleven of Kennicott's, and thirty-four of De Rossi's, read בה bah, in it; and so the Septuagint.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

God’s call of Isaiah (6:1-13)

Isaiah has gone to some length to describe Judah’s spiritual and moral corruption before he mentions God’s call to him to be a prophet. His reason for doing this seems to be that he wants his readers to see why God called him. Their understanding of conditions in Judah will help them understand the sort of task that lay before him.
King Uzziah’s death marked the end of an era of prosperity unequalled in Judah’s history. Yet this era brought with it the corruption that Isaiah has just described, and left the people with no respect for God and no knowledge of what his holiness demanded of them. Isaiah sees that God is glorious and majestic, the supreme ruler over Judah and all other nations. Even God’s sinless heavenly servants dare not look on his glory, but busy themselves serving and praising him (6:1-4).
The vision of God’s holiness makes Isaiah realize that not only are the people among whom he lives sinful, but so too is he. Therefore, before he can be God’s messenger to others, his own sin must be cleansed. God graciously does this for him by removing his sin and transferring to him the benefits of God’s holiness, symbolized in the coals from the altar (5-7).
When God asks who will take his message to such a corrupt people, Isaiah volunteers; but God quickly tells him that his task is going to be difficult. The more he preaches, the more his hearers will reject his message. As a result they will sink deeper into sin, and so make it increasingly difficult for them ever to turn to God and be forgiven (8-10).
Isaiah asks God how long such hardness will last, and receives the reply that there is no hope for any rapid improvement. On the contrary the condition of the nation will worsen, till eventually judgment must fall. Judah’s cities will be destroyed and its people taken into captivity (11-12). But God will preserve the few who remain faithful to him, and from these will grow up a new people for God. To illustrate this destruction, apparent death and new life, God gives Isaiah the picture of a huge tree that is chopped down, so that only the stump remains; but from this stump springs new life (13).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up; as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof."

"Go and tell this people" This must be contrasted with "Go and tell my people." Israel is no longer God's people, but "this people". Furthermore, this designation was not confined to Israel, the northern kingdom; but "Even Judah, under certain circumstances, is addressed contemptuously as `this people' in Isaiah 8:11; Isaiah 28:11; Isaiah 28:14, and Isa. 39:13,14."T. K. Cheyne, Prophecies of Isaiah, Vol. 1 (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1886), p. 40.

What is prophesied in this passage is the judicial hardening of Israel in their rebellion against God. The prophecy is stated in different forms. Here it appears imperatively; but in other places the prophecy is referred to as self-accomplished as in Acts 28:27, or as having occurred passively as in Matthew 13:13-15. Here, as Dummelow pointed out, "The result of Isaiah's preaching is spoken of as if it were the purpose of it."J. R. Dummelow, J. R. Dummelow's Commentary , p. 417.

The Hardening of Israel, here prophesied by Isaiah, is a Biblical phenomenon of the utmost importance; and it is extensively illustrated by examples of it given in the holy Bible. For a somewhat extended comment on this subject, see our Volume 6 of the New Testament Series of Commentaries, pp. 376-379. Christ himself declared in both Matthew 13:14, and in Mark 4:12 that this prophecy of Israel's hardening was actually fulfilled in that rebellious people.

The classical example from the Bible is that of Pharaoh, of whom it is stated ten times that "Pharaoh hardened his heart" after which it is said that, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart." God never hardened anyone's heart who had not already hardened his own heart many times. Thus it was said of this prophecy that Israel had themselves shut their ears, closed their eyes, and hardened their hearts.

Thus we may say that God hardened Israel, that Israel hardened themselves, and further, that Satan hardened their hearts. "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving" (2 Corinthians 4:4). The "blinding" of this passage and the "strong delusion" of 2 Thessalonians 2:11 KJV, and the "working of error" (2 Thessalonians 2:11, ASV) are all designations of exactly the same condition described here as "hardening."

The consequences of judicial hardening are very extensive. The physical destruction of hardened individuals or nations was the result usually to be expected; and when Christ himself publicly announced the hardening of Israel as a fulfillment of this very passage, the followers of Christ accepted it as a judgment of doom and destruction upon the physical Israel. This Gentile hatred of the Jews (because most of Christ's followers in that first century were Gentiles) resulted at once in an attitude of hatred toward the Jews just like that which the Jews of earlier times had developed toward the Gentiles; but the apostle Paul launched a blockbuster of a prophecy to counteract Gentile conceit which is recorded in Romans 11:25-26, indicating that the hardening of Israel would not result in their physical destruction but that the race would continue until "the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." Paul called this a "mystery"; and indeed it is, because the hardening of Israel did not issue in the total death of the people, as previously had been the case with hardened peoples, as with Pharaoh and the Egyptians, Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, and many others.

"How long…?" It was fulfilled primarily in the events of the conquest of Israel by Babylon, the destruction and captivity of many of the people; but the ultimate fulfillment came when the Romans under Vespasian and Titus destroyed Jerusalem, put to death 1,100,000, crucified 30,000 young men upon the broken walls of Jerusalem, deported thousands to Egypt, and destroyed the government of Israel for almost two millenniums.

Paul's declaration that "all Israel shall be saved" is frequently misunderstood to be a declaration that all of the old racial Israel shall be saved; but the Israel Paul was speaking of in that passage is the spiritual Israel, from which the racial Israel is indeed not excluded, but which is not connected in any manner whatever with racial considerations. Jamieson commented as follows on this:

"According to Isaiah, not "all Israel" but the elect remnant alone, is destined to salvation. God shows unchangeable severity toward sin, but covenant faithfulness in preserving a remnant, and to that remnant Isaiah bequeaths the prophetic legacy of the second part of his book, Isaiah 40-66."Robert Jamieson, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary, p. 436.

"And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall be eaten up…!" This statement is variously understood; but we find Lowth's comment on this fully in line with all that is known about it.

"This prophecy has been made so clear by its accomplishment (fulfillment) that there remains little room for doubt of the fulfillment of it. Nebuchadnezzar took into captivity the great part of the people; the "tenth" remaining in the land, of the poorer people, followed Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:12; 2 Kings 25:22). Even these, fleeing into Egypt contrary to Jeremiah's warning, perished there" In the subsequent and more remarkable fulfillment in the Roman destruction (A.D. 70); after the great majority perished, the "tenth" remainder increased rapidly and became very numerous in the days of Hadrian, who, being provoked by their rebellions, slew half a million more, thus a second time almost exterminating the nation. Yet after such signal and near-universal exterminations, the stock of the old Israel still remains."Robert Lowth, op. cit., p. 185.

Furthermore, these repeated massacres and exterminations of Israel have continued throughout history and even down into current times when they were again repeated under Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany. In the light of all this, the meaning of Isaiah 6:12 is clear enough.

Some have pointed out that the Septuagint (LXX) reads somewhat differently from the American Standard Version in these final verses of Isaiah 6, but as Kidner noted, "The Dead Sea Scroll Isaiah supports our text."<12b>

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

But yet ... - The main idea in this verse is plain, though there is much difficulty in the explanation of the particular phrases. The leading thought is, that the land should not be “utterly” and finally abandoned. There would be the remains of life - as in an oak or terebinth tree when the tree has fallen; compare the notes at Isaiah 11:1.

A tenth - That is, a tenth of the inhabitants, or a very small part. Amidst the general desolation, a small part should be preserved. This was accomplished in the time of the captivity of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar. We are not to suppose that “literally” a tenth part of the nation would remain; but a part that should bear somewhat the same proportion to the entire nation, in strength and resources, that a tenth does to the whole. Accordingly, in the captivity by the Babylonians we are told 2 Kings 25:12, that ‘the captain of the guard left the poor of the land to be vinedressers and farmers;’ compare 2 Kings 24:14, where it is said, that ‘Nebuchadnezzar carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths, none remained save the poorer sort of the people of the land.’ Over this remnant, Nebuchadnezzar made Gedaliah king; 2 Kings 25:22.

And it shall return - This expression can be explained by the history. The prophet mentions the “return,” but he has omitted the fact that this remnant should go away; and hence, all the difficulty which has been experienced in explaining this. The history informs us, 2 Kings 25:26, that this remnant, this tenth part, ‘arose and came to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldees.’ A part also of the nation was scattered in Moab and Edom, and among the Ammonites; Jeremiah 40:2. By connecting this idea with the prophecy, there is no difficulty in explaining it. It was of the return from Egypt that the prophet here speaks; compare Jeremiah 42:4-7. After this flight to Egypt they returned again to Judea, together with those who were scattered in Moab, and the neighboring regions; Jeremiah 40:11-12. This renmant thus collected was what the prophet referred to as “returning” after it had been scattered in Egypt, and Moab, and Edom, and among the Ammonites.

And shall be eaten - This is an unhappy translation. It has arisen from the difficulty of making sense of the passage, by not taking into consideration the circumstances just adverted to. The word translated ‘eaten’ means to feed, to graze, to consume by grazing to consume by fire, to consume or destroy in any way, to remove. “Gesenius” on the word בער bâ‛ar. Here it means that this remnant shall be for “destruction;” that judgments and punishments shall follow them after their return front Egypt and Moab. Even this remnant shall be the object of divine displeasure, and shall feel the weight of his indignation; see Jeremiah 43:1-13; Jeremiah 44:0.

As a teil-tree - The word “teil” means the “linden,” though there is no evidence that the linden is denoted here. The word used here - אלה 'êlâh - is translated “elm” in Hosea 4:13, but generally “oak:” Genesis 35:4; Judges 6:11, Jdg 6:19; 2 Samuel 18:9, 2 Samuel 18:14. It is here distinguished from the אלון 'allôn “oak.” It probably denotes the “terebinth,” or turpentine tree, for a description of which, see the notes at Isaiah 1:29.

Whose substance - Margin, ‘Stock’ or ‘Stem.’ The margin is the more correct translation. The word usually denotes the upright shaft, stem, or stock of a tree. It means here, whose “vitality” shall remain; that is, they do not entirely die.

When they cast their leaves - The words ‘their leaves’ are not in the original, and should not be in the translation. The Hebrew means, ‘in their falling’ - or when they fall. As the evergreen did “not” cast its leaves, the reference is to the falling of the “body” of the tree. The idea is, that when the tree should fall and decay, still the life of the tree would remain. In the root there would be life. It would send up new “shoots,” and thus a new tree would be produced; see the notes at Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 11:1. This was particularly the case with the terebinth, as it is with the fir, the chestnut, the oak, the willow, etc.; see Job 14:7. The idea is, that it would be so with the Jews. Though desolate, and though one judgment would follow another, and though even the renmant would be punished, yet the race would not be extinguished. It would spring up again, and survive. This was the case in the captivity of Babylon; and again the case in the destruction of Jerusalem; and in all their persecutions and trials since, the same has always occurred. They survive; and though scattered in all nations, they still live as demonstrative of the truth of the divine predictions; Deuteronomy 28:0.

The holy seed - The few remaining Jews. They shall not be utterly destroyed, but shall be like the life remaining in the root of the tree. No prophecy, perhaps, has been more remarkably fulfilled than that in this verse. Though the cities be waste and the land be desolate, it is not from the poverty of the soil that the fields are abandoned by the plow, nor from any diminution of its ancient and natural fertility, that the land has rested for so many generations. Judea was not forced only by artificial means, or from local and temporary causes, into a luxuriant cultivation, such as a barren country might have been, concerning which it would not have needed a prophet to tell that, if once devastated and abandoned it would ultimately revert to its original sterility. Phenicia at all times held a far different rank among the richest countries of the world; and it was not a bleak and sterile portion of the earth, nor a land which even many ages of desolation and neglect could impoverish, that God gave in possession and by covenant to the seed of Abraham. No longer cultivated as a garden, but left like a wilderness, Judea is indeed greatly changed from what it was; all that human ingenuity and labor did devise, erect, or cultivate, people have laid waste and desolate; all the “plenteous goods” with which it was enriched, adorned, and blessed, have fallen like seared and withered leaves when their greenness is gone; and stripped of its “ancient splendor,” it is left “as an oak whose leaf fadeth,” but its inherent sources of fertility are not dried up; the natural richness of the soil is unblighted; “the substance is in it,” strong as that of the tell tree or the solid oak, which retain their substance when they east their leaves.

And as the leafless oak waits throughout winter for the genial warmth of returning spring, to be clothed with renewed foilage, so the once glorious land of Judea is yet full of latent vigor, or of vegetative power, strong as ever, ready to shoot forth, even “better than at the beginning,” whenever the sun of heaven shall shine on it again, and “the holy seed” be prepared for being finally” the substance thereof.” “The substance that is in it” - which alone has here to be proved - is, in few words, thus described by an enemy: “The land in the plains is fat and loamy, and exhibits every sign of the greatest fecundity. Were nature assisted by art, the fruits of the most distant countries might be produced within the distance of twenty leagues.” “Galilee,” says Malte Brun, “would be a paradise, were it inhabited by an industrious people, under an enlightened government.”’

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

13.Till there shall be in it a tenth ⁽⁹⁹⁾ There is some obscurity in the words; but let us first ascertain the meaning, and then we shall easily find out what is the signification of the words. There are two ways of explaining this passage. Some explain עשיריה (asiriyah) to mean decimation; others make it to mean a tenth part, and consider it to be a collective noun. Undoubtedly, the Hebrew word עשירית, (asirith,) and not עשיריה, (asiriyah,) denotes a tenth part, though the difference between them is not great. Those who render it decimation think that a truce is promised to the people, because from the reign of Uzziah to the destruction of Jerusalem there would be ten kings; and undoubtedly that is the number of kings, reckoning from Uzziah to Zedekiah. His prophetical doctrine would derive no small support from the circumstance, that he could tell the number of kings who should reign even after his death, and that he described not only the fact itself, but likewise the time, and the day.

Yet I know not if another meaning be not somewhat more appropriate; for the Prophet appears to hold out to the people this consolation, that they will retain some hidden vigor, and will be capable of sprouting out, though they may appear for a time to be entirely dead; just as, when the winter is past, the trees renew their foliage. But as the former exposition carries sufficient probability, I shall therefore explain the whole verse according to the opinion of those who think that mention is here made of ten kings, so as to mean that, when the ten kings shall have completed their reign, the people will be carried into captivity, and then, as by a conflagration, the whole land will be consumed.

At the same time, the reader ought to be aware that whether עשיריה (asiriyah) be rendered a tenth part, or decimation, it may with the utmost propriety be viewed as referring to the people; and then the meaning will be, Till the people be diminished to a tenth part. He had formerly spoken of a remnant, and a very small remnant, (Isaiah 1:9,) and afterwards he will speak of it again, (Isaiah 10:22;) for it was a very small number that remained. It might therefore be naturally viewed as meaning, that out of a thousand there would be left a hundred; out of a hundred, ten; and out of ten, one.

And shall return. That is, a change will take place for the better: the Jews will return from captivity to their native country, and the land will assume a new aspect. But this may be thought to be somewhat at variance with what follows; for the Prophet immediately adds, It shall be destruction. How cold comfort will it yield to the people to be restored, if shortly afterwards they shall be again destroyed! Some commentators solve this difficulty, by supposing that Isaiah spoke about the final destruction of the people. But in my opinion he rather means that the destruction will not be complete, but such as happens to trees, when their leaves fall off in the winter, and nothing appears but dead timber; but when spring returns, they bud forth anew: and so also will this people.

לבער (lebaer) means to burn, ⁽¹⁰⁰⁾ and therefore it means here that they will be consumed by a conflagration: but we ought to read it in connection with the metaphor which immediately follows; for Isaiah does not barely mean that it will be consumed, but that it will be consumed like the teil-tree, that is, with the hope of immediate recovery. When Jerome rendered it for exhibition, I know not on what he supposed that opinion to be founded, if it were not that he made a free translation, looking rather to the meaning than to the etymology of the word; for when trees blossom or put forth leaves, their life is again brought forth and displayed; and this meaning will be very appropriate.

As a teil-tree and an oak. It appears that Isaiah did not select at random those two kinds of trees; for one of them puts forth its leaves, and likewise sheds them, sooner than the other. So it happened to the tribe of Judah; for first the ten tribes, with the half tribe of Benjamin, were carried into captivity; and thus they who were the first to blossom were likewise the first to decay. This tribe was the latest of all in decaying, not without high expectation of blossoming again; for here the hope of deliverance is held out, and this was different from the captivity of the Israelites. There appears, therefore, to be some appropriateness in this metaphor of the trees; but I would not choose to press it very far.

When they cast their leaves. By the phrase, casting of leaves, must be understood that throwing of them down which takes place when trees are stripped of their leaves as of their garment; for trees, in that state of nakedness, appear to be dry and withered; though there remains in them a hidden vigor, through which they are at length quickened by the returning mildness of the season.

So in it shall be substance. This is the application of the metaphor, which is exceedingly forcible; for when we see the spiritual grace of God in the very order of nature, we are strongly confirmed. As Paul holds out a likeness of the resurrection in the sowing of corn, which is a daily occurrence, (1 Corinthians 15:36,) so in like manner Isaiah in this passage describes the restoration of the Church, by taking a metaphor from trees, which wither at the end of autumn, but again blossom at the return of spring, and put forth new leaves; which could not happen, did they not retain some vigor during the winter, though to outward appearance they are dead. He foretells that a similar event will happen to this people; so that, although during their hard and oppressive captivity they resemble dry timber, and it may be thought that they can never be delivered, still there will always be preserved in them some vigor, by which they shall be supported amidst those calamities, and shall at length come forth and blossom.

This doctrine, we have said, is not peculiar to a single age, and therefore it ought to be carefully observed; for it frequently happens that the Church, amidst the numerous afflictions which she endures, appears to have no strength, and is supposed to be utterly ruined. Whenever this takes place, let us fully believe that, notwithstanding these appearances, there is still some concealed energy, which, though it be not immediately manifest to our eyes, will at length yield its fruit. That energy lies hidden in the word of the Lord, by which alone the Church is sustained.

The holy seed. He shows what is that substance, that it consists of a small number of the godly, whom he calls the holy seed; for he means the elect, who would be preserved by the free mercy of God, and thus would survive that captivity. That banishment might be regarded as a cleansing of the Church, by which the Lord took away the ungodly; and when they had been cut off, he collected a people, small in number, but truly consecrated to himself. Some commentators consider this phrase to refer to Christ; but the interpretation appears to be too far-fetched, and it will be more consistent to extend it to all the godly; for the holy seed is the substance of the Church.

(99) But yet in it shall be a tenth. — Eng. Ver.

(100) Bishop Lowth’s rendering is, And though there be a tenth part remaining in it, even this shall undergo repeated destruction; which accords with Calvin’s view, that the substance of the tree will be left. Bishop Stock renders it for pasture: But yet in it shall be left a tenth, and it shall recover, and serve for pasture. He reasons thus: “The verb בער may either signify to eat grass, or to eat it down. The question is, in which sense it is to be understood here? whether the land is again to yield food to its inhabitants, or to be laid bare and waste? That the former is the true meaning I think very evident, as well from the tendency of the ensuing simile of the oak, which is of the consolatory kind, as because it is the almost constant practice of Isaiah to subjoin to denunciations of divine vengeance a prediction of final reconcilement and happiness.” Jarchi, as interpreted by Breithaupt, renders the word, et erunt in combustionem (sive depastionem,) and they shall be for destruction, (or for pasture;) leaving it doubtful which of the above renderings ought to be preferred. — Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

By Chuck Smith

Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 6, as Isaiah records for us his commissioning by God for his ministry. Now you remember in chapter 1 that Isaiah tells us that his time of prophecy extended through the kingdom or through the kings of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. As we pointed out, it is thought that he was put to death by the evil son of Hezekiah, Manasseh. But his call to his ministry as a prophet is given to us in chapter 6, and it so happened that it came,

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple ( Isaiah 6:1 ).

Uzziah was a very popular king. He had reigned over Israel for fifty-two years. He began his reign when he was just sixteen years old. Under his reign the nation, and actually I say Israel, but it was the Southern Kingdom of Judah over which he was reigning. And during this period, Judah had great military advancement and great prosperity. They developed a great water system, enlarged their agricultural area. They enlarged their territory by moving into the territory of the Philistines-something that they weren't able to do prior to this under the other kings. He tore down the walls of Gath and of Ashdod, the great Philistine stronghold. He planted settlements in the Philistine territory. He had a very strong and powerful standing army of 310,000 men. They set their scientists at work building new types of war weapons for those days, great slings to throw huge stones and to shoot arrows and so forth. And he overall strengthened the nation mightily, so that the people felt very secure and very comfortable during the reign of Uzziah. He was a popular man.

The name of Uzziah spread abroad throughout all the land, even to the going down to Egypt. Everybody heard of him. And not only that, everybody was talking about him. And the name Uzziah was on the lips of all the people. And very importantly we read, "And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper" ( 2 Chronicles 26:5 ). He was a prosperous king. He was a popular king, the kind of a man that you have great confidence in because of his accomplishments. And so the people had great confidence in Uzziah. They had come to trust in him and rely upon him, perhaps too much so, as is often the case with a good, popular leader.

People begin to rely upon them too much and you get your eyes on to man and off of the Lord. And you begin to put your trust in man rather than in the Lord. And so many times it is necessary when that becomes the case, that in order that we might get our eyes back on the Lord, God has to remove the man. And oftentimes God does take that man that you've been relying on and trusting in and removes him out of the scene, in order that you might get your eyes upon God. Such was the case with Uzziah. And so it's very significant that Isaiah would say, "In the year the king Uzziah died I saw the Lord." Prior to that his eyes were on Uzziah. Prior to that his trust was in Uzziah. He was a good, popular king. Things are going well. Things are prosperous. Yet you don't, it seems, unfortunately, think about the Lord so much in prosperity. It's when all of a sudden calamity strikes.

The throne is empty. What are we going to do? Uzziah's son is not the same as his dad. He's surely not capable as was his father. The Northern Kingdom is going down the tubes. Anarchy is reigning, actually. One king after another is being assassinated. There is confusion. And they are in danger of being wiped out. What are we going to go? Uzziah's dead. The throne is empty.

But Isaiah received a vision. A vision of the Lord in which he realized that the throne is not empty. "In the year king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple." So God having removed his idol, Isaiah got his eyes now upon the Lord, and he sees that the throne is not vacated. That God is upon the throne.

Oh, how important it is for us to realize that God is on the throne. That God is ruling over the affairs of our lives and God is ruling over the affairs of the world. We are prone to tremble when we see the world conditions. As you just look at the things that are happening in the world today, it's enough to scare any sane man and give him a heart attack. But if you look beyond and realize hey, God is ruling, God is in control, then I can rest. I can sleep at night, only because I know that God is in control. I know that God is sitting upon the throne. So important that we realize that God is upon the throne. In our lives God rules, God reigns. That's the important thing. So because God does reign, whatever does come upon my path is there because God has allowed it to come upon my path. The Lord reigns. And it is so important that we have this as a mental concept constantly. God reigns.

Now he describes the throne of God. He sees the seraphim that are above the throne of God. And he describes the seraphim. Now we are told that there are also cherubim around the throne of God, and these are angelic beings. And evidently there is a great similarity between the cherubim and the seraphim. Now in Ezekiel, he also, and we'll be getting to that soon, he also had a vision of the throne of God in chapter 1 and chapter 10. And he described the cherubim, other angelic beings that are around the throne of God.

In John, chapter 4, he had a vision of the throne of God. And he saw the glassy sea in front of the throne. He saw the emerald around the throne of God, and then he also saw these living creatures. Whether the seraphim or the cherubim that John describes, we do not know. But basically their ministry is that of just worshipping and leading the worship of God around His throne, as the cherubim or the creatures in Revelation cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, which is, which was, which is to come" ( Revelation 4:8 ), so here the seraphim. They are described as having six wings. With two of them they cover their face, with two of them they cover their feet and they use two of them to fly. Interesting looking creatures to be sure. They are not, though, to be mistaken as birds or some kind of an animal, because they are highly intelligent creatures.

And one cries to another, and says, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory ( Isaiah 6:3 ).

Declaring the glory of God and the holiness of God.

And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke ( Isaiah 6:4 ).

And so he describes the heavenly scene, even as John described the heavenly scene in Revelation, chapter 4 and 5, and even as Ezekiel describes in chapter 1 and 10. Now I would recommend these chapters as important reading for any serious child of God. Because he is describing something that you're going to be seeing before very long. Events that you're going to be watching. And if you don't read about them and know what's going on, then you're going to look like some hick when you get to heaven, mouth open, and everybody will know you didn't do your homework. So these are interesting portions to study, so that when you get there and the whole thing is coming down and the cherubim are saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty which is, which was, which is to come," then you can say, "All right, now watch those twenty-four guys. Watch them, they're going to take their crowns and throw them on that glassy sea. Watch this now, you know." And you'll be able to really play it cool because you know the sequence of the worship there about the throne of God. So I highly recommend the reading of these portions where the throne of God is described. Always with each description there is that awesomeness of God, the Creator of the universe, as He sits upon His throne, as He rules and reigns over the universe, and that worship and acknowledgment of Him about the throne. Isaiah had the vision of the throne of God.

Then said I, Woe is me! ( Isaiah 6:5 )

Because now he sees himself in a whole new light. Up till now he had been looking at himself in the dim light of the world in which he lived. And in the dim light of the world around us we don't look too bad. In fact, we look pretty good. But I'll tell you, be careful of looking at yourself in a mirror in the sunshine. Nothing is hid. I mean, looking at yourself in that light is a whole different story. And so looking at ourselves in the light of God is a whole different story. I don't know, I don't know of a single man who has had a true vision of God who didn't more or less with Isaiah say, "Woe is me!"

When Peter realized it was the Lord, he said, "Depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man." When Daniel describes his vision of God and all, he said, "My beauty turned into ugliness." Seeing God, we see ourselves in the true light. And no man can be proud. You see a man who is proud, you see a man who has not yet seen God.

Jesus in the beatitudes, in His great manifesto in Matthew 5:1-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Mat 7:1-29 began the beatitudes. In fact, He began the whole sermon by saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" ( Matthew 5:3 ). Now He begins the sevenfold description of the Christian in these beatitudes, the characteristics that mark the Christian. But the first characteristic is poor in spirit. From whence comes this poverty of spirit? It comes when I see God. That's the beginning of my walk with God. My vision of God begins my walk with Him, and in the vision of God, seeing God, I see myself. And as I see myself I say, "Hey, woe is me. I'm nothing." Poverty of spirit.

"Blessed are they which mourn," the next characteristic, "for they shall be comforted" ( Matthew 5:4 ). My poverty of spirit leads me to weeping over my condition. How could I do those things? How could I have done that? And I see myself now in God's light and oh, what a revelation that is. "Then said I, 'Woe is me!'"

for I am undone ( Isaiah 6:5 );

I'm crooked and I dwell amongst.

and I have unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips ( Isaiah 6:5 ):

So he saw one of the seraphim then that flew, and with his tongs he took a glowing coal from off the altar. Now the study of the tabernacle is extremely interesting, because the tabernacle is a model of heaven and the throne of God. And so if you want to really know what heaven is going to look like, that is the throne of God area of heaven, you can study the tabernacle and there you have a little model. And God said to Moses, "Make sure that you make it according to the specifications." Why? Because it's a model of heavenly things. So even in the earthly tabernacle they had the altar with the coals, so there in heaven is an altar with coals. And one of the seraphim went to the altar with tongs, took these coals and he brought it to Isaiah and he touched his lips with that glowing coal. And he said, "Your iniquity is taken away, or your crookedness is taken away." His cry, "Woe is me for I am crooked." Your crookedness is taken away. And your sin is cleansed. I'm a man of unclean lips. "Your sin is purged," he said, "or cleansed." So the cleansing by the work of God.

Notice it wasn't Isaiah's work. It was God's work. Isaiah's was the recognition of his condition. God's work was that of the cleansing then once he recognized his condition. All God wants you to do is acknowledge your condition. He doesn't ask you even to reform. That comes. But He asks you to just acknowledge, to confess. "If thou shall confess thy sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness" ( 1 John 1:9 ). But you got to confess your sin. "Woe is me! I'm undone. I'm dwelling amongst the people of unclean lips. I have unclean lips." Your crookedness is taken way. Your uncleanness, your sin is cleansed. What a glorious thing, the work of God. And it comes immediately upon my acknowledgment and confession.

David in the thirty-second Psalm begins the psalm, "O how happy is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" ( Psalms 32:1 ). And before I confess my sin, hey, I was just dried up inside. It was like the drought of summer. I was so dry and parched. My bones were aching. For the hand of God was heavy on me. Then I said, "I will confess my sin unto the Lord and Thou forgavest my sin" ( Psalms 32:5 ). Just before he got the words out of his mouth, the minute in his heart he said, "Oh, I'm so horrible, I'm just going to confess. I'm going to just turn it over to God," in that moment the cleansing and the forgiveness came. And that's just how anxious God is to cleanse and forgive you. The moment in your heart you say, "God, I have sinned. I'm sorry. Woe is me; I'm crooked. My lips are unclean." Just that quick the seraphim came and said, "Hey, your crookedness is taken away. Your sin is cleansed." Oh, the beautiful work of God's grace and the forgiveness in His love for us. All He asks is you just confess. He is willing and wanting to wash and cleanse you from all your sins.

But that isn't the end of it. God does want to work in your life. God will work in your life if you give Him the opportunity. But God never stops there. God wants to work through your life. There is a needy world out there. It's in darkness. You are dwelling in the midst of people of unclean lips. And they need to know that God will wash and cleanse them also. So the work of God in your life always ends up objectively. First of all subjective, what God can do for you. But then what God can do through you to touch others. And that's what it's all about.

So I saw God. When I saw God, I said, "Woe is me!" When he heard them declare, "Holy, holy, holy," declaring the holiness of God, then you see yourself and, "Woe is me, I'm crooked."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall we send, who will go for us? Then said I ( Isaiah 6:8 ),

Now he's speaking again. But now this is a different, this is a man who is now being cleansed. This is a man whose life has been touched by the fire of God. And He said, "'Who shall we send?' 'Then said I,'"

Here am I [Lord]; send me ( Isaiah 6:8 ).

Once God has touched your life, then God wants to use your life to touch others. God has a work that He wants to do. And the problem is always, who will go for us? Whom will we send? Jesus said, "Behold the fields are white unto harvest but the laborers are few" ( Matthew 9:37 ). Who will go for us? Whom shall we send? The man whose life has been touched by God becomes an available instrument for God. "Here am I, Lord. Send me." And his commission:

And so God said to him, Go, and tell this people ( Isaiah 6:9 ),

Now at this time Judah was on the road down. They have forsaken the living God. Idol worship had been introduced. There were times of spiritual reform, but they were usually surface. They never got into the real heart of the nation itself. And yet, God wasn't going to just let them be destroyed without still a witness. But they weren't going to really listen to the witness, but still God was going to be faithful and witness to them anyhow. And that is, to me, an interesting thing about God. Even though a person isn't going to respond, even though a person won't listen, yet God will still give them the chance. God will still speak to them. He doesn't cease talking. And so He said, "Go tell this people."

You may hear indeed, but you don't understand; you may see indeed, [but you're really not seeing,] you don't perceive ( Isaiah 6:9 ).

And so God said,

Make the heart of the people fat ( Isaiah 6:10 ),

That is, give them the word. Give them the message of God. That they'll have no excuse.

their ears heavy ( Isaiah 6:10 ),

Just hang the message on them.

shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and be healed. Isaiah responded to the Lord, How long? And he answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate ( Isaiah 6:10-11 ),

Now God was going to continue to preach to these people and continue to warn these people and continue to give them opportunity until the whole land was desolate, till the last one was left. God will continue His witness. Even as God will continue His witness to the world today and is bearing witness to the world today, but the world today isn't listening. They're making fun of the witness of God. But still we are to witness. God will not leave Himself without a witness. Oh, the political cartoonists on the editorial pages are having a field day with the moral majority, and with creation and evolution.

I saw on Daily Pilot today in the editorial page a cartoon of some big, fat slob saying to his little son who's coming home from school with his books, "God made me in His own image, you know, and after His likeness. I didn't evolve." It's just dispersion that is cast against God, really. And still we're to preach. Still we're to bear witness. Still we're to warn. Though they don't listen, though they don't see, though their hearts are heavy, though their eyes are blinded, still God wants a witness left with them. Until the place is desolate there's nothing left, God will bear witness.

Now the church is the instrument by which God is bearing His witness to the world today. But the church will soon be taken out. The witness of the church is just about over. Once the church is taken out, it doesn't mean God's witness is over. Just the witness of the church is over. God's going to send two witnesses, powerful witnesses with all kinds of power, and He's sending them to Jerusalem. God will also seal 144,000 of the Jews that will be witnesses for Him during these dark, dark, dark hours that are coming upon the earth. And then God is even going to send angels flying through the midst of heaven orbiting the earth bearing witness and preaching the everlasting gospel and warning men not to take the mark of the beast. Even down to the end, even by angelic beings God is going to keep His witness going until the whole place is desolate, left without inhabitants. For God is faithful in bearing His witness to the people.

So how long, Lord? Till the whole thing is over. So the witnesses, God had His witnesses, His prophets, who were warning the people right up until and through the time that Nebuchadnezzar carried off the first captives. Jeremiah was still there bearing witness to the people. Telling them to repent and turn to God and get right with God.

And the LORD has removed people far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet it shall be that a tenth will return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof ( Isaiah 6:12-13 ).

In other words, an oak tree cast its leaves. It looks like it's dead, but yet it comes back. The teil tree looks like it's so dead, but yet it comes back. So it will look like the nation Israel is dead. It will appear that way, but yet God said, "I'll bring them back. A tenth part, only one in ten will return. But I will bring them back." And so God's promise of bringing the people back from the captivity. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

B. The prophet’s commission 6:9-13

The Lord proceeded to give Isaiah specific instructions about what He wanted him to do and what the prophet could expect regarding his ministry (Isaiah 6:9-10), his historic-political situation (Isaiah 6:11-12), and his nation’s survival (Isaiah 6:13).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Yet there was hope. A tenth of the nation would survive. The Lord would take His tithe from among the people. But the land would again face judgment. This tenth probably refers to the remnant left in the land when Nebuchadnezzar took the majority captive to Babylon (2 Kings 24:14). When the nation was thoroughly cut down and burned, there would be a little spiritual life in it that would eventually sprout. This happened when a small number of godly exiles under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, and Ezra returned to the land and reestablished the nation. Antiochus IV of Syria almost consumed even this remnant during the inter-testamental period, when the land was again subject to burning. They were the initial holy seed (cf. Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 43:5; Isaiah 53:10; Isaiah 59:21; Isaiah 65:9; Isaiah 66:22; 1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:5), but Messiah would be the ultimate holy seed (Heb. zera, a collective singular; cf. Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 11:1) who would arise out of the chastened nation.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

But yet in it [shall be] a tenth,.... Which some understand of ten kings that should reign over Judah from this time, the death of Uzziah, unto the captivity, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra observe; and which are, as Kimchi reckons them, as follows, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah; but the prophecy, as we have seen, respects not the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, but their present one; wherefore the words are to be understood of a few persons, a remnant, according to the election of grace, that should be called, and saved amidst all the blindness, darkness, and destruction that should come upon that people; and may be illustrated by the words of the apostle in

Romans 11:5 and these chosen, called, and saved ones, are the "tenth", that is, the Lord's tenth, as the words may be rendered r. To this sense the Targum agrees,

"and there shall be left in it righteous persons, one out of ten;''

though indeed the Christians were not left in Jerusalem when it was destroyed, but were called out of it just before, and were preserved from that ruin.

And [it] shall return, and shall be eaten; or "be for burning". I should choose to render it, "it shall return, and be burnt" s; that is, it shall be burnt again; it was burnt a first time by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and his army, Jeremiah 52:13 and a second time by Titus Vespasian, to which this prophecy refers:

as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance [is] in them, when they cast [their leaves]; the word "Beshallecheth", which we render, "when they cast their leaves", is by some, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi observe, thought to be the name of a gate in Jerusalem, called "Shallecheth", from which a causeway went towards the king's palace, from whence it had its name, 1 Chronicles 26:16 and along which causeway, as is supposed, were planted teil trees and oaks, which are here referred to. But the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret the word as we do, of casting their leaves: and the sense seems to be this; that as the teil tree and oak, when they cast their leaves in autumn, and look as if they were dry, withered, and dead, yet have a substance in them, and in spring appear alive and green, and flourishing again; so the Jews, notwithstanding their miserable destruction by the Romans, when they were stripped of all their riches and glory, yet were not utterly consumed as a people, but remained an entire distinct people, and do so to this day, among the nations of the world; though, like a dry withered trunk of a tree, without verdure or beauty; the reason of this follows:

so, or "because",

the holy seed [shall be] the substance thereof; that is, they shall subsist, or continue a distinct people, though in this miserable condition; because there is a "holy seed", or a certain number, whom God has chosen to be holy, that is to arise from them, and will be called and converted in the latter day; hence they have a substance, a subsistence, and shall remain till that comes, and that chosen remnant is called and saved, Romans 11:25. The Targum is,

"as the elm and oak, when their leaves fall, and are like to dry "trees", and yet are moist to raise up seed from them; so the captivities of Israel shall be gathered, and shall return to their land; for the seed which is holy is their plantation.''

Some, interpreting the passage of the Babylonish captivity, by the "holy seed" understand the Messiah. See Luke 1:35 t.

r עשיריה "decima ejus", i.e. Dei. s ושבה והיתה לבער "et convertatur sitque in incendium", Syr.; "ad conflagrandum", Montanus; "ad urendum", De Dieu. t Ericus Phaletranus de ablat. Sceptr. Jud. in Graev. Syntag. p. 437.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.   10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.   11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,   12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.   13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

      God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange errand--to foretel the ruin of his people and even to ripen them for that ruin--to preach that which, by their abuse of it, would be to them a savour of death unto death. And this was to be a type and figure of the state of the Jewish church in the days of the Messiah, when they should obstinately reject the gospel, and should thereupon be rejected of God. These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times, in the New Testament, which intimates that in gospel time these spiritual judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all judgments the most dreadful. Isaiah is here given to understand these four things:--

      1. That the generality of the people to whom he was sent would turn a deaf ear to his preaching, and wilfully shut their eyes against all the discoveries of the mind and will of God which he had to make to them (Isaiah 6:9; Isaiah 6:9): "Go, and tell this people, this foolish wretched people, tell them their own, tell them how stupid and sottish they are." Isaiah must preach to them, and they will hear him indeed, but that is all; they will not heed him; they will no understand him; they will not take any pains, nor use that application of mind which is necessary to the understanding of him; they are prejudiced against that which is the true intent and meaning of what he says, and therefore they will not understand him, or pretend they do not. They see indeed (for the vision is made plain on tables, so that he who runs may read it); but they perceive not their own concern in it; it is to them as a tale that is told. Note, There are many who hear the sound of God's word, but do not feel the power of it.

      2. That, forasmuch as they would not be made better by his ministry, they should be made worse by it; those that were wilfully blind should be judicially blinded (Isaiah 6:10; Isaiah 6:10): "They will not understand or perceive thee, and therefore thou shalt be instrumental to make their heart fat, senseless, and sensual, and so to make their ears yet more heavy, and to shut their eyes the closer; so that, at length, their recovery and repentance will become utterly impossible; they shall no more see with their eyes the danger they are in, the ruin they are upon the brink of, nor the way of escape from it; they shall no more hear with their ears the warnings and instructions that are given them, nor understand with their heart the things that belong to their peace, so as to be converted from the error of their ways, and thus be healed." Note, (1.) The conversion of sinners is the healing of them. (2.) A right understanding is necessary to conversion. (3.) God sometimes, in a way of righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind and strong delusions, because they would not receive the truth in the love of it,2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. He that is filthy let him be filthy still. (4.) Even the word of God oftentimes proves a means of hardening sinners. The evangelical prophet himself makes the heart of this people fat, not only as he foretels it, passing this sentence upon them in God's name, and seals them under it, but as his preaching had a tendency to it, rocking some asleep in security (to whom it was a lovely song), and making others more outrageous, to whom it was such a reproach that they were not able to bear it. Some looked upon the word as a privilege, and their convictions were smothered by it (Jeremiah 7:4); others looked upon it as a provocation, and their corruptions were exasperated by it.

      3. That the consequence of this would be their utter ruin,Isaiah 6:11; Isaiah 6:12. The prophet had nothing to object against the justice of this sentence, nor does he refuse to go upon such an errand, but asks, "Lord, how long?" (an abrupt question): "Shall it always be thus? Must I and other prophets always labour in vain among them, and will things never be better?" Or, (as should seem by the answer) "Lord, what will it come to at last? What will be in the end hereof?" In answer to this he is told that it should issue in the final destruction of the Jewish church and nation. "When the word of God, especially the word of the gospel, had been thus abused by them, they shall be unchurched, and consequently undone. Their cities shall be uninhabited, and their country houses too; the land shall be untilled, desolate with desolation (as it is in the margin), the people who should replenish the houses and cultivate the ground being all cut off by sword, famine, or pestilence, and those who escape with their lives being removed far away into captivity, so that there shall be a great and general forsaking in the midst of the land; that populous country shall become desert, and that glory of all lands shall be abandoned." Note, Spiritual judgments often bring temporal judgments along with them upon persons and places. This was in part fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, when the land, being left desolate, enjoyed her sabbaths seventy years; but, the foregoing predictions being so expressly applied in the New Testament to the Jews in our Saviour's time, doubtless this points at the final destruction of that people by the Romans, in which it had a complete accomplishment, and the effects of it that people and that land remain under to this day.

      4. That yet a remnant should be reserved to be the monuments of mercy, Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 6:13. There was a remnant reserved in the last destruction of the Jewish nation (Romans 11:5, At this present time there is a remnant); for so it was written here: But in it shall be a tenth, a certain number, but a very small number in comparison with the multitude that shall perish in their unbelief. It is that which, under the law, was God's proportion; they shall be consecrated to God as the tithes were, and shall be for his service and honour. Concerning this tithe, this saved remnant, we are here told, (1.) That they shall return (Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:21), shall return from sin to God and duty, shall return out of captivity to their own land. God will turn them, and they shall be turned. (2.) That they shall be eaten, that is, shall be accepted of God as the tithe was, which was meat in God's house, Malachi 3:10. The saving of this remnant shall be meat to the faith and hope of those that wish well to God's kingdom. (3.) That they shall be like a timber-tree in winter, which has life, though it has no leaves: As a teil-tree and as an oak, whose substance is in them even when they cast their leaves, so this remnant, though they may be stripped of their outward prosperity and share with others in common calamities, shall yet recover themselves, as a tree in the spring, and flourish again; though they fall, they shall not be utterly cast down. There is hope of a tree, though it be cut down, that it will sprout again,Job 14:7. (4.) That this distinguished remnant shall be the stay and support of the public interests. The holy seed in the soul is the substance of the man; a principle of grace reigning in the heart will keep life there; he that is born of God has his seed remaining in him,1 John 3:9. So the holy seed in the land is the substance of the land, keeps it from being quite dissolved, and bears up the pillars of it,Psalms 75:3. See Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 1:9. Some read the foregoing clause with this, thus: As the support at Shallecheth is in the elms and the oaks, so the holy seed is the substance thereof; as the trees that grow on either side of the causeway (the raised way, or terrace-walk, that leads from the king's palace to the temple, 1 Kings 10:5, at the gate of Shallecheth, 1 Chronicles 26:16) support the causeway by keeping up the earth, which would otherwise be crumbling away, so the small residue of religious, serious, praying people, are the support of the state, and help to keep things together and save them from going to decay. Some make the holy seed to be Christ. The Jewish nation was therefore saved from utter ruin because out of it, as concerning the flesh, Christ was to come, Romans 9:5. Destroy it not, for that blessing is in it (Isaiah 65:8; Isaiah 65:8); and when that blessing had come, it was soon destroyed. Now the consideration of this is designed for the support of the prophet in his work. Though far the greater part should perish in their unbelief, yet to some his word should be a savour of life unto life. Ministers do not wholly lose their labour if they be but instrumental to save one poor soul.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

The Leafless Tree

A Sermon

(No. 121)

Delivered on Sabbath Evening, March 8, 1857, by the

REV. C. H. Spurgeon

At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

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"But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and it shall be eaten as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." Isaiah 6:13 .

OUR FIRST business to-night will be briefly to explain the metaphor employed in the text. The prophet was told that despite all the remonstrances he was instructed to deliver, and notwithstanding the eloquent earnestness of his lips, which had been just touched by a live coal from off the altar, still the people of Israel would persevere in their sins, and would therefore be certainly destroyed. He asked the question, "Lord, how long?" that is, How long will the people be thus impenitent? How long will thy sore judgment thus continue? And he was informed that God would waste and destroy the cities and their inhabitants, till the land should be utterly desolate. Then it was added, for his comfort, "Yet in it shall be a tenth." And so it happened; for when "Nebuchadnezzar carried away all Jerusalem," the historian gives this reservation 'none remained save the poorer sort of the people of the land." They were left by the captain of the guard, "to be vine-dressers and husbandmen." Thus in it there was a tenth; this small remnant of the people, however, was to be nearly destroyed too. "It shall return and shall be eaten;" the sense is, eaten up or consumed. The poor creatures left in the land, many of them fled into Egypt at the time of the conspiracy of Ishmael (not Ishmael, the son of Hagar, but an unworthy member of the royal family of Judah), and there in Egypt most of them were cut off and perished. "But," says God, "although this tenth only shall be preserved, and then even this small part shall be subjected to many perils yet Israel shall not be destroyed, for it shall be as a terebinth tree and as an oak;" their "substance is in them, when they cast their leaves," and so lose their verdure and their beauty; thus, in like manner, a holy seed, a chosen remnant, shall still be the substance of the children of Israel, when the fruitful land is stripped of its foliage, and that fair garden of earth is barren as the desert.

The figure is taken, first of all, from the terebinth or turpentine tree here translated the teil tree. That tree is an evergreen, with this exception, that in very severe and inclement weather it loses its leaves; but even then the terebinth tree is not dead. And so of the oak; it loses its leaves every year, of course, but even then it is not dead. "So," says God, "you have seen the tree in winter, standing naked and bare, without any sign of life, its roots buried in the hard and frozen soil, and its naked branches exposed to every blast, without a bloom or a bud; yet the substance is in the tree when the leaves are gone. It is still alive, and it shall, by and by, in due season, bud and bloom; so," says he, "Nebuchadnezzar shall cut off all the leaves of the tree of Israel take away the inhabitants, only a tenth shall be left, and they shall well nigh be eaten up; still the church of God and the Israel of God never shall be destroyed; they shall be like the terebinth tree and the oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."

I hope I have made the meaning of the passage as plain as words can make it. Now, then, for the application first, to the Jews; secondly, to the Church; thirdly, to each believer.

I. First, TO THE JEWS.

What a history is the history of the Jew! He has antiquity stamped upon his forehead. His is a lineage more noble than that of any knights or even kings of this our island, for he can trace his pedigree back to the very loins of Abraham, and through him to that patriarch who entered into the ark, and thence up to Adam himself. Our history is hidden in gloom and darkness; but theirs, with certainty, may be read from the first moment even down till now. And what a checkered history has been the history of the Jewish nation. Nebuchadnezzar seemed to have swept them all away with the huge broom of destruction; the tenth left was again give over to the slaughter; and one would have thought we should have heard no more of Israel; but in a little time they rose phoenix-like, from their ashes. A second temple was builded and the nation became strong once more, and though often swept with desolations in the mean time, yet it did not abide, and the scepter did not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh came. And, since then, how huge have been the waves that have rushed over the Jewish race! The Roman emperor razed the city to the ground, and left not a vestige standing; another emperor changed the name of Jerusalem into that of Eliah, and forbade a Jew to go within some miles of it, so that he might not even look upon his beloved city. It was plowed and left desolate. But is the Jew conquered? Is he a subjugated man? Is his country seized? No; he is still one of earth's nobles distressed, insulted, spit upon; still it is written, "To the Jew first, and afterward to the Gentile." He claims a high dignity above us, and he has a history to come which will be greater and more splendid than the history of any nation that has yet existed. If we read the Scriptures aright, the Jews have a great deal to do with this world's history. They shall be gathered in; Messiah shall come, the Messiah they are looking for the same Messiah who came once shall come again shall come as they expected him to come the first time. They then thought he would come a prince to reign over them, and so he will when he comes again. He will come to be king of the Jews, and to reign over his people most gloriously; for when he comes, Jew and Gentile will have equal privileges, though there shall yet be some distinction afforded to that royal family from whose loins Jesus came; for he shall sit upon the throne of his father David, and unto him shall be gathered all nations. O!

"Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,

A remnant weak and small,"

ye may indeed,

"Hail him who saves you by his grace,

And crown him Lord of all;"

your church shall never die, and your race shall never become extinct. The Lord hath said it. "The race of Abraham shall endure for ever, and his seed as many generations."

But why is it that the Jewish race is preserved? We have our answer in the text: "The holy seed is the substance thereof." There is something within a tree mysterious, hidden, and unknown, which preserves life in it when every thing outward tends to kill it. So in the Jewish race there is a secret element which keeps it alive. We know what it is: it is the "remnant according to the election of grace;" in the worst of ages there has never been a day so black but there was a Hebrew found to hold the lamp of God. There has always been found a Jew who loved Jesus; and though the race now despise the great Redeemer, yet there are not a few of the Hebrew race who still love Jesus, the Saviour of the uncircumcised, and bow before him. It is these few, this holy seed, that are the substance of the nation; and for their sake, through their prayers, because of God's love to them, he still says of Israel to all nations, "Touch not these mine anointed, do my prophets no harm. These are the descendants of Abraham, my friend. I have sworn, and will not repent; I will show kindness unto them for their father's sake, and for the sake of the remnant I have chosen."

Let us think a little more of the Jews than we have been wont; let us pray oftener for them. "Pray for the peace old Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love her." As truly as any great thing is done in this world for Christ's kingdom, the Jews will have more to do with it than any of us have dreamed. So much for the first point. the Jewish nation is like "a terebinth tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."

II. And now, secondly, THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, whereof the Jewish people are but a dim shadow, and an emblem.

The church has had its trials; trials from without and trials within. It has had days of blood-red persecution, and of fiery trial; it has had times of sad apostacy, when an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God has broken out, and a root of bitterness springing up has troubled many, and thereby they have been defiled. Yet, blessed be God, through all the winters of the church she still lived, and she gives signs now of a sweeter spring-tide, a fresher greenness and a healthier condition than she has shown before for many a day. Why is it that the church is still preserved, when she looks so dead? For this reason: that there is in the midst of her though many are hypocrites and impostors a "chosen seed," who are "the substance thereof." You might have looked back a hundred years ago upon the professing church of Christ in this land, and what a sad spectacle it would have exhibited! In the Church of England there was mere formality; in the Independent and Baptist denominations there was truth, but it was dead, cold, lifeless truth. Ministers dreamed on in their pulpits, and hearers snored in their pews; infidelity was triumphant; the house of God was neglected and desecrated. The church was like a tree that had lost its leaves: it was in a wintry state. But did it die? No; there was a holy seed within it. Six young men were expelled from Oxford for praying, reading the Bible, and talking to poor people about Christ; and these six young men, with many others whom the Lord had hidden by fifties in the caves of the earth, secret and unknown these young men, leaders of a glorious revival, came out, and though ridiculed and laughed at as Methodists, they brought forth a great and glorious revival, almost equaling the commencement of the gospel triumphs under Paul and the apostles, and very little inferior to the great Reformation of Luther, of Calvin, and Zwingle. And just now the church is to a great degree in a barren and lifeless state. But will she therefore die? you say that true doctrine is scarce, that zeal is rare, that there is little life and energy in the pulpit and true devotion in the pew, while formality and hypocrisy stalk over us, and we sleep in our cradles. But will the church die? No; she is like a teil tree and an oak; her substance is in her when she has lost her leaves; there is a holy seed in her still that is the substance thereof. Where these are we know not; some, I doubt not, are here in this church some, I hope, are to be found in every church of professing Christians: and woe worth the day to the church that loses her holy seed; for she must die, like the oak blasted by the lightning, whose heart is scorched out of it broken down, because it has no substance in it.

Let me now draw your attention, as a church connected with this place, to this point that the holy seed is the substance of the church. A great many of you might be compared to the bark to the tree; some of you are like the big limbs; others are like pieces of the trunk. Well, we should be very sorry to lose any of you; but we could afford to do so without any serious damage to the life of the tree. Yet there are some here God knoweth who they are who are the substance of the tree. By the word "substance" is meant the life, the inward principle. The inward principle is in the tree, when it has lost its leaves. Now, God discerns some men in this church, I doubt not, who are toward us like the inward principle of the oak; they are the substance of the church. I would feign hope that all the members of the church in some degree contribute to the substance; but I can not think so. I am obliged to say I doubt it; because when one hath fallen and another, it makes us remember that a church hath much in it that is not life. There be some branches on the vine that be cut off, because they do not draw sap from the heart of it, they are only branches bound on by profession, pretended graftings that have never struck root into the parent stock, and that must be cut off, and hewn down, and cast into the fire. But there is a holy seed in the church that is the substance of it.

Please to note here, that the life of a tree is not determined by the shape of the branches, nor by the way it grows, but it is the substance. The shape or a church is not its life. In one place I see a church formed in an Episcopalian shape; in another place I see one formed in a Presbyterian shape; then, again, I see one, like ours, formed on an Independent principle. Here I see one with sixteen ounces to the pound of doctrine; there I see one with eight, and some with very little clear doctrine at all. And yet I find life in all the churches, in some degree some good men in all of them. How do I account for this? Why, just in this way that the oak may be alive, whatever its shape, if it has got the substance. If there be but a holy seed in the church, the church will live; and it is astonishing how the church will live under a thousand errors, if there be but the vital principle in it. You will find good men among the denominations that you can not receive as being sound in faith. You say, "What! can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" and you go through, and find that there are even in them some true Nazarites of the right order. The very best of men found in the worst of churches! A church lives not because of its rubrics, and its canons, and its articles; it lives because of the holy seed that is in it as the substance. No church can die while it has a holy seed in it, and no church can live that has not the holy seed, for "the holy seed is the substance thereof."

Observe, again, that the substance of the oak is a hidden thing; you can not see it. When the oak or the terebinth is standing destitute of leaves, you know that life is there somewhere. But you can not see it. And very likely you can not and do not know the men that are the holy seed, the substance of the church. Perhaps you imagine the substance of the church lies in the pulpit. Nay, friend! Let us pray to God that such of us as are in the pulpit may be a part of that substance; but much of the substance of the church lies where you don't know any thing of it. There is a mine near Plymouth, where the men who work in it, two hundred and fifty feet below the surface, have a little shelf for their Bibles and hymn-books, and a little place where every morning, when they go down in the black darkness, they bow before God, and praise him whose tender mercies are over all his works. You never heard of these miners, perhaps, and do not know of them; but perhaps some of them are the very substance of the church. There sits Mr. Somebody in that pew; O! what a support he is to the church. Yes, in money matters, perhaps; but do you know, there is poor old Mrs. Nobody in the aisle that is most likely a greater pillar to the church than he, for she is a holier Christian, one who lives nearer to her God and serves him better, and she is "the substance thereof." Ah! that old woman in the garret who is often in prayer; that old man on his bed who spends days and nights in supplication; such people as these are the substance of the church. O! you may take away your prelates, your orators, and the best and greatest of those who stand among earth's mighty men, and their place could be supplied; but take away our intercessors; take away the men and women that breathe out prayer by night and day, and like the priests of old offer the morning and evening lamb as a perpetual sacrifice, and you kill the church at once. What are the ministers? They are but the arms of the church, and the lips of it. A man may be both dumb and armless, and yet live. But these, the heavenly seed, the chosen men and women who live near their God, and serve him with sacred fervent piety these are the heart of the church; we can not do without them. If we lose them we must die. "The holy seed is the substance thereof."

Then, my hearers, thou art a church member. Let me ask thee art thou one of the holy seed? Has thou been begotten again to a lively hope? Has God made thee holy by the sanctifying influence of his Spirit, and by the justifying righteousness of Christ, and by the application to thy conscience of the blood of Jesus? If so, then thou art the substance of the church. They may pass by thee and not notice thee, for thou art little; but the substance is little; the life-germ within the grain of barley is too small for us, perhaps, to detect; the life within the egg is almost an animalcula you can scarcely see it; and so the life of the church is among the little ones, where we can scarcely find it out. Rejoice, if you are much in prayer; you are the life of the church. But you, O you proud man, pull down your grand thoughts of yourself; you may give to the church, you may speak for the church, and act for the church, but unless you are a holy seed you are not the substance thereof, and it is the substance which is in reality of the greatest value.

But here let me say one thing before I leave this point. Some of you will say, "How is it that good men are the means of preserving the visible church?" I answer, the holy seed doth this, because it derives its life from Christ. If the holy seed had to preserve the church by its own purity and its own strength, the church would go to ruin to-morrow; but it is because these holy ones draw fresh life from Christ continually that they are able to be, as it were, the salvation of the body, and by their influence, direct and indirect, shed life over the whole visible church. The prayers of those living ones in Zion bring down many a blessing upon us; the groans and cries of these earnest intercessors prevail with heaven, and bring down very argosies of mercy from the gates of paradise. And besides, their holy example tends to check us and preserve us in purity; they walk among us like God's own favored ones, wrapped in white, reflecting his image wherever they go, and tending, under God, to the sanctifying of believers, not through their vaunting any self-righteousness, but by stirring up believers to do more for Christ, and to be more like him. "The holy seed shall be the substance thereof."

III. And now I come to the third point. this is true of EVERY INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER: his substance is in him when he has lost his leaves.

The Arminian says that when a Christian loses his leaves he is dead. "No," say God's Word, "he is not; he may look as if he were dead, and not have so much as here and there a leaf upon the topmost bough; but he is not dead. Their substance is in them even when they lose their leaves."

By losing their leaves allow me to understand two things. Christian men lose their leaves when they lose their comforts, when they lose the sensible enjoyment of their Master's presence, and when their full assurance is turned into doubting. You have had many such a time as that, have you not? Ah! you were one day in such a state of joy, that you said you could

"Sit and sing yourself away

To everlasting bliss."

But a wintry state came, and your joy all departed, and you stood like a bare tree, after the wind had swept it in the time of winter, with just perhaps one sere leaf hanging by a thread on the topmost bough. But you were not dead then; no, your substance was in you, when you had lost your leaves. You could not see that substance, and good reason why, because your life was hid with Christ in God; you saw not your signs, but you had your substance still, though you could not discover it. There were no heavings of faith, but faith was there; there were no lookings out of hope, but though hope's eyelids were shut, the eyes were there, to be opened afterwards; there was no lifting, perhaps, of the hand of ardent prayer, but the hands and arms were there, though they hung powerless by the side. God said, afterwards, "Strengthen the feeble knees, and lift up the hands that hang down." Your substance was in you when you had lost your leaves. Good Baxter says "We do not see graces, except when they are in exercise; and yet they are as much there when they are not in exercise as when they are." Saith he, "Let a man take a walk into a wood; there lieth a hare or a rabbit asleep under the leaves; but he can not see the creature until it is frightened, and it runneth out, and then he seeth it to be there." So if faith be in exercise you will perceive your evidence, but if faith be slumbering and still, you will be led to doubt its existence; and yet it is there all the while.

"Mountains when in darkness hidden,

Are as real as in day,"

said one; and truly the faith of the Christian, when shrouded by doubts and fears, is just as much there as when he rejoiceth devoutly in the display of it.

It is a common error of young converts that they attempt to live by their experience, instead of tracing their life up to its precious source. I have known persons rejoicing in the fullest assurance one day, and sinking into the deepest despondency the next. The Lord will sometimes strip you of the leaves of evidence to teach you to live by faith, as John Kent says

"If to-day he deigns to bless us

With a sense of pardoned sin;

He to-morrow may distress us

Make us feel the plague within;

All to make us

Sick of self and fond of him."

But, ah! there is a worse phase to the subject than this. Some Christians lose their leaves not by doubts, but by sin. This is a tender topic one which needs a tender hand to touch. O! there are some in our churches that have lost their leaves by lust and sin. Fair professors once they were; they stood green among the church, like the very leaves of paradise; but in an evil hour they fell, the slaves of temptation. They were God's own people by many infallible marks and signs; and if they were so, though it is grievous that they should have lost their leaves, yet there is the sweet consolation, their substance is in them still: they are still the Lord's, still his living children, though they have fallen into the coma of sin, and are now in a fainting fit, having gone astray from him, and having their animation suspended, while life is still there. Some, as soon as they see a Christian do any thing inconsistent with his profession, say, "That man is no child of God; he can not be; it is impossible." Ay, but, sir, remember what he thought who once said "If a brother err, ye that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." It is a fact, deny it who will, and abuse it, if you please, to your own wicked purposes; I can not help it it is a fact that some living children of God have been allowed and an awful allowance it is to go into the very blackest sins. Do you think David was not a child of God, even when he sinned? It is a hard subject to touch; but it is not to be denied. He had the life of God within him before; and though he sinned O! horrid and awful was the crime! yet his substance was in him when he lost his leaves. And many a child of God has gone far away from his Master; but his substance is in him. And how know we this? Because a dead tree never lives again; if the substance be really gone, it never lives; and God's holy Word assures us, that if the real life of grace could die out in any one, it could never come again; for saith the apostle, "it is impossible, if they have been once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost" if these fall away "it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance." Their tree is "dead, plucked up by the roots." And the apostle Peter says "For if, after they have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, they are again turned back, their last end shall be worse than the first." But now take David, or take Peter, which you please. Peter we will have. O! how foully did he curse his Master! With many an oath he denied him. But had not Peter the life of God in him then? Yes; and how do we know? Because when his Master looked upon him, he "went out and wept bitterly." Ah! if he had been a dead man, hardened and without the substance in him, his Master might have looked to all eternity, and he would not have wept bitterly. How know I that David was yet alive? Why, by this that although there was a long, long winter, and there were many prickings of conscience, like the workings of the sap within a tree, abortive attempts to thrust forward here and there a shoot before its time, yet when the hour was come, and Nathan came to him and said, "Thou art the man," had David been dead, without the life of God, he would have spurned Nathan from him, and might have done what Manasseh did with Isaiah, cut him in pieces in his anger; but instead of that he bowed his head and wept before God; and still it is written, "The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die." His substance was in him, when he lost his leaves. O! have pity upon poor fallen brethren. O! burn them not; they are not dead logs; though their leaves are gone their substance is in them. God can see grace in their hearts when you can not see it; he has put a life there that can never expire, for he has said, "I give unto my sheep eternal life," and that means a life that live for ever; "the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." You may choke the well up with big stones, but the water will find its way out yet, and well up notwithstanding. And so the heir of heaven may, to the grief of the church and to the injury of himself, most grievously transgress and weep, my eyes, O weep for any that have done so, and O bleed, my heart, and thou hast bled, for any that have so sinned but yet their "substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed" that is, Christ within them, the Holy Ghost within them, the new creature within them "the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." Poor backslider! here is a word of comfort for you. I would not comfort you in your sins; God forbid! But if you know your sins and hate them, let me comfort you. Thou art not dead! As Jesus said of the damsel, "She is not dead, but sleepeth," so let me say of thee, "Thou art not dead; thou shalt yet live." Dost thou repent? Dost thou grieve over thy sin? That is thee bud that shows that there is life within. When a common sinner sins he repents not, or if he doth repent it is with a legal repentance. His conscience pricks him, but he hushes it. He does not leave his sin and turn from it.

But did you ever see a child of God after he had been washed from a foul sin? He was a changed man. I know such an one, who used to carry a merry countenance, and many were the jokes he made in company; but when I met him after an awful sin, there was a solemnity about his countenance that was unusual to him. He looked, I should say, something like Dante, the poet, of whom the boys said, "There is the man that has been in hell;" because he had written of hell, and looked like it he looked so terrible. And when we spoke of sin there was such a solemnity about him; and when we spoke of going astray the tears ran down his cheeks, as much to say, "I have been astray too." He seemed like good Christian, after he had been in Giant Despair's castle. Do you not remember, beloved, the guide who took the pilgrims up to the top of a hill called Clear, and he showed them from the top of the hill a lot of men with their eyes put out, groping among the tombs, and Christian asked what it meant. Said the guide, "These are pilgrims that were caught in Giant Despair's castle; the giant had their eyes put out, and they are left to wander among the tombs to die, and their bones are to be left in the court-yard." Whereupon John Bunyan very naively says, "I looked, and saw their eyes full of water, for they remembered they might have been there too." Just as the man talked and spoke that I once knew. He seemed to wonder why God had not left him to be an apostate for ever, as the lot of Judas or Demas. He seemed to think it such a startling thing that while many had gone aside altogether from God's way, he should still have had his substance in him, when he had lost his leaves, and that God should still have loved him. Perhaps, beloved, God allows some such men to live, and sin, and afterward repent, for this reason. You know there are some voices needed in music that are very rare, and when, now and then, such a voice is to be heard, every one will go to hear it. I have thought that perhaps some of these men in heaven will song soprano notes before the throne choice, wondrous notes of grace, because they have gone into the depths of sin after profession; and yet he had loved them when their feet made hast to perdition, and fetched them up, because he "loved them well." There are but few such; for most men will go foully into sin; they will go out from us because they are not of us, for if they had been of us they would doubtless have continued with us. But there have been a few such great saints, then great backsliding sinners, and then great saints again. Their substance was in them when they had lost their leaves. O! you that have gone far astray, sit and weep. You can not weep too much, though you should cry with Herbert

"O, who will give me tears? Come, all ye springs,

Dwell in my head and eyes; come, clouds and rain!

My grief hath need of all the water things

That nature hath produced."

You might well say

"Let every vein

Suck up a river to supply mine eyes,

My weary, weeping eyes; too dry for me,

Unless they get new conduits, new supplies,

To bear them out, and with my state agree."

But yet remember, "He hath not forsaken his people, neither hath he cut them off;" for still he says

"Return, O wanderer, return,

And seek an injured father's heart."

Return! return! return! Thy Father's bowels still move for thee. He speaks through the written oracles at this moment, saying, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, O Israel? How can I make thee as Adimah? How can I set thee as Zeboim?" My bowels are moved; my repentings are kindled together; for I will heal their backslidings, I will receive them graciously, I will love them freely, for they are mine still. As the terebinth and as the oak, whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves, even so the holy seed within the elect and called vessels of mercy, is still the substance thereof.

And now, what have I to say to some of you that live in black sin, and yet excuse yourselves on account of the recorded falls of God's people? Sir, know this! Inasmuch as you do this, you wrest the Scriptures to your own destruction. If one man has taken poison, and there has been a physician by his side so skillful that he has saved his life by a heavenly antidote, is that any reason why thou, who hast no physician and no antidote, should yet think that the poison will not kill thee? Why, man, the sin that does not damn a Christian, because Christ washes him in his blood, will damn you. Said Brookes and I will repeat his words and have done "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, said the apostle, be his sins never so many; but he that believeth not shall be damned, be his sins never so few. Truly your sins may be little; but you are lost for them without Christ. Your sins may be great; but if Christ shall pardon them, then you shall be saved. The one question, then, I have to ask of thee, is Hast thou Christ? For if thou hast not, then thou hast not the holy seed; thou art a dead tree, and in due time thou shalt be tinder for hell. Thou art a rotten-hearted tree, all touch-wood, ready to be broken in pieces; eaten by the worms of lust; and ah! when the fire shall take hold of thee, what a blazing and a burning! O! that thou hadst life! O! that God would give it to thee! O! that thou wouldst now repent! O! that thou wouldst cast thyself on Jesus! O! that thou wouldst turn to him with full purpose of heart! For then, remember, thou wouldst be saved saved now, and saved for ever; for "the holy seed" would be "the substance thereof."