Aspects of Divine Judgment
W. Clarkson Isaiah 23:1-15 The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in… I. ITS CERTAINTY. 1. The duration of time is no guarantee against its coming; Tyre was a "joyous city, whose antiquity was of ancient days" (ver. 7), but judgment would fall upon her in God's chosen time. Both men and nations are apt to think that long continuance in comfort is a sufficient pledge that it will never be disturbed; duration begets a false sense of security. If men could only see things as they are, they would perceive that the true argument is exactly opposite to that in which they indulge; for the longer a man has been living in unvisited transgression, the longer has penalty been due, and the sooner may he confidently expect retribution to arrive. 2. Ordinary defenses are of no avail against it. The commerce and consequent wealth of Tyre (vers. 2, 3), her replenishments, from Zidon, and her enrichments from Egypt would not save her; nor would the high station to which she had mounted, nor the social position of her sons; it was nothing to the righteous Lord that she was esteemed a "crowning city" (ver. 8), and that her merchants were princes. No defenses that we can raise will avert God's judgment when the hour is ripe for sentence to be executed. Wealth cannot buy off retribution, nor can rank interpose its influence to avert it; science cannot teach us how to elude it; and the arm of affection is impotent to shield us from its blow. There is no barrier man can raise which is not swept down in a moment when God arises to judgment. II. ITS FULNESS AND EFFICACY. 1. It silences. (Ver. 2.) It brings the curses, the clamors, the revilings, the slanderous accusations, the shameful innuendoes of ungodliness and of malignity to a disgraceful end. "God strikes a silence through them all." 2. It scatters, it dissolves. (Vers. 6, 7, 10.) It sends the children of iniquity, of vice, of crime, to "the four corners of the earth;" it disperses them over sea and land. The bands of sin are broken up, and its guilty members are scattered far and wide. 3. It humiliates. (Ver. 12.) The virgin-daughter of Zidon should be humbled; God's judgments bring to the dust of humiliation those who have held their head high and treated others with indignity. 4. It pursues. (Ver. 12.) "There also shalt thou have no rest." The penalty of a man's sin finds him out whithersoever he may go to escape it. Jonah "flees from the presence of the Lord;" but whither shall a man flee from his presence, or from the blow of his chastisements? No change of, skies, of scenes, of society, of occupations, will shut out accusing recollections from the soul, or shield from the uncompleted corrections of the Divine hand. The serious and repeated violation of the "greater commandments" of God is attended with penalties which pursue the soul from place to place, and from period to period, in all the journey of our life. 5. It incapacitates. (Ver. 4.) Tyre should lose her power to found colonies and to sustain cities; she would be reduced to helplessness and incapacity. This is the fate of those whom God's judgment overtakes. What they once did with pride and joy they can do no longer, though they put forth all their remaining powers; there is "no strength in their right hand." The energies of the mind, the vigor of the soul, the craft of the hand, - all is gone. III. ITS REMOTE EFFECTS. When Tyre fell, the ships of Tarshish would have occasion to lament (vers. 1, 14), Zidon would have to be ashamed of her daughter (ver. 4), and Egypt would be sorely pained (ver. 5). Far across sea and land, and a long way down the coming and departing years, reach the sad consequences of guilt. The wisest moralist cannot point to the place where these will not be found, nor the cleverest calculator tell the time when these will not he felt. IV. ITS DIVINE MEANING. "The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory," etc. (ver. 9). God sends punishment because it is due; because, in the exercise of his righteousness, sin must be marked with the signs of his deep displeasure; but he sends such penalties as he does send in order to compel his subjects to see and to feel that the glory of man can be scattered in a moment, and that over all his magnificence the shadow of death will be thrown whensoever the hand of Divine judgment is uplifted. God's visitations are man's opportunities; then may he learn and feel - as otherwise he never would - that his only wisdom is in instant abandonment of every evil way, and immediate return, in penitence and faith, to a forgiving and restoring Savior. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. WEB: The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.