A Call to Repentance
Isaiah 22:12-14
And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:…


I. THE CALL TO REPENTANCE (ver. 12).

1. The day here referred to was a season of abounding iniquity. A day of sore trouble (vers. 4, 5).

II. THE RECEPTION IT MET WITH. (ver. 13). There is no room to suppose that they had given no attention to the message delivered by the prophet. It would rather appear that they had attended to it with accuracy, nay, studied its meaning on purpose to counteract it; for a contrast so minutely exact, a scheme of contradiction so completely adjusted, could hardly have been stumbled upon by mere accident. And indeed the latter part of the verse puts this beyond all doubt, "Let us eat and drink," said they, "for tomorrow we shall die." We are not to imagine that these words were spoken seriously, by one of those presumptuous and boasting rebels. The most daring amongst them must have been conscious that the aspect of the king of terrors, at their most sumptuous entertainments, would leave them no appetite either for flesh or wine. They meant it as a scoff, a witty saying, for turning rote ridicule the warning they had received, but which they did not believe. It is common enough to condemn the same faults in others which we easily forgive, nay, cherish in ourselves.

III. THE ALARMING DENUNCIATION OF WRATH against those perverse and obstinate transgressors (ver. 14).

IV. IMPROVEMENT. What concern have we in these things? (1 Corinthians 10:11). God is always the same. And therefore, in His past acts of government, as they are explained by His Word, we behold a plan of righteous administration, from whence we may learn, with some degree of certainty, what kind of treatment, in similar circumstances, we ourselves have reason to expect.

(H. Blair, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

WEB: In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:




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