The Conviction of the Song (Part 3)

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 26:9-10

⁹With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; For when Your judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. ¹⁰Let grace be shown to the wicked, Yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

Isaiah 26:9

With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early - By desiring God in the night, and by seeking him early, is meant that the desire to seek him was unremitting and constant. The prophet speaks of the pious Jews who were in captivity in Babylon; and says that it was the object of their unceasing anxiety to please God, and to do his will.

For when Your judgments are in the earth - This is given as a reason for what had just been said, that in their calamity they had sought God without ceasing. The reason is that the punishments which he inflicted were intended to lead people to learn righteousness. The sentiment is expressed in a general form, though there is no doubt that the immediate reference is to the calamities which the Jews had suffered in their removal to Babylon as a punishment for their sins.

The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness - The design is to warn, to restrain, and to reform them. The immediate reference here was undoubtedly to the Jews, in whom this effect was seen in a remarkable manner in their captivity in Babylon. But it is also true of other nations; and though the effect of calamity is not always to turn a people to God, or to make them permanently righteous, yet it restrains them, and leads them at least to an external reformation, It is also true in regard to nations as well as individuals, that they make a more decided advance in virtue and piety in days of affliction than in the time of great external prosperity (compare Deut. 6:11-12).

It is God’s gracious design, in sending abroad his judgments, thereby to bring men to seek him and serve him: When thy judgments are upon the earth, laying all waste, then we have reason to expect that not only God’s professing people, but even the inhabitants of the world, will learn righteousness, will have their mistakes rectified and their lives reformed, will be brought to acknowledge God’s righteousness in punishing them, will repent of their own unrighteousness in offending God, and so be brought to walk in right paths. They will do this; that is, judgments are designed to bring them to this, they have a natural tendency to produce this effect, and, though many continue obstinate, yet some even of the inhabitants of the world will profit by this discipline, and will learn righteousness; surely they will; they are strangely stupid if they do not. Note, The intention of afflictions is to teach us righteousness; and blessed is the man whom God chastens, and thus teaches, (Ps. 94:12).

Isaiah 26:10

Let grace be showed to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness - This is designed as an illustration of the sentiment in the previous verse - that judgments were needful in order that wicked people might be brought to the ways of righteousness. The truth is general, that though wicked people are favored with success in their enterprises, yet the effect will not be to lead them to the ways of virtue and religion. How often is this illustrated in the conduct of wicked people! How often do they show, when rolling in wealth, or when surrounded with the comforts of the domestic circle, that they feel no need of the friendship of God, and that their heart has no response of gratitude to make for all his mercies! Hence, the necessity, according to the language of the song before us, that God should take away their property, remove their friends, or destroy their health, in order that they may be brought to honor him. To do this, is benevolence in God, for whatever is needful to bring the sinner to the love of God and to the ways of virtue, is kindness to his soul.

Those are wicked indeed that will not be wrought upon by the favorable methods God takes to subdue and reform them; and it is necessary that God should deal with them in a severe way by his judgments, which shall prevail to humble those that would not otherwise be humbled. Observe here how sinners walk contrary to God, and refuse to comply with the means used for their reformation and to answer the intentions of them, (v. 10). Note that favor is shown to them. They receive many mercies from God; he causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon them, nay, he prospers them, and into their hands he brings plentifully; they escape many of the strokes of God’s judgments, which others less wicked than they have been cut off by; in some particular instances they seem to be remarkably favored above their neighbors, and the design of all this is that they may be won upon to love and serve that God who thus favors them; and yet it is all in vain: They will not learn righteousness, will not be led to repentance by the goodness of God, and therefore it is requisite that God should send his judgments into the earth, to reckon with men for abused mercies.

In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly - Even when others are just and pious around him; when this is so much the general characteristic that it may be called ‘the land of integrity,’ yet he will pursue his way of iniquity, though in it he may be solitary. Such is his love of sin, that neither the favor of God nor the general piety around him - neither the mercy of his Maker nor the influence of holy examples, will lead him in the way of piety and truth.

And will not behold the majesty of the LORD - Will not see that which makes the Lord glorious in his dealings with people, so as to love and adore him. He is blind, and sees no evidence of loveliness in the character of God. They live in a land of uprightness, where religion is professed and is in reputation, where the word of God is preached, and where they have many good examples set them, - in a land of evenness, where there are not so many stumbling-blocks as in other places, - in a land of correction, where vice and profaneness are discountenanced and punished; yet there they will deal unjustly, and go on frowardly in their evil ways. Those that do wickedly deal unjustly both with God and man, as well as with their own souls; and those that will not be reclaimed by the justice of the nation may expect the judgments of God upon them. Nor can those expect a place hereafter in the land of blessedness who now conform not to the laws and usages, nor improve the privileges and advantages, of the land of uprightness; and why do they not? It is because they will not behold the majesty of the Lord, will not believe, will not consider, what a God of terrible majesty he is whose laws and justice they persist in the contempt of. God’s majesty appears in all the dispensations of his providence; but they regard it not, and therefore study not to answer the ends of those dispensations. Even when we receive of the mercy of the Lord we must still behold the majesty of the Lord and his goodness.