Isaiah 21:11-12 - Homiletics

Half-hearted turning to God of no avail.

There are many who, in the hour of distress, turn to God and his ministers with the question, " Watchman , what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" They are anxious to be assured that the dark time of their trouble is well-nigh over, and light about to dawn upon their horizon. And they so far believe in God's ministers as to think that they can, better than others, give them an answer to their question. Accordingly, they importune their clergymen with such inquiries as these: "Will this sickness, or the effect of this accident, or this time of slack work, last long? Is there likely to be much more of it? Or may we look to be free from our trouble speedily?" To such the "watchman" had best answer with some reserve, or even with some obscurity, so far as he gives any direct answer at all to their questions. "The trouble will no doubt pass in time—it may be sooner, it may be later; God only knows the times and the seasons which he has put in his own power." But he may take the opportunity of the inquiry to give a very clear lesson. "If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come;" that is to say, "Be not half-hearted, beat not about the bush. If ye throw yourselves upon God for one purpose, do so for every purpose; look to him, not for an answer to one inquiry only, but for everything. Return to him—come ." "The Spirit and the Bride" are always saying, "Come" ( Revelation 22:17 ). Christ himself has said, most emphatically, Come ( Matthew 11:28 ). If they return and come, they will be no longer Edom, but Israel; no longer aliens and strangers, but "fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God" ( Ephesians 2:19 ). Let the cry, then, be sounded in their ears unceasingly, "Return, come."