Isaiah 27:7-8 - Homiletics

The moderation of God's chastisements.

All God's doings are "with measure." At the creation he "weighed the hills in a balance" ( Isaiah 40:12 ), "made a weight for the winds," and" weighed the waters by measure" ( Job 28:25 ). He sets one thing against another, "looks to the end of the earth," and "seeth under the whole heaven" ( Job 28:24 ). There is nothing hasty, rash, or inconsiderate in his doings. He is a law to himself; and the perfect harmony of his own nature necessarily produces the result that order and measure pervade all that he accomplishes. "Measure," as Hooker says, " is that which perfecteth all things, because everything is for some end, neither can that thing be available to any end which is not proportionable thereunto, and to proportion as well excesses as defects are opposite" ('Eccl. Pol.,' 5:55, § 2). God's chastisements have for their end the recovery of those whom he chastises, and would not be effectual for this end unless they were carefully apportioned and adjusted' to the particular case. Chastisements unduly light would have no restraining or educational force; they would be contemned, despised, and would harden those whom they were intended to influence for good. On the other hand, over-severe chastisements would crush and ruin. They would "quench the smoking flax" and "break the bruised reed" ( Matthew 12:20 ), so rendering recovery impossible. Thus measure is needed in chastisements; and those which God inflicts are measured with most marvelous exactitude. He metes out to all the exact cross, difficulty, suffering, which is suited to bring them to him. He afflicts them always more lightly than they deserve. "In measure he contends with them," apportioning their day to their strength, and their temptations to their ability to bear them.