Isaiah 31:2 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

Divine reservation and consistency.

"Yet he … will bring evil, and will not call back his words" Doubtless God seems to call back his words. "The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do" ( Exodus 32:14 ; 2 Samuel 24:16 ; 2:18 , etc.). "He heard their cry … and repented, according to the multitude of his mercies", ( Psalms 105:44 , Psalms 105:45 ). Yet, says the prophet, "he will bring evil and not call back his words." How explain this? The explanation of it is found in the fact that there is some necessary reservation understood, if not expressed, in the Divine promise and in the Divine threatening.

I. HIS RESERVATION AND CONSISTENCY IN PROMISE . God promises life to the obedient and the faithful; yet there are those who believe themselves, and are believed, to be among this number, whose end is destruction. Has God called back his word? No; for his promise was contingent on their steadfastness, and they have forfeited all claim on his promised word ( Joshua 24:20 ; Psalms 85:8 ; Ezekiel 33:13 ; John 15:6 ; Hebrews 6:4 :8).

II. HIS RESERVATION AND CONSISTENCY IN THREATENING . Although God may seem to call back his words of solemn threatening, yet he "will bring evil;" he is not inconsistent with himself.

1. God reveals his wrath against sin . He declares that it shall not go unpunished; that the soul that sinneth shall die; that the wages of sin is death.

2. God offers pardon . The message of the gospel of Christ is essentially and emphatically one of Divine mercy.

3. His mercy in Christ Jesus is large and free . It is not grudging, half-hearted. It is not like the forgiveness we extend to one another ( Isaiah 55:7-9 ). It means a complete restoration of the estranged but reconciled child to full parental favor ( Luke 15:22 , Luke 15:23 ). Where, then, is the Divine consistency? It is found in the consideration that:

4. His declaration of penalty was always contingent on the attitude of the sinner . ( Ezekiel 33:14 , Ezekiel 33:15 .) It is not intended to be absolute and unalterable, whatever be the future career of the guilty. Like all his promises, God's warnings are conditional. God does not call back his own words from their meaning or their fulfillment, he calls us back, through them, to our duty and to our right relation to himself. And, besides:

5. He does bring evil in some serious measure . For: