Isaiah 63:9 - Homiletics

God afflicted in the afflictions of his people.

It is questioned by some whether God can really feel pain. Doubtless, the inner essence of the Divine nature is so far removed from us, and so inscrutable by us, that answers must be given with extreme hesitation to any questions which touch that inner essence. And in using words of God, which derive their whole meaning from our consciousness of feelings which we experience in ourselves, we must beware of supposing that the terms which we employ are used univocally of God and of men. They are, at best, used analogously. Still, as Delitzsch says, "the question whether God can feel pain seems to be answered by the Scriptures in the affirmative." Pity, and compassion, and indignation, and anger are ascribed to God in Scripture, and all of them are pains. God's "soul" is said to have been "grieved for the misery of Israel" ( 10:16 ). There is nothing derogatory to the Divine greatness in the mere fact of God feeling pain; and certainly the fact is of a nature to raise our conception of the Divine goodness. God seems to be afflicted in the afflictions of his people—

I. WHEN THEY SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF WICKED MEN . It was the cruel oppression of the Israelites in Egypt which first called forth the compassion and sympathy of God for his people, and caused him to draw near to them, and to enter into a closer relationship. "The children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage; and God heard their groaning" ( Exodus 2:23 , Exodus 2:24 ). "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people … and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows " ( Exodus 3:7 ). It was, again, the "sore distress" which Israel suffered at the hands of the children of Ammon that caused "the Lord's soul to be grieved" in the days of the Judges, and induced him to raise up Jephthah as a deliverer ( 10:9 , 10:16 ; 11:1 ). The oppression of Babylon wrought similarly, and by stirring God's indignation and compassion induced him to save his people and execute judgment upon Babylon by means of Cyrus ( Isaiah 42:22-25 , etc.).

II. WHEN THEY SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF GOD HIMSELF . God "has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." When he is forced to punish, it is with reluctance and regret that he punishes. Witness his long pleadings with his people before he consents to let judgment go forth against them, his long forbearance, his long endurance of their perversity. "All the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed at Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, until there was no remedy" ( 2 Chronicles 36:14-16 ). As the "fathers of our flesh, which correct us" ( Hebrews 12:9 ), grieve to do so, suffering often more than those they chasten suffer, so the heavenly Father is himself afflicted as he afflicts; his "heart is turned within him, his repentings are kindled together" ( Hosea 11:8 ).