Isaiah 14:20

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned." Isa 14:20

The literal rendering would be shall not be named for ever. A parallel will be found in Jeremiah 22:30 , in the sentence pronounced on Coniah. As a matter of fact certain great dynasties have utterly disappeared from history. No dynasty is necessary to God. There are brief courses marked by dazzling splendour, but the night overtakes the day, and the noontide becomes midnight. There are certain great principles which underlie the declaration of the text. It is of the very nature of evil to perish of its own corruption. Evil is suicidal. It would seem to be impossible that evil can be immortal, because it continually falls into deepening weakness under its own action. Cancer never leads to health. Evil is moral cancer, and must end in the extinction of strength and of life. It is not necessary that evil should die tomorrow, or in the next generation. God's judgments are always pronounced in the light of great breadths of time. For a generation, or two, or three, evil may seem to prosper, and to be a living contradiction of the spirit of the Bible. This, however, is only apparent. The eternal law is that evil is self-destructive. The important point to be remembered by evil-minded persons is that they are not injuring themselves only. The mischief which they do follows their posterity. The deed which is done today may reappear in unhappy effects in the experience of a century hence. Surely there should be some restraining influence arising from this reflection. But how can evil restrain itself? It lives on its own rioting and tumult, and being intensely selfish, it cannot project its imagination into the issues of time. What is true of evil in the matter of self-destruction is true of good in the matter of self-propagation. All good is rooted in God. The eternity of God therefore is the guarantee of the immortality of goodness. It is of the quality of God himself. It may be said to be an element of his own being. Goodness therefore cannot die. The lamp of the wicked shall be blown out, but the seed of the righteous shall go on from strength to strength evermore. Yet even here a word of caution must be spoken. Though there is a hereditary law in the matter both of evil and of good, it must not be understood that a man is hopelessly condemned because his ancestors were evil, or that a man is necessarily saved because his ancestors were good. The general law may be modified by particular instances. If any man, looking over a long list of progenitors, cannot find a good name amongst them, that is no reason why he himself should not repent and pray. On the other hand, a man may look through a long family record adorned with illustrious names, yet if he himself be not faithful, if he himself be not in Christ by the power of the soul's trust, wrought by the energy of the Holy Ghost, his family record will stand him in no good stead in the day of judgment. The renown of the hypocrite is a poor reward. The blessing that rests upon the righteous is itself of the quality of heaven.