Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 30:21
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This [is] the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
21. thine ears shall hear a word behind thee ] that of Jehovah, walking like a Father behind His children. Cf. Isa 29:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And thine ears shall hear a word – A command or admonition. You shall not be left without spiritual guides and directors.
Behind thee – That is, says Vitringa, the voice of conscience, as an invisible guide, shall admonish you. The idea, however, seems to be that if they were ignorant of the way, or if they were inclined to err, they should be admonished of the true path which they ought to pursue. The idea is taken either from the practice of teachers who are represented as following their pupils and admonishing them if they were in danger of going astray (Grotius; or from shepherds, who are represented as following their flocks, and directing them when they wandered. The Jews understand this voice from behind to be the bath kol – the daughter of the voice; a divine admonition which they suppose attends the pious. The essential thought is, that they would not be left without a guide and instructor; that, if they were inclined to go astray, they would be recalled to the path of truth and duty. Perhaps there is the idea, also, that the admonition would come from some invisible influence, or from some unexpected quarter, as it is often the case that those who are inquiring on the subject of religion receive light from quarters where they least expected, and from sources to which they were not looking. It is also true that the admonitions of Providence, of conscience, and of the Holy Spirit, seem often to come from behind us. that is, they recall us from the path in which we were going, and restrain us from a course that would be fraught with danger.
When ye turn to the right hand … – When you shall be in danger of wandering from the direct and straight path. The voice shall recall you, and direct you in the way in which you ought to go.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 30:21
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee
The Bath kol
The voice is evidently that of a faithful guide and monitor; according to the Rabbins the Bath kol or mysterious echo which conducts and warns the righteous.
(J. A. Alexander.)
A voice behind thee
The direction of the voice from behind is commonly explained by saying that the image is borrowed from the practice of shepherds going behind their flocks, or nurses behind children, to observe their motions. A much more natural solution is the one proposed by Henderson, to wit, that their guides were to be before them, but that when they declined from the right way their backs would be turned to them, consequently the warning voice would be heard behind them. (J. A. Alexander.)
The way of life and the ways of death
This world is full of ways, as it is of men; and one way only is right. One only is the straight way of Gods commandments, that leadeth to eternal life. The rest are the ways of men, that lead to destruction; and the most deceitful of them all are those which branch off from this one, going, some of them more, some of them less in its direction, and then by a sudden turn forsaking it. So that amid the multitude of ways many travellers through life never find the right one at all. And too many, after they have been graciously set upon it, forsake it for the many byways of sin. But the promises of God are found on His one way only; there alone their light guides amid darkness, on that alone will men meet their Saviour. (R. W. Evans, B. D.)
Care needed in going through the world
We should never forget our true position in this mortal life. We have to pick our way in it. The best known road in the world may be missed by such want of proper attention. (R. W.Evans, B. D.)
Good company in the right road
What words do we hear behind us? what company is following us? If it be not good company, can we be on the right road? If a person going (as he thought) towards London, heard persons behind him talking as if they were going towards Manchester, would he not be alarmed, suspecting that he had missed his way? How then can he be on the right road to Heaven, who hears the company that treads on his steps, talk of very different places, of very different ends of their journey? (R. W. Evans, B. D.)
The guiding word
I. THE SINNERS ATTITUDE BEFORE GOD IS UNSEEMLY AND DANGEROUS. A word behind thee. A man who hears a word behind him has his back to the speaker. He is, for some reason, not in a friendly attitude.
1. The fact is implied, in the context, that the sinner has not only his back turned to God, but is actually going away from Him. And that the going away is not an inadvertency or oversight, but the result of a set purpose.
2. That he is self-willed, stubborn, and persistent in his efforts; he continues his course of separation, in spite of the constant overtures and entreaties of love.
II. GODS WARNINGS AND OVERTURES ARE SIMPLE AND EASILY UNDERSTOOD. A word behind thee. Not a confusing, rapidly uttered discourse–not a cold philosophical, or logical treatise; not a metaphysical disquisition, couched in scientific phrase–bewildering and vague, but, a word. Not a mysterious echo from the hilltops, or an unknown voice speaking from afar, but, a word behind thee. Thine ears shall hear. God is not unreason able in His demands. When He calls, man possesses the God-given capacity to hear and obey.
III. A KNOWLEDGE OF HIS DUTY IS NOT OPTIONAL WITH THE SINNER. Thine ears shall hear. A mans knowledge of his duty is not conditioned by his conduct, as are the blessings of religion. God never gives any man up until he becomes so wedded to his sins that he indignantly spurns all efforts for his salvation, both human and Divine.
IV. GODS WARNINGS AND INSTRUCTIONS ARE ADEQUATE AND AMPLE, THEREFORE THE SINNER IS WITHOUT EXCUSE. This is the way, walk ye in it. In His teachings, Jesus Christ always presents duties as well as doctrines,–practice as well as principles.
1. Here we have doctrine. This is the way. Not one of a number of ways, or an improvement on the old. No; it has neither duplicate nor substitute.
2. We have also the practical. Walk ye in it.
V. THE LIFE OF THE SINNER IS NOT NECESSARILY FIXED AND MONOTONOUS. When ye turn to the right hand, or to the left The tremendous prerogative of free agency leaves it with every man to formulate and determine his own activities.
1. Notice the broad sphere open to the sinner, and from which he is to select the pathway of his activities.
(1) He may go straight ahead. This may involve very little that is specially good or bad.
(2) He may turn to the right hand. There is such a thing as right-hand sins. Popular, paying iniquities, which evoke but little human condemnation.
(3) He may also turn to the left. There is such a thing as left-hand sins, awkward, unseemly, embarrassing. Conduct that destroys reputation, health, character, destiny. The forger, the liar, the thief, the drunkard, the sensualist, all come in here. Everything sacred, noble, manly, valuable, is sacrificed to the absorbing demand of the present.
2. Notice the grandest possibility within reach of the sinner. Right about face. This grand movement at once brings to an end both his conduct and character as a sinner. (Thomas Kelly.)
The guiding word
Man is a traveller. He has lost his way. He needs a guide, both to bring him back to, and keep him in, the right path to the end of the journey. Where is that guide to be found? It is referred to in the text. A word behind thee. The following remarks are suggested concerning this guiding word.
I. It comes to man from WITHOUT. There are inner guides placed there by our Maker in our constitution. Reason. Conscience. But both these have failed us. They themselves are lost in the haze of depravity. Hence the need of a guide from without; such a guide as the word. It comes from God to man–
1. Through nature.
2. Through Christ.
II. It comes to man in EXPLICITNESS. This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. There is no indefiniteness here, no vagueness, and no uncertainty; no suggesting a choice between different ways. The word reveals the right and only way, and that way is Christ. I am the way–Follow Me.
III. It comes to man from MYSTERY. Behind thee. Thou dost not see the speaker. The voice breaks out from the dark past. It comes from behind. Behind all that is seen and heard, behind all the phenomena of nature, behind the universe, from God Himself, the Mysterious One.
IV. It comes to man, BUT HE MUST LISTEN. Thou shalt hear. This hearing is the want. Mens spiritual ears are deaf. The guiding word is everywhere.
There is no speech nor language where His voice is not heard. Open thine ear: listen and thou shalt catch the guiding directions. (Homilist.)
Diving guidance and admonition
The text may be applied to the abundant means of grace, and the plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit, under the Gospel dispensation–to the privileges which we enjoy, and the assistance promised to us.
I. THE WAY, referred to in the text, may be applied–
1. To Gods method of saving sinful men, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was said of the apostles, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who show unto us the way of salvation. We must walk in it, actually choosing Him to be our Redeemer and Advocate, committing ourselves entirely to Him, and earnestly seeking the continual supplies of His Spirit, that we may be saved from sin.
2. The text may be applied to the way in which the sanctification of the believer is, through Divine grace, effected. We are not only to receive Christ Jesus the Lord, but also to walk in Him; and to prove that we live in the Spirit, by walking in the Spirit. It is by daily prayer, and the daily improvement of Scripture, of Divine ordinances, and providential occurrences, and a steadfast adherence to the will of God, that we must expect to grow in grace, and go from strength to strength.
3. It may be applied to that particular course of service to which each Christian is called, by the circumstances in which he b placed, the talents committed to him, or the relations he bears to others. Knowing that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps–how liable he is to mistake the path of duty on various occasions, he will pray, Teach me Thy way, O God (Psa 27:11; Psa 119:33-37).
II. THE PROMISE meets all the cases which have been mentioned.
1. It is a promise of the direction which God will afford to all who really seek it.
2. It is a promise of Divine grace to incline us to walk in Gods way. Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, etc.
3. It is a promise that He will quicken us in the path of duty.
4. It is a promise that the Lord will preserve His people, and enable them to endure unto the end. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
The teachings of the past
I. THE VALUE OF EVERY EXPERIENCE THAT BEFALLS US.
II. THE SOLE ROAD TO BLESSEDNESS, TO PEACE, TO JOY, TO TRUE PROSPERITY OF LIFE, IS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
III. GODS GUIDANCE OF THE FAITHFUL SOUL. (H. Varley, B. A.)
The word behind thee
I. THE MONITOR in these words. Thine ears shall hear a word, etc.
II. THE ADMONITION ITSELF. This is the way, etc.
III. THE OCCASION. When ye turn to the right hand, etc. (T. Horton.)
The Divine monitor
It is a promise–
1. Of ministerial opportunities.
2. Of the continuance of spiritual suggestions. (T. Horton.)
The voice behind
1. It is a pursuing and overtaking word; a word that follows us and comes at our heels.
2. A revoking and recalling word. A word of restraint.
3. An impulsive and provoking word. A word that puts thee forward, that furthers thee and promotes thee in thy way. (T. Horton.)
The admonition
This is the way, walk ye in it.
1. A word of correction and reformation in case of miscarriage. It is very fitly said to those who wander and are out of the way, to bring them again into it.
2. A word of direction and instruction in case of ignorance.
3. A word of strengthening and confirmation in case of unsettledness. It is very suitably said to those who are doubtful and wavering and uncertain in themselves whether they be right in the way or no, to encourage them to persevere and go on in those good ways which they have made entrance upon. (T. Horton.)
Turning to the right hand or to the left
The expression plainly intimates that there are dangerous bypaths on both hands, into which the people of God are apt to turn aside.
I. ON THE RIGHT HAND, there are erroneous principles and practices which are mistaken for that truth and holiness whereof they are really destitute. Such are–
1. Professed confidence in Gods pardoning mercy, disjoined from the acknowledged necessity of His sanctifying grace.
2. High pretensions to faith which are not verified by solicitude to maintain good works.
3. Flaming profession of piety toward God, unaccompanied with the exercises of justice, mercy, and charity toward men.
4. Great pretended zeal against public vices, attended with indifference as to secret personal transgressions.
5. Loud approbation of discourses that expose infidelity, hypocrisy, and iniquity, whilst these sins are indulged in heart and life.
II. ON THE LEFT HAND there are also pernicious principles and dangerous practices into which men are prone to deviate. Such are–
1. The confession that holiness is indispensably requisite to the enjoyment of God, whilst the necessity of atonement for sin is denied or overlooked.
2. Strenuous assertions of the importance of good works, separate from a proper regard to faith, the active principle from which they proceed.
3. High respect for the duties of justice, mercy, and charity, joined with criminal indifference and neglect of the exercises of piety and devotion.
4. Partiality to their own favourite sins and unaffectedness with the transgressions of other people, whereby God is offended, His law transgressed, and His truth dishonoured. (R. Macculloch.)
Virtue
Virtue lies in the middle, between two extremes, which are equally to be avoided. (R. Macculloch.)
The voice behind thee
I. THE POSITION OF THE WANDERER to whom this special blessing comes. How does God find men when He declares that they shall hear a word behind them?
1. With their backs turned to Him. The wanderer seeks not God, but God seeks him. Man turns from the God of love, but the love of God turns not away from him.
2. They were going further and further away from Him. Of course, when you have once turned your back upon the right, the further you travel the more wrong you become.
3. They were pursuing their course in spite of warning. Read the twentieth verse: Thine eyes shall see thy teachers: there they stood, good men, right in the way, entreating their hearers to cease from provoking their God and destroying their own souls.
4. They had many ways in which to wander. Sometimes they roamed to the right hand, at other times they wandered to the left, but they never turned face about. Some men have right-hand sins, respectable iniquities which challenge little censure from their fellows. Others have left-hand sins; they plunge into the sins of the flesh; no vice is too black for them.
II. THE CALL OF MERCY.
1. It is a call that is altogether undesired, and comes unsought to the man who has gone astray.
2. A word behind thee: it is the voice of an unseen Caller whose existence has been almost forgotten. It is not the teachers that speak in this powerful way. The teachers you have seen with your eyes, and they have done you no good; but some One calls whom you never saw, and never will see, till He sits on the throne of judgment at the last great day; but still He utters a word which cannot be kept out of your ears. It will come to you mysteriously at all sorts of hours crying, Return, return, return.
3. This voice pursues and overtakes the sinner.
4. That voice when it comes to sinners is generally most opportune, for they are to hear this voice behind them when they turn to the right hand or to the left.
5. It is absolutely necessary that the potent word should be spoken, and should be heard. For the man had seen his teachers, but they had not wrought him any good.
III. WHAT WAS THE WORD OF THAT CALL? It is stated at full length. This is the way, walk ye in it.
1. It contains within itself specific instruction. This is the way. There is a kind of preaching which has nothing specific, definite, and positive in it: it is a bit of cloud land, and you may make what you like out of it.
2. This definite instruction may also be said to be a special correction. It as good as says the opposite path is not the way.
3. It is also a word of sure confirmation. This is the way.
4. This is followed up by a word of personal direction. Do not merely hear about it, but walk ye in it.
5. This takes the form of encouraging permission. This is the way. Do not sit looking at it: walk ye in it. But I am so big a sinner. Christ is the way; walk ye in it. There is room enough for big sinners in Jesus. But I have been so long coming. Never mind: this is the way, walk ye in it. But I am afraid my feet are so polluted that I shall stare the way. This is the way, walk ye in it.
IV. THE SUCCESS OF THE WORD. Thine ears shall hear. God not only gives us something to hear, but He gives us ears to hear with. This is effectual grace.
1. This means that the message of Divine love shall come to the mans mind so as to create uneasiness in it.
2. After awhile there gets to be a desire in his heart.
3. As that voice continues to sound, it pulls him up and leads to resolve. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
This is the way, walk ye in it
The right way
The right way is possessed of every qualification and advantage that you can possibly desire.
1. It is a highway, open to persons of every description.
2. It is the way of holiness, wherein the unclean shall not walk.
3. It is a patent way, wherein the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err.
4. It is a safe way, wherein you shall be protected from the hostile attacks of your enemies.
5. It is a pleasant way, wherein you shall enjoy sacred peace.
6. It is an infallible way to arrive at fulness of joys, and rivers of pleasures for evermore. (R. Macculloch.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. When ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left – “Turn not aside, to the right or to the left.”] The Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate, translate as if, instead of ki-vechi, they read lo-velo.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thine ears shall hear a word; as oft as need requires thou shalt hear the voice of Gods word and Spirit directing thee in thy course.
Hear a word behind thee; a metaphor borrowed either,
1. From the custom of shepherds, who use to follow their sheep, and to recall them when they go out of the way. Or,
2. From travellers, who when they are gone out of the right way, are ofttimes recalled and admonished of their error by some other passenger or person who is behind them, and therefore discerns their mistake; which he could not so easily discover if he were before them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. wordconscience, guided bythe Holy Spirit (Joh 16:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee,…. Which may be said in reference to the backsliding and declining state of the people, Isa 30:11 and is thought by some to be an allusion to schoolmasters, who stand behind their scholars, or at their backs, to guide, teach, and instruct them; and by others to shepherds following their flocks, who, when they observe any of the sheep going out of the way, call them back; or to travellers, who, coming to a place where are several ways, and being at a loss which way to take, and inclining to turn to the right or left, are called to by persons behind them, and directed in the right way. This “voice behind” is by the Jews e interpreted of Bath Kol; and by others of the voice of conscience; but it rather intends the Spirit of God, and his grace; though it seems best to understand it of the Scriptures of truth, the word of God, the only rule of faith and practice; the language of which is,
saying, This [is] the way, walk ye in it; it directs to Christ the way, and who is the only way of life and salvation to be walked in by faith, and to all the lesser paths of duty and doctrine, which to walk in is both pleasant and profitable, and which is the right way; so the Targum paraphrases it,
“this is the right way;”
to which agree the comments of Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi; though the Arabic and Syriac versions, following the Septuagint, represent them as the words of seducers, directing to a wrong way: but the words are a promise of being led right, and not a threatening of being led wrong:
when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left; through ignorance or inadvertency, through the prevalence of corruption, or force of temptation; and as it is promised there should be such a voice, so they should have ears to hear, their ears erect to attend to what is said, to observe it, and act according to it.
e T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 32. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
21. Then shall thine ears hear. It was indeed no despicable promise which he made of an abundant produce of the fruits of the earth, but the chief ground of gladness and joy is, when God restores to us pure and sound doctrine; for no scarcity of wheat ought to terrify and alarm us so much as a scarcity of the word; and indeed, in proportion as the soul is more excellent than the body, so much the more ought we to dread this kind of famine, as another prophet also reminds us. (Amo 8:11.) Isaiah promises this to the Jews as the most valuable of all blessings, that they shall be fed with the word, by the want of which they had formerly been heavily afflicted. The false prophets also boast of the word, and in a more haughty and disdainful manner than godly teachers: they wish to be reckoned and declared to be the best guides; but they lead men into error, and at length plunge them into destruction. But the word which points out the right path comes from God alone, though it would be of little service to us, if he did not also promise that he would give us ears; for otherwise he would speak to the deaf, and we should hear nothing but a confused sound.
A word behind thee. These words must be extended so far as to mean that he will not permit what he speaks to us to be useless, but will inwardly move our understandings and hearts, so as to train them to true obedience; for by nature we are not willing to learn, and must be altogether formed anew by his Spirit. The word hear is very emphatic. He compares God to a schoolmaster, who places the children before his eyes, that he may more effectually train and direct them; by which he expresses the wonderful affection and care manifested towards us by God, who does not reckon it enough to go before us, but also “with his eye upon us gives us direction.” (Psa 32:8.) But the Prophet declares that they who follow God as their guide will be in no danger of going astray.
Walk ye in it. This is an exhortation to cheerful progress, so that their journey may not be retarded, as frequently happens, by any uncertainty. What he adds, about the right hand and the left, might be thought absurd; for when Moses pointed out to the people the way in which they should walk, he at the same time charged them “not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” (Deu 5:32.) The road is straight and we ought not to seek any departures from it.
What then does the Prophet mean? I reply, he uses the words “Right” and “Left” in a different sense; for he means by them every kind of transactions which we must undertake to perform. These are various, as there are also various modes of living; and every person meets with difficulties of many kinds, and is under the necessity of deliberating about them. By the “right and left hand,” therefore, he means all the actions of human life, whatever they are, so that, in all that we undertake, we may have God for our guide, and may always regulate our transactions by his authority, whether we must go “to the right hand or to the left.” And hence we derive very great consolation, that the Lord will favor our undertakings, and will direct our steps, to whatever hand we turn, provided only that we do not turn aside from the path which he points out to us.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE DIVINE VOICE IN THE SOUL
Isa 30:21
THE medium of truth is an important factor in the encouragement of our faith. It makes a difference, and a vast difference, who the man is that proposes to tell us what we shall believe. It ought not to be so, perhaps, among the Divine writers, since all authors of the Bible are inspired by the same Spirit; but even among them, we have our favorite teachersthose at whose feet we prefer to sit. One man enjoys Peter, another takes greater delight in John, while a third finds in James those characteristics that please him best and profit him most. It has been so since the beginning of Christianity, and doubtless dates far back of that to the times when men disputed the point of profit as between the works of Moses and Job and David. We remember that Paul found occasion to reprove the Corinthian Christians for this very thing. Some of them thought what Paul said was to be received, and that only; others felt the same way toward Apollos, and still others claimed Cephas as their champion in doctrinal and spiritual affairs. Against that favoritism, Paul hurled his rebuke, charging their prejudices to carnality and saying to them, Therefore let no mm glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christs; and Christ is Gods (1Co 3:21-23).
But Pauls reproof did not cure the fault. Until this day we have our favorites among teachers of equal merit, and even allow our prejudice to invade the sacred realm and select thence some writer and say, He is mine! Many of us have felt so toward Isaiah, the Prophet! The fidelity of his character, the sincerity of his heart, the bravery of his spirit, the pathos and power in his eloquence, the evangelical in his preaching, the pungency of his reproofs, the prayerfulness of his soul, the soundness of his life, and the heroism of his death, have all combined to make his Book prominent in Sacred Writ, and to give an unusual weight to the words that escaped his lips or ran from the point of his quill. The text of today is no exception to this! Because Isaiah said, Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it (Isa 30:21), we halt to hear, for after all we want men to tell about Divine voices, who, themselves, have heard and obeyed the same; and surely Isaiah spoke this text out of the fullness of a superior experience!
But what are we to get from the text today?
Shall we not learn first of all that Gods voice is heard in the enlightened conscience?
For conscience, unenlightened by Gods Spirit, the most that can be claimed is that, like the other faculties of the soul, it was involved in the fall and so is only the wreck of what it might have been the irresponsible, inane shadow of its original self. Its directions are no more to be relied upon than are those of the loaded needle after it has been detached from its pivotal point and left prostrate on some rough surface! But in the new man, the Christ-born one, conscience regains its throne and its voice is to be hearkened to as the whisper of God.
There have been many definitions of the Christian conscience, but among them what one surpasses that attributed to a little girl? It is related that a certain teacher of a Sunday School Class asked the children to tell her what conscience was. Among the answers, one bright, sweet child gave this: Conscience is Jesus whispering in the heart. Aye, for a Christian it ought to be! It is a voice then to which the saved man must give ear; and as he values obedience to the Divine will, he must not be disobedient to it. There is not one conscience for business, another for society and yet a third for religion. It is the same God, whispering in the same voice, to the same heart, in them all. Every Christian man proves and experiences the truth of a part of this text at every turn; Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee. Your very shadow must fail to attend you before that voice ceases to be heard.
It is the voice that breaks the silence of the soul. The thunders of the sky leave it undisturbed; the rumbling of the street by day, or the passing of ponderous trains at night, may disturb the quiet of the body and break its rest, but the soul of man is deaf to such sounds, and lives in a realm where these can never come. But it has its own noises; it hears the voices that never float into audible speech. Satan speaks to it and gets attention; and God addresses it and is heard; and while it listens, the voice defines the right and the wrong, encourages to the one, and warns against the other. Men say of this, It is the voice of conscience and we ought to treasure its teaching. All men hear it! Even the worst of men may not hope to wholly escape its reproving word.
A speaker in the Moody School one summer, a Baptist preacher of fame in England, his home, said something like this: Upon the coasts of France, the sailor says, there is a buried city, and on quiet nights as they are rocked upon the deep, they can hear the tones of the buried bells coming up from the steeples far down in the ocean depths, with muffled sound. So in the hearts of men of the world who have lived lives of self-indulgence and evil, there are muffled tones from the depths of their nature, ringing in the steeples of the soul, telling them what is right and what is wrong. That is conscience! That also is the voice of God breaking upon the silence of the soul!
It is the one voice that is so subjective and spiritual that it cart say the word that renders the soul ecstatic in its joy, or drives it to desperation in its sorrow, and yet the individuals closest neighbor hears not a sound.
Gotthold, the great naturalist, was also much of a philosopher, and standing one day before that species of poplar whose leaves are peculiarly sensitive to every breeze, he heard a rustle in the foliage. He cast about to see the winds effect on other trees, but the breath was so slight that not a one of them seemed sensible to it. Then Gotthold said, This tree is an emblem of a man with a wounded and uneasy conscience, which takes alarm at the most trifling cause, and sets his whole person to trembling. He might also have said, This tree is like conscience because it is sensitive to whisper of winds that others about fail to feel.
That power of this silent voice accounts for many actions of men that seem strange to conscienceless souls. The State Treasurer of Ohio received an anonymous letter from some man in Cincinnati. Upon opening one, he read this note, The enclosed $1,000 belongs to the State of Ohio. Call it conscience money.
Some man had been disobedient to a silent voice as long as possible. No one else heard the word behind him that tracked him wherever he went; that accused him of theft a thousand times a day; that started him from his sleep at night by crying into the ears of his soul, Thief! Thief! Thief! His closest neighbor knew not the fact, nor did conscience publish it so far from home. His own wife, if he had one, might have seen her golden wedding anniversary with him, and shared in all his secrets save this one, for conscience would drive him distracted and yet never speak loud enough for the wife of his bosom to hear. I think it was Rev. F. B. Meyer who said, Every man carries the judgment seat within him, and day after day stands before it; and the Son of Man, to whom all judgment is committed sits on the throne of this inner court, and he not only tells us that this or the other is right or wrong, but he goes further and pronounces sentence in our favor by a kiss of infinite delight, or judgment against us by his frown of infinite sorrow. We may enjoy the one, or we must endure the other, according as we heed or despise the silent voice within the soul. Happy is the man who can say before God of his treatment of this voice, what Paul said of the voice he heard on the way to Damascus, and the sights and sounds attending it, Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision (Act 26:19).
The voice of an enlightened conscience is distinct or muffled and uncertain, according as we are obedient or disobedient to its counsel. People often complain that conscience does not speak in audible voice, and her counsel is not to be relied upon because often of uncertain sound. Only when we wrong her by refusing or failing to execute her behests, does she speak in timid tones, or cease to speak altogether. In a sermon which Dr. Alexander MacLaren preached on Pilates Effort to Wash His Hands of Christs Blood, that wise preacher said sagely enough, There is nothing that so effectually silences the remonstrances of the inward voice as the habit of neglecting it. If you persistently pick the buds off a plant and do not let it either flower or fruit, you will kill it, and if you nip the shoots of conscience by neglecting its warnings, then the plant will, if it does not die, at least retreat into its root and lie there dormant tilltill it is transplanted by death, and a new climate draws it out into activity. It is a fearful thing then to be disobedient to this heavenly voice. It means a coming experience when the soul shall sit either in an eternal silence, or else hear only its own lonely wail, or the taunts and jeers of friends. On the other hand, if we obey it, the voice grows in distinctness of utterance, and in readiness of counsel, and the soul is furnished a chart and compass that will point out the way in the darkest night, and render piloting safe in the fiercest storm that sweeps the sea of life. Let us not be disobedient to the word within us!
This voice, though silent, is yet supreme. The supreme forces of the material universe are silent. It is only the small machinery in material things that thunders and attracts attention to itself. At North Easton, Mass., once we saw a boy drawing a small wagon on the sidewalk and racing with a passing train of many coaches. The little wagon rattled so loud that the sound of rumbling car wheels and the puffing of the engine were drowned in the greater noise of the plaything. And yet the train was too small to be wholly silent. It takes a world to roll through space and start never a sound. The Psalmist wrote, you remember, The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, and their voice is not heard (Psa 19:1-3). Those are the supreme forces, which move and reign in silence.
It is so in the spiritual worldthe unuttered word is the one that directs the soul into right paths and warns it against the wrong ones. It is the word of conscience, which no mortal ear hears, from which the souls ear receives this sentence distinctly, This is the way, walk ye in it (Isa 30:21). That voice comes to you in the hour when you need it most; in the hour when two or three paths lead off before you and you stand before the forks not knowing which one to take. Then, set your judgment aside; then ignore your preference as far as possible; then shut your ears against volunteers of cheap counsel and listen to the voice within, the voice that no other can hear, the voice that has been to you as the voice of God, and follow it, for its word is supreme.
Have you ever been on a strange road in a dark night, and as you went along, came suddenly to a fork in the road and saw two or more highways leading off in as many directions? If so, you were calm, or disturbed, according as your horse was familiar with the course you wished to take, or was untravelled in it. If he was familiar, you loosed the rein and confided in him. You may have thought him wrong as he turned calmly to the left; you may have been disposed to draw on the other rein just a little, but his persistency toward the left decided you, and you yielded the point of your judgment to his more sure instinct and he brought you to your destination all right. He is woefully ignorant of the precision of instinct in the beast, who, under such circumstances, thinks his judgment superior, and gives to it the supremacy. What instinct is in the lower animals, enlightened conscience is in manit is Gods silent whisper in both; and that whisper is supreme, as both he that obeys and he that disregards it must learn. Theodore Parker was in many respects a wonderful man. He was spiritual and surpassingly eloquent, and though at times he wandered so far from the truth as revealed in Gods Word, yet at other times he set forth with singular effect the truth he had discovered from life, or experienced in his own soul. He tells the story of an incident that came into his earliest years in illustration of the distinctness of the voice of conscience in one of tenderest summers. He was but four years old when he started alone, from the field where his father was laboring, to the house. His path led by a shallow pond, and in passing he saw a lily in full bloom and went to the waters edge to get it. Once there he saw a spotted turtle sleeping in the sun. He had never killed anything, but he had seen other boys and he was seized with a desire to imitate them in that. He raised a small club and was in the act of bringing it down on the tiny head when he heard within him a voice clear and loud saying, It is wrong! He dropped his stick, hastened to his mother and asked her what it was within that had spoken the words, It is wrong! She took him into her arms, wiped a tear from her eye, and said, Some people call it conscience, but I prefer to call it the voice of God. If you listen to it and obey it, then it will speak clearer and clearer and always guide you aright. My child, your life depends on your heeding that little voice. Parker said of it long afterward, No event of my youth made such a lasting impression!
But this word is not only supreme in that its directions are most distinct and wise, but also in that its counsel is a command of authority, This is the way, walk ye in it (Isa 30:21). There is no appeal from that speech. It admits of no choice on our part; it is final, and to disobey is little less than destruction. Some men seem disturbed by the want of latitude in this. They complain of conscience that its mandates abridge their liberties, and resist the silent whisper of God as an encroachment on their personal rights. Alas, that man will persist in setting such store by himself, and in claiming so much as his right, and in supposing his judgment to be supreme. The average boast of liberty, the average cry for greater latitude in behavior than conscience approves or Gods Word allows, is a carnal boast and a carnal cry! It is the voice of the flesh quarreling against the leadings of the Spirit; it is the desire of wicked license, using and abusing the term liberty. There is such a thing as abusing the liberty that we have, under God, until He is provoked by our license to restrict us more and more, and render our paths straighter and narrower. The child who does not obey the mother who tells him to play inside the yard, soon finds himself locked into the narrow confines of a single room. If he cant enjoy the liberty of the lawn without availing himself of the license of the streets, he must be content behind bolted doors. It is so when we are disobedient to Gods voice within the soul. Russell Conwell tells how it happened on a steamer by which he returned from England, that only a few cabin passengers were aboard, and the captain, a kind-hearted man, allowed them great liberties. When it was fair weather he let them manage the wheel. When a storm arose and fears were entertained lest the vessel should go down, there were passengers who thought they knew better how to manage a boat than the pilot or captain. Some of them so persistently interfered with the captains orders that he had to put their leader in irons for mutiny on the high seas. So there are men who think they know more about managing the craft of immortality than God knowsmen who mutiny against His great pilot conscience and so persistently refuse obedience to his directions that it is necessary to restrict them in their liberties. As Conwell said, God has to put some men in irons before they will learn obedience. But whether in joy or sorrow, in peace or pain, one lesson we must learn or lose life, and that is to obey the voice that comes to us in every perplexity, saying to us when about to turn to the right or to the left, This is the way, walk ye in it (Isa 30:21).
But the last and sweetest fact of this supremacy is that he who obeys this voice will never blunder. The great sorrows of this life are not those that befall us in consequence of no fault of our own. We can bear all such and be brave! Job can live after his oxen and asses and sheep and camels and servants and children are all swept away with one destructive storm; after that his flesh and bones are cursed with boils; after that his wife has grown dyspeptic and faithless; after that his miserable comforters have regaled him for days with their pessimistic sophistries, because in it all, Job was conscious of his own integrity. He had not been disobedient to the word behind him! Elijah found himself visited of angels in the solitude of a wilderness whither he had gone to escape Jezebel, and comforted with the sweetest message, when he thought himself alone in faithfulness to God. Daniel was not disturbed at the sight of a lions den, as Joseph had not been at that of a prison, nor the three Hebrew children at that of Heated furnaces; for all carried in their bosoms a consciousness of obedience to the silent voice and feared no blunder. But how different with those who have despised the word within! The downiest bed could not induce slumber to come to the perjured soul of Saul; the most bewitching strains from Davids harp failed to soothe his excited nerves, because in his bosom was the voice of a wronged conscience, the silent protest of an insulted God. Darius passed a similar night after Daniel had been wronged, and Judas Iscariot found life a burden too heavy to bear after that he had disobeyed the voice and betrayed his Lord. Better follow that path to which The Word directs, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it (Isa 30:21), for though it seem rugged at times, though it leads through the valleys of humiliation and over the hill of difficulty, though it has stones that cut the feet, and chained lions that frighten the heart, it goes straight upward and onward toward the wicket gate of the celestial city, and he who keeps to that path will have no steps to retrace, no pitfalls to encounter, no castles of doubt to endure, make no blunders that superinduce despair. It may be the straightest and narrowest path that leads through this world of ours, but, taken all in all, it is infinitely the best one that man can tread. The old Appian way was a magnificent road. It is said to have been 24 feet wide, 350 miles long, and built of stone, smooth as a floor. But men travelled it most because it was the Emperors highway and led to the eternal city of the seven hills. This path of the text is more rugged and narrow, but the King of Kings walks there, and those who take it forget all trials in the sight of His gracious face; at its end are thrones and crowns, and the eternal city, the souls everlasting habitationand God reigns!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(21) Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee.The voice of the human teacher on whom the people looked as they listened would find an echo in that inner voice telling them which was the true way, when they were tempted to turn to the right hand or the left.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This [is] the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Ver. 21. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee. ] Quum a tergo tuo dicent, when they shall say behind thee – viz., thy teachers: a metaphor, say some, from shepherds driving their sheep, and whistling them in when ready to stray. a
When ye turn to the right hand, or to the left.
a Subest comparatio a pastore sumpta, qui oves sequitur, et aberrantes in viam revocat.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thine ears: Isa 35:8, Isa 35:9, Isa 42:16, Isa 48:17, Isa 58:11, Psa 25:8, Psa 25:9, Psa 143:8-10, Pro 3:5, Pro 3:6, Jer 6:16, 1Jo 2:20, 1Jo 2:27
when ye turn to the right: Deu 5:32, Jos 1:7, Jos 23:6, 2Ki 22:2, Psa 32:8, Pro 4:27
Reciprocal: Gen 22:13 – behind Gen 48:15 – did walk Exo 18:20 – the way Exo 33:13 – show Deu 4:12 – only ye heard a voice Deu 28:14 – the right 1Ki 8:36 – the good way 1Ch 17:3 – word 2Ch 6:27 – good way Ezr 8:21 – to seek Job 22:28 – the light Psa 27:11 – Teach Psa 73:24 – Thou Psa 107:7 – he led Pro 15:19 – the way of the righteous Jer 3:15 – And I Eze 16:26 – with the Joe 2:23 – the former Amo 8:11 – but Mat 1:20 – while Mat 2:22 – being Mat 7:14 – narrow Joh 8:32 – ye shall Act 16:6 – forbidden Rev 10:8 – the voice
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
30:21 And thy ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This [is] the way, {s} walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
(s) God will direct all your ways and appoint you how to go either hither or thither.