Bible Commentaries
James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Isaiah 50
A FIRE OF DYING SPARKS
‘Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.’
Isaiah 50:11
In this text the many fictitious sources from which men seek to derive happiness are compared to a fire kindled, and sparks struck out by way of relieving the darkness of the night. It is of course implied in the metaphor that true happiness, the real and adequate complement of man’s nature, resembles the Divinely created and golden sunlight.
I. This comparison does not lead us to deny that pleasure and gratification of a certain kind are derivable from worldly sources.
II. Consider the drawbacks of worldly enjoyments.—(1) Unsatisfactoriness adheres in their very nature, inasmuch as they are all (more or less) artificial. (2) The fitful character of the enjoyment derived from worldly sources renders it comparable to a fire and sparks struck out. (3) A fire requires constantly to be fed with fresh fuel, if its brilliancy and warmth are to be maintained. (4) But perhaps the chief drawback of the worldling’s so-called happiness is that it is consistent with so much anxiety—that it is subject to frequent intrusions from alarm, whenever a glimpse of the future untowardly breaks in upon his mind.
—Dean Goulburn.
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