Bible Commentaries

THE TEMPORAL AND THE ETERNAL

‘Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but My salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.’

Isaiah 51:6

I. Consider, first, the heavens above and the earth beneath, as temporal either in themselves or in regard to us who must ‘die in like manner.’—(1) Our text is the record of a great appointment extending to the whole surrounding universe, and sentencing it to dissolution and extinction. Is it not a confounding thought, that by a simple effort of His will the Almighty is to unhinge and dislocate the amazing mechanism of the universe, sweep away myriads upon myriads of stupendous worlds, and yet remain Himself the great ‘I Am,’ the same when stars and planets fall as when in far back time they blazed at His command? (2) Our text marks out a second way in which our connection with visible things—the heavens and the earth—may be brought to a close. ‘They that dwell therein shall die in like manner.’

II. A contrast is drawn between God, His salvation and His righteousness, and the heavens and the earth.—It seems the design of the passage to affix a general character to the objects of faith as distinguished from the objects of sense—the character of permanence as distinguished from that of decline. Look on the heavens that are now, they ‘shall vanish away like smoke’; look on the earth beneath, ‘it shall wax old as a garment.’ But we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. These shall be for ever; these shall not be abolished.

—Canon Melvill.