Acceptable Present to the Lord of Hosts

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An Acceptable Present to the Lord of Hosts

"In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto--a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion." –Isaiah 18:7

When presents are made, there is usually a correspondence between the present and the person to whom it is given. An ample present for a beggar would be an insult to a nobleman. But especially when presents are made to kings, must the offering be worthy of the royal personage to whom the gift is made; otherwise he would consider it an affront rather than a present. And this more particularly in ancient times and eastern climates, where no one ever thinks of approaching a sovereign or man in power, without laying at his feet a suitable present. Thus the queen of Sheba, when she came to see and consult Solomon, brought the richest presents her country could produce.

The Lord of hosts is said in the text to have a present--"In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts." And what present shall he have? Shall it be gold and silver, that object of almost universal idolatrous worship? Shall it be diamonds, and pearls, and precious stones? Shall it be noble buildings, and fretted aisles, and resounding organs, and chanting voices, and the fumes of incense? He that was born in a stable and cradled in a manger, can never look with acceptance upon such offerings as these. Shall it be then the best that nature can present? Shall it be such as the heart of man can lay at his feet as its chief offering? Shall it be creature piety? Shall it be natural religion? Shall it be human righteousness? Shall it be anything or everything that the creature may produce?

The eye of eternal purity can never look upon the works or the words of man, except with abhorrence, for all--all are tainted, polluted, and deeply stained with original sin; and therefore, an offering entirely unacceptable in the eyes of infinite purity.

What shall he then have? What offering is fit for him, for his worth? The text tells us what the present is, that is to be brought to the Lord of hosts; what that offering is, which he will look upon with acceptance, and which he will graciously receive. "In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion."

With God's blessing, this evening, and looking up to him, as I am compelled, from time to time, from real soul necessity, that he would inspire thoughts, and dictate words, and crown with power what shall be spoken--I shall, in considering the subject, treat it under two heads.

I. First, show the nature of the present which is made to the Lord of hosts.

II. The place to which the present is brought, and the way in which the present is received.

I. THE NATURE OF THE PRESENT WHICH IS MADE TO THE LORD OF HOSTS. It is declared by the Holy Spirit in our text to be "a people". "In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of a people." You will observe, that the "people" is the present which is brought to the Lord of hosts. But what "people" is this? It is the elect people of God--those that were chosen in Christ before all worlds; as the Lord speaks so clearly and emphatically, John 17:6 "Yours they were, and you gave them to me." "All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them". John 17:10 The people, then, who are to be brought as a present to the Lord of hosts, are the elect of God; that people for whom Christ died; that people whom he has formed for himself, and in whom he will show forth his praise.

But the Holy Spirit in the text describes the CHARACTER of the people who are thus brought. The text does not speak of the people of God merely as elect, merely as redeemed, merely as quickened by the blessed Spirit; but the Holy Spirit has selected certain marks, which are stamped upon this people, and which distinguish them from all other people upon the face of the earth. And here we see much beauty and much wisdom. If there were no description in the word of truth of the characters of God's people, many of the Lord's family would lack evidences and testimonies that they belong to the election of grace.

Many of the Lord's people fully and firmly believe that there is an election of grace, but they are often tried in their minds as to whether they are personally and savingly interested in this election. They do not cavil and fight against God's sovereignty, and the doctrines of grace as revealed in the word of truth; their minds are bowed down to receive them, and they firmly believe them to be "the truth as it is in Jesus."

But the trying point with many--shall I say, the majority? of the Lord's people is--their own personal, individual interest in these precious doctrines. These are the points which often try their minds; not whether God has an elect people, but whether their names, as individuals, are in the Book of Life. And therefore, that we may be able to distinguish them, and that they may be able, as the blessed Spirit shines upon their evidences, to trace out in their own hearts some decisive marks that they are of the Lord's family, the Holy Spirit has described their character, and pointed out those peculiar things which are to be found in them, and in them alone. These we shall, this evening, with God's blessing, endeavor more fully to enter into.

1. The first mark given of this people who are brought as a present to the Lord of hosts is, that they are scattered. Now, if we look at the election of grace generally, this word is most true of them. They are a scattered people. Look at this present congregation. Is it not made up of people from many different towns and villages? Cranbrook alone has not contributed its population to the large assembly that fills this chapel. It is then literally true, that the Lord's people are a scattered people; dispersed far and wide; dwelling in the towns and villages where God has placed them, that they may be so many living testimonies for God's truth, and witnesses of God's grace.

But there is something deeper than that. The Lord's people are not merely scattered as regards their local habitation, but they are scattered in an experimental sense; and this we shall see better, by viewing their state as contrasted with the case of formal, dead professors--their religion lies all together; their piety, their holiness, their goodness, their strength, and their wisdom lie all in one heap; and the more they accumulate, and the more they get together, the more collected and compact is their strength, their wisdom and their righteousness.

But not so with the Lord's family. God's children differ completely from them in this point, that they are scattered internally, as to their own feelings, and as to the experience of their own hearts, just as much as they are scattered locally up and down this ungodly world. They are "strangers, dispersed" in their feelings, as well as strangers dispersed in the midst of a wicked and crooked generation. Jas 1:1 1Pe 1:1,2

Whence springs this scattering? Have you not seen sometimes on a barn floor the wheat and chaff lying together in one confused heap; but the barn doors are thrown open, a strong wind blows through, and what is the immediate consequence? A scattering--the strong breeze blowing through begins to scatter what before lay together in one confused heap. Is not this true spiritually and experimentally in the hearts of God's people, through the gales of the Spirit? The Lord himself compares the operations of the Spirit to the wind.

When these breezes blow upon the heart, is not their effect immediately to scatter? Here was a man, before the Lord was pleased to work upon his soul with power, dead in sin or dead in a profession. There was no scattering then going on in his heart; there was no separation then in his soul of that which was of God and that which was of man, that which was of flesh and that which was of the Spirit.

But when the Lord the Spirit begins to blow upon a man's heart, immediately a scattering takes place. His righteousness, which before he had got together with great pains, and looked upon in the same way as a miser often views his accumulated treasure--when the anger of God was made manifest in his conscience, and the breadth and spirituality of his holy law were revealed with power, this righteousness which he had so painfully and so laboriously accumulated was scattered to the four winds of heaven.

His wisdom, in which he once so gloried over other men; his clear knowledge of the doctrines in the letter, his acquaintance with God's word, and the good opinion that he had of himself as a wise and understanding man--no sooner does the breath of the Lord begin to blow upon the sinner's conscience, than all this wisdom is scattered before the wind; all his head knowledge, all his empty profession, all the vain confidence which he once got together, and once could build upon, are scattered and dispersed, and he stands before God a perfect fool.

His prayers which once he could repeat so collectedly, his thoughts which were so little confused, and his hearing which from time to time he could give with such attention, when the breath of the Lord begins to blow upon the heart, all become scattered. His prayers, instead of being collected forms, are now broken fragments of sighs and cries; his hearing, instead of being a matter of criticism, becomes this, 'O that the Lord would apply one word to my poor heart!'

His strength which once he could bring forward to support himself against temptation, to overcome sin, and to crucify the flesh--when the breath of the Lord begins to blow upon the soul, he finds to be perfect weakness.

The vain hopes, which once he could gather together, all are scattered when the wrath of God is made known in his conscience, and the purity of Jehovah is revealed in his soul; and all his confident expectations are dispersed when the breath of the Lord blows upon his heart, and scatters them to a thousand pieces.

So that the Lord's people who are brought as a present, and laid at the feet of Jesus, the Lord of hosts, are not merely a scattered people as regards their habitations, dwelling separate from the world, separate from professors, and separate from evil, as God the Spirit enables them; but in their feelings, in their experience before God are they thus scattered and divided, so as to be unable to get anything together that they can look upon with pleasure and admiration.

2. The next mark that is given of this people that are brought as a present to the Lord of hosts, is, that it is a "peeled" people. There is one text in the Scripture which I think is a key to this expression. Some of you will, perhaps, remember the promise made to Nebuchadnezzar by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, Eze 29:18 where the Lord tells him that he would give him Egypt in recompense for the hard service he served at Tyre, when "every head was made bald, and every shoulder peeled;" that is to say, his soldiers had been so long engaged in the siege of Tyre that their very heads had become bald through the number of years, and they carried such heavy burdens upon their shoulders, they so wielded the mattock and shouldered the spade, that the very flesh of their shoulders peeled off and became raw.

This, I think, is the Scripture key to the expression in the text, "of a people being peeled." It is as if the blessed Spirit would bring before us a heavily burdened people. If you were to carry a burden a considerable distance upon your shoulder with a stick, would not your shoulder soon become raw, and the flesh peel off? Thus the expression seems to point out the burdens which the Lord's people have to carry, so heavy and so long, that their very flesh peels off through the load.

For instance, there is the burden of sin; and wherever the Lord takes a soul in hand, he makes it feel more or less of the burden of sin. There is also the burden of unbelief and infidelity, that many of the Lord's people have so long and so much to groan under. There is the burden too of a hard heart– a dark, stupid, stony, unfeeling heart, that will not relent and melt down at the footstool of mercy. There are also many temporal, as well as spiritual burdens which the Lord's people have to carry; afflictions in providence, afflictions in body, afflictions in circumstances, afflictions in family. All these make up so many burdens that they have to bear upon their shoulders.

But the word "peeled" directs us to this idea--not merely that they have burdens, for we may carry a burden upon our shoulders for a time, and that burden not peel the skin off; but it points to the length of time during which it is carried. A little burden, comparatively speaking, carried on the shoulder for a long time, will cause the skin to peel. And thus the Spirit seems to guide our thoughts to the duration of time during which the Lord's people are burdened; that they have to carry them so far, and have to carry them so long, that spiritually they are, as a man is naturally, "peeled" by the weight they endure, and the time they carry it.

How many burdens have you had to carry during the time you have made a profession of godliness? If they are heavy, and you have carried them long, they have produced a peeled shoulder. The Lord aims, by laying burdens on, to bring us to his feet.

I have thought sometimes spiritually of an old punishment, which was in force in this country. If a prisoner refused to plead guilty, he was taken to a dungeon and stripped, he was fastened down on his back, and a weight was placed upon his chest. If he still continued obstinate, the next day an additional weight was placed. If on the third day he continued perverse, and the plea of "guilty" still refused to escape from his lips, an additional burden was put upon him; until at last, if he persevered in his obduracy, burdens were added until his chest was crushed to pieces.

This may show, in a spiritual point of view, how the Lord deals with his people. He puts a burden upon them--that burden does not at first bring them down. He puts on another--that they carry for some time in their own strength. But the Lord's purpose is to bring them down, to force the plea of 'Guilty, guilty!' out of their lips. And thus the Lord brings our sins to mind; lays upon our consciences, from time to time, our secret iniquities; allows powerful temptations to seize, harass, and distress our souls; all to bring us to this point, by putting burden upon burden, at last to force the cry and plea of 'Guilty, guilty!' out of our lips.

When once that cry comes out of our heart, then the Lord puts forth his hand, and takes the burden off the breast. But until that cry comes out of the very depths of a broken heart--until it comes with simplicity, humility, and godly sincerity from a contrite spirit--burdens will be put on, until at last the soul cries, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!'

Some of the Lord's people seem to require heavier burdens than others. There is in some, an unyielding spirit; in others, a self-justifying temper; in a third, a proud, rebellious, perverse disposition; in a fourth, lightness and frivolity of mind; so that, some of the Lord's people seem to require heavier burdens than others. But whether we require heavier burdens or lighter, to one spot, to one point, must every child of God come--to bow down, as a poor guilty sinner, at the footstool of mercy, there to receive the manifestations of mercy to his soul. As we read, "He brought down their heart with labor--they fell down; and there was none to help." Now comes the effect--"then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses". Ps 107:12,13

3. The next thing said of this people is, that it is "from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto." The word "from" means, I think, the same thing as the word "of;" as though it ran thus--"In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and of a people terrible from their beginning hitherto." In other words, it is a mere repetition of the preceding preposition "of." And that this is the meaning of the expression, seems to me clear from the second verse of the chapter--"Go, you swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto." Not a people taken out of a people, but this being the character of all that people.

But in what sense is this peculiar people, thus brought as a present to the Lord of hosts, "terrible from their beginning hitherto?" The words seem to my mind to bear this spiritual meaning--the Lord's people who have clearly a work of grace upon their souls are a terror to their neighbors. The very world can see something in them, that distinguishes them from the great mass of mankind. The very professor can see something in those who distinguishes them from others. And though they hate the image of Christ in them, though they abhor to see the features of grace, yet there is that in them, which makes them terrible to empty professors, because of the conviction in their conscience, that they are destitute of those things which they see in them.

Those that are dead in sin, and those that are dead in a profession, are no terror to their neighbors. A man may have the soundest doctrines in his head, but if his life be worldly, inconsistent, and ungodly, he is a terror to nobody; the Lord's people justly shun him, the world deservedly scorns him, and professors cast out his name as evil. But wherever there is a real work of grace upon the heart; wherever the blessed Spirit has touched the conscience with his almighty finger, and planted the fear of God as a living principle within; wherever there is a separation from 'the world buried in sin or in profession', a living in the fear of the Lord, in uprightness of heart, simplicity, and godly sincerity--every such man, be he in a town or be he in a village, is a secret terror to all, and more especially to those who have a name to live while dead.

If you can be as the great majority of professors are; if you have a Sunday religion, that you can put on when you take your Sunday clothes from the closet, no one will be afraid of you. But if you have a religion in your heart, lip, and life, carried out in your walk and conversation, you will be one of those people who have been "terrible from their beginning hitherto." The Lord points this out as a characteristic mark of his people, distinguishing them from those who have the form without the power--that "from their beginning," from the very first implantation of divine life in their soul, from their first convictions, from their first cry and sigh, from their first separation from the world, from their first profession of the truth in the power of it, they were a terror.

And not only so, but "hitherto," up to the very time when they are brought to the footstool of mercy as a present to the Lord. They are terrible in conviction, and they are terrible in consolation. They are terrible when under the law, and they are terrible when under the gospel. They are terrible when almost a terror to themselves, and more terrible when the image of Christ is seen more clearly and distinctly in them.

Let them speak of convictions; their very convictions carry with them a weight of evidence which is a terror to those who have never felt convictions. Let them speak of consolations; their very speech, thus "seasoned with salt," is a terror to those who have never felt any genuine consolation. Let them speak of their trials, exercises, fears, doubts, sinkings, and misgivings; they are a terror, if they are on this dark side. Let them speak of the whispers of loving-kindness and tender mercy; let them speak of smiles from the Lord, and the manifestations of his favor; they are a greater terror on the bright side than they were on the dark. And thus the Lord's people have this mark stamped upon them, that they are terrible from their beginning hitherto.

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