Treasures of Darkness

"I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight – I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron – and I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who calls you by name, am the God of Israel." Isaiah 45:2,3

To whom were these words spoken? To Cyrus. And who was Cyrus? King of Persia. But how did Cyrus come to be introduced into the Word of God; and how did it happen that the Lord gave such promises to a heathen monarch? Cyrus, though a heathen prince, was an instrument chosen of God to do an appointed work, which was to overthrow the great Chaldean empire, take the city of Babylon, and restore the children of Israel to their own land; and therefore one hundred and seventy years before he executed the office thus assigned to him he was expressly pointed out and personally addressed by name in the record of inspired prophecy. What a proof is this of the inspiration of God's Word, and that all events are under His appointment and control!

Not only, however, was he thus called by name, but the very work which he had to do was expressly declared long before the necessity arose for its being accomplished. The work for which he was raised up and divinely appointed, was to rescue from captivity the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which, as a punishment for their sins, were to be carried into captivity to Babylon, where they were to continue for a definite period, the space, namely, of seventy years. To rescue them, then, from this Babylonish captivity, when the seventy years were expired, and to enable them to return, was the work that Cyrus, in the appointment of God, had to perform. This was a very great work for him to execute, a work so great that he could not have performed it unless he had been specially aided by God. For he had to take a city whose walls were fifty cubits thick and two hundred feet high, surrounded by a wide ditch full of water, and defended with one hundred gates of brass. The city was also well manned and well provisioned, and altogether so strong and powerful as to defy every mode of attack then known. If the Lord, therefore, in the words of the text, had not "gone before him;" if He had not "broken to pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron," Cyrus could never have taken that mighty city, but must have been utterly defeated in the attempt.

This, then, is the literal meaning of the text. But does it not admit of a more extensive application? The promise, it is true, was given to Cyrus, and we know was literally fulfilled; but are the words applicable only to Cyrus? Have we no fortress to take, no city of salvation to win? Do we not need the Lord to go before us, and make our crooked places straight? Have we no gates of brass, no bars of iron, which shut out approach and access, and which we need the Lord to break in pieces and cut in sunder for us? Does the road to heaven lie across a smooth, grassy meadow, over which we may quietly walk in the cool of a summer evening and leisurely amuse ourselves with gathering the flowers and listening to the warbling of the birds?

No child of God ever found the way to heaven a flowery path. It is the wide gate and broad way which leads to perdition. It is the strait gate and narrow way, the uphill road, full of difficulties, trials, temptations, and enemies, which leads to heaven, and issues in eternal life. If, then, we are Zion's pilgrims, heavenward and homeward bound, we shall find the need of such promises, in their spiritual fulfillment, as God here gave to Cyrus. This idea may give us a clue to the spiritual meaning of our text. I shall, therefore, with God's blessing, this evening, endeavor to take this experimental view of it, and interpret it as applicable to God's family, omitting further reference to Cyrus, except as it may help to elucidate the spiritual meaning. Considering it, then, in this light, I think we may observe in it three special features:

I. What I may perhaps call God's preliminary work in "going before His people, making for them crooked places straight, breaking in pieces gates of brass, and cutting in sunder bars of iron."

II. The gifts which the Lord bestows upon them, when He has broken to pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron, here called "treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places."

III. The blessed effects produced by what the Lord thus does and thus gives--a spiritual and experimental knowledge, that "He who has called them by their name is the God of Israel."

I. God's preliminary work in "going before His people, making for them crooked places straight, breaking in pieces gates of brass, and cutting in sunder bars of iron." Before, however, I enter into God's preliminary work, and show how it all stands on the firm footing of promise, I must drop a remark or two on the characters to whom these promises are made. To make this more clear as well as more personal, we will look at it in the singular number, as God has worded it – "I will go before you." It is evident from the very language of the text, that the promises contained in it are given to the exercised child of God, and to him alone. No one else, therefore, has any business with or any spiritual interest in it. Consider this point a moment for yourselves before I proceed further. Let this point be firmly impressed upon your mind, that if you have no spiritual exercises, trials, or temptations, you have, at present, no manifested interest in the promises made in the text; nor can you enter spiritually into their suitability and beauty, or know for yourself the divine and heavenly blessedness which is lodged in them. But if, on the other hand, you are a tried, exercised child of God, one who knows the plague of your heart, and the many difficulties and perplexities which beset the road to heaven, you have so far reason to believe that you are one of the characters to whom these promises are addressed.

1. The first promise, as it is the sweetest, so it lays a foundation for all the rest – "I will go before you." But look at the words. Have you ever considered what they imply? How great must those difficulties are which need the God of heaven and earth Himself to go before us in order to overcome them! Surely they must be insuperable by any human strength, if they need nothing less than the immediate presence and power of the Almighty Himself. Go out some fine evening and look at the sky, spangled with thousands of stars, and then say to yourself, "What, do I need the same Almighty hand which created all these glittering orbs to go before me?" Now, suppose that at present, as regards religious matters, you have never encountered a single trial, temptation, or difficulty; but have found everything easy, smooth, and a matter of course, and have never met with one obstruction which you could not by some exertion of your own remove. If matters be so with you, how in the world can you need the Lord to go before you? You could not, I would think, except by way of compliment, presume even to ask for such a favor.

But if, on the other hand, you are contending with great inward perplexities of mind, feel to be in much soul peril and sorrow, and are surrounded by difficulties which you cannot surmount by any strength or wisdom of your own, and yet surmounted they must be, then you will feel a need for the Lord "to go before you." There is nothing that we are more averse to than trials and afflictions in providence or grace, and yet, if truth be spoken, we never come to know anything aright or receive any real blessing without them. Usually speaking, the Lord does not appear in providence or grace, or make Himself known in love and mercy to the soul, except in the path of trial. We must, therefore, go into trials and afflictions to learn not only the end, but the very beginning of religion--I may add, even to know that there is a God, so as to experience the power of His arm, the greatness of His salvation and the light of his countenance.

If we, then, are rightly taught, we shall feel a need for the Lord to go before us, not only now and then, but every step of the way, for unless led and guided by Him, we are sure to go astray. How strikingly was this the case with the children of Israel. How the Lord went before them every step from Egypt to the promised land, marshaling their way night and day in the cloudy pillar! How, also, He went before them after they reached Canaan, and made the hearts and hands of their enemies as weak as water so that they could offer no resistance to their victorious arms. How the very walls of Jericho fell, as it were, of their own accord, and how the promised land was almost conquered before the children of Israel set foot upon it! So must the Lord go before us step by step.

A. But you may apply this promise to a variety of things. It is applicable not only to spiritual but to temporal trials and perplexities – to His going before us both in providence and grace. If the Lord goes before, preparing the way and opening a path for us to walk in, all is well; every difficulty at once disappears, every mountain sinks into a plain. But if we cannot see nor feel Him going before us, then no ray of light streams upon the path, no friendly hand removes the barriers. Beset behind and before, we know not what to do. It seems as if we were thrown back upon ourselves--miserable refuge enough, and we know not what step to take.

B. But the words apply not merely to the Lord's going before us in afflictions and trials and removing them out of the way, or giving us strength to bear them, but also to the manifestation of His holy and sacred will. There are few things more trying or perplexing to a child of God than to desire to do what is right, yet not to know, in particular circumstances, what is right, or if known how to do it; to long to learn the will of God in some important matter, and yet be unable to discover plainly and clearly what that will is. In this case, when brought into some extremity, the Lord sometimes goes before in His kind providence by unexpectedly opening a door in one particular direction and shutting up all others, intimating thereby that this is the way in which He would have us walk; and sometimes in His grace by whispering a soft word of instruction to the soul which at once decides the matter.

C. But it is especially in the removal of obstructions that the Lord fulfils this part of the promise. This was especially the case with Cyrus, in whose path such formidable obstacles lay. What these are we shall more clearly see by passing on to the next portion of the promise.

2. "And make crooked things straight." This promise springs out of the former, and is closely connected with it; for it is only by the Lord's going before that things really crooked can be straightened. But what if there be in our path no crooked places; what if the road we are treading be like an arrow for straightness, and a turfy lawn for smoothness? Why, then we have certainly no present interest in the promise. It wears to us no smiling face; it stretches to us no friendly hand. But on the other hand, if we find such crooked places in our path, that we cannot possibly straighten them, and such rough and rugged spots that we cannot smooth them, this so far affords ground for hope that we have an interest in the promise given that the Lord will go before us and straighten them for us.

But what is meant by crooked places, and whence come they? Viewing them generally, we may say that these crooked places are so in two ways. Some are inherently crooked, that is, it is in their very nature to be so – and others are so not from any inherent necessity, but from the Lord's appointment that they should be so.

A. The things which are crooked in themselves, that is, inherently and necessarily bent and curved, are so through sin; for sin has bent crooked that which was originally straight. Thus crooked tempers, crooked dispositions, crooked desires, crooked wills, crooked lusts are in themselves inherently crooked, because being bent out of their original state by sin, they do not now lie level with God's holy will and Word; and these are felt to be crooked by a living soul through the implantation and possession of a holy principle which detects and groans under their crookedness and contrariety.

B. But there are crooked places in the path of God's family, which are not inherently crooked as being sinful in themselves, but are crooked as made so by the hand of God to us.Of this kind are afflictions in body and mind, poverty in circumstances, trials in the family, persecution from superiors or ungodly relatives, heavy losses in business, bereavement of children, and in short, a vast variety of circumstances curved into their shape by the hand of God, and so made "crooked things" to us.

Now, the Lord has promised to make "crooked things straight." Taken in its fullest extent, the promise positively declares that from whatever source they come, or of whatever nature they be, the Lord will surely straighten them. By this He manifests His power, wisdom, and faithfulness.

But HOW does He straighten them? In two ways, and this according to their nature. Sometimes He straightens them by removing them out of the way, and sometimes not by removing them, but by reconciling our minds to them. We have perhaps a crooked path in Providence. It may be poverty, persecution, oppression; it may be family trials or temporal difficulties; and these spring out of, or are connected with, circumstances over which we have no control. These crooked things we may frequently have tried to remove or straighten; but all our attempts to do so leave them as bad or even worse than before. Rebellion, peevishness, or self-pity may have worked besides in our minds, all which may have made them more crooked than ever, until at last we are obliged to have recourse to the Lord. Now then is the time for Him to appear and fulfill His own promise, which He does sometimes by removing them altogether, taking us out of those circumstances which make them crooked to us, or putting an end to the circumstances themselves. In this way the Lord sometimes makes crooked places straight. This He did to Jacob, when He delivered him from Laban's tyranny and Esau's threatened violence, and to David when He took Saul out of the way. So health given for sickness, a deliverance in providence, a removing of an enemy out of the way, a bringing us from under the power of the oppressor, are all means whereby these crooked things are straightened.

But there is another way, and that is not by removing the trial, but by bending our will to submit to it. We must not think that the Lord will, in answer to prayer, remove all our temporal afflictions. So far from that, we may have more and more of them to our dying day. How then, it may be asked, can He fulfill His promise that He will make crooked places straight, if He leaves some of our worst crooks as crooked as before? He does it by bending our will to submit to them; and this He accomplishes sometimes by favoring the soul with a sweet sense of His blessed presence; and sometimes by throwing a secret and sacred light upon the path that we are treading, convincing us thereby that it is the right road, though a rugged one, to a city of habitation.

When the Lord thus appears, it brings submission – and as soon as we can submit to God's will, and the rebellion, peevishness, and unbelief of our carnal mind are subdued, a sweet and blessed calmness is felt in the soul. The crooked place now at once vanishes as being melted into the will of God. It is in this way, for the most part, that those places which are inherently crooked are made straight. There is no change in the things themselves, but in our views of and feelings towards them. The carnal mind which was crooked is crooked still; our crooked tempers and dispositions, our crooked lusts and desires, are in themselves as much curved as ever, but they are so far straightened as not to irritate and vex as before.

In a similar manner, the trial in providence which was crooked is crooked still; the people we have to deal with; the circumstances we have to encounter; the cross we have to carry; the burdens we have to bear, all remain unchanged and unaltered; but the Lord gives strength to endure the pain and trouble caused by them – and while they are borne in submission to His holy will, their weight is taken off the shoulders, and their crookedness is not so keenly felt. See how this was the case with those three eminent saints, Job, David, Paul. Job's trials, David's bereavement, and Paul's thorn were all as before; but when the Lord appeared, Job repented in dust and ashes, David arose from the earth and anointed himself, and Paul gloried in his infirmities.

3. But the Lord also promised Cyrus in the text that He would, by going before him, "break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." Cyrus longed to enter into and take possession of the city of Babylon; but when he took a survey of the only possible mode of entrance, he saw it firmly closed against him with gates of brass and bars of iron. These effectually barring all progress, he could not achieve the object of his desire. They were continually before his eyes, too strong for all his weapons of warfare; and unless battered down or broken to pieces, he could not capture the city.

Now can we not find something in our own personal experience which corresponds to this feeling in Cyrus? There is a longing in the soul after the attainment of a certain object, say, such as an obtaining of everlasting salvation, or a winning of Christ and a blessed experience of revealed pardon and peace, or an inward personal enjoyment of the sweet manifestations of God's favor and love. This, we will say, is the object the soul is set upon to attain, the Lord Himself having kindled these desires after it in the breast. But when, in pursuance of this object, we press forward to obtain it, what do we find in the road? Gates of brass and bars of iron. And these insuperable obstructions so stand in the path that they completely block up the road and prevent all access to the enjoyment of the desired blessing. It is, then, by the removal of these obstacles that the Lord fulfils His promise--"I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron."

Look for instance at our very prayers. Are not the heavens sometimes brass over our heads, so that, as Jeremiah complains, "they cannot pass through"? No, is not your very heart itself sometimes a gate of brass, as hard, as stubborn, and as inflexible? So the justice, majesty, and holiness of God, when we view these dread perfections of the living Jehovah with a trembling eye under the guilt of sin, stand before the soul as so many gates of brass. The various enemies too which beset the soul; the hindrances and obstacles without and within that stand in the path; the opposition of sin, Satan, self, and the world against all that is good and Godlike--may not all these be considered "gates of brass," barring out the wished-for access into the city?

But there are also besides "bars of iron." These strengthen the gates of brass and prevent them from being broken down or burst open, the stronger and harder metal giving firmness and solidity to the softer and weaker one. An unbelieving heart; the secret infidelity of the carnal mind; guilt of conscience produced by a sense of our base and innumerable wanderings and backslidings from the Lord; doubts and fears often springing out of our own lack of consistency and devotedness; apprehensions of being altogether deceived, from finding so few marks of grace and so much neglect of watchfulness and prayer--all these may be mentioned as bars of iron strengthening the gates of brass.

Now, can you break to pieces these gates of brass, or cut in sunder the bars of iron? That is the question. Could Cyrus do it literally? He had doubtless a large and valiant army, soldiers of the most approved valor, and possessed of all possible skill in the use of their weapons; but before them there stood the gates of brass and bars of iron. He might look at them in all their depth and width; but looking at them would not remove them. He might wish them broken asunder and cut to pieces; but wishing would go a very little way towards making them fall asunder. There they still were ever standing before his eyes, insuperable, impenetrable.

So with the feelings and experience of the child of God. There, there, right in his very path, the insuperable obstacles stand. He can no more break down his hardness of heart, darkness of mind, unbelief or infidelity than Cyrus could break to pieces the gates of brass of ancient Babylon. He can no more subdue the workings of a deceitful and desperately wicked heart than the King of Persia could by drawing his sword cut asunder at a stroke the bars of iron which strengthened the gates of brass. Here then, when so deeply needed, comes in the suitability and blessedness of the promise. "I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." The words, spiritually taken, mean of course the removal of all hindrances that block up the road. Let us see, then, how these are removed, that is, so dealt with by the hand of God as to be hindrances no longer.

Look, for instance, at the holiness and justice of God, which, as pure attributes, stand arrayed against the soul's entrance into heaven and glory. How, it may be asked, are these to be removed? Can God part with any one of His eternal and glorious attributes? Can they be, as it were, disannulled and cease to exist? No; that is clearly impossible; but as regards the heirs of salvation, they can be so dealt with as to be no longer gates of brass and bars of iron to shut them out of heaven. When Jesus, by His sufferings and death, by His meritorious obedience and divine sacrifice, satisfied God's justice, glorified the law and made it honorable, He opened an entrance for His people into the city of God. Thus the apostle speaks of His "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, taking it out of the way, and nailing it to His cross." In this sense the law, which is the reflection of God's justice and holiness, may be said to be broken to pieces as a gate of brass, and cut in sunder as a bar of iron; in other words, it stands no longer in the way as an insuperable bar to the salvation of the soul.

But if we look at the gates of brass and bars of iron as shadowing forth other hindrances, we shall see them not figuratively in this way, but actually broken down and cut in sunder. Thus ignorance, unbelief, infidelity, hardness of heart, darkness of mind, guilt of conscience, with every other gate and bar, are at once broken asunder when the Lord dissolves the heart by the sweet application of love and blood. So the various temptations and besetments from without and within which seem arrayed against the soul, all disappear at once when touched by the finger of God; nor is there one, however strong, deep, or high, which does not fall to pieces before the word of His mouth.

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