Smiting and healing.
We may glean from these verses—
I. THAT THE BLOWS WHICH WE SURFER IN OUR ORDINARY EXPERIENCE COME FROM THE HAND OF GOD. No doubt the various calamities by which Egypt was afflicted came to her in the ordinary ways, and appeared to her citizens as the result of common causes. They accounted for them by reference to general laws, to visible human powers, to known processes and current events. Yet we know them to have been distinctly and decidedly of God, by whatever instrumentalities they may have been brought about. "The Lord shall smite Egypt" (Isaiah 19:22). So now with us; the evils which overtake us—sickness, separation, disappointment, losses, bereavement, etc.—may occur as the result of causes which we can discover and name; nevertheless they may be regarded as visitations, as chastisement, as discipline, from the hand of God.
II. THAT THESE WOUNDS OF GOD'S CAUSING ARE INTENDED BY HIM TO ABOUND UNTO THE HEALTH OF THE WOUNDED SPIRIT. "He shall smite and heal." God's main purpose in smiting was to bring about a far healthier condition than existed before. Afterwards the chastening would "yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness;" and for this end chiefly, if not wholly, it was sent. We are to consider that this is always God's design in sending affliction to his children. He smites that he may heal, and that the new health may be much better than the old—that the blessing gained may greatly outweigh the loss endured (2 Corinthians 4:17). To part with bodily health and to obtain spiritual soundness, to lose material possessions and secure treasures which make "rich toward God,"—this is to be enlarged indeed.
III. THAT THE RESTORATION OF THE SMITTEN SPIRIT IS ATTENDED AND FOLLOWED BY VARIOUS BLESSINGS.
1. The soul addressing itself to God in earnest prayer. "They shall cry unto the Lord" (Isaiah 19:20); "He shall be entreated of them" (Isaiah 19:22). This is an act of returning from folly and forgetfulness unto the God who has been forsaken: "They shall return," etc. (Isaiah 19:22; see also Isaiah 19:21).
2. The soul seeking God's acceptance in his appointed way. "There shall be an altar to the Lord" (Isaiah 19:19). However interpreted, this passage points to the special means appointed by God through Moses for obtaining forgiveness of sin, and suggests to us the one way—repentance and faith—by which we must seek and may find the Divine mercy.
3. Profession of attachment to God. These five cities should "swear to the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 19:18), The pillar at the border would perhaps be an obelisk, making mention of his Name as the One that was worthy of human adoration.
4. The service of the lip. They would "speak the language of Canaan"—the language spoken by the people of God. Language is far from being everything, but it is far from being nothing (Psalms 19:4; Matthew 12:37; Romans 10:10). By truthful, kindly, helpful speech, and in sacred song, we may do much in serving and in pleasing God.
5. Consecration. "They shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and shall perform it;" the solemn presentation of self unto a Divine Savior and a lifelong redemption of the vow.—C.
The crown of privilege.
The promise of the text may not have seemed to Israel so gracious and so inspiring as many others; but it was one that might well have been considered surpassingly good. For it predicted that the time would come when Israel should be closely associated as "a third" with two great world-powers- Egypt and Assyria; not, indeed, to triumph over them, but to be "a blessing in the midst" of them. This is the very crown of privilege. Concerning privilege itself we may consider—
I. ITS UNDOUBTED EXISTENCE. There are "elect" nations and individuals; it is not only a truth written in the pages of Scripture, but a fact confirmed by all testimony and observation, that God has conferred on some much more than he has allotted to others. To one nation (man) he gives one talent, to another two, and to another five. Physical strength, intellectual capacity, force of character, material wealth and natural advantages, knowledge, revealed truth,—these are some of the privileges by which 'men and nations are favored.
II. ITS PERIL. The great danger attending the possession of privilege is that of entirely mistaking the object of the Creator in conferring it; of assuming that he bestowed it simply for the gratification or the exaltation of its recipients. This was the disastrous mistake which the Jews made: hence their spiritual arrogance, their selfishness, their pitiable exclusiveness, their misreading of Scripture, their maltreatment of their Messiah. It is a mistake we are all tempted to make; it is one against which we do welt to guard with the utmost vigilance; for it is a sinful one, and one that carries ruin in its train.
III. ITS CROWN. This is to be "a blessing in the midst of the land;" to be a bond of union between other powers—a "third" to the Egypt and Assyria by which we may be surrounded. Privileged lands, like England, find their crown, not in military successes, nor in annexations, nor even in well-filled banks or well-fitted vessels; but in giving free institutions to neighboring or even distant nations, in conveying the message of Divine mercy to heathen lands, "in being a blessing in the midst of the earth." Privileged men find the crown of their life, not in possession, nor in enjoyment, nor in conscious superiority to others "that are without;" but in distributing, in imparting, in making others partakers of the peace and joy and hope that fill their own hearts, in broadening the belt of light on which they stand, in sowing the seed of the kingdom in land which now bears only briers and thorns, in being "a blessing in the midst of the land."—C.