The revealing truth.
"I knew that thou art obstinate." We blame this in a child. We sometimes falsely call it firmness in a man. This is a mistake. Firmness is only in a Moral sense such, when it is infused by faith, governed by reason, approved by conscience, and consecrated to some noble and godlike end.
I. HERE IS A REVELATION OF HUMAN POWER. Man can stand out against God. This is marvellous, but it is at the basis of all moral freedom and responsibility. The original Hebrew means "hard"—so hard that the tenderest revelations of Divine love cannot melt the heart; so hard that the spectacle of the ruin and misery which rebellion everywhere brings does not create repentance and "returning."
II. HERE IS A REVELATION OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. "I knew." Man cannot see his brother's inner countenance. God can. "Thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass." Let not man say that any law of necessity has compelled his defiant course. Let him not say that it has been demanded of him by the idols of fashion and custom. "Before it came to pass I showed it thee, lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them." God knows that the soul has stood out against all Divine warnings, invitations, rebukes, and interpositions. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself!"—W.M.S.