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Chosen no: R-4256 a, from: 1908 Year. |
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Hell Hath Enlarged Herself
--ISA. 5:11-23.--SEPTEMBER 27.--
Golden
Text:--"Wine is a mocker."--Prov. 20:1.
THE Lesson Committee assigned this as a
temperance lesson: and undoubtedly it has in it a warning against intoxication.
Nevertheless in our judgment, the context being considered, other matters are
more reprehended in the lesson than intemperance. Undoubtedly there would be
"woe to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong
drink; that tarry late into the night, till wine inflame them." However,
they would be only moderate drinkers evidently who would, beginning so early,
only by night become inflamed or drunken. We certainly can heartily endorse the
thought that any indulgence of alcoholic spirits is dangerous--that
intemperance lies at the foundation of many woes of life, sapping the manhood,
the vigor, and undermining the moral sense and general character. We rejoice
that the eyes of men's understanding are opening to more proper appreciation of
the importance of this evil and that great good is resulting, not only to
individuals, but to communities. Since the exhilarating effects of alcohol
evidently deceive many, we think it well here to introduce a clipping which
bears directly upon the subject.
"ALCOHOL
OUT OF THE RACE"
"The contestants in the Marathon Race,
which is run on April 19 from Ashland to Boston, twenty-five miles, were
notified this year in the following terms: 'Alcohol in any form is positively
forbidden before, during and immediately after the race. It never does good,
and usually does harm. Disregard of the foregoing shall be considered
sufficient grounds for disqualification by the physician in charge.'
"In previous Marathon races some men who
had become fagged had resorted to alcohol and other stimulants, and some of
them fell unconscious soon after taking the stimulants. This year the six prominent
Boston physicians who examined the one hundred and twenty-four men entered--one
hundred and three of whom started and seventy-five finished--stated that the
condition of the men was far superior to that of the previous year. So far as
can be learned, no alcohol or drugs were used. No runner collapsed, and the
record of physical endurance in this, the greatest race in America, if not in
the world, is a wonderful one. The twenty-five consecutive miles, up hill and
down, were run in an average of less than six minutes each, which is only a
minute and a half slower than the majority of mile races on the best cindered
tracks. Previous Marathon records were smashed, because the men depended on
long and careful training rather than on stimulants. Alcohol was ruled out of
the race, as it will be out of every contest of brawn or brains." [R4257 : page 300]
SCOPE OF OUR
LESSON
The chapter of which our lesson is a part
commences with a parable in which our Lord represents Palestine as his vineyard
and the Jews as the choice vine of his planting, from which he would look for
much fruitage of a choice quality. Instead it brought forth worthless grapes.
Hence through the Prophet and parable he declares that having done everything
reasonable and proper for the fruit, he would now take away its hedging and
allow it to be trodden down by the wild beasts and to lie waste. (Vs. 1-7.)
This parable our Lord almost duplicated and we may understand therefore that
while it may have had some application to Isaiah's time as the period of 70
years desolation, nevertheless really the fulfilment on a still larger scale
took place at the time of our Lord's first advent, when, because of their wrong
condition of heart and rejection of him, he declared their house left desolate,
and, as the Apostle says, "Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."
Verses 24 to 30continue this thought and show the mighty power
which caused the fall of the Jewish polity.
The intervening verses, namely, from the 8th
to the 23rd, treat of the reasons why the Lord was displeased with them
and rejected them.
(1) Their selfishness was foremost amongst their
sins--the desire to join house to house, farm to farm-- to become rich was put
as the most prominent sin because that desire leads to other sin. As the
Apostle suggests, "The love of money [wealth] is the root of all
evil." The result of this was shown to be a land scarcity as respects the
poor, and the Lord's resolution that he would punish such selfishness so that
the homes would become desolate, empty, and the mansions uninhabited and the
fields unfruitful, so that the practice of iniquity, injustice, lovelessness,
spell "failure" in the end.
(2) Next comes the verse 11of our
lesson, in which the Lord reprehends strong drink, the inflaming influence [R4257 : page 301] of wine, and the music and
feasting indulged in by the wealthy who added house to house and field to
field. It is evident that the wealthy consume considerable liquor and often
without becoming seriously intoxicated, but no doubt the liquor has its
influence in helping them promote selfish propositions, which disregard the
interests of others, so that sometimes iniquities are hatched into activity
which in sober sense would not have been countenanced. This is the essence of
the Lord's complaint--"They regard not the work of the Lord, neither
consider the operation of his hands." Money-making, feasting, music absorb
the attention of the great and influential, which means the disregard of the
more important things of the divine plan--the things to which typical Israel,
as well as the things to which Spiritual Israel during this Gospel Age, have
been called.
(3) The result of all this was that the masses,
lacking the proper influence from their more talented leaders, became
expatriated--separated from the hopes and ambitions which were Israel's as a
nation--the poor lost the ideals necessary to their progress in a good way and
instead got wrong ideals along the line of selfishness, pride,
worldliness--ideals which they would have longed to follow had they possessed
the talents and ability. Thus the wrong influence of those intoxicated with the
love of money and of pleasure not only affected themselves, but the whole
people of Israel. Correspondingly in Spiritual Israel we find similar
conditions.
Verse 13points
out the effects of the wrong course upon the people, as seen from the divine
standpoint. The Israelites had practically become the slaves of their brethren,
the rich. They were in practical captivity through a lack of knowledge. The
most honorable of them were famished from lack of proper ideals and nourishment
from the prophecies of the Lord in instructions of his Word, and the whole
multitude was parched with thirst, lacking vigor, vitality and energy as
respects the Lord's great purposes, to which he had called them to be his
special people. Similar conditions apply now to Spiritual Israel--Christendom.
The greatest minds of the world have become absorbed in wealth and
pleasure-getting, and direful have been the results upon the masses of
Christendom. The people find themselves really starving, hungry and thirsty.
They have not satisfied their cravings from an earthly standpoint, because
under present conditions this is impossible, and as for spiritual food and
drink these have been taken away by the evolutions of the higher critics, who
plainly tell the people that the Word of God is not the bread of Truth, but
poisonous food-- error. As a result the masses of Christendom today, while
prosperous outwardly as never before, are not really contented, but hungry for
wealth and pleasure, and especially for happiness, which they will never find
in the direction in which they are seeking it.
HELL HAS
OPENED HER MOUTH
The word "hell" in verse 14is
sheol in the Hebrew and signifies the grave, the tomb, the abyss--oblivion. To
the Israelites this may have meant that because of the wretched condition of the
poor classes and the accumulation of lands, etc., in the hands of the wealthy,
there was a great increase of mortality, of the death rate. But the application
to Spiritual Israel may be a spiritual one, a reference to the fact that the
spiritual hopes and ambitions of many are going down into oblivion--that faith
is perishing among the people. How true this is! The Prophet says that
thousands shall fall to one who stands. Oblivion is rapidly swallowing up the
multitude, including also those who have once rejoiced in faith. The mean man
is brought down and the great is humbled, and also the lofty--the proud. The
full scope of this judgment of the Lord on Christendom is not yet manifest, but
in the end the Lord of hosts shall be exalted and honored in respect to the
judgment he will bring upon the people and the righteousness he will manifest.
Then the gentle lambs will feed in the pastures which he will provide and the
wastes which the profligate had taken possession of as their own shall be
turned over to others whom they would not recognize.
DRAW
INIQUITY WITH FALSEHOOD
Another statement of the evils which caused the
overthrow of typical Israel is shown in verse 18. A special wound
had come upon the influential ones who had been disposed to use falsehood as
cords in carrying forward their inequitable schemes. It may be safely said that
falsehood is the outgrowth of selfishness and that nearly all the lying that is
done in the world is in its interest to accomplish iniquity. The Prophet's
words are, "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity."
These are represented as scoffing at the second coming of Messiah. Inflamed
with the wine of Babylon and with their love of money and pleasure they disbelieve
the glorious promises of Messiah and his Kingdom and say, "Let him make
speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy
One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it." In other words they
claim to be in full accord with the Lord, to be perfectly ready for his Kingdom
if he had one and if it ever will come. They claim to be wise and call those
who trust in the Word of the Lord fools and tell them that if they had the
knowledge of the Higher Critics they would no longer trust to the Bible.
CALL EVIL
GOOD AND GOOD EVIL
Continuing the picture the Lord declares that
there will come woe to them because they have called the evil things which they
practice good, and because the good things, truth and equity, they have treated
lightly and spoken of as evil--nonsensical. They, Higher Critics, call darkness
light, and the light of truth they call darkness. They put the bitter of error
instead of the sweet of truth. This will mean to them very shortly trouble. The
Lord continuing says that "woe will come unto them because they are so
wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight." They have a wisdom
and prudence which is of the earth earthy--sensual, devilish. They neglect the
wisdom which comes from above, which is "first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits." They are
mighty to drink the wine of Babylon, intoxicating from the dark ages-- they can
swallow these doctrines and not be intoxicated by them as are the masses. They
are men of strength and can drink mingled strong drink--strong doctrines.
These strong doctrines may perplex the masses of
Spiritual Israel, but these strong men have a way of taking all the creeds, all
the doctrines, and mingling them together, declaring their full harmony and
that separately and as a whole they are splendid. Thus at this present time
they are making a union of all the different creeds and saying that any
strong-minded person should be able to drink all these creeds without [R4257 : page 302] injury. The Prophet says
that these are they "which justify the wicked for reward, and take away
the righteousness of the righteous from him." If, for instance, a
professed servant of God shall declare that he disbelieves practically all the
teaching of God's Word, they stand ready to justify him in his wickedness, if
he claims the right still to continue to pose as a servant of God. Why? For a
reward. That they may in so doing justify their own belief and that they may
maintain their standing and honor of men in silence and pose as strong-minded
men, able to drink much strong drink. They are ready, also, to take away the
righteousness of the righteous, to subdue those who speak the Truth, to slander
them, to say all manner of evil against them falsely. Why? They do this also
for a reward. Because they desire to be on the popular side and to retain the
rewards which are accorded such. [R4258 : page
302]
The lesson to all who seek to be in harmony with
the Lord is that they are not to follow the course of the great and the
influential of Christendom, but to follow the Lord, to hearken to his Word, and
to humbly follow in the footsteps of our dear Redeemer.
W.T. R-4256a : page 300 - 1908r