INSIGHTS & NOTES FROM
CHAPTER 4
"The 390 days, according to the prophetic dialect, signified 390 years" "When God is about to do some great work, he is said to make bare his arm. Isaiah 52:10." "God's servants must learn to endure hardness, & to deny themselves the use of lawful delights, when they may thereby serve the glory of God, evidence the sincerity of their faith, & express their sympathy with their brethren in affliction." "It will be comfortable to us, when we are reduced to hardships, if out hearts are witness for us that we have always been careful to abstain from sin, even from little sins, & the appearance of evil." "It is a righteous thing with God to deprive us of those enjoyments which we have made the food & fuel of our lusts." "Because they served not God with cheerfulness in the abundance of all things, God will make them serve their enemies in the want of all things." CHAPTER 5 "Those will be ruined that will not be reformed." "God has variety of judgments wherewith to accomplish the destruction of a sinful people & to make and when he begins." "Jerusalem was a city upon a hill, conspicuous & illustrious, & which all the neighbouring nations had an eye upon, some for good-will, some for ill-will. Jerusalem was designed to have a good influence upon the nations & countries round about, was set in the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick, to spread the light of divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the dark corners of the neighbouring nations, that from them it might diffuse itself further, even to the ends of the earth." "When places & persons are made great, it is with design that they may do good & that those about them may be the better for them, that their light may shine before men." "A contempt of the word & law of God, opens a door to all manner of iniquity. God's statutes are the terms on which he deals with men; those that refuse his terms cannot expect his favours." "Israel's God is one, & his name one, his altar one; but they, not content with this one God, multiplied their gods to such a degree that according to the number of their cities so were their gods" "Who is able to stand in God's sight when once he is angry?" "Those who will not observe the judgments of God's mouth shall not escape the judgments of his hand" "Divine compassion defers the punishment, or mitigates it, or supports under it, or shortens it; but here is judgment without mercy, wrath without any mixture or allay of pity." "Those who live & die impenitent will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare." "If judgment begin at the house of God, where will it end?" "The destruction of some is designed for the instruction of others. Malefactors are publicly punished in terrorem - that others may take warning." "Life is frail, is weak, is burdened, so that, if it have not daily bread for its staff to lean upon, it cannot but sink, & is soon gone if that staff be broken." "Evil pursues sinners; & the curse shall come upon them & overtake them." "Sooner or later, God's word will prove itself." CHAPTER 6 "The mountains of Israel had been holy mountains, but now that they had polluted them with their high places God set his face against them" "It is just with God to make that a desolation which we make an idol of; for he is a jealous God & will not bear a rival. If men do not, as they ought, destroy idolatry, God will, first or last, find out a way to do it." "If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy. I Corinthians 3:17." "To those whom God designs for life he will give repentance unto life." "God's patience both leaves room for repentance & is an encouragement to sinners to repent. Where God designs grace to repent he allows space to repent" "...true repentance shall be accepted of God, though we are brought to it by our troubles" "They had departed from God to idols, & given that honour to pretended deities, the creatures of men's fancies & the work of men's hands, which they should have given to the God of Israel. They departed from God, from his word, which they should have made their rule, from his work, which they should have made their business." "Idolatry is... the breach of a marriage-covenant with God" "Those that truly loathe sin cannot but loathe themselves because of sin; self-loathing is evermore the companion of true repentance." "One way or other God will make sinners to know & own that he is the Lord, either by their repentance or by their ruin." "It is our duty to be affected not only with our own sins & sufferings, but with the sins & sufferings of others; & to look with compassion upon the miseries that wicked people bring upon themselves; as Christ beheld Jerusalem & wept over it." "Sin is a desolating thing; therefore stand in awe & sin not." CHAPTER 7 "Oh, that we could all see that end of time & days very near, & the end of our own time & days much nearer, that we may secure a happy lot at the end of the days!" "...to all God's purposes there is a time, a proper time, & that prefixed, in which the purpose shall have its accomplishment" "Those shall have judgment without mercy who made light of mercy when it was offered them." "In the heaviest judgments God inflicts upon sinners he does but recompense their own ways upon them; they are beaten with their own rod." "Two sins are particularly specified as provoking God to bring these judgments upon them - pride & oppression. God will humble them by his judgments, for they have magnified themselves." "None ever hardened his heart against God & prospered. Those that strengthen themselves in their wickedness will be found not only to weaken, but to ruin, themselves. Psalms 52:7." "If God be against us, none can be for us to do us any service." "Those who would not know it was the Lord that did them good, shall be made to know it is the Lord that smiteth them; for, one way or other, he will be owned." "Sooner or later sin will have sorrow of one kind or other; & those that will not repent of their iniquity may justly be left to pine away in it; those that will not mourn for it as it is an offence to God shall be made to mourn for it as it is a shame & ruin to themselves, to mourn at the last, when the flesh & the body are consumed, & to say, How have I hated instruction! Proverbs 5:11, 12." "It is folly for the strong man to glory in his strength, for God can soon weaken it." "There are many whose wealth is their snare & ruin. The gaining of the world is the losing of their souls; it makes them proud, secure, covetous, oppressive, voluptuous, & that which, if well used, might have been the servant of their piety, being abused, becomes the stumbling-block of their iniquity." "There is a day of wrath coming, when it will appear that men's wealth is utterly unable to deliver them or do them any service." "If God give us daily bread, we have reason to be thankful, & no reason to complain, though silver & gold we have none." "The wealth of this world has not that in it which will answer the desires of the soul, or be any satisfaction to it in a day of distress." "Those are unworthy to be honoured with the form of godliness who will not be governed by the power of godliness." "Bloody crimes will be punished with bloody judgments." "What can men contrive or do for themselves when God has departed from them & appears against them? All must needs be in tears, all in trouble, when God comes to judge them according to their deserts, & so make them know, to their cost, that he is the Lord, the God to whom vengeance belongs." Matthew Henry's Commentary: Isaiah to Malachi, Mac Donald, pgs. 775 - 791.
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AuthorCross Preaching Pentecostal Pastor. Husband to Tonia, Father to 3 beautiful girls, Monica, Zoe & Briana, & Grandfather to Wesley & Elliott Archives
September 2023
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