“In a dark place of the earth,” is an expression used for the purpose of pointing out the contrast between the prophecies of Jehovah and the heathen cave, oracles and spirit-voices of the necromancers, which seemed to rise up from the interior of the earth.
(C. Short, M. A.)
God’s speech to men
Two thoughts branch off--
1. Prophecy, proceeding from Him is a thing of the light, no black art, essentially different from heathen divination.
2. The same love of Jehovah which is revealed already in creation, is also shown in His relation to Israel; He did not point Israel to Himself as chaos (“I said not to the seed of Jacob; seek Me as chaos!”), even as He did not create the earth a chaos (“He has not created it a chaos,” Isa_45:18). (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain.
“Seek ye Me in vain,”
“Seek ye Me in vain,” literally, in waste, i.e where there are no ways or indications how He is to be found. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Comfort to seekers from what the Lord has not said
We might gain much solace by considering what God has not said. We have an assurance that God will answer prayer, because He hath not said unto the seed of Israel, Seek ye My face in vain. The proposition is this: that those who seek God, in God’s own appointed way, cannot, by any possibility seek Him in vain; that earnest, penitent, prayerful hearts, though they may be delayed for a time, can never be sent away with a final denial (Ro Mat_7:8).
I. I SHALL PROVE THIS BY THE NEGATIVE, as our text has it.
1. Suppose that sincere prayer could be fruitless, then the question arises, Why are men exhorted to pray at all? Would it not be a piece of heartless tyranny if the Queen should wait upon a man in his condemned cell, and encourage him to petition her favour, nay, command him to do it, saying to him, be importunate, and you will prevail; and yet, all the while, should intend never to pardon the man, but had determined in her heart that his death-warrant should be signed and sealed, and that on the execution morning he should be launched into eternity? Would this be consistent with royal bounty--fit conduct for a gracious monarch? Can you for a moment suppose that God would bid you come to Him through Jesus Christ, and yet intend never to be gracious at the voice of your cry?
2. If prayer could be offered continuously, and God could be sought earnestly, but no mercy found, then he who prays would be worse off than he who does not pray, and supplications would be an ingenious invention for increasing the ills of mankind. For a man who does not pray has less woes than a man who does pray, if God be not the answerer of prayer. He who has been taught to pray has great desires and wants; his heart is an aching void which the world can never fill; but he that never prays has no longings and pinnings after God. If, then, a man may have these vehement longings, and yet God will never grant them, then assuredly the man who prays is in a worse position than he who prays not. How can this be?
3. If God do not hear prayer, since it is clear that in that case the praying man would be more wretched than the careless sinner, then it would follow that God would be the author of unnecessary misery. This is inconsistent with the character of God.
4. Should there still be some desponding ones, who think that God would invite them to pray and yet reject them, I would put it on another ground. Would men do so? Would you? Can God be less generous than men?
5. This is God’s memorial by which He is distinguished from the false gods Psa_115:6; Psa_65:2). One of the standing proofs of the Deity of Jehovah is, that He does answer the supplications of His people.
6. If God do not hear prayer what is the meaning of His promises?
7. What is the meaning of all the provisions which He has already made for hearing prayer? Why a mediator, an intercessor? &c.
8. If God hear not prayer, what Gospel have I to preach?
9. Where, then, were the believer’s hope?
10. What would they say in hell, if a soul could really seek the Lord and be refused? There are some who, when under conviction of sin, still cleave to this dark delusion, that God will not hear them. Therefore, I have tried, by blow after blow, to smite this fear dead.
II. THAT THE LORD DOES HEAR PRAYER MAY BE POSITIVELY SUBSTANTIATED.
1. For the Lord to hear prayer is consistent with His nature.
2. It is harmonious with all His past actions (Psa_107:3). Conclusion--Try for yourself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God’s praying people
1. The seed of Jacob are a praying people; it is the generation of them that seek Him (Psa_24:6).
2. As He has invited them to seek Him, so He never denied their believing prayers, nor disappointed their believing expectations.
3. If He did not think fit to give them the particular thing they prayed for, yet He gave them that grace sufficient and that comfort and satisfaction of soul which was equivalent. (M. Henry.)
God’s straightforwardness
“I, the Lord, speak righteousness.” The word is used in its ethical sense of “trustworthiness,” or straightforwardness,--perfect correspondence between deeds and words. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
