THIS NOTION HAS GREAT INFLUENCE UPON THE CONDUCT OF MAN. Such a notion is convenient. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. It is not necessary that this be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt.
II. THIS NOTION IS UTTERLY UNTRUTHFUL AND DELUSIVE.
III. GOD HAS OFTEN, IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE, SHOWN THE DELUSIVENESS OF THIS NOTION, AND THE TIME IS FIXED FOR THE COMPLETE DEMONSTRATION OF ITS DELUSIVENESS.
1. Character is often seen through by man.
2. Retribution often follows man’s deeds in the present world.
3. The future state will show what God saw. (Pulpit Analyst.)
Practical atheism and genuine piety
(with Gen_16:13):--
I. PRACTICAL ATHEISM. “Thou hast said, None seeth me,” i.e. God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine omniscience. This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature. The causes of this tendency are--
1. Dislike of God.
2. Dread of God.
II. GENUINE PIETY. “Thou God seest me.”
1. The very nature of God implies this.
2. The Bible teaches it.
III. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS which this subject conveys.
1. It warns the wicked.
2. It should restrain from evil.
3. It should incite to a beautiful and useful life.
4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and conflicts and trials of life. (A. Tucker.)
“None seeth me”
Graceless men, having hid God from themselves, think also to hide themselves from God. (J. Trapp.)
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee
Pernicious knowledge
I. EXAMINE AND VINDICATE THIS DECLARATION.
1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human wisdom and science in the highest perfection! To this Babylon even the sages of Greece came as learners.
2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge of perverting men’s minds in morals and religion (text; Eze_28:3-7; 1Co_1:21-27; 1Co_3:18-20; Rom_1:22-23).
3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims.
4. All this is accounted for by the Scriptural account of the fall of man. Intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except they be assisted by a supernatural power.
5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue, but a moral and religious people it never has produced, and never can.
II. THE REMEDY WHICH GOD HATH PROVIDED AGAINST ALL THESE INTELLECTUAL EVILS.
1. The supreme need is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which are of God, above those which are of men.
2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted by those means which God has appointed. The Bible. Preaching. The instruction of children in Divine truth. (F. Close, M. A.)
