“Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”
Parallel Translations
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“Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”
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Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
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'Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.'
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Isaiah 56:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 10:6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be shaken. For generations I shall have no trouble.”
- Proverbs 27:1 Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring.
- Luke 12:19-20 I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’
- Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
- Proverbs 23:35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”
- Hosea 4:11 Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
- 1 Corinthians 15:32 If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
- Jeremiah 18:18 Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let’s strike him with the tongue, and let’s not give heed to any of his words.”
- Amos 6:3-6 Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall; who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
- Luke 12:45-46 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn’t expecting him, and in an hour that he doesn’t know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful.
- Luke 21:34 “So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
- Titus 1:7 For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain;
- Isaiah 5:11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
- Isaiah 22:13-14 and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
- Isaiah 28:7-8 They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.
- Proverbs 31:4-5 It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes to say, ‘Where is strong drink?’ lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the justice due to anyone who is afflicted.
- Matthew 24:49-51 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it, and in an hour when he doesn’t know it, and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain We are well yet, and tomorrow shall be better:…
We are well yet, and tomorrow shall be better: therefore let us not fear the plagues before they come: thus the wicked contemned the admonitions and exhortations which were made them in the Name of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 56:12 Come ye, [say they], I will fetch…
Isa 56:12 Come ye, [say they], I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, [and] much more abundant.
Ver. 12. Come ye.] The wicked have their "come ye," as well as the godly. {Isa 2:3} {See Trapp on "Isa 2:3"}
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I will fetch wine.] A pastor should be no winebibber or ale-stake. {1Ti 3:8} Ebrietas in se culpas complectitur omnes. Drunkenness is a soul fault in any man, saith Petrus Ravenas, but in a minister it is a sacrilege, especially if he draw on others to it, as here, and as the Popish priests do at Paris and Lovain, where the best wine is called vinum theologicum, the wine of theologians, and they used to lengthen out their drunken compotations.
And tomorrow shall be as this day.] Words of profane secureness and dissoluteness. See Isa 22:13 Pro 23:35.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Say they, unto their brethren, by office and in…
Say they, unto their brethren, by office and in iniquity; unto their fellow priests, or other jolly companions.
We will fill ourselves; we will drink not only to delight, but even to drunkenness, as the word signifies, Nah 1:10, and elsewhere.
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To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant; which showeth their dreadful security and contempt of God, and of his judgments, and their total and resolved abandoning of all care of their own or people’s souls.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Come ye, say they,.... Either to their fellow bishops…
Come ye, say they,.... Either to their fellow bishops and priests, when got together, jovially carousing; or to the common people, encouraging them in luxury and intemperance:
I will fetch wine; out of his cellar, having good store of it, and that of the best, hence called "priests' wine"; and so, at Paris and Louvain, the Popish priests called their wine "vinum theologicum":
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and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; fill their bellies and skins full of it till drunken with it; the drunkenness of priests in Popish counties is notorious, which seems here to be taxed and prophesied of:
for tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant; the morrow shall be as good, and merry, and jovial a day as this, and better; and we shall have as much wine and strong drink to drink, or more; this they say to encourage their companions to drink, and not spare, and to put away the evil day far from them. The Targum is,
"saying, come, let us take wine, and be inebriated with old wine; and our dinner tomorrow shall be better than today, large, very large.''
Next: Isaiah Chapter 57
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Say they - Unto their brethren, fellow-priests, or other…
Say they - Unto their brethren, fellow-priests, or other jolly companions. Fill ourselves - We will drink not only to delight, but even to drunkenness, as the word signifies, which shews their dreadful security and contempt of God, and their abandoning of all care of their own or peoples souls.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. I will fetch wine - "Let us…
Verse 12. I will fetch wine - "Let us provide wine"] For אקחה ekchah, first person singular, an ancient MS. has נקחה nikchah, first person plural; and another ancient MS. has אק ak upon a rasure. So the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate render it. The spirit of this epicurean sentiment is this: Let us indulge ourselves in the present time to the utmost, and instead of any gloomy forebodings of the future, let us expect nothing but increasing hilarity for every day we shall live. Thus they,
"Counting on long years of pleasure here,
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Are quite unfurnished for the world to come."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 56:12. Come ye, say they — Unto their…
Isa 56:12. Come ye, say they — Unto their brethren, fellow-priests, or other jolly companions. We will fill ourselves — We will drink, not only to delight, but even to drunkenness, as the word signifies. And tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant — Which shows their dreadful security and contempt of God, and of his judgments, and their abandoning of all care of their own or the people’s souls.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Come ye, say they - (compare the notes at…
Come ye, say they - (compare the notes at Isa 22:13). That is, one says to another, ‘I will fetch wine;’ or as we would say, ‘I will take another glass.’ The object is to describe a drinking-bout, or carousal, when the glass is shoved around, and there is drinking to excess. The language denotes the state of exhilaration and excitement when sitting at the table, and already under the influence of wine. This is not designed to be descriptive of the people at large, but of the ‘watchmen,’ or public teachers of the nation, and it certainly shows a state of most lamentable degeneracy and corruption. Unhappily, however, it has not been confined to the times of Manasseh. There have been periods in the history of the Christian church, and there are still portions of that church, where the language used here with so much severity would be an appropriate description even of the Christian ministry; scenes where the professed heralds of salvation sit long at the wine, and join with the frivolous, the worldly, and the profane, in ‘shoving round’ the sparkling cup. No severer language is used in the prophets to describe and denounce any class of sinners than is appropriated to such people; at no time has the church more occasion to sit in the dust and to weep, than when her ministers ‘rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; and continue until night, until wine inflame them Isa 5:11.
We will fill ourselves with strong drink - (See the notes at Isa 5:11).
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And tomorrow ... - That is, indulgence of this kind was habitual. There was an intention to continue it. It was not that they had been once overtaken and had erred; but it was that they loved it, and meant to drink deeper and deeper. So now the guilt of ministers is greatly aggravated in the same way. It is not merely that they drink wine; it is not even that they on a single occasion drink too much, and say and do foolish and wicked things - liable as all are to this who indulge in drinking wine at all, and certainly as ministers will do it who indulge in the habit; it is that they mean to do it; they resolve not to abandon it, but purpose to persevere in the habit ‘tomorrow.’ Hence, such people refuse to join a Society of Temperance; hence, they oppose such societies as ultra and fanatical; and hence, by not joining them, they proclaim to the world, ‘Come ye, and I will take another glass, and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’ It is this settled purpose - this fixed resolution, stretching into future time, and embracing coming years, that is so offensive to God. And there is not on earth a condition of more public iniquity than when the ministers of religion take this bold and open stand, and resolve that they will not abandon intoxicating drinks, but will continue to drink ‘tomorrow,’ and ever onward. Hopeless is the work of reformation when the ministers of religion take this stand; and dark is the prospect for the church on earth, when the messengers of salvation cannot be induced to stand before the church of God as examples and advocates for temperance on the most strict and uncompromising principles.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain fetch wine--language of the national teachers challenging one another…
fetch wine--language of the national teachers challenging one another to drink. BARNES translates, "I will take another cup" (Isa 5:11).
to-morrow, &c.--Their self-indulgence was habitual and intentional: not merely they drink, but they mean to continue so.
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In the midst of the excesses of the unfaithful watchmen (Isa 56:10-12), most of the few that are godly perish: partly by vexation at the prevailing ungodliness; partly by violent death in persecution: prophetical of the persecuting times of Manasseh, before God's judgments in causing the captivity in Babylon; and again those in the last age of the Church, before the final judgments on the apostasy (Kg2 21:16; Mat 23:29-35, Mat 23:37; Rev 11:17). The Hebrew for "perisheth," and "is taken away," expresses a violent death (Mic 7:2).
Next: Isaiah Chapter 57
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine…
12. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine — The canine figure is dropped, but the same sensual character in the religious teachers is kept up. Drunkenness is now the vice charged.
Strong drink — On this, see note on Isa_5:11. The disgrace attending this vice among the clergy of this day and of this land is its rightful punishment. Any man who makes a beast of himself by habits of indulgence in intoxicating drinks, becomes a moral outcast in all good circles of society; but much more the religious teacher when caught in this vice. As respects such inebriates, it would seem from Jer_23:1-4; Ezekiel 34; and Zechariah 11, that about the same estimate was anciently held respecting these characters as now. Objects of pity they are indeed, but of moral respectability, not at all. They are, however, worthy of all aid to secure their rescue.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. As an illustration of their highest idea of…
12. As an illustration of their highest idea of enjoyment, one of these watchmen is introduced inviting his fellows to a prolonged carousal. Cf. ch. Isa_5:11 f., 22, Isa_28:1; Isa_28:7 f.; Mic_2:11.
we will fill ourselves &c.] a coarse bacchanalian expression: “we will swill strong drink.”
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and much more abundant] Rather, as R.V. (a day) great beyond measure!
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) Come ye, say they . . .—The words…
(12) Come ye, say they . . .—The words in italics are necessary to complete the sense; but their absence from the Hebrew is noticeable, and noteworthy as an example of the prophet’s bold use of a dramatic form. He represents the false prophet as giving a feast to his friends, and promising a yet more splendid banquet on the morrow. Here again we note continuity of character (Isa_22:13). Comp. Luk_12:19, which reads almost like an echo of this passage. (Comp. the dramatic form of Isa_28:9-10.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine. Here…
Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine. Here we have mention of a third defect. The prophets of the time are not only negligent of their duty, and covetous, but they are given to excess in wine and to long revels, such as even the heathen considered to be disgraceful. (comp. Isa_28:7, where both priests and prophets are taxed with habitual drunkenness) To-morrow shall be as this day; i.e. the drinking shall continue we will have a two days" bout of it. And much more abundant; rather, very exceedingly abundant. There is no comparison of one day with the other; but simply a promise that on both days the drinking shall be without stint. (On the drunkenness occasionally prevalent in Oriental countries, see Herod., 1:133; Xen., "Cyrop.," 8:8, Dur. Samuel Fr., 13; and compare the remarks of Sir H. Rawlinson on the inebriety of the modern Persians in the author"s "Herodotus," vol. 1. p. 219, edition of 1862.)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain To-morrow, shall be as this day
Isa_56:12
To-morrow, shall be as this day
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Faith and presumption
The future is very differently contemplated by different individuals.
Men of a sanguine temperament gild it with golden visions that are never realized. Such persons meet with many disappointments. It is quite right to expect good in the future, providing we eagerly seize the opportunities and avail ourselves of the advantages of the present. But it is in the field of to-day that we must sow the seed of what we are to reap on the morrow. Men of a directly opposite temperament are constantly foreboding evil. This desponding disposition is itself a very heavy burden to bear. If there be evil in the future, it doubles it by the anticipation, and the anticipation is frequently a heavier burden than is the reality; and if the future brings no such evil, we have been carrying a burden, when in reality there was no burden to bear. How wise are the words of Jesus, Take no thought for the morrow, etc. Both these dispositions need to be corrected. There is still another class who are morally reckless about the future. This results neither from temperament nor imagination, but from their moral condition: the madness is in their hearts. They were persons of this class who made use of the words contained in our text. These words, although polluted by the sense and circumstances in which they are here used, express a truth as well as a falsehood.
I. THEY MAY BE THE EXPRESSION OF A PERFECTLY RATIONAL FAITH AND REASONABLE SENTIMENT.
1. It is reasonable to expect that nature will be as productive in the future as it has ever been in the past. Why should we fear that seed-time and harvest or summer and winter will fail, or that the soil will be less productive than it has been? Surely if we are to expect any change, it is a change for the better; the sun will shine as brightly as it has done, and the rains will fall as abundantly, and the earth will be more extensively reclaimed and better cultivated. The soil yields a great deal more now than it used to do; and still there remaineth much land to be possessed.
2. This is a reasonable sentiment when used in the light of human progress. The progress made in arts and sciences ought greatly to increase the resources of society. Labour is the wealth of a nation, and therefore the more labour can be made to produce, the wealthier a nation must be. Not only so, but the productions of one country have by these means been brought within easy access of other countries, so that failure in one part is largely compensated for by a more abundant supply in other places.
3. This is also a rational sentiment when we remember the goodness and unchangeableness of God. His goodness to us in the past ought to inspire us with confidence in Him for the future; and this confidence ought to have respect to all the concerns of life.
4. This is a reasonable sentiment when you consider the promises of God and the predictions concerning the future. Is it not said that the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose? Let the Gospel be preached to the savage and the uncivilized; if they receive it they will not only sit at the feet of Jesus, but they will also soon become clothed, and begin to cultivate the soil, and the change thus produced on the face of nature will correspond with the change in their moral and spiritual condition.
5. Then there is a future beyond the present life in relation to which these words may be used with still deeper emphasis. The man who has fled for refuge to the hope set before him, and has striven to walk with God here, may say with confidence, as he enters into the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, for to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
II. THIS MAY ALSO BE THE LANGUAGE OF WICKED PRESUMPTION.
1. It is so when it is the utterance of idleness. No man has a right to neglect the duties of to-day, and to flatter himself that his life will be crowned with increased abundance on the morrow.
2. It is so when it is the language of extravagance and profligacy. The latter is the spirit in which it is used in this verse. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, etc. The men who used these words had evidently closed their ears to warning, and given themselves up to a life of self-indulgence. This was no doubt the feeling of the prodigal, who wasted his substance in riotous living. He promised himself that the debauches of to-day should be succeeded by still greater debauches on the morrow. We are not to burden ourselves with anxious cares about the future, but neither are we to pledge our future income to meet our present expenses. Nor are we to use, as bread for to-day, what God has sent to be sown as seed for the morrow.
We ought to study the law of proportion, and to live in proportion to our income, to give in proportion to our income, and to save in proportion to our income and the position of responsibility in which we are placed, either as to family or work-people.
3. This is the language of sinful presumption when it is used as an excuse for the neglect of present privileges and opportunities.
(1) It is often so used in relation to secular things.
(2) But it is still more frequently used in relation to religion.
Many plead this as an excuse for the neglect of religion. The time is not convenient. They are too young, or their temptations and difficulties are at present too great. They hope that their circumstances will undergo a change. But some, who have flattered themselves that they were too young, have not lived to become old. This excuse is also pleaded by some who have in them some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel, for delay in publicly avowing themselves on the Lords side, and casting in their lot with His people. There is something in the way to-day which they expect will be removed to-morrow. But, perhaps when to-morrow comes the difficulties are increased, and the resolve, which was almost formed, is wholly abandoned. This excuse is also pleaded for not entering into some sphere of usefulness to which you were clearly called. But the door closes and it is too late. (A. Clark.)
Optimism, false and true
Whether we are warranted in expecting the future to be better than the present, depends upon our standpoint; upon whether we look at the future as men of the world, purely and simply, or as followers of Jesus Christ. It may be the height of folly to say by our lips, or by out lives, To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant; but, on the other hand, our so saying may involve the highest wisdom.
I. HOW IN PROPHESYING GOOD OF THE MORROW, WE MAY NOT BE SPEAKING CORRECTLY.
1. It is folly to prophesy good of to-morrow in respect to worldly things.
2. It is folly to prophesy good of to-morrow just because the future promises development. If to-morrow be more abundant than to-day, it will be because we have well spent to-day, and have not dreamed away our time and our opportunities.
3. It is folly to prophesy good of to-morrow unless we take steps to bring the good to pass.
II. HOW IN PROPHESYING GOOD OF THE FUTURE WE MAY BE SPEAKING ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Is there anything about which we may say with certainty, To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant? Ability to talk thus, however, presupposes two things
1. That we know the grace God.
2. Patient continuance in well-doing. (J. S. Swan.)
Discounting the future
In this picture, that exaggerated hopefulness which it describes seems to have been the result of intoxication. It is one who has filled himself with strong drink, who, from the midst of his revels, cries out, To-morrow shall be as this day, nay, much more abundant. In point of fact, however, such artificial stimulus is in no wise necessary for the excitement of extravagant hopes. Such hopes are born out of circumstances the most discouraging and amid surroundings the most dismal and dreary, Let us bless God that it is so. I doubt whether life would be long endurable if it were otherwise. In fact, it is at the point when the spring of hopefulness fairly snaps that men and women break down. And yet, like some other forms of so-called nourishment, this is one which has a perilous power of enervation. It is worth while to remember that the future is simply and inevitably and inexorably the outgrowth and outcome of the present. The man or woman of ungoverned temper imagines that age will cool their blood and so diminish their provocations. But age weakens nothing save our powers of demonstration. And so of the rest of the infirmities of our nature. Does the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, or the pride of life--do our covetousness and our selfishness and our untruthfulness go through a sort of transformation-scene process, and emerge at some given point in our future in the guise of the Christian graces or the cardinal virtues? The future does not create progress, but only reveals it. And thus we see the province and, if I may so speak, the function in the moral and spiritual world of Hope. That function is to inspire the present. And, therefore, if I were asked to indite that legend or motto which should be the rule and law for every young life among us, I would write the one word Now. (H. C. Potter, D. D.)
To-morrow"
They were wicked men who spoke these words. Just think of what these words are in the mouth of a wicked man.
1. To-morrow shall be another day in which I shall rob God of His due.
2. I will tempt God another day; I will stand out against God.
3. Or, looking at Gods mercy, he says, Well, God is merciful, God is willing to bless me, but I will not be blessed.
4. If the man says this, it implies that he will give another day to fasten the fetters of sin firmer upon him.
5. Again, the wicked man says, I will encourage sinners another day to continue in their sin; I will set them the example of sinning still further than I have done hitherto. But what are you doing when you are thus encouraging men in sin? You are doing your best to seal that sinners doom. You are doing your best to make that sinners death-bed terrible. You are doing the best you can to harden that sinner in defiance of God and in his rejection of all that might save his soul; you are making that man laugh his life away in frivolity and evil
6. You are strengthening Satan in his great argument to keep men from Christ. What is that great argument? No hope for you; how can you expect to be saved? Have you not been living away from God! You have sinned away the day of grace.
7. If you say, To-morrow shall be as this day then what is your state.? Why, that if you die to-morrow you shall go to hell. If you were to die to-day in your sins, you would go to hell. Then, if to-morrow is to be as to-day, you are deciding--I shall live to-morrow in such a state that if I die to-morrow I shall go to hell.
7. You are keeping Christ another day standing at the door.
8. You mean to have another day of resisting the strivings of Gods spirit. (J. M.Hussey.)
Can we make sure of to-morrow?
These words, as they stand, are the call of boon companions to new revelry. They are part of the prophets picture of a corrupt age when the men of influence and position had thrown away their sense of duty, and had given themselves over, as aristocracies and plutocracies are ever tempted to do, to mere luxury and good living. Base and foolish as they are on such lips, it is possible to lift them from the mud, and take them as the utterance of a lofty and calm hope which will not be disappointed, and of a firm and lowly resolve which may ennoble life. Like a great many other sayings, they may fit the mouth either of a sot or a saint.
I. THIS EXPECTATION IF DIRECTED TO ANY OUTWARD THINGS, IS AN ILLUSION AND A DREAM. It is base and foolish to be forecasting our pleasures, the true temper is to be forecasting our work. But, leaving that consideration, let us notice how useless such anticipation, and how mad such confidence, as that expressed in the text is, if directed to anything short of God. We are so constituted as that we grow into a persuasion that what has been will be, and yet we can give no sufficient reason to ourselves why we expect it. The uniformity of the course of nature is the corner-stone, not only of physical science, but, in a more homely form, of the wisdom which grows with experience. We all believe that the sun will rise to-morrow because it rose to-day, and for all the yesterdays. But there was a to-day which had no yesterday, and there will be a to-day which will have no to-morrow. The sun will rise for the last time. The uniformity had a beginning and will have an end. So, even as an axiom of thought, the anticipation that things will continue as they have been because they have been, seems to rest on an insufficient basis. How much more so, as to our own little lives and their surroundings! We shall be nearest the truth if we take due account, as we do so to-day, of the undoubted fact that the only thing certain about to-morrow is that it will not be as this day.
II. BUT YET THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF SO USING THE WORDS AS TO MAKE THEM THE UTTERANCE OF A SOBER CERTAINTY WHICH WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME. We may send out our hope like Noahs dove, not to hover restlessly over a heaving ocean of change, but to light on firm, solid certainty, and fold its wearied wings there. Forecasting is ever close by foreboding, hope is interwoven with fear, the golden threads of the weft crossing the dark ones of the warp, and the whole texture gleaming bright or glooming black according to the angle at which it is seen. So is it always until we turn our hope away from earth to God, and fall the future with the light of His presence and the certainty of His truth. We have an unchanging and an inexhaustible God, and He is the true guarantee of the future for us. The more we accustom ourselves to think of Him as shaping all that is contingent and changeful in the nearest and in the remotest to-morrow, and as being Himself the immutable portion of our souls, the calmer will be our outlook into the darkness, and the more bright will be the clear light of certainty which burns for us in it.
III. LOOKED AT IN ANOTHER ASPECT, THESE WORDS MAY BE TAKEN AS THE VOW OF A FIRM AND LOWLY RESOLVE. There is a future which we can but very slightly influence, and the less we look at that the better every way. But there is also a future which we can mould as we wish--the future of our own characters, the only future which is really ours at all. In that region, it is eminently true that to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. The law of continuity shapes our moral and spiritual characters. The awful power of habit solidifies actions into customs, and prolongs the reverberation of every note, once sounded, along the vaulted roof of the chamber where we live. To-day is the child of yesterday and the parent of to-morrow. That solemn certainty of the continuance and increase of moral and spiritual characteristics works in both good and bad, but with a difference. To secure its full blessing in the gradual development of the germs of good there must be constant effort and tenacious resolution. As we grow in years, we shall grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, until the day comes when we shall exchange earth for heaven. That will be the sublimest application of this text, when, dying, we can calmly be sure that though to-day be on this side and to-morrow on the other bank of the black river, there will be no break in the continuity, but only an infinite growth in our life, and heavens to-morrow shall be as earths to-day and much more abundant. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The changeful and the abiding
To-days wealth may be to-morrows poverty, to-days health to-morrows sickness, to-days happy companionship of love to-morrows aching solitude of heart, but to-days God will be to-morrows God, to-days Christ will be to-morrows Christ. Other fountains may dry up in heat,, or freeze in winter,, but thin knows no change, in summer and winter it shall be. Other fountains may sink low in their basins after much drawing, but this is ever full, and after a thousand generations have drawn from it its stream is broad and deep as ever. Other fountains may be left behind on the march, and the wells and palm trees of each Elim on our road be succeeded by a dry and thirsty land where no water is, but this spring follows us all through the wilderness, and makes music and spreads freshness ever by our path. What may be round the next headland we know not; but this we know, that the same sunshine will make a broadening path across the waters right to where we rock on the unknown sea, and the same unmoving mighty star will burn for our guidance, me we may let me waves and currents roll as they list--or rather as He wills, and be little concerned about the incidents or the companions of our voyage, since He is with us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Experience and hope
Experience is ever the parent of hope, and the latter can only build with the bricks which the former gives. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The power of habit
How dreadfully that law of the continuity and development of character works in some men l By slow, imperceptible, certain degree the evil gains upon them. Yesterdays sin smooths the path for to-day s. The temptation once yielded to gains power. The crack in the embankment which lets a drop or two ooze through is soon a hole which lets out a flood. It is easier to find a man who has done a wrong thing than to find a man who has done it only once. Peter denied his Lord thrice, and each time more easily than the time before. So, before we know it, the thin gossamer threads of single actions are twisted into a rope of habit, and we are tied with the cords of our sin. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Character the result of trivial actions
How important the smallest acts become when we think of them as thus influencing character! The microscopic creatures, thousands of which will go into a square inch, make the great white cliffs that beetle over the wildest sea and front the storm. So, permanent and solid character is built up out of trivial actions, and this is the solemn aspect of our passing days, that they are making us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Hope for men in the Christian redemption
We might well tremble before such a thought, which would be dreadful to the best of us, if it were not for pardoning mercy and renewing grace. The law of reaping what we have sown, or of continuing as we have begun, may be modified as far as our sins and failures are concerned. The entail may be cut off, and to-morrow need not inherit to-days guilt, nor to-days habits. The past may be all blotted out through the mercy of God in Christ. No evil habit need continue its dominion over us, nor are we obliged to carry on the bad tradition of wrong-doing into a future, day, for Christ lives, and. if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things are become new. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Presuming on the future
We have all read of that Persian prince who, having grown to mans estate and completed his education, divided his life into four decades. The first ten years of his life he would devote to travel, since travel, he rightly argued, was as much an educator as were books. The second decade he would employ in the affairs of government, since government is part of the duty of a prince. The third decade he would reserve for the pleasures and the benefits of friendship, since friendship is, after all, the melody and fragrance of life. And then the fourth decade he would give to God. It was a most taking and attractive plan of life. But it was marred by one considerable defect. During the first ten years the prince died, and for that contingency he had made no provision whatever. (H. C. Potter, D. D.)
To-morrow
To-morrow is the most wonderful of days, or, as Isaiah has it, a day great beyond measure. Its history outshines the record of centuries. It is the day on which idle men labour and fools reform. It is the day when every man does his duty. It is the harvest-time of good intentions. To-morrow the worst of sinners will be a saint. To-morrow the frivolous pleasure-seeker will be transformed into a serious-minded devotee, a whole-souled worker for the good of humanity. To-morrow the dishonest man will be honest, the immoral man will be pure, the selfish man will be benevolent. To-morrow bad habits will be resolutely overcome, evil tempers will be conquered, wrong desires will be banished. To-morrow myriads of men and women will heed the call of Christ. If the world could but see the bright dawning of its mythical glory! But it never can. To-morrow is like the rainbows end, which continually moves on and keeps its distance undiminished when foolish children seek its golden treasure. (G. H.Hubbard.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Isaiah
THE CALL TO THE THIRSTY
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WE SURE OF TO-MORROW? A NEW YEAR’S SERMON
Isa 56:12.
These words, as they stand, are the call of boon companions to new revelry. They are part of the prophet’s picture of a corrupt age when the men of influence and position had thrown away their sense of duty, and had given themselves over, as aristocracies and plutocracies are ever tempted to do, to mere luxury and good living. They are summoning one another to their coarse orgies. The roystering speaker says, ‘Do not be afraid to drink; the cellar will hold out. To-day’s carouse will not empty it; there will be enough for to-morrow.’ He forgets to-morrow’s headaches; he forgets that on some tomorrow the wine will be finished; he forgets that the fingers of a hand may write the doom of the rioters on the very walls of the banqueting chamber.
What have such words, the very motto of insolent presumption and short-sighted animalism, to do with New Year’s thoughts? Only this, that base and foolish as they are on such lips, it is possible to lift them from the mud, and take them as the utterance of a lofty and calm hope which will not be disappointed, and of a firm and lowly resolve which may ennoble life. Like a great many other sayings, they may fit the mouth either of a sot or of a saint. All depends on what the things are which we are thinking about when we use them. There are things about which it is absurd and worse than absurd to say this, and there are things about which it is the soberest truth to say it. So looking forward into the merciful darkness of another year, we may regard these words as either the expressions of hopes which it is folly to cherish, or of hopes that it is reasonable to entertain.
I. This expectation, if directed to any outward things, is an illusion and a dream.
These coarse revellers into whose lips our text is put only meant by it to brave the future and defy to-morrow in the riot of their drunkenness. They show us the vulgarest, lowest form which the expectation can take, a form which I need say nothing about now.
But I may just note in passing that to look forward principally as anticipating pleasure or enjoyment is a very poor and unworthy thing. We weaken and lower every day, if we use our faculty of hope mainly to paint the future as a scene of delights and satisfactions. We spoil to-day by thinking how we can turn it to the account of pleasure. We spoil to-morrow before it comes, and hurt ourselves, if we are more engaged with fancying how it will minister to our joy, than how we can make it minister to our duty. It is base and foolish to be forecasting our pleasures; the true temper is to be forecasting our work.
But, leaving that consideration, let us notice how useless such anticipation, and how mad such confidence, as that expressed in the text is, if directed to anything short of God.
We are so constituted as that we grow into a persuasion that what has been will be, and yet we can give no sufficient reason to ourselves of why we expect it. ‘The uniformity of the course of nature is the corner-stone, not only of physical science, but, in a more homely form, of the wisdom which grows with experience, We all believe that the sun will rise to-morrow because it rose to-day, and on all the yesterdays. But there was a today which had no yesterday, and there will be a to-day which will have no to-morrow. The sun will rise for the last time. The uniformity had a beginning and will have an end.
So, even as an axiom of thought, the anticipation that things will continue as they have been because they have been, seems to rest on an insufficient basis. How much more so, as to our own little lives and their surroundings! There the only thing which we may be quite sure of about to-morrow is that it will not be ‘as this day.’ Even for those of us who may have reached, for example, the level plateau of middle life, where our position and tasks are pretty well fixed, and we have little more to expect than the monotonous repetition of the same duties recurring at the same hour every day-even for such each day has its own distinctive character. Like a flock of sheep they seem all alike, but each, on closer inspection, reveals a physiognomy of its own. There will be so many small changes that even the same duties or enjoyments will not be quite the same, and even if the outward things remained absolutely unaltered, we who meet them are not the same. Little variations in mood and tone, diminished zest here, weakened power there, other thoughts breaking in, and over and above all the slow, silent change wrought on us by growing years, make the perfect reproduction of any past impossible. So, however familiar may be the road which we have to traverse, however uneventfully the same our days may sometimes for long spaces in our lives seem to be, though to ourselves often our day’s work may appear as a mill-horse round, yet in deepest truth, if we take into account the whole sum of the minute changes in it and in us, it may be said of each step of our journey, ‘Ye have not passed this way heretofore.’
But, besides all this, we know that these breathing-times when ‘we have no changes,’ are but pauses in the storm, landing-places in the ascent, the interspaces between the shocks. However hope may tempt us to dream that the future is like the present, a deeper wisdom lies in all our souls which says ‘No.’ Drunken bravery may front that darkness with such words as these of our text, but the least serious spirit, in its most joyous moods, never quite succeeds in forgetting the solemn probabilities, possibilities, and certainties which lodge in the unknown future. So to a wise man it is ever a sobering exercise to look forward, and we shall be nearest the truth if we take due account, as we do today, of the undoubted fact that the only thing certain about to-morrow is that it will not be as this day.
There are the great changes which come to some one every day, which may come to any of us any day, which will come to all of us some day. Some of us will die this year; on a day in our new diaries some of us will make no entry, for we shall be gone. Some of us will be smitten down by illness; some of us will lose our dearest; some of us will lose fortune. Which of us it is to be, and where within these twelve months the blow is to fall, are mercifully hidden. The only thing that we certainly know is that these arrows will fly. The thing we do not know is whose heart they will pierce. This makes the gaze into the darkness grave and solemn. There is ever something of dread in Hope’s blue eyes.
True, the ministry of change is blessed and helpful; true, the darkness which hides the future is merciful and needful, if the present is not to be marred. But helpful and merciful as they are, they invest the unknown to-morrow with a solemn power which it is good, though sobering, for us to feel, and they silence on every lip but that of riot and foolhardy debauchery the presumptuous words, ‘To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
II. But yet there is a possibility of so using the words as to make them the utterance of a sober certainty which will not be put to shame.
So long as our hope and anticipations creep along the low levels of earth, and are concerned with external and creatural good, their language can never rise beyond, ‘To-morrow may be as this day.’ Oftenest they reach only to the height of the wistful wish, ‘May it be as this day!’ But there is no need for our being tortured with such slippery possibilities. We may send out our hope like Noah’s dove, not to hover restlessly over a heaving ocean of change, but to light on firm, solid certainty, and fold its wearied wings there. Forecasting is ever close by foreboding. Hope is interwoven with fear, the golden threads of the weft crossing the dark ones of the warp, and the whole texture gleaming bright or glooming black according to the angle at which it is seen. So is it always until we turn our hope away from earth to God, and fill the future with the light of His presence and the certainty of His truth. Then the mists and doubts roll away; we get above the region of ‘perhaps’ into that of ‘surely’; the future is as certain as the past, hope as assured of its facts as memory, prophecy as veracious as history.
Looking forward, then, let us not occupy ourselves with visions which we know may or may not come true. Let us not feed ourselves with illusions which may make the reality, when it comes to shatter them, yet harder to bear. But let us make God in Christ our hope, and pass from peradventures to certitudes; from ‘To-morrow may he as this day-would that it might,’ to ‘It shall be, it shall be, for God is my expectation and my hope.’ We have an unchanging and an inexhaustible God, and He is the true guarantee of the future for us. The more we accustom ourselves to think of Him as shaping all that is contingent and changeful in the nearest and in the remotest to-morrow, and as being Himself the immutable portion of our souls, the calmer will be our outlook into the darkness, and the more bright will be the clear light of certainty which burns for us in it.
To-day’s wealth may be to-morrow’s poverty, to-day’s health to-morrow’s sickness, to-day’s happy companionship of love to-morrow’s aching solitude of heart, but to-day’s God will be to-morrow’s God, to-day’s Christ will be to-morrow’s Christ. Other fountains may dry up in heat or freeze in winter, but this knows no change, ‘in summer and winter it shall be.’ Other fountains may sink low in their basins after much drawing, but this is ever full, and after a thousand generations have drawn from it, its stream is broad and deep as ever. Other springs may be left behind on the march, and the wells and palm-trees of each Elim on our road may be succeeded by a dry and thirsty land where no water is, but this spring follows us all through the wilderness, and makes music and spreads freshness ever by our path. We can forecast nothing beside; we can be sure of this, that God will be with us in all the days that lie before us. What may be round the next headland we know not; but this we know, that the same sunshine will make a broadening path across the waters right to where we rock on the unknown sea, and the same unmoving mighty star will burn for our guidance. So we may let the waves and currents roll as they list-or rather as He wills, and be little concerned about the incidents or the companions of our voyage, since He is with us. We can front the unknown to-morrow, even when we most keenly feel how solemn and sad are the things it may bring.
‘It can bring with it nothing
But He will bear us through.’
If only our hearts be fixed on God and we are feeding our minds and wills on Him, His truth and His will, then we may be quite certain that, whatever goes, our truest riches will abide, and whoever leaves our little company of loved ones, our best Friend will not go away. Therefore, lifting our hopes beyond the low levels of earth, and making our anticipations of the future the reflection of the brightness of God thrown on that else blank curtain, we may turn into the worthy utterance of sober and saintly faith, the folly of the riotous sensualist when he said, ‘To-morrow shall be as this day.’
The past is the mirror of the future for the Christian; we look back on all the great deeds of old by which God has redeemed and helped souls that cried to Him, and we find in them the eternal laws of His working. They are all true for to-day as they were at first; they remain true forever. The whole history of the past belongs to us, and avails for our present and for our future. ‘As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our God.’
To-day’s experience runs on the same lines as the stories of the ‘years of old,’ which are ‘the years of the right hand of the Most High.’ Experience is ever the parent of hope, and the latter can only build with the bricks which the former gives. So the Christian has to lay hold on all that God’s mercy has done in the ages that are gone by, and because He is a ‘faithful Creator’ to transmute history into prophecy, and triumph in that ‘the God of Jacob is our refuge.’
Nor only does the record of what He has been to others come in to bring material for our forecast of the future, but also the remembrance of what He has been to ourselves. Has He been with us in six troubles? We may be sure He will not abandon us at the seventh. He is not in the way of beginning to build and leaving His work unfinished. Remember what He has been to you, and rejoice that there has been one thing in your lives which, you may be sure, will always be there. Feed your certain hopes for to-morrow on thankful remembrances of many a yesterday. ‘Forget not the works of God,’ that you may ‘set your hopes on God.’ Let our anticipations base themselves on memory, and utter themselves in the prayer, ‘Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.’ Then the assurance that He whom we know to be good and wise and strong will shape the future, and Himself be the Future for us, will take all the fear out of that forward gaze, will condense our light and unsubstantial hopes into solid realities, and set before us an endless line of days, in each of which we may gain more of Him whose face has brightened the past and will brighten the future, till days shall end and time open into eternity.
III. Looked at in another aspect, these words may be taken as the vow of a firm and lowly resolve.
There is a future which we can but very slightly influence, and the less we look at that the better every way. But there is also a future which we can mould as we wish-the future of our own characters, the only future which is really ours at all-and the more clearly we set it before ourselves and make up our minds as to whither we wish it to be tending, the better. In that region, it is eminently true that ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’ The law of continuity shapes our moral and spiritual characters. What I am to-day, I shall increasingly be to-morrow. The awful power of habit solidifies actions into customs, and prolongs the reverberation of every note once sounded, along the vaulted roof of the chamber where we live. To-day is the child of yesterday and the parent of to-morrow.
That solemn certainty of the continuance and increase of moral and spiritual characteristics works in both good and bad, but with a difference. To secure its full blessing in the gradual development of the germs of good, there must be constant effort and tenacious resolution. So many foes beset the springing of the good seed in our hearts-what with the flying flocks of light-winged fugitive thoughts ever ready to swoop down as soon as the sower’s back is turned and snatch it away, what with the hardness of the rock which the roots soon encounter, what with the thick-sown and quick-springing thorns-that if we trust to the natural laws of growth and neglect careful husbandry, we may sow much but we shall gather little. But to inherit the full consequences of that same law working in the growth and development of the evil in us, nothing is needed but carelessness.
Leave it alone for a year or two and the ‘fruitful field will be a forest,’ a jungle of matted weeds, with a straggling blossom where cultivation had once been.
But if humbly we resolve and earnestly toil, looking for His help, we may venture to hope that our characters will grow in goodness and in likeness to our dear Lord, that we shall not cast away our confidence nor make shipwreck of our faith, that each new day shall find in us a deeper love, a perfecter consecration, a more joyful service, and that so, in all the beauties of the Christian soul and in all the blessings of the Christian life, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’ ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ ‘The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the noontide of the day.’
So we may look forward undismayed, and while we recognise the darkness that wraps to-morrow in regard to all mundane affairs, may feed our fortitude and fasten our confidence on the double certainties that we shall have God and more of God for our treasure, that we shall have likeness to Him and more of likeness in our characters. Fleeting moments may come and go. The uncertain days may exercise their various ministry of giving and taking away, but whether they plant or root up our earthly props, whether they build or destroy our earthly houses, they will increase our riches in the heavens, and give us fuller possession of deeper draughts from the inexhaustible fountain of living waters.
How dreadfully that same law of the continuity and development of character works in some men there is no need now to dwell upon. By slow, imperceptible, certain degrees the evil gains upon them. Yesterday’s sin smooths the path for to-day’s. The temptation once yielded to gains power. The crack in the embankment which lets a drop or two ooze through is soon a great hole which lets in a flood. It is easier to find a man who has never done a wrong thing than to find a man who has done it only once. Peter denied his Lord thrice, and each time more easily than the previous time. So, before we know it, the thin gossamer threads of single actions are twisted into a rope of habit, and we are ‘tied with the cords of our sins.’ Let no man say, ‘Just for once I may venture on evil; so far I will go and no farther.’ Nay, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
How important, then, the smallest acts become when we think of them as thus influencing character! The microscopic creatures, thousands of which will go into a square inch, make the great white cliffs that beetle over the wildest sea and front the storm. So, permanent and solid character is built up out of trivial actions, and this is the solemn aspect of our passing days, that they are making us.
We might well tremble before such a thought, which would be dreadful to the best of us, if it were not for pardoning mercy and renewing grace. The law of reaping what we have sown, or of continuing as we have begun, may be modified as far as our sins and failures are concerned. The entail may be cut off, and to-morrow need not inherit to-day’s guilt, nor to-day’s habits. The past may be all blotted out through the mercy of God in Christ. No debt need be carried forward to another page of the book of our lives, for Christ has given Himself for us, and He speaks to us all-’Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ No evil habit need continue its dominion over us, nor are we obliged to carry on the bad tradition of wrongdoing into a future day, for Christ lives, and ‘if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things are become new.’
So then, brethren, let us humbly take the confidence which these words may be used to express, and as we stand on the threshold of a new year and wait for the curtain to be drawn, let us print deep on our hearts the uncertainty of our hold of all things here, nor seek to build nor anchor on these, but lift our thoughts to Him, who will bless the future as He has blessed the past, and will even enlarge the gifts of His love and the help of His right hand. Let us hope for ourselves not the continuance or increase of outward good, but the growth of our souls in all things lovely and of good report, the daily advance in the love and likeness of our Lord.
So each day, each succeeding wave of the ocean of time shall cast up treasures for us as it breaks at our feet. As we grow in years, we shall grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, until the day comes when we shall exchange earth for heaven. That will be the sublimest application of this text, when, dying, we can calmly be sure that though to-day be on this side and to-morrow on the other bank of the black river, there will be no break in the continuity, but only an infinite growth in our life, and heaven’s to-morrow shall be as earth’s to-day, and much more abundant.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.