Isaiah 56:9-12 - Homiletics

When their spiritual guides go astray, the flock of Christ suffers

Spiritual guides are bound to watch for the flock, as "they that must give account" ( Hebrews 13:17 ). It is ill for the flock when they are even negligent in their duties—still worse when they engage actively in evil courses. Israel's guides at this time were open to both charges, and are blamed on both accounts. Isaiah taxes them with being—

I. BLIND GUIDES , destitute of spiritual wisdom and spiritual discernment. "The priest's lips should keep knowledge" ( Malachi 2:7 ). It is the office of priests and ministers to guide aright the souls committed to their charge, and for this purpose they require a large fund of "the wisdom which is from above," a large experience of human life and of the human heart, and a deep acquaintance with the written Word, wherein treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid away. "Blind guides" constitute a terrible danger. "If the blind lead the blind, shall they not both fall into the pit?" ( Matthew 15:14 ). What havoc may not be wrought by a "blind guide," who undertakes to be the director of thousands or even hundreds of souls! And yet how lightly do young men, after no more than a year or two of experience , seek to obtain "sole charges"! "Sole charges" should be reserved for those who have been thoroughly tried and tested, and have shown themselves able ministers of the Word and wise directors of men's consciences.

II. DUMB DOGS . If we are without knowledge, it is better to be "dumb" than to speak. But to have knowledge, to be able to direct and improve others, and, having undertaken the ministerial office, then to draw back and remain silent, through sloth and laziness, because we would fain "lie down, and dream, and slumber," and pass our life without care, or anxiety, or trouble,—this is a most "dangerous downfall," a shirking of our responsibilities, a "drawing back unto perdition of the soul" ( Hebrews 10:39 ). There are ministers even now, in this latter part of the nineteenth century, whose object in their ministerial life seems to be to do as little as possible, who preach little, visit less, reprove and rebuke vice least of all, whose desire seems to he always for "a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep" ( Proverbs 6:10 ). Such persons will one day experience a terrible awakening!

III. GREEDY DOGS . Ministers are bound to be patterns to the flock. If they preach the doctrines of the gospel—self-sacrifice, spirituality, unworldliness—and are themselves greedy of gain, conspicuous examples of the worldly and covetous spirit which they denounce, what possible effect for good can their preaching have? Such men do more harm than infidels. They dishonour their Master, bring scorn and contempt upon religion, do their best to create the impression that Christianity is a sham, a make-believe, a device for bolstering up a rotten state of society and repressing revolutionary effort. "The labourer is worthy of his hire" ( Luke 10:7 ), and they that preach the gospel are entitled to "live of the gospel" ( 1 Corinthians 9:14 ); but a hard, grasping, or even niggardly spirit in a Christian minister is a disgrace to his profession, a scandal to the Church whereto he belongs, and a danger to society. Such as "look to their own way," and seek their own gain, "to the uttermost," as did the pseudo-prophets of Isaiah's day, are wholly unfit to bear the message of him who, "though rich, for man's sake became poor" ( 2 Corinthians 8:9 ), and chose "the poor of this world" for his ministers ( James 2:5 ).

IV. WINE - BIBBERS . Intemperate habits are, if possible, more unbecoming to the minister of Christ than even covetousness. Covetousness may be secret, and escape detection; intemperance is a public scandal. The man of intemperate habits can scarcely have the face to rebuke any vice in others, seeing that his own vice is so open and patent to all. He is thus utterly disqualified for the ministerial office , which he degrades and disgraces so long as he bears it. Fortunately, at the present day, intemperance is recognized as incompatible with the cure of souls; and the intemperate minister, in modern Churches, can scarcely remain a minister for many months.