Evening, February 10
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Isaiah 44:22
"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a
cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee."
Isaiah 44:22
Attentively observe the instructive similitude: our sins are like a
cloud. As clouds are of many shapes and shades, so are our
transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun, and darken the
landscape beneath, so do our sins hide from us the light of Jehovah's
face, and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earth-born
things, and rise from the miry places of our nature; and when so
collected that their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and
tempest. Alas! that, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial
showers, but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of
destruction. O ye black clouds of sin, how can it be fair weather with
our souls while ye remain?
Let our joyful eye dwell upon the notable act of divine
mercy--"blotting out." God himself appears upon the scene, and in
divine benignity, instead of manifesting his anger, reveals his grace:
he at once and forever effectually removes the mischief, not by blowing
away the cloud, but by blotting it out from existence once for all.
Against the justified man no sin remains, the great transaction of the
cross has eternally removed his transgressions from him. On Calvary's
summit the great deed, by which the sin of all the chosen was forever
put away, was completely and effectually performed.
Practically let us obey the gracious command, "return unto me." Why
should pardoned sinners live at a distance from their God? If we have
been forgiven all our sins, let no legal fear withhold us from the
boldest access to our Lord. Let backslidings be bemoaned, but let us
not persevere in them. To the greatest possible nearness of communion
with the Lord, let us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, strive mightily
to return. O Lord, this night restore us!