Loading...
I will cut off thy horses - Thou shalt have no need of cavalry in thine armies; God will fight for you.
And it shall come to pass in that day - Of grace in the kingdom of Christ and of His Presence in the Apostles and with the Church; “I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee.” The greater the glory and purity of the church, the less it needs or hangs upon human aid. The more it is reft of human aid, the more it hangs upon God. So God promises, as a blessing, that He will remove from her all mere human resources, both what was in itself evil, and what, although good, had been abused. Most of these things, whose removal is here promised, are spoken of at the same time by Isaiah, as sin, or the occasion of sin, and of God‘s judgments to Judah. “Soothsayers,” (the same word) “horses, chariots, idols the work of their hands; high towers, fenced walls” Isaiah 2:6-8, Isaiah 2:15. Rib. Lap.: “I will take, from thee all arms wherewith, while unconverted, thou opposedst the faith,” all which thou settest up as idols in place of God. (Such are witchcrafts, soothsayers, graven images, images of Ashtaroth.) “I will take from thee all outward means and instruments of defense which aforetime were turned into pride and sin;” as horses and chariots. Not such shall be the arms of the Church, not such her strongholds. A horse is a vain thing to save a man. Her arms shall be the despised Cross of shame; her warriors, they who bear it; their courage, to endure in holy patience and meekness; their might, the Holy Spirit within them; their victories, through death, not of others, but their Master‘s and, in His, their own. They shall overcome the world, as He overcame it, and through Him alone and His Merits who overcame it by suffering.