Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3238
“Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.” Isaiah 33:17.
This morning [See Sermon #533, Volume 9—THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTH, OR, THE EARNEST ENQUIRER.] I spoke to you concerning the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon and tried to use it as illustration of the spirit in which sinners should come to Him who is far wiser and greater than Solomon. This evening I am going to continue in much the same strain while I try to speak to you, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, from the well-known words which I have just read in your hearing. This passage is a rather difficult one to explain—at least certain expositors have done their best to make it appear to be so! They imagine that we have here a threat that the Jews should be carried away to Nineveh as captives and that in that far-off land they should see the Assyrian “king in his beauty.” But I venture to say that if you read our text in its context, you will see that a threat would be altogether out of place here in the midst of so many precious promises to the people of God! There is nothing but love and kindness for them— where there are threats, they are for their enemies!
It is possible that the historical setting of the text is this—that the Jews who had seen their king, Hezekiah, in his “day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy”—when Sennacherib’s vile letter had been brought to him, should live to see that same “king in his beauty” when the angel of the Lord had so mysteriously smitten the great host in the camp of the Assyrians and Hezekiah had gone up to the House of the Lord to return public thanks for the miraculous deliverance which had been worked in answer to prayer and in accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy. But all students of Scripture must agree that “the King” here mentioned is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ—and that the promise of the text relates partly to the latter-day Glory, and more fully and more gloriously to the saint’s experience in Heaven—“Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.”
Without any further preface, I will try to direct your thoughts to these four things. First, a King pre-eminent Secondly, a vision predicted. Thirdly, a peculiar beauty. And, fourthly, a land possessed.
I. First, dear Friends, we have plainly enough in the text, A KING PRE-EMINENT—“Your eyes shall see the King.” No name is given and no name is needed. It is here as it was when the spouse began the Canticles by singing, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.” There was no need to say to whom she was referring, for the chaste bride wanted no kisses from anyone but her Beloved!
I am speaking to those who know the Lord and, therefore, I say to them—You know, Beloved, that our Lord Jesus is King by Divine right. He is the brightness of His Father’s Glory and the express Image of His Person. God has appointed Him heir of all things, and by Him God made the worlds. “For by Him were all things created that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” He “is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Well did the inspired Prophet write concerning Him, “The government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” It is by His permission that other kings reign! And when He pleases, He can in a moment remove the mightiest monarchs from their throne! He is the only Sovereign who is King by Divine right—the absolute Disposer of all events, to whom all power in
Heaven and earth has been given by His Father—in whose hands are the issues of life and death, and at whose belt hang the keys of the unseen world!
You remember too, Beloved, that our Lord Jesus Christ was a King even when He was upon the earth as a Man. He ruled over all the forces of Nature. Stormy winds were hushed to sleep by His commanding word, “Peace! Be still.” All diseases fled at His approach and the very demons proved that they, too, were under the control of His Sovereign Power! Even the king of terrors, Death, himself, had to openly acknowledge the sway of the far mightier King of kings and to yield up at His bidding those who had passed beneath the grim portals of his dread domains! Yet how shamefully wicked men maltreated this mighty Monarch, before whom the holy angels had bowed in lowly obeisance, or waited on poised wings ready to fly on any errand on which He might deign to send them! You know the sad, sad story of the shameful indignities to which our King was subjected. They hung a soldier’s coat around His shoulders in mockery of the imperial purple. They thrust a reed into His hand as a sham scepter. And for a crown, they twisted cruel thorns that pierced His blessed brow as they smote Him again and yet again, and bowed the knee before Him in the mere semblance of adoration. Yet there was a regal majesty about Him even when He was thus crowned King of Grief. When Pilate asked Him the direct question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He did not deny it. And even when He hung upon the Cross as a condemned criminal, the official title set up above His head in Hebrew, Greek and Latin was, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” He was much more than that, for He was Lord of all men and all angels, too, and He could, in an instant, have summoned all the shining legions above to come to His relief! But He resolved to go through to the bitter end with the great work He had undertaken—and to be both Prince and Savior to give repentance and remission of sins to all for whom, as the great Kingly Substitute, He was laying down His life—