Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 26:15-16

"Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land. Jehovah, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening was upon them." — Isaiah 26:15-16 (ASV)

You had removed it far to all the ends of the earth.

LORD, in trouble they have visited you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them.

That is true of hypocrites; but it is also sweetly true of some whom God is bringing to himself. Child after child has died, loss after loss has broken down their business; now they turn to God.

Oh, it is a blessed loss that makes us find our God! What we gain is infinitely more than what we have lost.

What a mercy it is that God is willing to hear us in times of trouble, that all our delaying and rejection of him do not make him turn us away!

I remember one who wished to hire a vehicle to go to a certain town. He went to the place where he could hire it and asked the price. He thought it was too much, so he went around the town to other people and found that he could not get it any cheaper.

But when he came back to the place he had visited first, the man said to him, "Oh, no, no! I will not rent my horses to you. You have been around to everybody else, and now you come back to me because you cannot get what you want elsewhere; I will have nothing to do with you."

That is man's way of dealing with his fellow man, but it is not the Lord's method of dealing with us.

When you and I have gone around to everybody else, the Lord still welcomes us when we come back to him.

Yes, just as harbors of refuge are meant for ships in distress that would not have entered there except for the storm and danger, such is the mercy of the Lord God in Jesus Christ.

If you are forced to accept it, you are still welcome to it. If you are driven to it by severe weather, you may come in, for the harbor was made for people exactly like you.