Isaiah 5:18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
"Woe unto them." When we get a woe in this Book of Blessings it is sent as a warning, that we may escape from woe. God’s woes are better than the devil’s welcomes. God always means man’s good, and only sets ill before him that he may turn from the dangers of a mistaken way, and so may escape the ill which lies at the end of it. Mayhap "Woe, woe, woe," though it should sound with a dreadful din in our ear, may be the means of leading us to seek and find our Saviour, and then throughout eternity no woe shall ever come near to us. "That draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope." This is a very singular passage. It is not very easy to understand it at first sight. Here are some who are said to draw sin "with cords of vanity," which are slender enough, and yet they also draw it "as with a cart rope," which is thick enough. They are harnessed to sin, and the traces appear to be fragile, insignificant, and soon broken. You can hardly touch them, for they are a mere sham, a fiction -vanity. What can be thinner and weaker than cobweb-cords of vanity? Yet when you attempt to break or remove them, they turn out to be cart ropes or wagon traces, fitted to bear the pull of horse or bullock. Motives which have no logical forge, and would not bind a reasonable man for a moment, are, nevertheless, quite sufficient to hold the most of men in bondage. Such a slave is man to iniquity, that unworthy motives and indefensible reasons which appear no stronger than little cords nevertheless hold him as with bonds of steel, and he is fastened to the loaded wagon of his iniquity as a horse is fastened by a cart rope.
Isaiah 5:18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
"Woe unto them." When we get a woe in this Book of Blessings it is sent as a warning, that we may escape from woe. God’s woes are better than the devil’s welcomes. God always means man’s good, and only sets ill before him that he may turn from the dangers of a mistaken way, and so may escape the ill which lies at the end of it. Mayhap "Woe, woe, woe," though it should sound with a dreadful din in our ear, may be the means of leading us to seek and find our Saviour, and then throughout eternity no woe shall ever come near to us. "That draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope." This is a very singular passage. It is not very easy to understand it at first sight. Here are some who are said to draw sin "with cords of vanity," which are slender enough, and yet they also draw it "as with a cart rope," which is thick enough. They are harnessed to sin, and the traces appear to be fragile, insignificant, and soon broken. You can hardly touch them, for they are a mere sham, a fiction -vanity. What can be thinner and weaker than cobweb-cords of vanity? Yet when you attempt to break or remove them, they turn out to be cart ropes or wagon traces, fitted to bear the pull of horse or bullock. Motives which have no logical forge, and would not bind a reasonable man for a moment, are, nevertheless, quite sufficient to hold the most of men in bondage. Such a slave is man to iniquity, that unworthy motives and indefensible reasons which appear no stronger than little cords nevertheless hold him as with bonds of steel, and he is fastened to the loaded wagon of his iniquity as a horse is fastened by a cart rope.