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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
N E H E M I A H
CHAP. IX.
The tenth day of the seventh month between the feast of trumpets
and the feast of tabernacles
(ver. 14)
was appointed to be the day of atonement; we have no reason to think
but that it was religiously observed, though it is not mentioned. But
here we have an account of an occasional fast that was kept a fortnight
after that, with reference to the present posture of their affairs, and
it was, as that, a day of humiliation. There is a time to weep as well
as a time to laugh. We have here an account.
I. How this fast was observed,
II. What were the heads of the prayer that was made to God on that
occasion, wherein they made a thankful acknowledgment of God’s mercies,
a penitent confession of sin, and a humble submission to the righteous
hand of God in the judgments that were brought upon them, concluding
with a solemn resolution of new obedience,
| The Repentance of the People. | B. C. 444. |
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1 Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children
of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and
earth upon them.
2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all
strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities
of their fathers.
3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the
law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and
another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD
their God.
We have here a general account of a public fast which the children of
Israel kept, probably by order from Nehemiah, by and with the advice
and consent of the chief of the fathers. It was a fast that men
appointed, but such a fast as God had chosen; for,
1. It was a day to afflict the soul,
Isa. lviii. 5.
Probably they assembled in the courts of the temple, and they there
appeared in sackcloth and in the posture of mourners, with earth on
their heads,
v. 1.
By these outward expressions of sorrow and humiliation they gave glory
to God, took shame to themselves, and stirred up one another to
repentance. They were restrained from weeping,
ch. viii. 9,
but now they were directed to weep. The joy of our holy feasts must
give way to the sorrow of our solemn fasts when they come. Every thing
is beautiful in its season.
2. It was a day to loose the bands of wickedness, and that is
the fast that God has chosen,
Without this, spreading sackcloth and ashes under us is but a jest.
The seed of Israel, because they were a holy seed, appropriated to God
and more excellent than their neighbours, separated themselves from
all strangers with whom they had mingled and joined in affinity,
v. 2.
Ezra had separated them from their strange wives some years before, but
they had relapsed into the same sin, and had either made marriages or
at least made friendships with them, and contracted such an intimacy as
was a snare to them. But now they separated themselves from the strange
children as well as from the strange wives. Those that intend by
prayers and covenants to join themselves to God must separate
themselves from sin and sinners; for what communion hath light with
darkness?
3. It was a day of communion with God. They fasted to him, even to
him
(Zech. vii. 5);
for,
(1.) They spoke to him in prayer, offered their pious and devout
affections to him in the confession of sin and the adoration of him as
the Lord and their God. Fasting without prayer is a body without a
soul, a worthless carcase.
(2.) They heard him speaking to them by his word; for they read in the
book of the law, which is very proper on fasting days, that, in the
glass of the law, we may see our deformities and defilements, and know
what to acknowledge and what to amend. The word will direct and quicken
prayer, for by it the Spirit helps our praying infirmities. Observe how
the time was equally divided between these two. Three hours (for that
is the fourth part of a day) they spent in reading, expounding, and
applying the scriptures, and three hours in confessing sin and praying;
so that they staid together six hours, and spent all the time in the
solemn acts of religion, without saying, Behold, what a weariness is
it! The varying of the exercises made it the less tedious, and, as
the word they read would furnish them with matter for prayer, so prayer
would make the word the more profitable. Bishop Patrick thinks that
they spent the whole twelve hours of the day in devotion, that from six
o’clock in the morning till nine they read, and then from nine to
twelve they prayed, from twelve to three they read again, and from
three till six at night they prayed again. The word of a fast day is
good work, and therefore we should endeavour to make a day’s work, a
good day’s work, of it.
| The Prayer of the Levites. | B. C. 444. |
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4 Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and
Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani,
and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah,
Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up
and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed be
thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and
praise.
6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven,
the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all
things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein,
and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth
thee.
7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and
broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him
the name of Abraham;
8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a
covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites,
and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast
performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and
heardest their cry by the Red sea;
10 And showedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his
servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest
that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a
name, as it is this day.
11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went
through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their
persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the
mighty waters.
12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar;
and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the
way wherein they should go.
13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with
them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws,
good statutes and commandments:
14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst
them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy
servant:
15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and
broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst,
and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land
which thou hadst sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their
necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders
that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in
their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage:
but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.
18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This
is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought
great provocations;
19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the
wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by
day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by
night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go.
20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and
withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water
for their thirst.
21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness,
so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and
their feet swelled not.
22 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst
divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon,
and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of
Bashan.
23 Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of
heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou
hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to
possess it.
24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou
subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the
Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings,
and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they
would.
25 And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed
houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and
oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and
were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy
great goodness.
26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against
thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets
which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they
wrought great provocations.
27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their
enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when
they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and
according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who
saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee:
therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that
they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and
cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times
didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;
29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them
again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not
unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which
if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder,
and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst
against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not
give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people
of the lands.
31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not
utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious
and merciful God.
32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the
terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the
trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our
kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets,
and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the
kings of Assyria unto this day.
33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for
thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
34 Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our
fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and
thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
35 For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy
great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat
land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from
their wicked works.
36 Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that
thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the
good thereof, behold, we are servants in it:
37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast
set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our
bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in
great distress.
38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write
it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
We have here an account how the work of this fast-day was carried on.
1. The names of the ministers that were employed. They are twice named
(v. 4, 5),
only with some variation of the names. Either they prayed successively,
according to that rule which the apostle gives
You may all prophesy one by one), or, as some think, there were
eight several congregations at some distance from each other, and each
had a Levite to preside in it.
2. The work itself in which they employed themselves.
(1.) They prayed to God, cried to him with a loud voice
(v. 4),
for the pardon of the sins of Israel and God’s favour to them. They
cried aloud, not that God might the better hear them, as Baal’s
worshippers, but that the people might, and to excite their fervency.
(2.) They praised God; for the work of praise is not unseasonable on a
fast-day; in all acts of devotion we must aim at this, to give unto
God the glory due to his name. The summary of their prayers we have
here upon record; whether drawn up before, as a directory to the
Levites what to enlarge on, or recollected after, as the heads of what
they had in prayer enlarged upon, is uncertain. Much more no doubt was
said than is here recorded, else confessing and worshipping God would
not have taken up a fourth part of the day, much less two-fourths.
In this solemn address to God we have,
I. An awful adoration of God, as a perfect and glorious Being, and the
fountain of all beings,
The congregation is called upon to signify their concurrence herewith
by standing up; and so the minister directs himself to God, Blessed
be thy glorious name. God is here adored,
1. As the only living and true God: Thou art Jehovah alone,
self-existent and independent; there is no God besides thee.
2. As the Creator of all things: Thou hast made heaven, earth, and
seas, and all that is in them. The first article of our creed is
fitly made the first article of our praises.
3. As the great Protector of the whole creation: “Thou preservest in
being all the creatures thou hast given being to.” God’s providence
extends itself to the highest beings, for they need it, and to the
meanest, for they are not slighted by it. What God has made he will
preserve; what he does is done effectually,
4. As the object of the creatures’ praises: “The host of heaven,
the world of holy angels, worshippeth thee,
v. 6.
But thy name is exalted above all blessing and praise; it needs
not the praises of the creatures, nor is any addition made to its glory
by those praises.” The best performances in the praising of God’s name,
even those of the angels themselves, fall infinitely short of what it
deserves. It is not only exalted above our blessing, but above all
blessing. Put all the praises of heaven and earth together, and the
thousandth part is not said of what might and should be said of the
glory of God. Our goodness extendeth not to him.
II. A thankful acknowledgment of God’s favours to Israel.
1. Many of these are here reckoned up in order before him, and very
much to the purpose, for,
(1.) We must take all occasions to mention the loving kindness of the
Lord, and in every prayer give thanks.
(2.) When we are confessing our sins it is good to take notice of the
mercies of God as the aggravations of our sins, that we may be the more
humbled and ashamed, and call ourselves by the scandalous name of
ungrateful.
(3.) When we are seeking to God for mercy and relief in the time of
distress it is an encouragement to our faith and hope to look back upon
our own and our fathers’ experiences: “Lord, thou hast done well for us
formerly; shall it be all undone again? Art not thou the same God
still?”
2. Let us briefly observe the particular instances of God’s goodness to
Israel here recounted.
(1.) The call of Abraham,
v. 7.
God’s favour to him was distinguishing: “Thou didst choose him.” His
grace in him was powerful to bring him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and,
in giving him the name of Abraham, he put honour upon him as his own
and assured him that he should be the father of many nations. Look
unto Abraham your father
and see free grace glorified in him.
(2.) The covenant God made with him to give the land of Canaan to him
and his seed, a type of the better country,
v. 8.
And this covenant was sure, for God found Abraham’s heart faithful
before God, and found it so because he made it so (for faith is not of
ourselves, it is the gift of God), and therefore performed his words;
for with the upright he will show himself upright, and wherever
he finds a faithful heart he will be found a faithful God.
(3.) The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt,
It was seasonable to remember this now that they were interceding for
the perfecting of their deliverance out of Babylon. They were then
delivered, in compassion to their affliction, in answer to their cry,
and in resistance of the pride and insolence of their persecutors.
Wherein they dealt proudly, God showed himself above them
and so got himself a name; for he said, I will get me honour
upon Pharaoh. Even to this day the name of God is glorified for
that wonderful work. It was done miraculously: signs and wonders were
shown for the effecting of it; their deliverance was the destruction of
their enemies; they were thrown into the deeps, as irrecoverably
as a stone into the mighty waters.
(4.) The conducting of them through the wilderness, by the pillar of
cloud and fire, which showed them which way they should go, when they
should remove, and when and where they should rest, directed all their
stages and all their steps,
It was also a visible token of God’s presence with them, to guide and
guard them. They mention this again
(v. 19),
observing that though they had by their sins provoked God to withdraw
from them, and leave them to wander and perish in the by-paths of the
wilderness, yet in his manifold mercy he continued to lead them, and
took not away the pillar of cloud and fire,
v. 19.
When mercies, though forfeited, are continued, we are bound to be
doubly thankful.
(5.) The plentiful provision made for them in the wilderness, that they
might not perish for hunger: Thou gavest them bread from heaven,
and water out of the rock
(v. 15),
and, to hold up their hearts, a promise that they should go in and
possess the land of Canaan. They had meat and drink, food convenient in
the way, and the good land at their journey’s end; what would they
more? This also is repeated
as that which was continued, notwithstanding their provocations:
Forty years didst thou sustain them. Never was people so long
nursed and so tenderly; they were wonderfully provided for, and, in so
long a time, their clothes waxed not old, and, though the way
was rough and tedious, their feet swelled not; for they were
carried as upon eagles’ wings.
(6.) The giving of the law upon Mount Sinai. This was the greatest
favour of all that was done them and the greatest honour that was put
upon them. The Lawgiver was very glorious,
“Thou didst not only send, but camest down thyself, and didst speak
with them,”
The law given was very good. No nation under the sun had such right
judgments, true laws, and good statutes,
Deut. iv. 8.
The moral and judicial precepts were true and right, founded upon
natural equity and the eternal reasons of good and evil; and even the
ceremonial institutions were good, tokens of God’s goodness to them and
types of gospel grace. Particular notice is taken of the law of the
fourth commandment as a great favour to them: Thou madest known unto
them thy holy sabbath, which was a token of God’s particular favour
to them, distinguishing them from the nations who had revolted from God
and quite lost that ancient part of revealed religion, and was likewise
a means of keeping up their communion with him. And, with the
law and the sabbath, he gave his good Spirit to instruct
them,
v. 20.
Besides the law given on Mount Sinai, the five books of Moses, which he
wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, were constant
instructions to them, particularly the book of Deuteronomy, in which
God’s Spirit by Moses instructed them fully. Bezaleel was filled
with the Spirit of God
so was Joshua
and Caleb had another spirit.
(7.) The putting of them in possession of Canaan, that good land,
kingdoms and nations,
v. 22.
They were made so numerous as to replenish it
(v. 23)
and so victorious as to be masters of it
(v. 24);
the natives were given into their hands, that they might do with
them as they would, set their feet, if they pleased, on the necks
of their kings. Thus they gained a happy settlement,
v. 25.
Look upon their cities, and you see them strong and well fortified.
Look into their houses, and you find them fine and well furnished,
filled with all sorts of rich goods. Take a view of the country, and
you will say that you never saw such a fat land, so well stored with
vineyards and oliveyards. All these they found made ready to
their hands; so they delighted themselves in the gifts of God’s great
goodness. They could not wish to be more easy or happy than they were,
or might have been, in Canaan, had it not been their own fault.
(8.) God’s great readiness to pardon their sins, and work deliverance
for them, when they had by their provocations brought his judgments
upon themselves. When they were in the wilderness they found him a
God ready to pardon
(v. 17),
a God of pardons (so the margin reads it), who had proclaimed
his name as a God forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,
who has power to forgive sin, is willing to forgive, and glories in
forgiving. Though they forsook him, he did not forsake them, as justly
he might have done, but continued his care of them and favour to them.
Afterwards, when they were settled in Canaan and sold themselves by
their sins into the hands of their enemies, upon their submission and
humble request he gave them saviours
(v. 27),
the judges, by whom God wrought many a great deliverance for them when
they were on the brink of ruin. This he did, not for any merit of
theirs, for their deserved nothing but ill, but according to his
mercies, his manifold mercies.
(9.) The admonitions and fair warnings he gave them by his servants the
prophets. When he delivered them from their troubles he testified
against their sins
(v. 28, 29),
that they might not misconstrue their deliverances as connivances at
their wickedness. That which was designed in all the testimonies which
the prophets bore against them was to bring them again to God’s law, to
lay their necks under its yoke, and walk by its rule. The end of our
ministry is to bring people to God by bringing them to his law, not to
bring them to ourselves by bringing them under any law of ours. This we
have again
(v. 30):
Thou testifiedst against them by thy Spirit in thy prophets. The
testimony of the prophets was the testimony of the Spirit in the
prophets, and it was the Spirit of Christ in them,
They spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and what they
said is to be received accordingly. God gave them his Spirit to
instruct them
(v. 20),
but, they not receiving that instruction, he did by his Spirit testify
against them. If we will not suffer God’s word to teach and rule us, it
will accuse and judge us. God sends prophets, in compassion to his
people
that he may not send judgments.
(10.) The lengthening out of his patience and the moderating of his
rebukes: Many years did he forbear them
(v. 30),
as loth to punish them, and waiting to see if they would repent; and,
when he did punish them, he did not utterly consume them nor forsake
them,
v. 31.
Had he forsaken them they would have been utterly consumed; but he did
not stir up all his wrath, for he designed their reformation, not their
destruction. Thus do they multiply, thus do they magnify, the
instances of God’s goodness to Israel, and we should do in like manner,
that the goodness of God, duly considered by us, may lead us to
repentance, and overcome our badness. The more thankful we are for
God’s mercies the more humbled we shall be for our own sins.
III. Here is a penitent confession of sin, their own sins, and the sins
of their fathers. The mention of these is interwoven with the memorials
of God’s favours, that God’s goodness, notwithstanding their
provocations, might appear the more illustrious, and their sins,
notwithstanding his favours, might appear the more heinous. Many
passages in this acknowledgment of sins and mercies are taken from
as will appear by comparing those verses with these; for the word of
God is of use to direct us in prayer, and by what he says to us we may
learn what to say to him.
1. They begin with the sins of Israel in the wilderness: They, even
our fathers (so it might better be read), dealt proudly
(though, considering what they were, and how lately they had come out
of slavery, they had no reason to be proud), and hardened their
necks,
v. 16.
Pride is at the bottom of men’s obstinacy and disobedience; they think
it below them to bow their necks to God’s yoke, and a piece of state to
set up their own will in opposition to the will of God himself.
(1.) There were two things which they did not duly give heed to, else
they would not have done as they did:–The word of God they heard, but
they did not hearken to God’s commandments; and the works of God they
saw, but they were not mindful of his wonders: had they duly considered
them as miracles, they would have obeyed from a principle of faith and
holy fear; had they duly considered them as mercies, they would have
obeyed from a principle of gratitude and holy love. But, when men make
no right use either of God’s ordinances or of his providences, what can
be expected from them?
(2.) Two great sins are here specified; which they were guilty of in
the wilderness–meditating a return,
[1.] To Egyptian slavery, which, for the sake of the garlick and
onions, they preferred before the glorious liberty of the Israel of God
attended with some difficulty and inconvenience. In their rebellion
they appointed a captain to return to their bondage, in distrust of
God’s power and contempt of his holy promise,
[2.] To Egyptian idolatry: They made a molten calf, and were so
sottish as to say, This is thy God.
2. They next bewail the provocations of their fathers after they were
put in possession of Canaan. Though they were delighted themselves
in God’s great goodness, yet that would not prevail to keep them
closely to him; for, nevertheless, they were disobedient
(v. 26)
and wrought great provocations. For,
(1.) They abused God’s prophets, slew them because they
testified against them to turn them to God
(v. 26),
so returning the greatest injury for the greatest kindness.
(2.) They abused his favours: After they had rest, they did
evil again,
v. 28.
They were not wrought upon either by their troubles or their
deliverances out of trouble. Neither fear nor love would hold them to
their duty.
3. They at length come nearer to their own day, and lament the sins
which had brought those judgments upon them which they had long been
groaning under and were now but in part delivered from: We have done
wickedly
(v. 33):
our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers, have all
been guilty, and we in them,
Two things they charge upon themselves and their fathers, as the cause
of their troubles:–
(1.) A contempt of the good law God had given them: They sinned
against thy judgments, the dictates of divine wisdom, and the
demands of divine sovereignty. Though they were told how much it would
be for their own advantage to govern themselves by them, for, if a
man do them, he shall live in them
(v. 29),
yet they would not do them, and so, in effect, said that they would
not live. They forsook their own mercies. This abridgment of
the covenant, Do this and live, is taken from
and is quoted,
to prove that the law is not of faith; it was not them as it is
now, Believe and live, yet they gave a withdrawing
shoulder, so it is in the margin. They pretended to lay their
shoulders under the burden of God’s law, and put their shoulders to the
work, but they proved withdrawing shoulders; they soon flew off, would
not keep to it, would not abide by it. When it came, as we say, to the
setting to, they shrunk back, and would not hear. They had a
backsliding heart; and, though God by his prophets called them to
return, they would not give ear,
v. 30.
He stretched out his hands, but no man regarded.
(2.) A contempt of the good land god had given them
(v. 35):
“Our kings have not served thee in their kingdom, have not used
their power for the support of religion; our people have not served
thee in the use of the gifts of thy great goodness, and in that large
and fat land which thou not only gavest them by thy grant, but gavest
before them by the expulsion of the natives and the complete victories
they obtained over them.” Those that would not serve God in their own
land were made to serve their enemies in a strange land, as was
threatened,
It is a pity that a good land should have bad inhabitants, but so it
was with Sodom. Fatness and fulness often make men proud and
sensual.
IV. Here is a humble representation of the judgments of God, which they
had been and were now under.
1. Former judgments are remembered as aggravations of their sins, that
they had not taken warning. In the days of the judges their enemies
vexed them
(v. 27);
and, when they did evil again, God did again leave them in the hand
of their enemies, who could not have touched them if God had not
given them up; but, when God left them, they got and kept dominion over
them.
2. Their present calamitous state is laid before the Lord
(v. 36, 37):
We are servants this day. Free-born Israelites are enslaved, and
the land which they had long held by a much more honourable tenure than
grand sergeantry itself, even by immediate grant from the crown of
heaven to them as a peculiar people above all people on the earth, they
now held by as base a tenure as villenage itself, by, from, and under,
the kings of Persia, whose vassals they were. A sad change! But see
what work sin makes! They were bound to personal service: They have
dominion over our bodies; they held all they had precariously,
were tenants at will, and the land-tax that they paid was so great that
it amounted even to a rack-rent; so that all the rents, issues, and
profits, of their land did in effect accrue to the king, and it was as
much as they could do to get a bare subsistence for themselves and
their families out of it. This, they honestly own, was for their sins.
Poverty and slavery are the fruits of sin; it is sin that brings us
into all our distresses.
V. Here is their address to God under these calamities.
1. By way of request, that their trouble might not seem little,
v. 32.
It is the only petition in all this prayer. The trouble was universal;
it had come on their kings, princes, priests, prophets, fathers, and
all their people; they had all shared in the sin
(v. 34),
and now all shared in the judgment. It was of long continuance: From
the time of the kings of Assyria, who carried the ten tribes
captive, unto this day. “Lord, let it not all seem little and
not worthy to be regarded, or not needing to be relieved.” They do not
prescribe to God what he shall do for them, but leave it to him, only
desiring he would please to take cognizance of it, remembering that
when he saw the affliction of his people in Egypt to be great he came
down to deliver them,
In this request they have an eye to God as one that is to be feared
(for he is the great, the mighty, and the terrible, God), and as
one that is to be trusted, for he is our God in covenant, and a
God that keeps covenant and mercy.
2. By way of acknowledgment, notwithstanding, that really it was less
than they deserved,
They own the justice of God in all their troubles, that he had done
them no wrong. “We have done wickedly in breaking thy laws, and
therefore thou hast done right in bringing all these miseries upon us.”
Note, It becomes us, when we are under the rebukes of divine
Providence, though ever so sharp and ever so long, to justify God and
to judge ourselves; for he will be clear when he judgeth.
Ps. li. 4.
VI. Here is the result and conclusion of this whole matter. After this
long remonstrance of their case was made they came at last to this
resolution, that they would return to God and to their duty, and oblige
themselves never to forsake God, but always to continue in their duty.
“Because of all this, we make a sure covenant with God; in
consideration of our frequent departures from God, we will now more
firmly than ever bind ourselves to him. Because we have smarted so much
for sin, we will now stedfastly resolve against it, that we may not any
more withdraw the shoulder.” Observe,
1. This covenant was made with serious consideration. It is the result
of a chain of suitable thoughts, and so is a reasonable service.
2. With great solemnity. It was written, in perpetuam rei
memoriam–that it might remain a memorial for all ages; it was
sealed and left upon record, that it might be a witness against them if
they dealt deceitfully.
3. With join consent: “We make it; we are all agreed in making
it, and do it unanimously, that we may strengthen the hands one of
another.”
4. With fixed resolution: “It is a sure covenant, without
reserving a power of revocation. It is what we will live and die by,
and never go back from.” A certain number of the princes, priests, and
Levites, were chosen as the representatives of the congregation, to
subscribe and seal it for and in the name of the rest. Now was
fulfilled that promise concerning the Jews, that, when they returned
out of captivity, they should join themselves to the Lord in a
perpetual covenant
(Jer. l. 5),
and that in
that they should subscribe with their hand unto the Lord. He
that bears an honest mind will not startle at assurances; nor will
those that know the deceitfulness of their own hearts think them
needless.
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