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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. XVIII.
In this chapter,
I. The Ephraimites are reproved and threatened for their pride and
drunkenness, their security and sensuality,
But, in the midst of this, here is a gracious promise of God’s favour
to the remnant of his people,
II. They are likewise reproved and threatened for their dulness and
stupidity, and unaptness to profit by the instructions which the
prophets gave them in God’s name,
III. The rulers of Jerusalem are reproved and threatened for their
insolent contempt of God’s judgments, and setting them at defiance;
and, after a gracious promise of Christ and his grace, they are made to
know that the vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God with which
they flattered themselves would certainly deceive them,
IV. All this is confirmed by a comparison borrowed from the method
which the husbandman takes with his ground and grain, according to
which they must expect God would proceed with his people, whom he had
lately called his threshing and the corn of his floor
This is written for our admonition, and is profitable for reproof and
warning to us.
| Ephraim Reproved and Threatened; The Punishment of Ephraim; The Degeneracy of Judah. |
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1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose
glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of
the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a
tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty
waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be
trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat
valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before
the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it
is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory,
and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,
and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong
drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred
through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out
of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble
in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that
there is no place clean.
Here,
I. The prophet warns the kingdom of the ten tribes of the judgments
that were coming upon them for their sins, which were soon after
executed by the king of Assyria, who laid their country waste, and
carried the people into captivity. Ephraim had his name from
fruitfulness, their soil being very fertile and the products of
it abundant and the best of the kind; they had a great many fat
valleys
(v. 1, 4),
and Samaria, which was situated on a hill, was, as it were, on the
head of the fat valleys. Their country was rich and pleasant, and
as the garden of the Lord: it was the glory of Canaan, as that was the
glory of all lands; their harvest and vintage were the glorious
beauty on the head of their valleys, which were covered over with
corn and vines. Now observe,
1. What an ill use they made of their plenty. What God gave them to
serve him with they perverted, and abused, by making it the food and
fuel of their lusts.
(1.) They were puffed up with pride by it. The goodness with which God
crowned their years, which should have been to him a crown of praise,
was to them a crown of pride. Those that are rich in the world
are apt to be high-minded,
Their king, who wore the crown, was proud that he ruled over so rich a
country; Samaria, their royal city, was notorious for pride. Perhaps it
was usual at their festivals, or revels, to wear garlands made up of
flowers and ears of corn, which they wore in honour of their fruitful
country. Pride was a sin that generally prevailed among them, and
therefore the prophet, in his name who resists the proud, boldly
proclaims a woe to the crown of pride. If those who wear crowns
be proud of them, let them not think to escape this woe. What men are
proud of, be it ever so mean, is to them as a crown; he that is proud
thinks himself as great as a king. But woe to those who thus exalt
themselves, for they shall be abased; their pride is the preface to
their destruction.
(2.) They indulged themselves in sensuality. Ephraim was notorious for
drunkenness, and excess of riot; Samaria, the head of the fat valleys,
was full of those that were overcome with wine, were broken
with it, so the margin. See how foolishly drunkards act, and no
marvel when, in the very commission of the sin, they make fools and
brutes of themselves; they yield,
[1.] To be conquered by the sin; it overcomes them, and brings them
into bondage
they are led captive by it, and the captivity is the more shameful and
inglorious because it is voluntary. Some of these wretched slaves have
themselves owned that there is not a greater drudgery in the world than
hard drinking. They are overcome not with the wine, but with the love
of it.
[2.] To be ruined by it. They are broken by wine. Their constitution is
broken by it, and their health ruined. They are broken in the callings
and estates, and their souls are in danger of being eternally undone,
and all this for the gratification of a base lust. Woe to these
drunkards of Ephraim! Ministers must bring the general woes of
the word home to particular places and persons. We must say, Woe to
this or that person, if he be a drunkard. There is a particular woe
to the drunkards of Ephraim, for they are of God’s professing people,
and it becomes them worse than any other; they know better, and
therefore should give a better example. Some make the crown of
pride to belong to the drunkards, and to mean the garlands with
which those were crowned that got the victory in their wicked drinking
matches and drank down the rest of the company. They were proud of
their being mighty to drink wine; but woe to those who thus glory in
their shame.
2. The justice of God in taking away their plenty from them, which they
thus abused. Their glorious beauty, the plenty they were proud
of, is but a fading flower; it is meat that perishes. The most
substantial fruits, if God blast them and blow upon them, are but
fading flowers,
v. 1.
God can easily take away their corn in the season thereof
(Hos. ii. 9),
and recover locum vastatum–ground that has been alienated and has
run to waste, those goods of his which they prepared for Baal. God
has an officer ready to make a seizure for him, has one at his beck,
a mighty and strong one, who is able to do the business, even
the king of Assyria, who shall cast down to the earth with the
hand, shall easily and effectually, and with the turn of a hand,
destroy all that which they are proud of and pleased with,
v. 2.
He shall throw it down to the ground, to be broken to pieces with a
strong hand, with a hand that they cannot oppose. Then the crown of
pride, and the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under
foot
(v. 3);
they shall lie exposed to contempt, and shall not be able to recover
themselves. Drunkards, in their folly, are apt to talk proudly, and
vaunt themselves most when they most shame themselves; but they thereby
render themselves the more ridiculous. The beauty of their valleys,
which they gloried in, will be,
(1.) Like a fading flower (as before,
v. 1);
it will wither of itself, and has in itself the principles of its own
corruption; it will perish in time by its own moth and rust.
(2.) Like the hasty fruit, which, as soon as it is discovered,
is plucked and eaten up; so the wealth of this world, besides that it
is apt to decay of itself, is subject to be devoured by others as
greedily as the first-ripe fruit, which is earnestly desired,
Thieves break through and steal. The harvest which the worldling
is proud of the hungry eat up
(Job v. 5);
no sooner do they see the prey but they catch at it, and swallow up all
they can lay their hands on. It is likewise easily devoured, as that
fruit which, being ripe before it has grown, is very small, and is soon
eaten up; and there being little of it, and that of little worth, it is
not reserved, but used immediately.
II. He next turns to the kingdom of Judah, whom he calls the residue
of his people
(v. 5),
for they were but two tribes to the other ten.
1. He promises them God’s favours, and that they shall be taken under
his guidance and protection when the beauty of Ephraim shall be left
exposed to be trodden down and eaten up,
In that day, when the Assyrian army is laying Israel waste, and
Judah might think that their neighbour’s house being on fire their own
was in danger, in that day of treading down and perplexity, then God
will be to the residue of his people all they need and can desire; not
only to the kingdom of Judah, but to those of Israel who had kept their
integrity, and, as was probably the case with some, betook themselves
to the land of Judah, to be sheltered by good king Hezekiah. When the
Assyrian, that mighty one, was in Israel as a tempest of hail,
noisy and battering, as a destroying storm bearing down all
before it, especially at sea, and as a flood of mighty waters
overflowing the country
(v. 2),
then in that day will the Lord of hosts, of all hosts,
distinguish by peculiar favours his people who have distinguished
themselves by a steady and singular adherence to him, and that which
they most need he will himself be to them. This very much enhances the
worth of the promises that God, covenanting to be to his people a God
all-sufficient, undertakes to be himself all that to them which they
can desire.
(1.) He will put all the credit and honour upon them which are
requisite, not only to rescue them from contempt, but to gain them
esteem and reputation. He will be to them for a crown of glory and
for a diadem of beauty. Those that wore the crown of pride looked
upon God’s people with disdain, and trampled upon them, for they were
the song of the drunkards of Ephraim; but God will so appear for them
by his providence as to make it evident that they have his favour
towards them, and that shall be to them a crown of glory; for what
greater glory can any people have than for God to acknowledge them as
his own? And he will so appear in them, by his grace, as to make it
evident that they have his image renewed on them, and that shall be to
them a diadem of beauty; for what greater beauty can any person have
than the beauty of holiness? Note, Those that have God for their God
have him for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty; for they are made
to him kings and priests.
(2.) He will give them all the wisdom and grace necessary to the due
discharge of the duty of their place. He will himself be a spirit of
judgment to those that sit in judgment; the privy counsellors shall
be guided by wisdom and discretion and the judges shall govern by
justice and equity. It is a great mercy to any people when those that
are called to places of power and public trust are qualified for their
places, when those that sit in judgment have a spirit of judgment, a
spirit of government.
(3.) He will give them all the courage and boldness requisite to carry
them resolutely through the difficulties and oppositions they are
likely to meet with. He will be for strength to those that turn the
battle to the gate, to the gates of the enemy whose cities they
besiege, or to their own gates, when they sally out upon the enemies
that besiege them. The strength of the soldiery depends as much upon
God as the wisdom of the magistracy; and where God gives both these he
is to that people a crown of glory. This may well be supposed to refer
to Christ, and so the Chaldee paraphrast understands it: In that day
shall the Messiah be a crown of glory. Simeon calls him the
glory of his people Israel; and he is made of God to us wisdom,
righteousness, and strength.
2. He complains of the corruptions that were found among them, and the
many corrupt ones
(v. 7):
But they also, many of those of Judah, have erred through
wine. There are drunkards of Jerusalem, as well as drunkards of
Ephraim; and therefore the mercy of God is to be so much the more
admired that he has not blasted the glory of Judah as he has done that
of Ephraim. Sparing mercy lays us under peculiar obligations when it is
thus distinguishing. Ephraim’s sins are found in Judah, and yet not
Ephraim’s ruins. They have erred through wine. Their drinking to
excess is itself a practical error; they think to raise their fancy by
it, but they ruin their judgment, and so put a cheat upon themselves;
they think to preserve their health by it and help digestion, but they
spoil their constitution and hasten diseases and deaths. It is also the
occasion of a great many errors in principle; their understanding is
clouded and their conscience debauched by it; and therefore, to support
themselves in it, they espouse corrupt notions, and form their minds in
favour of their lusts. Probably some were drawn in to worship idols by
their love of the wine and strong drink which there was plenty of at
their idolatrous festivals; and so they erred through wine, as Israel,
for love of the daughters of Moab, joined themselves to Baal-peor.
Three things are here observed as aggravations of this sin:–
(1.) That those were guilty of it whose business it was to warn others
against it and to teach them better, and therefore who ought to have
set a better example: The priest and the prophet are swallowed up of
wine; their office is quite drowned and lost in it. The priests, as
sacrificers, were obliged by a particular law to be temperate
(Lev. x. 9),
and, as rulers and magistrates, it was not for them to drink wine,
The prophets were a kind of Nazarites (as appears by
and, as reprovers by office, were concerned to keep at the utmost
distance from the sins they reproved in others; yet there were many of
them ensnared in this sin. What! a priest, a prophet, a minister, and
yet drunk! Tell it not in Gath. Such a scandal are they to
their coat.
(2.) That the consequences of it were very pernicious, not only by the
ill influence of their example, but the prophet, when he was drunk,
erred in vision; the false prophets plainly discovered
themselves to be so when they were in drink. The priest stumbled in
judgment and forgot the law
he reeled and staggered as much in the operations of his mind as in the
motions of his body. What wisdom or justice can be expected from those
that sacrifice reason, and virtue, and conscience, and all that is
valuable to such a base lust as the love of strong drink is? Happy art
thou, O land! when thy princes eat and drink for strength,
and not for drunkenness,
Eccl. x. 17.
(3.) That the disease was epidemic, and the generality of those that
kept any thing of a table were infected with it: All tables are full
of vomit,
v. 8.
See what an odious thing the sin of drunkenness is, what an affront it
is to human society; it is rude and ill-mannered enough to sicken the
beholders, for the tables where they eat their meat are filthily
stained with the marks of this sin, which the sinners declare as Sodom.
Their tables are full of vomit, so that the victor, instead of being
proud of his crown, ought rather to be ashamed of it. It bodes ill to
any people when so sottish a sin as drunkenness has become
national.
| The Degeneracy of Judah. | B. C. 725. |
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9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to
understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and
drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a
little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to
this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause
the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would
not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept,
precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a
little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall
backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
The prophet here complains of the wretched stupidity of this people,
that they were unteachable and made no improvement of the means of
grace which they possessed; they still continued as they were, their
mistakes not rectified, their hearts not renewed, nor their lives
reformed. Observe,
I. What it was that their prophets and ministers designed and aimed at.
It was to teach them knowledge, the knowledge of God and
his will, and to make them understand doctrine,
v. 9.
This is God’s way of dealing with men, to enlighten men’s minds first
with the knowledge of his truth, and thus to gain their affections, and
bring their wills into a compliance with his laws; thus he enters in by
the door, whereas the thief and the robber climb up another way.
II. What method they took, in pursuance of this design. They left no
means untried to do them good, but taught them as children are taught,
little children that are beginning to learn, that are taken from the
breast to the book
(v. 9),
for among the Jews it was common for mothers to nurse their children
till they were three years old, and almost ready to go to school. And
it is good to begin betimes with children, to teach them, as they are
capable, the good knowledge of the Lord, and to instruct them even when
they are but newly weaned from the milk. The prophets taught them as
children are taught; for,
1. They were constant and industrious in teaching them. They took great
pains with them, and with great prudence, teaching them as they needed
it and were able to bear it
(v. 10):
Precept upon precept. It must be so, or (as some read) it has
been so. They have been taught, as children are taught to read, by
precept upon precept, and taught to write by line upon line,
a little here and a little there, a little of one thing and
a little of another, that the variety of instructions might be pleasing
and inviting,–a little at one time and a little at another, that they
might not have their memories overcharged,–a little from one prophet
and a little from another, that every one might be pleased with his
friend and him whom he admired. Note, For our instruction in the
things of God it is requisite that we have precept upon precept and
line upon line, that one precept and line should be followed, and so
enforced by another; the precept of justice must be upon the precept of
piety, and the precept of charity upon that of justice. Nay, it is
necessary that the same precept and the same line should be often
repeated and inculcated upon us, that we may the better understand them
and the more easily recollect them when we have occasion for them.
Teachers should accommodate themselves to the capacity of the learners,
give them what they most need and can best bear, and a little at a
time,
2. They courted and persuaded them to learn,
God, by his prophets, said to them, “This way that we are
directing you to, and directing you in, is the rest, the only
rest, wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this will be
the refreshing of your own souls, and will bring rest to your
country from the wars and other calamities with which it has been long
harassed.” Note, God by his word calls us to nothing but what is really
for our advantage; for the service of God is the only true rest for
those that are weary of the service of sin and there is no refreshing
but under the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus.
III. What little effect all this had upon the people. They were as
unapt to learn as young children newly weaned from the milk, and it was
as impossible to fasten any thing upon them
(v. 9):
nay, one would choose rather to teach a child of two years old than
undertake to teach them; for they have not only (like such a child) no
capacity to receive what is taught them, but they are prejudiced
against it. As children, they have need of milk, and cannot
bear strong meat,
Heb. v. 12.
1. They would not hear
(v. 12),
no, not that which would be rest and refreshing to them. They had no
mind to hear it. The word of God commanded their serious attention, but
could not gain it; they were where it was preached, but they turned a
deaf ear to it, or as it came in at one ear it went out at the other.
2. They would not heed. It was unto them precept upon precept, and
line upon line
(v. 13);
they went on in a road of external performances; they kept up the old
custom of attending upon the prophet’s preaching and it was continually
sounding in their ears, but that was all; it made no impression upon
them; they had the letter of the precept, but no experience of the
power and spirit of it; it was continually beating upon them, but it
beat nothing into them. Nay,
3. It should seem, they ridiculed the prophet’s preaching, and bantered
it. The word of the Lord was unto them Tsau latsau, kau lakau;
in the original it is in rhyme; they made a song of the prophet’s
words, and sang it when they were merry over their wine. David was the
song of the drunkards. It is great impiety, and a high affront to God,
thus to make a jest of sacred things, to speak of that vainly which
should make us serious.
IV. How severely God would reckon with them for this.
1. He would deprive them of the privilege of plain preaching, and speak
to them with stammering lips and another tongue,
v. 11.
Those that will not understand what is plain and level to their
capacity, but despise it as mean and trifling, are justly amused with
that which is above them. Or God will send foreign armies among them,
whose language they understand not, to lay their country waste. Those
that will not hear the comfortable voice of God’s word shall be made to
hear the dreadful voice of his rod. Or these words may be taken as
denoting God’s gracious condescension to their capacity in his dealing
with them; he lisped to them in their own language, as nurses do to
their children, with stammering lips, to humor them; he changed his
voice, tried first one way and then another; the apostle quotes it as a
favour
applying it to the gift of tongues, and complaining that yet for all
this they would not hear.
2. He would bring utter ruin upon them. By their profane contempt of
God and his word they are but hastening on their own ruin, and ripening
themselves for it; it is that they may go and fall backward, may
grow worse and worse, may depart further and further from God, and
proceed from one sin to another, till they be quite broken, and
snared, and taken, and ruined,
They have here a little and there a little of the word of God; they
think it too much, and say to the seers, See not; but it proves
too little to convert them, and will prove enough to condemn them. If
it be not a savour of life unto life, it will be a savour of
death unto death.
| Judgments Announced; The Corner-stone in Zion. | B. C. 725. |
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14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that
rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death,
and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a
sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to
the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,
and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for
morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and
it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself
on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself
in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall
be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work,
his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made
strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a
consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest of the word of God,
here goes on to reprove those that made a jest of the judgments of God,
and set them at defiance; for he is a jealous God, and will not suffer
either his ordinances or his providences to be brought into contempt.
He addressed himself to the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem,
who were the magistrates of the city,
It is bad with a people when their thrones of judgment become the seats
of the scornful, when rulers are scorners; but that the rulers of
Jerusalem should be men of such a character, that they should make
light of God’s judgments and scorn to take notice of the tokens of his
displeasure, is very sad. Who will be mourners in Zion if they are
scorners? Observe,
I. How these scornful men lulled themselves asleep in carnal security,
and even challenged God Almighty to do his worst
(v. 15)
You have said, We have made a covenant with death and the grave.
They thought themselves as sure of their lives, even when the most
destroying judgments were abroad, as if they had made a bargain with
death, upon a valuable consideration, not to come till they sent for
him or not to take them away by any violence, but by old age. If we be
at peace with God, and have made a covenant with him, we have in effect
made a covenant with death that it shall come in the fittest time, that
whenever it comes, it shall be no terror to us, nor do us any real
damage; death is ours if we be Christ’s
but to think of making death our friend, or being in league with it,
while by sin we are making God our enemy and are at war with him, is
the greatest absurdity that can be. It was fond conceit which these
scorners had, “When the overflowing scourge shall pass through
our country, and others shall fall under it, yet it shall not come
to us, not reach us, though it extend far, not bear us down, though
it is an overflowing scourge.” It is the greatest folly imaginable for
impenitent sinners to think that either in this world or the other they
shall fare better than their neighbours. But what is the ground of
their confidence? Why, truly, We have made lies our refuge.
Either,
1. Those things which the prophets told them would be lies and
falsehood to them and would deceive, but which they themselves looked
upon as substantial fences. The protection of their idols, the promises
with which their false prophets soothed them, their policy, their
wealth, their interest in the people; these they confided in, and not
in God; nay, these they confided in against God. Or,
2. Those things which should be lies and falsehood to the enemy, who
was flagellum Dei–the scourge of God, the overflowing scourge;
they would secure themselves by imposing upon the enemy with their
stratagems of war, or their feigned submissions in treaties of peace.
The rest of the cities of Judah were taken because they made an
obstinate defence; but the rulers of Jerusalem hope to succeed better.
They think themselves greater politicians than those of the country
towns; they will compliment the king of Assyria with a promise to
surrender their city, or to become tributaries to him, with a purpose
at the same time to shake off his yoke as soon as the danger is over,
not caring though they be found liars to him, as the expression is,
Note, Those put a cheat upon themselves that think to gain their point
by putting cheats upon those they deal with. Those that pursue their
designs by trick and fraud, by mean and paltry shifts, may perhaps
compass them, but cannot expect comfort in them. Honesty is the best
policy. But such refuges as these are those driven to that depart from
God, and throw themselves out of his protection.
II. How God, by the prophet, awakens them out of this sleep, and shows
them the folly of their security.
1. He tells them upon what grounds they might be secure. He does not
disturb their false confidences, till he has first shown them a firm
bottom on which they may repose themselves
(v. 16):
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone. This foundation
is,
(1.) The promises of God in general–his word, upon which he has caused
his people to hope–his covenant with Abraham, that he would be a God
to him and his; this is a foundation, a foundation of stone, firm and
lasting, for faith to build upon; it is a tried stone, for all
the saints have stayed themselves upon it and it never failed them.
(2.) The promise of Christ in particular; for to him this is expressly
applied in the New Testament,
He is that stone which has become the head of the corner. The
great promise of the Messiah and his kingdom, which was to begin at
Jerusalem, was sufficient to make God’s people easy in the worst of
times; for they knew well that till he came the sceptre should not
depart from Judah. Zion shall continue while this foundation is yet
to be laid there. “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, for the comfort
of those that dare not make lies their refuge, Behold, and look
upon me as one that has undertaken to lay in Zion a Stone,”
Jesus Christ is a foundation of God’s laying. This is the Lord’s
doing. He is laid in Zion, in the church, in the holy hill. He is a
tried stone, a trying stone (so some), a touch-stone, that shall
distinguish between true and counterfeit. He is a precious stone, for
such are the foundations of the New Jerusalem
(Rev. xxi. 19),
a corner-stone, in whom the sides of the building are united, the
head-stone of the corner. And he that believes these
promises, and rests upon them, shall not make haste, shall not
run to and fro in a hurry, as men at their wits’ end, shall not be
shifting hither and thither for his own safety, nor be driven to his
feet by any terrors, as the wicked man is said to be
but with a fixed heart shall quietly wait the event, saying, Welcome
the will of God. He shall not make haste in his
expectations, so as to anticipate the time set in the divine counsels,
but, though it tarry, will wait the appointed hour, knowing that he
that shall come will come, and will not tarry. He that believes
will not make more haste than good speed, but be satisfied that God’s
time is the best time, and wait with patience for it. The apostle from
the LXX. explains this,
He that believes on him shall not be confounded; his
expectations shall not be frustrated, but far out-done.
2. He tells them that upon the grounds which they now built on they
could not be safe, but their confidences would certainly fail them
(v. 17):
Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the
plummet. This denotes,
(1.) The building up of his church; having laid the foundation
(v. 16),
he will raise the structure, as builders do, by line and plummet,
Righteousness shall be the line and judgment the plummet. The church,
being grounded on Christ, shall be formed and reformed by the
scripture, the standing rule of judgment and righteousness. Judgment
shall return unto righteousness,
Ps. xciv. 15.
Or,
(2.) The punishing of the church’s enemies, against whom he will
proceed in strict justice, according to the threatenings of the law.
He will give them their deserts, and bring upon them the judgments they
have challenged, but in wisdom too, and by an exact rule, that the
tares may not be plucked up with the wheat. And when God comes thus to
execute judgment,
[1.] These scornful men will be made ashamed of the vain hopes with
which they had deluded themselves. First, They designed to make
lies their refuge; but it will indeed prove a refuge of lies, which
the hail shall sweep away, that tempest of hail spoken of
v. 2.
Those that make lies their refuge build upon the sand, and the building
will fall when the storm comes, and bury the builder in the ruins of
it. Those that make any thing their hiding place but Christ shall find
that the waters will overflow it, as every shelter but the ark was
over-topped and overthrown by the waters of the deluge. Such is the
hope of the hypocrite; this will come of all his confidences.
Secondly, They boasted of a covenant with death, and an
agreement with the grave; but it shall be disannulled, as made
without his consent who has the keys and sovereign command of hell and
death. Those do but delude themselves that think by any wiles to evade
the judgments of God. Thirdly, They fancied that when the
overflowing scourge should pass through the land it should not come
near them; but the prophet tells them that then, when others were
falling by the common calamity, they should not only share in it, but
should be trodden down by it: “You shall be to it for a treading down;
it shall triumph over you as much as over any other, and you shall
become its easy prey.” They are further told
(v. 19),
1. That it shall begin with them; they shall be so far from escaping it
that they shall be the first that shall fall by it: “From the time
it goes forth it shall take you, as if it came on purpose to seize
you.”
2. That it shall pursue them closely: “Morning by morning shall it
pass over; as duly as the day returns you shall hear of some
desolation or other made by it; for divine justice will follow its
blow; you shall never be safe nor easy by day nor by night; there shall
be a pestilence walking in darkness and a destruction wasting at
noonday.”
3. That there shall be no avoiding it: “The understanding of the report
of its approach shall not give you any opportunity to make your escape,
for there shall be no way of escape open; but it shall be only a
vexation, you shall see it coming, and not see how to help yourselves.”
Or, “The very report of it at a distance will be a terror to you; what
then will the thing itself be?” Evil tidings are a terror and vexation
to scorners, but he whose heart is fixed, trusting in God, is not
afraid of them; whereas, when the overflowing scourge comes,
then all the comforts and confidences of scorners fail them,
(1.) That in which they thought to repose themselves reaches not to the
length of their expectations: The bed is shorter than that a man can
stretch himself upon it, so that he is forced to cramp and contract
himself.
(2.) That in which they thought to shelter themselves proves
insufficient to answer the intention: The covering is narrower than
that a man can wrap himself in it. Those that do not build upon
Christ as their foundation, but rest in a righteousness of their own,
will prove in the end thus to have deceived themselves; they can never
be easy, safe, nor warm; the bed is too short, the covering is too
narrow; like our first parents’ fig-leaves, the shame of their
nakedness will still appear.
[2.] God will be glorified in the accomplishment of his counsels,
When God comes to contend with these scorners, First, He will do his
work, and bring to pass his act, he will work for his own honour
and glory, according to his own purpose; the work shall appear to all
that see it to be the work of God as the righteous Judge of the earth.
Secondly, He will do it now against his people, as formerly he
did it against their enemies, by which his justice will appear to be
impartial; he will now rise up against Jerusalem as, in David’s
time, against the Philistines in Mount Perazim
(2 Sam. v. 20),
and as, in Joshua’s time, against the Canaanites in the valley of
Gibeon. If those that profess themselves members of God’s church by
their pride and scornfulness make themselves like Philistines and
Canaanites, they must expect to be dealt with as such. Thirdly,
This will be his strange work, his strange act, his foreign
deed. It is work that he is backward to: he rather delights in showing
mercy, and does not afflict willingly. It is work that he is not
used to as to his own people; he protects and favours them. It is a
strange work indeed if he turn to be their enemy and fight against
them,
ch. lxiii. 10.
It is a work that all the neighbours will stand amazed at
and therefore the ruins of Jerusalem are said to be an
astonishment,
Jer. xxv. 18.
Lastly, We have the use and application of all this
(v. 22):
“Therefore be you not mockers; dare not to ridicule either the
reproofs of God’s word or the approaches of his judgments.” Mocking
the messengers of the Lord was Jerusalem’s measure-filling sin. The
consideration of the judgments of God that are coming upon hypocritical
professors should effectually silence mockers, and make them serious:
“Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong, both the
bands by which you are bound under the dominion of sin” (for there is
little hope of the conversion of mockers) “and the bands by which you
are bound over to the judgments of God.” God has bands of justice
strong enough to hold those that break all the bonds of his law asunder
and cast away all his cord from them. Let not these mockers make light
of divine threatenings, for the prophet (who is one of those with whom
the secret of the Lord is) assures them that the Lord God of hosts has,
in his hearing, determined a consumption upon the whole earth;
and can they think to escape? or shall their unbelief invalidate the
threatening?
| Husbandry a Divine Art. | B. C. 725. |
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23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break
the clods of his ground?
25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast
abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the
principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their
place?
26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth
teach him.
27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing
instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin;
but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with
a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be
threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor
bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is
wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
This parable, which (like many of our Saviour’s parables) is borrowed
from the husbandman’s calling, is ushered in with a solemn preface
demanding attention, He that has ears to hear, let him hear,
hear and understand,
I. The parable here is plain enough, that the husbandman applies
himself to the business of his calling with a great deal of pains and
prudence, secundum artem–according to rule, and, as his judgment
directs him, observes a method and order in his work.
1. In his ploughing and sowing: Does the ploughman plough all day to
sow? Yes, he does, and he ploughs in hope and sows in
hope,
1 Cor. ix. 10.
Does he open and break the clods? Yes, he does, that the land
may be fit to receive the seed. And when he has thus made plain the
face thereof does he not sow his seed, seed suitable to the soil?
For the husbandman knows what grain is fit for clayey ground and what
for sandy ground, and, accordingly, he sows each in its place–wheat
in the principal place (so the margin reads it), for it is the
principal grain, and was a staple commodity of Canaan
and barley in the appointed place. The wisdom and goodness of
the God of nature are to be observed in this, that, to oblige his
creatures with a grateful variety of productions, he has suited to them
an agreeable variety of earths.
2. In his threshing,
This also he proportions to the grain that is to be threshed out.
The fitches and the cummin, being easily got out of their husk
or ear, are only threshed with a staff and a rod; but the
bread-corn requires more force, and therefore that must be bruised
with a threshing instrument, a sledge shod with iron, that was
drawn to and fro over it, to beat out the corn; and yet he will not
be ever threshing it, nor any longer than is necessary to loosen
the corn from the chaff; he will not break it, or crush it, into
the ground with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it to pieces
with his horsemen; the grinding of it is reserved for another
operation. Observe, by the way, what pains are to be taken, not only
for the earning, but for the preparing of our necessary food; and yet,
after all, it is meat that perishes. Shall we then grudge to
labour much more for the meat which endures to everlasting life?
Bread-corn is bruised. Christ was so; it pleased the Lord to
bruise him, that he might be the bread of life to us.
II. The interpretation of the parable is not so plain. Most
interpreters make it a further answer to those who set the judgments of
God at defiance: “Let them know that as the husbandman will not be
always ploughing, but will at length sow his seed, so God will not be
always threatening, but will at length execute his threatenings and
bring upon sinners the judgments they have deserved; but in wisdom, and
in proportion to their strength, not that they may be ruined, but that
they may be reformed and brought to repentance by them.” But I think we
may give this parable a greater latitude in the exposition of it.
1. In general, that God who gives the husbandman this wisdom is,
doubtless, himself infinitely wise. It is God that instructs the
husbandman to discretion, as his God,
v. 26.
Husbandmen have need of discretion wherewith to order their affairs,
and ought not undertake that business unless they do in some measure
understand it; and they should by observation and experience endeavour
to improve themselves in the knowledge of it. Since the king himself
is served of the field, the advancing of the art of husbandry is a
common service to mankind more than the cultivating of most other arts.
The skill of the husbandman is from God, as every good and perfect gift
is. This takes off somewhat of the weight and terror of the sentence
passed on man for sin, that when God, in execution of it, sent man to
till the ground, he taught him how to do it most to his advantage,
otherwise, in the greatness of his folly, he might have been for ever
tilling the sand of the sea, labouring to no purpose. It is he
that gives men capacity for this business, an inclination to it, and a
delight in it; and if some were not by Providence cut out for it, and
mad to rejoice (as Issachar, that tribe of husbandmen) in their tents,
notwithstanding the toil and fatigue of this business, we should soon
want the supports of life. If some are more discreet and judicious in
managing these or any other affairs than others are, God must be
acknowledged in it; and to him husbandmen must seek for direction in
their business, for they, above other men, have an immediate dependence
upon the divine Providence. As to the other instance of the
husbandman’s conduct in threshing his corn, it is said, This also
comes forth from the Lord of hosts,
v. 29.
Even the plainest dictate of sense and reason must be acknowledged to
come forth from the Lord of hosts. And, if it is from him that
men do things wisely and discreetly, we must needs acknowledge him to
be wise in counsel and excellent in working. God’s working is
according to his will; he never acts against his own mind, as men often
do, and there is a counsel in his whole will: he is therefore
excellent in working, because he is wonderful in counsel.
2. God’s church is his husbandry,
If Christ is the true vine, his Father is the husbandman
(John xv. 1),
and he is continually by his word and ordinances cultivating it.
Does the ploughman plough all day, and break the clods of
his ground, that it may receive the seed, and does not God by his
ministers break up the fallow ground? Does not the ploughman, when the
ground is fitted for the seed, cast in the seed in its proper soil? He
does so, and so the great God sows his word by the hand of his
ministers
who are to divide the word of truth and give every one his portion.
Whatever the soil of the heart is, there is some seed or other in the
word proper for it. And, as the word of God, so the rod of God is thus
wisely made use of. Afflictions are God’s threshing-instruments,
designed to loosen us from the world, to separate between us and our
chaff, and to prepare us for use. And, as to these, God will make use
of them as there is occasion; but he will proportion them to our
strength; they shall be no heavier than there is need. If the rod and
the staff will answer the end, he will not make use of his cart-wheel
and his horsemen. And where these are necessary, as for the bruising of
the bread-corn (which will not otherwise be got clean from the straw),
yet he will not be ever threshing it, will not always chide, but his
anger shall endure but for a moment; nor will he crush under his
feet the prisoners of the earth. And herein we must acknowledge him
wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.
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