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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. V.
Reproof for sin and threatenings of judgment are intermixed in this
chapter, and are set the one over against the other: judgments are
threatened, that the reproofs of sin might be the more effectual to
bring them to repentance; sin is discovered, that God might be
justified in the judgments threatened.
I. The sins they are charged with are very great:–Injustice
(ver. 1),
hypocrisy in religion
(ver. 2),
incorrigibleness
(ver. 3),
the corruption and debauchery of both poor and rich
(ver. 4, 5),
idolatry and adultery
(ver. 7, 8),
treacherous departures from God
(ver. 11),
and impudent defiance of him
(ver. 12, 13),
and, that which is at the bottom of all this, want of the fear of God,
notwithstanding the frequent calls given them to fear him,
In the close of the chapter they are charged with violence and
oppression
(ver. 26-28),
and a combination of those to debauch the nation who should have been
active to reform it,
ver. 30, 31.
II. The judgments they are threatened with are very terrible. In
general, they shall be reckoned with,
A foreign enemy shall be brought in upon them
(ver. 15-17),
shall set guards upon them
(ver. 6),
shall destroy their fortification
(ver. 10),
shall carry them away into captivity
(ver. 19),
and keep all good things from them,
Herein the words of God’s prophets shall be fulfilled,
But,
III. Here is an intimation twice given that God would in the midst of
wrath remember mercy, and not utterly destroy them,
This was the scope and purport of Jeremiah’s preaching in the latter
end of Josiah’s reign and the beginning of Jehoiakim’s; but the success
of it did not answer expectation.
| The Universal Corruption to the Age. | B. C. 608. |
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1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see
now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can
find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that
seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
2 And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear
falsely.
3 O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast
stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed
them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have
made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish:
for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of
their God.
5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them;
for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of
their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst
the bonds.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a
wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over
their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in
pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their
backslidings are increased.
7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken
me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to
the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves
by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed
after his neighbour’s wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and
shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Here is,
I. A challenge to produce any one right honest man, or at least any
considerable number of such, in Jerusalem,
v. 1.
Jerusalem had become like the old world, in which all flesh had
corrupted their way. There were some perhaps who flattered
themselves with hopes that there were yet many good men in Jerusalem,
who would stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God; and there
might be others who boasted of its being the holy city and thought that
this would save it. But God bids them search the town, and intimates
that they should scarcely find a man in it who executed judgment and
made conscience of what he said and did: “Look in the streets,
where they make their appearance and converse together, and in the
broad places, where they keep their markets; see if you can find
a man, a magistrate (so some), that executes judgment, and
administers justice impartially, that will put the laws in execution
against vice and profaneness.” When the faithful thus cease and fail it
is time to cry Woe is me!
high time to cry, Help Lord,
Ps. xii. 1.
“If there be here and there a man that is truly conscientious, and does
at least speak the truth, yet you shall not find him in the
streets and broad places; he dares not appear publicly, lest he
should be abused and run down. Truth has fallen in the street
(Isa. lix. 14),
and is forced to seek for corners.” So pleasing would it be to
God to find any such that for their sake he would pardon the city; if
there were but ten righteous men in Sodom, if but one of a thousand, of
ten thousand, in Jerusalem, it should be spared. See how ready God is
to forgive, how swift to show mercy. But it might be said, “What do you
make of those in Jerusalem that continue to make profession of religion
and relation to God? Are not they men for whose sakes Jerusalem may be
spared?” No, for they are not sincere in their profession
(v. 2):
They say, The Lord liveth, and will swear by his name only, but
they swear falsely, that is,
1. They are not sincere in the profession they make of respect to God,
but are false to him; they honour him with their lips, but their
hearts are far from him.
2. Though they appeal to God only, they make no conscience of calling
him to witness to a lie. Though they do not swear by idols, they
forswear themselves, which is no less an affront to God, as the God of
truth, than the other is as the only true God.
II. A complaint which the prophet makes to God of the obstinacy and
wilfulness of these people. God had appealed to their eyes
(v. 1);
but here the prophet appeals to his eyes
(v. 3):
“Are not thy eyes upon the truth? Dost thou not see every man’s
true character? And is not this the truth of their character, that
they have made their faces harder than a rock?” Or, “Behold,
thou desirest truth in the inward part; but where is it to be found
among the men of this generation? For though they say, The Lord
liveth, yet they never regard him; thou hast stricken them
with one affliction after another, but they have not grieved for
the affliction, they have been as stocks and stones under it, much less
have they grieved for the sin by which they have brought it upon
themselves. Thou hast gone further yet, hast consumed
them, hast corrected them yet more severely; but they have
refused to receive correction, to accommodate themselves to thy
design in correcting them and to answer to it. They would not receive
instruction by the correction. The have set themselves to outface the
divine sentence and to outbrave the execution of it, for they have
made their faces harder than a rock; they cannot change
countenance, neither blush for shame nor look pale for fear, cannot be
beaten back from the pursuit of their lusts, whatever check is given
them; for, though often called to it, they have refused to
return, and would go forward, right or wrong, as the horse into
the battle.“
III. The trial made both of rich and poor, and the bad character given
of both.
1. The poor were ignorant, and therefore they were wicked. He found
many that refused to return, for whom he was willing to make the
best excuse their case would bear, and it was this
(v. 4):
“Surely, these are poor, they are foolish. They never had the
advantage of a good education, nor have they wherewithal to help
themselves now with the means of instruction. They are forced to work
hard for their living, and have no time nor capacity for reading or
hearing, so that they know not the way of the Lord, nor the
judgments of their God; they understand neither the way in which
God by his precepts will have them to walk towards him nor the way in
which he by his providence is walking towards them.” Note,
(1.) Prevailing ignorance is the lamentable cause of abounding impiety
and iniquity. What can one expect but works of darkness from brutish
sottish people that know nothing of God and religion, but choose to
sit in darkness?
(2.) This is commonly a reigning sin among poor people. There are the
devil’s poor as well as God’s, who, notwithstanding their poverty,
might know the way of the Lord, so as to walk in it and do their
duty, without being book-learned; but they are willingly ignorant, and
therefore their ignorance will not be their excuse.
2. The rich were insolent and haughty, and therefore they were wicked
(v. 5):
“I will get me to the great men, and see if I can find them more
pliable to the word and providence of God. I will speak to them,
preach at court, in hopes to make some impression upon men of polite
literature. But all in vain; for, though they know the way of
the Lord and the judgment of their God, yet they are too stiff to
stoop to his government: These have altogether broken the yoke and
burst the bonds. They know their Master’s will, but are resolved to
have their own will, to walk in the way of their heart and in the
sight of their eyes. They think themselves too goodly to be
controlled, too big to be corrected, even by the sovereign Lord of all
himself. They are for breaking even his bands asunder,
Ps. ii. 3.
The poor are weak, the rich are wilful, and so neither do their
duty.”
IV. Some particular sins specified, which they were notoriously guilty
of, and which cried most loudly to heaven for vengeance. Their
transgressions indeed were many, of many kinds and often
repeated, and their backslidings were increased; they added to
the number of them and grew more and more impudent in them,
v. 6.
But two sins especially were justly to be looked upon as unpardonable
crimes:–
1. Their spiritual whoredom, giving that honour to idols which is due
to God only. “Thy children have forsaken me, to whom they were
born and dedicated and under whom they have been brought up, and
they have sworn by those that are no gods, have made their
appeal to them as if they had been omniscient and their proper judges.”
This is here put for all acts of religious worship due to God only, but
with which they had honoured their idols. They have sworn to
them (so it may be read), have joined themselves to them and
covenanted with them. Those that forsake God make a bad change for
those that are no gods.
2. Their corporal whoredom. Because they had forsaken God and served
idols, he gave them up to vile affections; and those that dishonoured
him were left to dishonour themselves and their own families. They
committed adultery most scandalously, without sense of shame or
fear of punishment, for they assembled themselves by troops in the
harlots’ houses and did not blush to be seen by one another in the
most scandalous places. So impudent and violent was their lust, so
impatient of check, and so eager to be gratified, that they became
perfect beasts
(v. 8);
like high-fed horses, they neighed every one after his neighbour’s
wife,
v. 8.
Unbridled lusts make men like natural brute beasts, such
monstrous odious things are they. And that which aggravated their sin
was that it was the abuse of God’s favours to them: When they were
fed to the full, then their lusts grew thus furious. Fulness of
bread was fuel to the fire of Sodom’s lusts. Sine Cerere et Bacchio
friget Venu–Luxurious living feeds the flames of lust. Fasting
would help to tame the unruly evil that is so full of deadly
poison, and bring the body into subjection.
V. A threatening of God’s wrath against them for their wickedness and
the universal debauchery of their land.
1. The particular judgment that is threatened,
v. 6.
A foreign enemy shall break in upon them, get dominion over them, and
shall lay waste: their country shall be as if it were overrun and
perfectly mastered by wild beasts. This enemy shall be,
(1.) Like a lion of the forest; so strong, so furious, so
irresistible; and he shall slay them.
(2.) Like a wolf of the evening, which comes out at night, when
he is hungry, to seek his prey, and is very fierce and ravenous; and
the noise both of the lions’ roaring and of the wolves’ howling is very
hideous.
(3.) Like a leopard, which is very swift and very cruel, and
withal careful not to miss his prey. The army of the enemy shall
watch over their cities so strictly as to put the inhabitants to
this sad dilemma–if they stay in, they are starved; if they stir out,
they are stabbed; Every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in
pieces, which intimates that in many places the enemy gave no
quarter. And all this bloody work is owing to the multitude of their
transgressions. It is sin that makes the great slaughter.
2. An appeal to themselves concerning the equity of it
(v. 9);
“Shall I not visit for these things? Can you yourselves think
that the God whose name is Jealous will let such idolatries go
unpunished, or that a God of infinite purity will connive at such
abominable uncleanness?” These are things that must be reckoned for,
else the honour of God’s government cannot be maintained, nor his laws
saved from contempt; but sinners will be tempted to think him
altogether such a one as themselves, contrary to that conviction
of their own consciences concerning the judgment of God which is
necessary to be supported, That those who do such things are
worthy of death,
Rom. i. 32.
Observe, when God punishes sin, he is said to visit for it, or
enquire into it; for he weighs the cause before he passes sentence.
Sinners have reason to expect punishment upon the account of God’s
holiness, to which sin is highly offensive, as well as upon the account
of his justice, to which it renders us obnoxious; this is intimated in
that, Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? It
is not only the word of God, but his soul, that takes vengeance. And he
has national judgments wherewith to take vengeance for national sins.
Such nations as this was cannot long go unpunished. How shall
I pardon thee for this?
v. 7.
Not but that those who have been guilty of these sins have found mercy
with God, as to their eternal state (Manasseh himself did, though so
much accessory to the iniquity of these times); but nations, as
such, being rewardable and punishable only in this life, it would
not be for the glory of God to let a nation so very wicked as this pass
without some manifest tokens of his displeasure.
| Divine Judgments Threatened; Divine Judgments Vindicated. | B. C. 608. |
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10 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full
end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD‘s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt
very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither
shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in
them: thus shall it be done unto them.
14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak
this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and
this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of
Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an
ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither
understandest what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all
mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which
thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy
flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig
trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou
trustedst, with the sword.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make
a full end with you.
19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore
doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt
thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange
gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that
is not yours.
We may observe in these verses, as before,
I. The sin of this people, upon which the commission signed against
them is grounded. God disowns them and dooms them to destruction,
But is there not a cause? Yes; for,
1. They have deserted the law of God
(v. 11):
The house of Israel and the house of Judah, though at variance
with one another, yet both agreed to deal very treacherously against
God. They forsook the worship of him, and therein violated their
covenants with him; they revolted from him, and played the hypocrite
with him.
2. They have defied the judgments of God and given the lie to his
threatenings in the mouth of his prophets,
They were often told that evil would certainly come upon them; they
must expect some desolating judgment, sword or famine; but they
were secure and said, We shall have peace, though we go on. For,
(1.) They did not fear what God is. They belied him, and confronted the
dictates even of natural light concerning him; for they said, “It is
not he, that is, he is not such a one as we have been made to
believe he is; he does not see, or not regard, or will not require it;
and therefore no evil shall come upon us.” Multitudes are ruined
by being made to believe that God will not be so strict with them as
his word says he will; nay, by this artifice Satan undid us all: You
shall not surely die. So here: Neither shall we see sword nor
famine. Vain hopes of impunity are the deceitful support of all
impiety.
(2.) They did not fear what God said. The prophets gave them fair
warning, but they turned it off with a jest: “They do but talk so,
because it is their trade; they are words of course, and words are but
wind. It is not the word of the Lord that is in them; it is only the
language of their melancholy fancy or their ill-will to their country,
because they are not preferred.” Note, Impenitent sinners are not
willing to own any thing to be the word of God that makes against them,
that tends either to part them from, or disquiet them in, their sins.
They threaten the prophets: “They shall become wind, shall pass
away unregarded, and thus shall it be done unto them; what they
threaten against us we will inflict upon them. Do they frighten us with
famine? Let them be fed with the bread of affliction.” So
Micaiah was,
“Do they tell us of the sword? Let them perish by the sword,”
Thus their mocking and misusing God’s messengers filled the measure of
their iniquity.
II. The punishment of this people for their sin.
1. The threatenings they laughed at shall be executed
(v. 14):
Because you speak this word of contempt concerning the prophets,
and the word in their mouths, therefore God will put honour upon them
and their words, for not one iota or tittle of them shall fall to
the ground,
1 Sam. iii. 19.
Here God turns to the prophet Jeremiah, who had been thus bantered, and
perhaps had been a little uneasy at it: Behold, I will make my words
in thy mouth fire. God owns them for his words, though men denied
them, and will as surely make them to take effect as the fire consumes
combustible material that is in its way. The word shall be fire and
the people wood. Sinners by sin make themselves fuel to that wrath
of God which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men in the scripture. The word of God will
certainly be too hard for those that contend with it. Those shall break
who will not bow before it.
2. The enemy they thought themselves in no danger of shall be brought
upon them. God gives them their commission
(v. 10):
“Go you up upon her walls, mount them, trample upon them, tread
them down. Walls of stone, before the divine commission, shall be but
mud walls. Having made yourselves masters of the walls, you may
destroy at pleasure. You may take away her battlements,
and leave the fenced fortified cities to lie open; for her battlements
are not the Lord’s he does not own them and therefore will not
protect and fortify them.” They were not erected in his fear, nor with
a dependence upon him; the people have trusted to them more than to
God, and therefore they are not his. When the city is filled with sin
God will not patronise the fortifications of it, and then they are
paper walls. What can defend us when he who is our defence, and the
defender of all our defences, has departed from us?
Num. xiv. 9.
What is not of God cannot stand, not stand long, nor stand us in any
stead. What dreadful work these invaders should make is here described
(v. 15):
Lo, I will bring a nation upon you, O house of Israel! Note, God
has all nations at his command, does what he pleases with them and
makes what use he pleases of them. And sometimes he is pleased to make
the nations of the earth, the heathen nations, a scourge to the house
of Israel, when that has become a hypocritical nation. This
nation of the Chaldeans is here said to be a remote nation; it is
brought upon them from afar, and therefore will make the greater
spoil and the longer stay, that the soldiers may pay themselves well
for so long a march. “It is a nation that thou hast had no commerce
with, by reason of their distance, and therefore canst not expect to
find favour with.” God can bring trouble upon us from places and causes
very remote. It is a mighty nation, that there is no making head
against, an ancient nation, that value themselves upon their
antiquity and will therefore be the more haughty and imperious. It is
a nation whose language thou knowest not; they spoke the Syriac
tongue, which the Jews at that time were not acquainted with, as
appears,
The difference of language would make it the more difficult to treat
with them of peace. Compare this with the threatening,
which it seems to have a reference to, for the law and the prophets
exactly agree. They are well armed: Their quiver is as an open
sepulchre; their arrows shall fly so thick, hit so sure, and wound
so deep, that they shall be reckoned to breathe nothing but death and
slaughter: they are able-bodied, all effective, mighty men,
v. 16.
And, when they have made themselves masters of the country, they shall
devour all before them, and reckon all their own that they can lay
their hands on,
(1.) They shall strip the country, shall not only sustain, but surfeit,
their soldiers with the rich products of this fruitful land. “They
shall not store up (then it might possibly by retrieved), but eat up
thy harvest in the field and thy bread in the house,
which thy sons and thy daughters should eat.” Note, What we have
we have for our families, and it is a comfort to see our sons and
daughters eating that which we have taken care and pains for. But it is
a grievous vexation to see it devoured by strangers and enemies, to see
their camps victualled with our stores, while those that are dear to us
are perishing for want of it: this also is according to the curse of
the law,
“They shall eat up thy flocks and herds, out of which thou hast
taken sacrifices for thy idols; they shall not leave thee the fruit of
thy vines and fig-trees.”
(2.) They shall starve the towns: “They shall impoverish thy fenced
cities” (and what fence is there against poverty, when it comes
like an armed man?), “those cities wherein thou trustedst to be
a protection to the country.” Note, It is just with God to impoverish
that which we make our confidence. They shall impoverish them with
the sword, cutting off all provisions from coming to them and
intercepting trade and commerce, which will impoverish even fenced
cities.
III. An intimation of the tender compassion God has yet for them. The
enemy is commissioned to destroy and lay waste, but must not make a
full end,
v. 10.
Though they make a great slaughter, yet some must be left to live;
though they make a great spoil, yet something must be left to live
upon, for God has said it
(v. 18)
with a non obstante–a nevertheless to the present desolation:
“Even in those days, dismal as they are, I will not make a
full end with you;” and, if God will not, the enemy shall not. God
has mercy in store for his people, and therefore will set bounds to
this desolating judgment. Hitherto it shall come, and no
further.
IV. The justification of God in these proceedings against them. As he
will appear to be gracious in not making a full end with them, so he
will appear to be righteous in coming so near it, and will have it
acknowledged that he has done them no wrong,
Observe,
1. A reason demanded, insolently demanded, by the people for these
judgments. They will say “Wherefore doth the Lord our God do all
this unto us? What provocation have we given him, or what quarrel
has he with us?” As if against such a sinful nation there did not
appear cause enough of action. Note, Unhumbled hearts are ready to
charge God with injustice in their afflictions, and pretend they have
to seek for the cause of them when it is written in the forehead of
them. But,
2. Here is a reason immediately assigned. The prophet is instructed
what answer to give them; for God will be justified when he
speaks, though he speaks with ever so much terror. He must tell
them that God does this against them for what they have done against
him, and that they may, if they please, read their sin in their
punishment. Do not they know very well that they have forsaken
God, and therefore can they think it strange if he has forsaken
them? Have they forgotten how often they served gods in their own
land, that good land, in the abundance of the fruits of which they
ought to have served God with gladness of heart? and therefore is it
not just with God to make them serve strangers in a strange
land, where they can call nothing their own, as he has threatened to
do?
Those that are fond of strangers, to strangers let them go.
| Expostulation with Israel. | B. C. 608. |
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20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah,
saying,
21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding;
which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my
presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea
by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the
waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though
they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart;
they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD
our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his
season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
The prophet, having reproved them for sin and threatened the judgments
of God against them, is here sent to them again upon another errand,
which he must publish in Judah; the purport of it is to persuade
them to fear God, which would be an effectual principle of their
reformation, as the want of that fear had been at the bottom of their
apostasy.
I. He complains of the shameful stupidity of this people, and their
bent to backslide from God, speaking as if he knew not what course to
take with them. For,
1. Their understandings were darkened and unapt to admit the rays of
the divine light: They are a foolish people and without
understanding; they apprehend not the mind of God, though ever so
plainly declared to them by the written word, by his prophets, and by
his providence
(v. 21):
They have eyes, but they see not, ears, but they hear not, like
the idols which they made and worshipped,
One would have thought that they took notice of things, but really they
did not; they had intellectual faculties and capacities, but they did
not employ and improve them as they ought. Herein they disappointed
the expectations of all their neighbours, who, observing what excellent
means of knowledge they had, concluded, Surely they are a wise and
an understanding people
(Deut. iv. 6),
and yet really they are a foolish people and without
understanding. Note, We cannot judge of men by the advantages and
opportunities they enjoy: there are those that sit in darkness in a
land of light, that live in sin even in a holy land, that are bad in
the best places.
2. Their wills were stubborn and unapt to submit to the rules of the
divine law
(v. 23):
This people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; and no
wonder when they were foolish and without understanding,
Ps. lxxxii. 5.
Nay, it is the corrupt bias of the will that bribes and besots the
understanding: none so blind as those that will not see. The character
of this people is the true character of all people by nature, till the
grace of God has wrought a change. We are foolish, slow of
understanding, and apt to mistake and forget; yet that is not the
worst. We have a revolting and a rebellious heart, a carnal
mind, that is enmity against God, and is not in subjection to his law,
not only revolting from him by a rooted aversion to that which is good,
but rebellious against him by a strong inclination to that which is
evil. Observe, The revolting heart is a rebellious one: those that
withdraw from their allegiance to God do not stop there, but by siding
in with sin and Satan take up arms against him. They have revolted
and gone. The revolting heart will produce a revolting life.
They are gone, and they will go (so it may be read); now
nothing will be restrained from them,
Gen. xi. 6.
II. He ascribed this to the want of the fear of God. When he observes
them to be without understanding he asks, “Fear you not me, saith
the Lord, and will you not tremble at my presence?
v. 22.
If you would but keep up an awe of God, you would be more observant of
what he says to you: and, did you but understand your own interest
better, you would be more under the commanding rule of God’s fear.”
When he observes that they have revolted and gone he adds this,
as the root and cause of their apostasy
(v. 24),
Neither say they in their hearts, Let us now fear the Lord our
God. Therefore so many bad thoughts come into their mind, and hurry
them to that which is evil, because they will not admit and entertain
good thoughts, and particularly not this good thought, Let us now
fear the Lord our God. It is true it is God’s work to put his fear
into our hearts; but it is our work to stir up ourselves to fear him,
and to fasten upon those considerations which are proper to affect us
with a holy awe of him; and it is because we do not do this that our
hearts are so destitute of his fear as they are, and so apt to revolt
and rebel.
III. He suggests some of those things which are proper to possess us
with a holy fear of God.
1. We must fear the Lord and his greatness,
Upon this account he demands our fear: Shall we not tremble at his
presence, and not be afraid of affronting him, or trifling with
him, who in the kingdom of nature and providence gives such
incontestable proofs of his almighty power and sovereign dominion? Here
is one instance given of very many that might be given: he keeps the
sea within compass. Though the tides flow with a mighty strength twice
every day, and if they should flow on awhile would drown the world,
though in a storm the billows rise high and dash to the shore with
incredible force and fury, yet they are under check, they return, they
retire, and no harm is done. This is the Lord’s doing, and, if
it were not common, it would be marvellous in our eyes. He has
placed the sand for the bound of the sea, not only for a
meer-stone, to mark out how far it may come and where it must
stop, but as a mound, or fence, to put a stop to it. A wall of
sand shall be as effectual as a wall of brass to check the flowing
waves, when God is pleased to make it so; nay, that is chosen rather,
to teach us that a soft answer, like the soft sand, turns
away wrath, and quiets a foaming rage, when grievous words,
like hard rocks, do but exasperate, and make the waters cast
forth so much the more mire and dirt. This bound is placed
by a perpetual decree, by an ordinance of antiquity (so
some read it), and then it sends us as far back as to the creation of
the world, when God divided between the sea and dry land, and fixed
marches between them,
(which is elegantly described,
&c., and
&c.), or to the period of Noah’s flood, when God promised that he would
never drown the world again,
An ordinance of perpetuity–so our translation takes it. It is a
perpetual decree; it has had its effect all along to this day
and shall still continue till day and night come to an end. This
perpetual decree the waters of the sea cannot pass over
nor break through. Though the waves thereof toss themselves, as
the troubled sea does when it cannot rest, yet can
they not prevail; though they roar and rage as if they were vexed
at the check given them, yet can they not pass over. Now this is
a good reason why we should fear God; for,
(1.) By this we see that he is a God of almighty power and universal
sovereignty, and therefore to be feared and had in reverence.
(2.) This shows us how easily he could drown the world again and how
much we continually lie at his mercy, and therefore we should be afraid
of making him our enemy.
(3.) Even the unruly waves of the sea observe his decree and retreat at
his check, and shall not we then? Why are our hearts revolting and
rebellious, when the sea neither revolts nor rebels?
2. We must fear the Lord and his goodness,
The instances of this, as of the former, are fetched from God’s common
providence,
We must fear the Lord our God, that is, we must worship him, and
give him glory, and be always in care to keep ourselves in his love,
because he is continually doing us good: he gives us both the former
and the latter rain, the former a little after seed-time, the
latter a little before harvest, and both in their season; and by
this means he reserves to us the appointed weeks of harvest.
Harvest is reckoned by weeks, because in a few weeks enough is gathered
to serve for sustenance the year round. The weeks of the harvest are
appointed us by the promise of God, that seed-time and harvest shall
not fail. And in performance of that promise they are reserved to
us by the divine providence, otherwise we should come short of them. In
harvest mercies therefore God is to be acknowledged, his power, and
goodness, and faithfulness, for they all come from him. And it is good
reason why we should fear him, that we may keep ourselves in his love,
because we have such a necessary dependence upon him. The fruitful
seasons were witnesses for God, even to the heathen world, sufficient
to leave them inexcusable in their contempt of him
(Acts xiv. 17);
and yet the Jews, who had the written word to explain their testimony
by, were not wrought upon to fear the Lord, though it appears how much
it is our interest to do so.
| Expostulation with Israel. | B. C. 608. |
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25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your
sins have withholden good things from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait,
as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of
deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds
of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the
fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they
not judge.
29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall
not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by
their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye
do in the end thereof?
Here,
I. The prophet shows them what mischief their sins had done them: They
have turned away these things
(v. 25),
the former and the latter rain, which they used to have in
due season
(v. 24),
but which had of late been withheld
(ch. iii. 3),
by reason of which the appointed weeks of harvest had sometimes
disappointed them. “It is your sin that has withholden good
from you, when God was ready to bestow it upon you.” Note, It is
sin that stops the current of God’s favour to us, and deprives us of
the blessings we used to receive. It is that which makes the heavens as
brass and the earth as iron.
II. He shows them how great their sins were, how heinous and provoking.
When they had forsaken the worship of the true God, even moral honesty
was lost among them: Among my people are found wicked men
(v. 26),
some of the worst of men, and so much the worse they were for being
found among God’s people.
1. They were spiteful and malicious. Such are properly wicked
men, men that delight in doing mischief. They were found
(that is, caught) in the very act of their wickedness. As hunters or
fowlers lay snares for their game, so did they lie in wait to
catch men, and made a sport of it, and took as much pleasure in
it as if they had been entrapping beasts or birds. They contrives ways
of doing mischief to good people (whom they hated for their goodness),
especially to those that faithfully reproved them
or to those that stood in the way of their preferment or whom they
supposed to have affronted them or done them a diskindness, or to those
whose estates they coveted; so Jezebel ensnared Naboth for his
vineyard. Nay, they did mischief for mischief’s sake.
2. They were false and treacherous
(v. 27):
“As a cage, or coop, is full of birds, and of food
for them to fatten them for the table, so are their houses full of
deceit, of wealth obtained by fraudulent practices or of arts and
methods of defrauding. All the business of their families is done with
deceit; whoever deals with them, they will cheat him if they can, which
is easily done by those who make no conscience of what they say and do.
Herein they overpass the deed of the wicked,
v. 28.
Those that act by deceit, with a colour of law and justice, do more
mischief perhaps than those wicked men
(v. 26)
that carry all before them by open force and violence; or they are
worse than the heathen themselves, yea, the worst of them. And (would
you think it?) they prosper in these wicked courses and therefore their
hearts are hardened in them. They are greedy of the world, because they
find it flows in upon them, and they stick not at any wickedness in
pursuit of it, because they find that it is so far from hindering their
prosperity that it furthers it: They have become great in the
world; they have waxen rich, and thrive upon it. They have
wherewithal to make provision for the flesh to fulfill all the lusts of
it, to which they are very indulgent, so that they have waxen
fat with living at ease and bathing themselves in all the delights
of sense. They are sleek and smooth: The shine; they look fair
and gay; every body admires them. And they pass by matters of
evil (so some read the following words); they escape the evils
which one would expect their sins should bring upon them; they are
not in trouble as other men, much less as we might expect bad men,”
&c.
3. When they had grown great, and had got power in their hands, they
did not do that good with it which they ought to have done: They
judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, and the right of the
needy. The fatherless are often needy, always need assistance and
advice, and advantage is taken of their helpless condition to do them
an injury. Who should succour them then but the great and rich? What
have men wealth for but to do good with it? But these would take no
cognizance of any such distressed cases: they had not so much sense of
justice, or compassion for the injured; or, if they did concern
themselves in the cause, it was not to do right, but to protect those
that did wrong. And yet they prosper still; God layeth not
folly to them. Certainly then the things of this world are not the
best things, for often-times the worst men have the most of them; yet
we are not to think that, because they prosper, God allows of their
practices. No; though sentence against their evil works be
not executed speedily, it will be executed.
4. There was a general corruption of all orders and degrees of men
among them
(v. 30, 31);
A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The
degeneracy of such a people, so privileged and advanced, was a
wonderful thing, and to be viewed with amazement. How could they ever
break through so many obligations? It was a horrible thing, a thing to
be detested and the consequences of it dreaded. To frighten ourselves
from sin, let us call it a horrible thing. What was the matter? In
short, this:
(1.) The leaders misled the people: The prophets prophesy
falsely, counterfeit a commission from heaven when they are factors
for hell. Religion is never more dangerously attacked than under
colour and pretence of divine revelation. But why did not the priests,
who had power in their hands for that purpose, restrain these false
prophets? Alas! instead of doing that they made use of them as the
tools of their ambition and tyranny: The priests bear rule by their
means; they supported themselves in their grandeur and wealth,
their laziness and luxury, their impositions and oppressions, by the
help of the false prophets and their interest in the people. Thus they
were in a combination against every thing that was good, and
strengthened one another’s hands in evil.
(2.) The people were well enough pleased to be so misled: “They are
my people,” says God, “and should have stood up for me, and
borne their testimony against the wickedness of their priests and
prophets; but they love to have it so.” If the priests and
prophets will let them alone in their sins, they will give them no
disturbance in theirs. They love to be ridden with a loose rein, and
like those rulers very well that will not restrain their lusts and
those teachers that will not reprove them.
III. He shows them how fatal the consequences of this would certainly
be. Let them consider,
1. What the reckoning would be for their wickedness
(v. 29):
Shall not I visit for these things? as before,
v. 9.
Sometimes mercy rejoices against judgment: How shall I give thee up,
Ephraim? Here, judgment is reasoning against mercy: Shall I not
visit? We are sure that Infinite Wisdom knows how to accommodate
the matter between them. The manner of expression is very emphatic, and
denotes,
(1.) The certainty and necessity of God’s judgments: Shall not my
soul be avenged? Yes, without doubt, vengeance will come, it must
come, if the sinner repent not.
(2.) The justice and equity of God’s judgments; he appeals to the
sinner’s own conscience, Do not those deserve to be punished that have
been guilty of such abominations? Shall he not be avenged on such a
nation, such a wicked provoking nation as this?
2. What the direct tendency of their wickedness was: What will you
do in the end thereof? That is,
(1.) “What a pitch of wickedness will you come to at last! What will
you do? What will you not do that is base and wicked. What will
this grow to? You will certainly grow worse and worse, till you have
filled up the measure of your iniquity.”
(2.) “What a pit of destruction will you come to at last! When things
are brought to such a pass as this, nothing can be expected from you
but a deluge of sin, so nothing can be expected from God but a deluge
of wrath; and what will you do when that shall come?” Note, Those that
walk in bad ways would do well to consider the tendency of them both to
greater sin and utter ruin. An end will come; the end of a wicked life
will come, when it will be all called over again, and without doubt
will be bitterness in the latter end.
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