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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. III.
The foregoing chapter was wholly taken up with reproofs and
threatenings against the people of God, for their apostasies from him;
but in this chapter gracious invitations and encouragements are given
them to return and repent, notwithstanding the multitude and greatness
of their provocations, which are here specified, to magnify the mercy
of God, and to show that as sin abounded grace did much more abound.
Here,
I. It is further shown how bad they had been and how well they deserved
to be quite abandoned, and yet how ready God was to receive them into
his favour upon their repentance,
II. The impenitence of Judah, and their persisting in sin, are
aggravated from the judgments of God upon Israel, which they should
have taken warning by,
III. Great encouragements are given to these backsliders to return and
repent, and promises made of great mercy which God had in store for
them, and which he would prepare them for by bringing them home to
himself,
IV. The charge renewed against them for their apostasy from God, and
the invitation repeated to return and repent, to which are here added
the words that are put in their mouth, which they should make use of in
their return to God,
| The Wickedness of Israel. | B. C. 620. |
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1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him,
and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall
not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the
harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou
hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as
the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land
with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath
been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou
refusedst to be ashamed.
4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou
art the guide of my youth?
5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to
the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou
couldest.
These verses some make to belong to the sermon in the foregoing
chapter, and they open a door of hope to those who receive the
conviction of the reproofs we had there; God wounds that he may heal.
Now observe here,
I. How basely this people had forsaken God and gone a whoring from him.
The charge runs very high here.
1. They had multiplied their idols and their idolatries. To have
admitted one strange God among them would have been bad enough, but
they were insatiable in their lustings after false worships: Thou
hast played the harlot with many lovers,
v. 1.
She had become a common prostitute to idols; not a foolish deity was
set up in all the neighbourhood but the Jews would have it quickly.
Where was a high place in the country but they had had an idol in it?
v. 2.
Note, In repentance it is good to make sorrowful reflections upon the
particular acts of sin we have been guilty of, and the several places
and companies where it has been committed, that we may give glory to
God and take shame to ourselves by a particular confession of it.
2. They had sought opportunity for their idolatries, and had sent
about to enquire for new gods: In the high–ways hast thou
sat for them, as Tamar when she put on the disguise of a
harlot
and as the foolish woman, that sits to call passengers, who
go right on their way,
Prov. ix. 14, 15.
As the Arabian in the wilderness–the Arabian huckster
(so some), that courts customers, or waits for the merchants to get a
good bargain and forestal the market–or the Arabian thief (so
others), that watches for his prey; so had they waited either to court
new gods to come among them (the newer the better, and the more fond
they were of them) or to court others to join with them in their
idolatries. They were not only sinners, but Satans, not only traitors
themselves, but tempters to others.
3. They had grown very impudent in sin. They not only polluted
themselves, but their land, with their whoredoms and with their
wickedness
(v. 2);
for it was universal and unpunished, and so became a national sin. And
yet
(v. 3),
“Thou hadst a whore’s forehead, a brazen face of thy own.
Thou refusedst to be ashamed; thou didst enough to shame thee
for ever, and yet wouldst not take shame to thyself.” Blushing is the
colour of virtue, or at least a relic of it; but those that are past
shame (we say) are past hope. Those that have an adulterer’s heart, if
they indulge that, will come at length to have a whore’s forehead, void
of all shame and modesty.
4. They abounded in all manner of sin. They polluted the land not only
with their whoredoms (that is, their idolatries), but with
their wickedness, or malice
(v. 2),
sins against the second table: for how can we think that those will be
true to their neighbour that are false to their God? “Nay
(v. 5),
thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst, and
wouldst have spoken and done worse if thou hadst known how; thy will
was to do it, but thou lackedst opportunity.” Note, Those are wicked
indeed that sin to the utmost of their power, that never refuse to
comply with a temptation because they should not, but because they
cannot.
II. How gently God had corrected them for their sins. Instead of
raining fire and brimstone upon them, because, like Sodom, they had
avowed their sin and had gone after strange gods as Sodom after
strange flesh, he only withheld the showers from them, and that
only one part of the year: There has been no latter rain, which
might serve as an intimation to them of their continual dependence upon
God; when they had the former rain, that was no security to them for
the latter, but they must still look up to God. But it had not this
effect.
III. How justly God might have abandoned them utterly, and refused ever
to receive them again, though they should return; this would have been
but according to the known rule of divorces,
v. 1.
They say (it is an adjudged case, nay, it is a case in which the
law is very express, and it is what every body knows and speaks of,
that if a woman be once put away for whoredom, and be joined to
another man, her first husband shall never, upon any pretence
whatsoever, take her again to be his wife; such playing fast and loose
with the marriage-bond would be a horrid profanation of that ordinance
and would greatly pollute that land. Observe, What the law says
in this case–They say, that is, every one will say, and
subscribe to the equity of the law in it; for every man finds something
in himself that forbids him to entertain one that is another
man’s. And in like manner they had reason to expect that God would
refuse ever to take them to be his people again, who had not only been
joined to one strange god, but had played the harlot with many
lovers. If we had to do with a man like ourselves, after such
provocations as we have been guilty of, he would be implacable, and we
might have despaired of his being reconciled to us.
IV. How graciously he not only invites them, but directs them, to
return to him.
1. He encourages them to hope that they shall find favour with him,
upon their repentance: “Thou thou hast been bad, yet return again to
me,”
v. 1.
This implies a promise that he will receive them: “Return, and thou
shalt be welcome.” God has not tied himself by the laws which he made
for us, nor has he the peevish resentment that men have; he will be
more kind to Israel, for the sake of his covenant with them, than ever
any injured husband was to an adulterous wife; for in receiving
penitents, as much as in any thing, he is God and not man.
2. He therefore kindly expects that they will repent and return to him,
and he directs them what to say to him
(v. 4):
“Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me? Wilt not thou,
who hast been in such relation to me, and on whom I have laid such
obligations, wilt not thou cry to me? Though thou hast gone a
whoring from me, yet, when thou findest the folly of it, surely thou
wilt think of returning to me, now at least, now at last, in this thy
day. Wilt thou not at this time, nay, wilt thou not from this
time and forward, cry unto me? Whatever thou hast said or
done hitherto, wilt thou not from this time apply to me? From
this time of conviction and correction, now that thou hast been
made to see thy sins
(v. 2)
and to smart for them
(v. 3),
wilt thou not now forsake them and return to me, saying, I will go
and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than
now?”
Or “from this time that thou hast had so kind an invitation to
return, and assurance that thou shalt be well received: will not this
grace of God overcome thee? Now that pardon is proclaimed wilt thou
not come in and take the benefit of it? Surely thou wilt.”
(1.) He expects that they will claim relation to God, as theirs:
Wilt thou not cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my
youth?
[1.] They will surely come towards him as a father, to beg his pardon
for their undutiful behaviour to him (Father, I have sinned) and
will hope to find in him the tender compassions of a father towards a
returning prodigal. They will come to him as a father, to whom they
will make their complaints, and in whom they will put their confidence
for relief and succour. They will now own him as their father, and
themselves fatherless without him; and therefore, hoping to find mercy
with him (as those penitents,
[2.] They will come to him as the guide of their youth, that is,
as their husband, for so that relation is described,
“Though thou hast gone after many lovers, surely thou wilt at length
remember the love of thy espousals, and return to the husband of thy
youth.” Or it may be taken more generally: “As my Father,
thou art the guide of my youth.” Youth needs a guide. In our
return to God we must thankfully remember that he was the guide of
our youth in the way of comfort; and we must faithfully covenant
that he shall be our guide henceforward in the way of duty, and that we
will follow his guidance, and give up ourselves entirely to it, that in
all doubtful cases we will be determined by our religion.
(2.) He expects that they will appeal to the mercy of God and crave the
benefit of that mercy
(v. 5),
that they will reason thus with themselves for their encouragement to
return to him: “Will he reserve his anger for ever? Surely he
will not, for he has proclaimed his name gracious and merciful.”
Repenting sinners may encourage themselves with this, that, though God
chide, he will not always chide, though he be angry, he will not keep
his anger to the end, but, though he cause grief, he will have
compassion, and may thus plead for reconciliation. Some understand
this as describing their hypocrisy, and the impudence of it: “Though
thou hast a whore’s forehead
(v. 3)
and art still doing evil as thou canst
(v. 5),
yet art thou not ever and anon crying to me, My Father?” Even
when they were most addicted to idols they pretended a regard to God
and his service and kept up the forms of godliness and devotion. It is
a shameful thing for men thus to call God father, and yet to do the
works of the devil (as the Jews,
to call him the guide of their youth, and yet give up themselves
to walk after the flesh, and to flatter themselves with the
expectation that his anger shall have an end, while they are
continually treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of
wrath.
| Idolatries of Israel; The Treachery of Judah. | B. C. 620. |
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6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king,
Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is
gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and
there hath played the harlot.
7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou
unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah
saw it.
8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel
committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of
divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went
and played the harlot also.
9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom,
that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and
with stocks.
10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not
turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the
LORD.
11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath
justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
The date of this sermon must be observed, in order to the right
understanding of it; it was in the days of Josiah, who set on
foot a blessed work of reformation, in which he was hearty, but the
people were not sincere in their compliance with it; to reprove them
for that, and warn them of the consequences of their hypocrisy, is the
scope of that which God here said to the prophet, and which he
delivered to them. The case of the two kingdoms of Israel and
Judah is here compared, the ten tribes that revolted from the
throne of David and the temple of Jerusalem and the two tribes
that adhered to both. The distinct history of those two kingdoms we
have in the two books of the Kings, and here we have an abstract of
both, as far as relates to this matter.
I. Here is a short account of Israel, the ten tribes. Perhaps the
prophet had been just reading the history of that kingdom when God came
to him, and said, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel has
done?
v. 6.
For he could not see it otherwise than in history, they having been
carried into captivity long before he was born. But what we read in the
histories of scripture should instruct us and affect us, as if we
ourselves had been eye-witnesses of it. She is called backsliding
Israel because that kingdom was first founded in an apostasy from
the divine institutions, both in church and state. Now he had seen
concerning them,
1. That they were wretchedly addicted to idolatry. They had played
the harlot upon every high mountain and under every green tree
(v. 6),
that is, they had worshipped other gods in their high places and
groves; and no marvel, when from the first they had worshipped God by
the images of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. The way of
idolatry is down-hill: those that are in love with images, and will
have them, soon become in love with other gods, and will have them too;
for how should those stick at the breach of the first commandment who
make no conscience of the second?
2. That God by his prophets had invited and encouraged them to repent
and reform
(v. 7):
“After she had done all these things, for which she might justly
have been abandoned, yet I said unto her, Turn thou unto
me and I will receive thee.” Though they had forsaken both the
house of David and the house of Aaron, who both had their authority
jure divino–from God, without dispute, yet God sent his
prophets among them, to call them to return to him, to the
worship of him only, not insisting so much as one would have expected
upon their return to the house of David, but pressing their return to
the house of Aaron. We read not that Elijah, that great reformer, ever
mentioned their return to the house of David, while he was anxious for
their return to the faithful service of the true God according as they
had it among them. It is serious piety that God stands upon more than
even his own rituals.
3. That, notwithstanding this, they had persisted in their idolatries:
But she returned not, and God saw it; he took notice of
it, and was much displeased with it,
Note, God keeps account, whether we do or no, how often he has called
to us to turn to him and we have refused.
4. That he had therefore cast them off, and given them up into the
hands of their enemies
(v. 8):
When I saw (so it may be read) that for all the actions
wherein she had committed adultery I must dismiss her, I gave her a
bill of divorce. God divorced them when he threw them out of his
protection and left them an easy prey to any that would lay hands on
them, when he scattered all their synagogues and the schools of the
prophets and excluded them from laying any further claim to the
covenant made with their fathers. Note, Those will justly be divorced
from God that join themselves to such as are rivals with him. For proof
of this go and see what God did to Israel.
II. Let us now see what was the case of Judah, the kingdom of the two
tribes. She is called treacherous sister Judah, a sister because
descended from the same common stock, Abraham and Jacob; but, as Israel
had the character of a backslider, So Judah is called
treacherous, because, though she professed to keep close to God
when Israel had backslidden (she adhered to the kings and priests that
were of God’s own appointing, and did not withdraw from her allegiance,
so that it was expected she should deal faithfully), yet she proved
treacherous, and false, and unfaithful to her professions and promises.
Note, The treachery of those who pretend to cleave to God will be
reckoned for, as well as the apostasy of those who openly revolt from
him. Judah saw what Israel did, and what came of it, and should have
taken warning. Israel’s captivity was intended for Judah’s admonition;
but it had not the designed effect. Judah feared not, but thought
herself safe because she had Levites to be her priests and sons of
David to be her kings. Note, It is an evidence of great stupidity and
security when we are not awakened to a holy fear by the judgments of
God upon others. It is here charged on Judah,
1. That when they had a wicked king that debauched them they heartily
concurred with him in his debaucheries. Judah was forward enough to
play the harlot, to worship any idol that was introduced among
them and to join in any idolatrous usage; so that through the
lightness (or, as some read it, the vileness and
baseness) of her whoredom, or (as the margin reads it) by the
fame and report of her whoredom, her notorious whoredom,
for which she had become infamous, she defiled the land, and
made it an abomination to God; for she committed adultery with
stones and stocks, with the basest idols, those made of wood and
stone. In the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, when they were disposed
to idolatry, the people were so too, and all the country was corrupted
with it, and none feared the ruin which Israel by this means had
brought upon themselves.
2. That when they had a good king, that reformed them, they did not
heartily concur with him in the reformation. This was the present case.
God tried whether they would be good in a good reign, but the evil
disposition was still the same: They returned not to me with their
whole heart, but feignedly,
v. 10.
Josiah went further in destroying idolatry than the best of his
predecessors had done, and for his own part he turned to the Lord
with all his heart and with all his soul; so it is said of him,
The people were forced to an external compliance with him, and joined
with him in keeping a very solemn passover and in renewing their
covenants with God
(2 Chron. xxxiv. 32, xxxv. 17);
but they were not sincere in it, nor were their hearts right with
God. For this reason God at that very time said, I will remove
Judah out of my sight, as I removed Israel
because Judah was not removed from their sin by the sight of Israel’s
removal from their land. Hypocritical and ineffectual reformations bode
ill to a people. We deceive ourselves if we think to deceive God by a
feigned return to him. I know no religion without sincerity.
III. The case of these sister kingdoms is compared, and judgment given
upon the comparison, that of the two Judah was the worse
(v. 11):
Israel has justified herself more than Judah, that is, she is
not so bad as Judah is. This comparative justification will stand
Israel in little stead; what will it avail us to say, We are not so
bad as others, when yet we are not really good ourselves? But it
will serve as an aggravation of the sin of Judah, which was in two
respects worse than that of Israel:–
1. More was expected from Judah than from Israel; so that Judah dealt
treacherously, they vilified a more sacred profession, and falsified a
more solemn promise, than Israel did.
2. Judah might have taken warning by the ruin of Israel for their
idolatry, and would not. God’s judgments upon others, if they be not
means of our reformation, will help to aggravate our destruction. The
prophet Ezekiel
makes the same comparison between Jerusalem and Samaria that this
prophet here makes between Judah and Israel, nay, and
between Jerusalem and Sodom, and Jerusalem is made the worst of the
three.
| Encouragements to Repentance. | B. C. 620. |
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12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not
cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the
LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed
against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the
strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my
voice, saith the LORD.
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am
married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a
family, and I will bring you to Zion:
15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which
shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and
increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall
say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall
it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall
they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.
17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the
LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name
of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after
the imagination of their evil heart.
18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house
of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the
north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your
fathers.
19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and
give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of
nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not
turn away from me.
Here is a great deal of gospel in these verses, both that which was
always gospel, God’s readiness to pardon sin and to receive and
entertain returning repenting sinners, and those blessings which were
in a special manner reserved for gospel times, the forming and founding
of the gospel church by bringing into it the children of God that
were scattered abroad, the superseding of the ceremonial law, and
the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, typified by the uniting of Israel and
Judah in their return out of captivity. The prophet is directed to
proclaim these words towards the north, for they are a call to
backsliding Israel, the ten tribes that were carried captive into
Assyria, which lay north from Jerusalem. That way he must look, to show
that God had not forgotten them, though their brethren had, and to
upbraid the men of Judah with their obstinacy in refusing to answer the
calls given them. One might as well call to those who lay many hundred
miles off in the land of the north; they would as soon hear as these
unbelieving and disobedient people; backsliding Israel will
sooner accept of mercy, and have the benefit of it, than treacherous
Judah. And perhaps the proclaiming of these words towards the north
looks as far forward as the preaching of repentance and remission of
sins unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem,
Luke xxiv. 47.
A call to Israel in the land of the north is a call to others in that
land, even as many as belong to the election of grace. When it was
suspected that Christ would go to the dispersed Jews among the
Gentiles, it was concluded that he would teach the Gentiles,
John vii. 35.
So here.
I. Here is an invitation given to backsliding Israel, and in
them to the backsliding Gentiles, to return unto God, the God
from whom they had revolted
(v. 12):
Return, thou backsliding Israel. And again
(v. 14):
“Turn, O backsliding children! repent of your backslidings,
return to your allegiance, come back to that good way which you have
missed and out of which you have turned aside.” Pursuant to this
invitation,
1. They are encouraged to return. “Repent, and be converted, and
your sins shall be blotted out,
Acts iii. 19.
You have incurred God’s displeasure, but return to me, and I will
not cause my anger to fall upon you.” God’s anger is ready to fall
upon sinners, as a lion falls on his prey, and there is none to
deliver, as a mountain of lead falling on them, to sink them past
recovery into the lowest hell. But if they repent it shall be turned
away,
I will not keep my anger for ever, but will be reconciled,
for I am merciful. We that are sinful were for ever undone if
God were not merciful; but the goodness of his nature encourages us to
hope that, if we by repentance undo what we have done against him, he
will by a pardon unsay what he has said against us.
2. They are directed how to return
(v. 13):
“Only acknowledge thy iniquity, own thyself in a fault and
thereby take shame to thyself and give glory to God.” I will not
keep my anger for ever (that is a previous promise); you shall be
delivered form that anger of God which is everlasting, from the wrath
to come; but upon what terms? Very easy and reasonable ones. Only
acknowledge thy sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive them. This will aggravate the condemnation of sinners,
that the terms of pardon and peace were brought so low, and yet they
would not come up to them. If the prophet had told thee to do some
great thing wouldst thou not have done it? How much more when he says,
Only acknowledge thy iniquity?
2 Kings v. 13.
In confessing sin,
(1.) We must own the corruption of our nature: Acknowledge thy
iniquity, the perverseness and irregularity of thy nature.
(2.) We must own our actual sins: “That thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God, hast affronted him and offended him.”
(3.) We must own the multitude of our transgressions: “That thou
hast scattered thy ways to the strangers, run hither and thither in
pursuit of thy idols, under every green tree. Wherever thou hast
rambled thou hast left behind thee the marks of thy folly.”
(4.) We must aggravate our sin from the disobedience that there is in
it to the divine law. The sinfulness of sin is the worst thing in it:
“You have not obeyed my voice; acknowledge that, and let that
humble you more than any thing else.”
II. Here are precious promises made to these backsliding children, if
they do return, which were in part fulfilled in the return of the Jews
out of their captivity, many that belonged to the ten tribes having
perhaps joined themselves to those of the two tribes, in the prospect
of their deliverance, and returning with them; but the prophecy is to
have its full accomplishment in the gospel church, and the gathering
together of the children of God that were scattered abroad to
that: “Return, for, though you are backsliders, yet you are children;
nay, though a treacherous wife, yet a wife, for I am married to
you
(v. 14)
and will not disown the relation.” Thus God remembers his covenant with
their fathers, that marriage covenant, and in consideration of that he
remembers their land,
Lev. xxvi. 42.
1. He promises to gather them together from all places whither they are
dispersed and scattered abroad,
I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, or clan;
and I will bring you to Zion,
v. 14.
All those that by repentance return to their duty shall return to their
former comfort. Observe,
(1.) God will graciously receive those that return to him, nay, it is
he that by his distinguishing grace takes them out from among the rest
that persist in their backslidings; if he had left them, they would
have been undone.
(2.) Of the many that have backslidden from God there are but few, very
few in comparison, that return to him, like the gleanings of the
vintage–one of a city and two of a country; Christ’s flock is a
little flock, and few there are that find the strait gate.
(3.) Of those few, though dispersed, yet not one shall be lost. Though
there be but one in a city, God will find out that one; he shall
not be overlooked in a crowd, but shall be brought safely to Zion,
safely to heaven. The scattered Jews shall be brought to Jerusalem, and
those of the ten tribes shall be as welcome there as those of the two.
God’s chosen, scattered all the world over, shall be brought to the
gospel church, that Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, that holy
hill on which Christ reigns.
2. He promises to set those over them that shall be every way blessings
to them
(v. 15):
I will give you pastors after my heart, alluding to the
character given of David when God pitched upon him to be king.
The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart. Observe,
(1.) When a church is gathered it must be governed. “I will bring
them to Zion, not to live as they list, but to be under discipline,
not as wild beasts, that range at pleasure, but as sheep that are under
the direction of a shepherd.” I will give them pastors, that is,
both magistrates and ministers; both are God’s ordinance for the
support of his kingdom.
(2.) It is well with a people when their pastors are after God’s own
heart, such as they should be, such as we would have them be, who
shall make his will their rule in all their administrations, and such
as endeavour in some measure to conform to his example, who rule for
him, and, as they are capable, rule like him.
(3.) Those are pastors after God’s own heart who make it their business
to feed the flock, not to feed themselves and fleece the flocks,
but to do all they can for the good of those that are under their
charge, who feed them with wisdom and understanding (that is,
wisely and understandingly), as David fed them, in the integrity of
his heart and by the skilfulness of his hand,
Ps. lxxviii. 72.
Those who are not only pastors, but teachers, must feed them with the
word of God, which is wisdom and understanding, which is able to make
us wise to salvation.
3. He promises that there shall be no more occasion for the ark of
the covenant, which had been so much the glory of the tabernacle
first and afterwards of the temple, and was the token of God’s presence
with them; that shall be set aside, and there shall be no more enquiry
after, nor enquiring of, it
(v. 16):
When you shall be multiplied and increased in the land, when the
kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up, which by the accession of the
Gentiles will bring in to the church a vast increase (and the days of
the Messiah the Jewish masters themselves acknowledge to be here
intended), then they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of
the Lord, they shall have it no more among them to value, or value
themselves upon, because they shall have a pure spiritual way of
worship set up, in which there shall be no occasion for any of those
external ordinances; with the ark of the covenant the whole
ceremonial law shall be set aside, and all the institutions of it, for
Christ, the truth of all those types, exhibited to us in the word and
sacraments of the New Testament, will be to us instead of all. It is
very likely (whatever the Jews suggest to the contrary) that the ark
of the covenant was in the second temple, being restored by Cyrus
with the other vessels of the house of the Lord,
Ezra i. 7.
But in the gospel temple Christ is the ark; he is the
propitiatory, or mercy-seat; and it is the spiritual presence of God in
his ordinances that we are now to expect. Many expressions are here
used concerning the setting aside of the ark, that it shall not come
to mind, that they shall not remember it, that they shall
not visit it, that none of these things shall be any more
done; for the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth,
John iv. 24.
But this variety of expressions is used to show that the ceremonies of
the law of Moses should be totally and finally abolished, never to be
used any more, but that it would be with difficulty that those who had
been so long wedded to them should be weaned from them; and that they
would not quite let them go till their holy city and holy house should
both be levelled with the ground.
4. He promises that the gospel church, here called Jerusalem,
shall become eminent and conspicuous,
Two things shall make it famous:–
(1.) God’s special residence and dominion in it. It shall be called,
The throne of the Lord–the throne of his glory, for that
shines forth in the church–the throne of his government, for
that also is erected there; there he rules his willing people by his
word and Spirit, and brings every thought into obedience to himself. As
the gospel got ground this throne of the Lord was set up even
where Satan’s seat had been. It is especially the throne of
his grace; for those that by faith come to this Jerusalem come
to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the mediator of the new
covenant,
Heb. xii. 22-24.
(2.) The accession of the Gentiles to it. All the nations shall
be discipled, and so gathered to the church, and shall
become subjects to that throne of the Lord which is there set
up, and devoted to the honour of that name of the Lord which is
there both manifested and called upon.
5. He promises that there shall be a wonderful reformation wrought in
those that are gathered to the church: They shall not walk any more
after the imagination of their evil hearts. They shall not live as
they list, but live by rules, not do according to their own corrupt
appetites, but according to the will of God. See what leads in
sin–the imagination of our own evil hearts; and what sin is–it
is walking after that imagination, being governed by fancy and
humour; and what converting grace does–it takes us off from walking
after our own inventions and brings us to be governed by
religion and right reason.
6. That Judah and Israel shall be happily united in one body,
They were so in their return out of captivity and their settlement
again in Canaan: The house of Judah shall walk with the house of
Israel, as being perfectly agreed, and become one stick in the
hand of the Lord, as Ezekiel also foretold,
Both Assyria and Chaldea fell into the hands of Cyrus, and his
proclamation extended to all the Jews in all his dominions. And
therefore we have reason to think that many of the house of
Israel came with those of Judah out of the land of the
north; though at first there returned but 42,000 (whom we have an
account of,
yet Josephus says (Antiq. 11.68) that some few years after,
under Darius, Zerubbabel went and fetched up above 4,000,000 of souls,
to the land that was given for an inheritance to their fathers.
And we never read of such animosities and enmities between Israel and
Judah as had been formerly. This happy coalescence between Israel and
Judah in Canaan was a type of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in the
gospel church, when, all enmities being slain, they should become one
sheepfold under one shepherd.
III. Here is some difficulty started, that lies in the way of all this
mercy; but an expedient is found to get over it.
1. God asks, How shall I do this for thee? Not as if God showed
favour with reluctancy, as he punishes with a How shall I give thee
up?
Hos. xi. 8, 9.
No, though he is slow to anger, he is swift to show mercy. But it
intimates that we are utterly unworthy of his favours, that we have no
reason to expect them, that there is nothing in us to deserve them,
that we can lay no claim to them, and that he contrives how to do it in
such a way as may save the honour of his justice and holiness in the
government of the world. Means must be devised that his
banished be not for ever expelled from him,
2 Sam. xiv. 14.
How shall I do it?
(1.) Even backsliders, if they return and repent, shall be put among
the children; and who could ever have expected that? Behold what
manner of love is this!
1 John iii. 1.
How should we who are so mean and weak, so worthless and unworthy, and
so provoking, ever be put among the children.
(2.) To those whom God puts among the children he will give the
pleasant land, the land of Canaan, that glory of all lands, that
goodly heritage of the hosts of nations, which nations and their
hosts wish for and prefer to their own country, or which the hosts of
the nations have now got possession of. It was a type of heaven, where
there are pleasures for evermore. Now who could expect a place
in that pleasant land that has so often despised it
and is so unworthy of it and unfit for it? Is this the manner of
men?
2. He does himself return answer to this question: But I said, Thou
shalt call me, My Father. God does himself answer all the
objections that are taken from our unworthiness, or they would never be
got over.
(1.) That he may put returning penitents among the children, he
will give them the Spirit of adoption, teaching them to cry,
Abba, Father,
Gal. iv. 6.
“Thou shalt call me, My Father; thou shalt return to me, and
resign thyself to me as a father, and that shall recommend thee to my
favour,”
(2.) That he may give them the pleasant land, he will put his
fear in their hearts, that they may never turn from him, but
may persevere to the end.
| Israel Returning to God; Israel Encouraged in Their Return. | B. C. 620. |
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20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband,
so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith
the LORD.
21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and
supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted
their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your
backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD
our God.
23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and
from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is
the salvation of Israel.
24 For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our
youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their
daughters.
25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for
we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from
our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of
the LORD our God.
Here is,
I. The charge God exhibits against Israel for their treacherous
departures from him,
As an adulterous wife elopes from her husband, so have they gone a
whoring from God. They were joined to God by a marriage-covenant, but
they broke that covenant, they dealt treacherously with God, who
had always dealt kindly and faithfully with them. Treacherous dealing
with men like ourselves is bad enough, but to deal treacherously with
God is to deal treasonably.
II. Their conviction and confession of the truth of this charge,
When God reproved them for their apostasy, there were some among them,
even such as God would take and bring to Zion, whose voice
was heard upon the high places weeping and praying, humbling
themselves before the God of their fathers, lamenting their calamities,
and their sins, the procuring cause of them; for this is that which
they lament, for this they bemoan themselves, that they have
perverted their way and forgotten the Lord their God. Note,
1. Sin is the perverting of our way, it is turning aside to crooked
ways and perverting that which is right.
2. Forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin. If men
would remember God, his eye upon them and their obligation to him, they
would not transgress as they do.
3. By sin we embarrass ourselves, and bring ourselves into trouble, for
that also is the perverting of our way,
4. Prayers and tears well become those whose consciences tell them
that they have perverted their way and forgotten their God. When
the foolishness of man perverts his way his heart is apt to
fret against the Lord
(Prov. xix. 3),
whereas it should be melted and poured out before him.
III. The invitation God gives them to return to him
(v. 22):
Return, you backsliding children. He calls them children
in tenderness and compassion to them, foolish and froward as children,
yet his sons, whom though he corrects he will not disinherit;
for, though they are refractory children (so some render it),
yet they are children. God bears with such children, and so much
parents. When they are convinced of sin
(v. 21),
and humbled for that, then they are prepared and then they are
invited to return, as Christ invites those to him that
are weary and heavy-laden. The promise to those that
return is, “I will heal your backslidings; I will comfort you
under the grief you are in for your backslidings, deliver you out of
the troubles you have brought yourselves into by your backslidings, and
cure you of your refractoriness and tendency to backslide.” God will
heal our backslidings by his pardoning mercy, his quieting
peace, and his renewing grace.
IV. The ready consent they give to this invitation, and their cheerful
compliance with it: Behold, we come unto thee. This is an echo
to God’s call; as a voice returned from broken walls, so this from
broken hearts. God says, Return; they answer, Behold, we
come. It is an immediate speedy answer, without delay, not, “We
will come hereafter,” but, “We do come now; we need not take time to
consider of it;” not, “We come towards thee,” but, “We come to thee, we
will make a thorough turn of it.” Observe how unanimous they are: We
come, one and all.
1. They come devoting themselves to God as theirs: “Thou art the
Lord our God; we take thee to be ours, we give up ourselves to thee
to be thine; whither shall we go but to thee? It is our sin and folly
that we have gone from thee.” It is very comfortable, in our returns to
God after our backslidings, to look up to him as ours in covenant.
2. They come disclaiming all expectations of relief and succour but
from God only: “In vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and
from the multitude of the mountains; we now see our folly in
relying upon creature-confidences, and will never so deceive ourselves
any more.” They worshipped their idols upon hills and mountains
(v. 6),
and they had a multitude of idols upon their mountains, which they had
sought unto and put a confidence in; but now they will have no more to
do with them. In vain do we look for any thing that is good from them,
while from God we may look for every thing that is good, even salvation
itself. Therefore,
3. They come depending upon God only as their God: In the Lord our
God is the salvation of Israel. He is the Lord, and he only
can save; he can save when all other succours and saviours fail; and he
is our God, and will in his own way and time work salvation for
us. It is very applicable to the great salvation from sin, which Jesus
Christ wrought out for us; that is the salvation of the Lord,
his great salvation.
4. They come justifying God in their troubles and judging themselves
for their sins,
(1.) They impute all the calamities they had been under to their idols,
which had not only done them no good, but had done them abundance of
mischief, all the mischief that had been done them: Shame (the
idol, that shameful thing) has devoured the labour of our
fathers. Note,
[1.] True penitents have learned to call sin shame; even the
beloved sin which has been as an idol to them, which they have been
most pleased with and proud of, even that they shall call a scandalous
thing, shall put contempt upon it and be ashamed of it.
[2.] True penitents have learned to call sin death and ruin, and to
charge upon it all the mischiefs they suffer: “It has devoured
all those good things which our fathers laboured for and left to
us; we have found from our youth that our idolatry has been the
destruction of our prosperity.” Children often throw away upon their
lusts that which their fathers took a great deal of pains for; and it
is well if at length they are brought (as these here) to see the folly
of it, and to call those vices their shame which have wasted their
estates and devoured the labour of their fathers. Of the labour
of their fathers, which their idols had devoured, they mention
particularly their flocks and their herds, their sons and their
daughters. First, their idolatries had provoked God to bring these
desolating judgments upon them, which had ruined their country and
families, and made their estates a prey and their children captives to
the conquering enemy. They had procured these things to
themselves. Or, rather, Secondly, These had been sacrificed
to their idols, had been separated unto that shame
(Hos. ix. 10),
and they had devoured them without mercy; they did eat the fat of
their sacrifices
even their human sacrifices.
(2.) They take to themselves the shame of their sin and folly
(v. 25):
“We lie down in our shame, being unable to bear up under it;
our confusion covers us, that is, both our penal and our
penitential shame. Sin has laid us under such rebukes of God’s
providence, and such reproaches of our own consciences, as surround us
and fill us with shame. For we have sinned, and shame came in
with sin and still attends upon it. We are sinners by descent; guilt
and corruption are entailed upon us: We and our fathers have
sinned. We were sinners betimes; we began early in a course of sin:
We have sinned from our youth; we have continued in sin, have
sinned even unto this day, though often called to repent and
forsake our sins. That which is the malignity of sin, the worst thing
in it, is the affront we have put upon God by it: We have not obeyed
the voice of the Lord our God, forbidding us to sin and commanding
us, when we have sinned, to repent.” Now all this seems to be the
language of the penitents of the house of Israel
(v. 20),
of the ten tribes, either of those that were in captivity or those of
them that remained in their own land. And the prophet takes notice of
their repentance to provoke the men of Judah to a holy emulation.
David used it as an argument with the elders of Judah that it would be
a shame for those that were his bone and his flesh to be the
last in bringing the king back, when the men of Israel appeared
forward in it,
So the prophet excites Judah to repent because Israel did: and well it
were if the zeal of others less likely would provoke us to strive to
get before them and go beyond them in that which is good.
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