Hosea 2
1 “Say ye unto your
brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.”
Divine mercy being now received, the recipients are urged to extend to each
other the right hand of fellowship, exhorting one another,
encouraging one another,
confirming each other in the faith, and mutually
provoking each other to love and
good works. (Galatians 2:9; Hebrews 10:24)
2 “Plead with your mother,
plead: for she is not thy wife, neither am I her
Husband:” - In this second chapter the same cycle of events
recurs as in the first,
with this difference, that what is expressed by symbol
in the one is simply narrated
in the other. The CYCLE is the
common one of SIN: its usual
consequences
of SUFFERING and SORROW; then
SUCCOR and SYMPATHY in case of
repentance. The persons addressed in the verse before us are those
individuals in
defection and ABOUNDING UNGODLINESS had continued steadfast in
their loyalty and love to the Lord. They might be few in number, widely scattered,
perhaps unknown to each other, and of comparatively
little note; yet they are here
called on to raise their voice IN SOLEMN WARNING and EARNEST
PROTEST against THE
NATIONAL DEFECTION and WICKEDNESS.
The congregation in
its totality, or whole people taken conjointly, is compared to
the mother, but individual members to the children, and
the sense is that they are to
plead with each other to bring them back to the way of goodness. The nation as
such, and in its impiety, is the mother; the
pious persons still found in it are here
REQUIRED TO TESTIFY FOR GOD both by EXHORTATION and
EXAMPLE. The congregation
of
children of the different generations to the children of whoredoms. Before
them
the prophet says, ‘Plead with your mother.
Adultery per se is a virtual
dissolution
of the marriage-tie; idolatry is spiritual adultery; the
close and tender relationship into
which God has graciously condescended to take
that through
the pleading of the still faithful children might recall
the erring mother to penitence and
purity. (One has to wonder what gets into the minds of the
ungodly? Why are they
so adamant in not wanting to be reminded of God and His saving love! - CY –
2012). A case the converse
of this is that presented in Isaiah 1:1, where the mother’s
divorce is attributed to the unfaithfulness of the
children. “Where,” asks the
Lord in that passage, “is the bill of your mother’s
divorcement, whom I
have put away?… for your transgressions is your mother put away.” Ki
before the second clause is either recitative, introducing
the words of
pleading, or assigns a reason; the latter seems preferable
- “let
her therefore
put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between
her breasts.” The word mippaneyha is rather to be rendered “from her face”
than “out of her sight.” The expression is to be taken literally, as the
word
“breasts” in the parallel clause proves. Since Hosea compares her to a harlot, he
attributes to her the ways of harlots; for the harlot’s way
is to adorn her face with
various kinds of colors, that she may appear fair in the
eyes of her paramours
(II Kings 9:30). But
in addition to ornamenteth as earrings or nose-rings,
and other
ways of decking herself (see Isaiah 3:16-24), as by painting,
the expression may imply
lascivious looks and wanton expressions of countenance (see
Proverbs 7:10-23);
while the mention of breasts may indicate the making of
them bare for the purpose of
meretricious blandishments, or as indicating the place of
the adulterer (compare
Ezekiel 23:3 and Song of Solomon 1:13). The Jewish
commentators adopt the
latter sense. (In contrast:
for a positive and holy relationship, see Proverbs 5:15:19).
The harlot’s countenance indicates boldness, while
the breasts implies shamelessness.
3 “Lest I strip her naked,
and set her as in the day that she was born,” -
The Lord, by His servant the prophet, enforces the
preceding exhortation by a
stern denunciation, and the threat of further severities
unless averted by repentance;
as an injured husband withdraws from a faithless
wife all the gifts and presents he
had made for her adornment, leaving her poor and
bare. Not only the removal of
her garments by way of degradation and disgrace, but
exposure in that position
to insult and ignominy would ensue. In other words, the nation is threatened with
deprivation of all the blessings previously lavished upon
them — property,
prosperity, population, and privileges; while dishonor of the
deepest dye would
AGGRAVATE THEIR MISERY!
(Let
Journal and today’s Kentucky New Era – the term “Fiscal
Cliff” was used, in
one instance, even by a political cartoonist, but there
seems to be no connection or
recognition by the artists, nor by the people they attempt
to influence, of the more
dangerous “MORAL CLIFF” off which we are
falling! – I have long understood
the danger of immorality bringing the world to its knees, at a much faster pace
and in a more direct route, than the threat of CLIMATE CHANGE! - this
being November 19th - CY – 2012) The day of the nation’s birth denotes the
weakness and wretchedness of their infant state. To this
corresponded their
servile, suffering condition during their bondage and
oppression in
The figure of birth represents the time they are slaves in
Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:4) expands the idea, occasionally
employing the very words of
Hosea - “and make
her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and
slay her with thirst.”
This part of the verse is
susceptible of two explanations.
The faithless female, under which character the northern
kingdom is personified,
may be compared to a wilderness, that is, fruitless, parched, and productive only
of thorns, thirsty and waterless. This comparison of a
woman to a desert is wanting in
suitability, and seems in some degree awkward in itself,
beside being out of
harmony with the closing clause; for to “slay
with thirst,” however
applicable to a person, cannot with any propriety be said
of a place,
whether desert or otherwise. No doubt the wilderness may
stand for those
dwelling in it. We prefer, therefore, the alternative
rendering, “make her as
in a wilderness, and
set her as in a dry land.” - “Lest I pronounce against them
such a sentence as of old in this desert (Numbers 14:35), “In this wilderness
they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.” There is, moreover, a
natural connection of ideas between a wilderness, a dry land, and thirst. The
nation’s birth, represented by or compared to their sojourn in
suggests the idea of their wandering in the wilderness after their exodus from
that country; a wilderness, again, suggests what is an ordinary feature of
such
a district, namely, a dry land; while a region thus without water is
suggestive
as well as provocative of thirst.
“I will make thee like the wilderness which is
open to every one, and in which, moreover, one finds no means
of subsistence,
nor anything that man needs; so I’ll withdraw my goodness
from them,
and they shall be surrendered as a prey to every one.”
4 “And I will not have
mercy upon her children; for they be the children of
whoredoms.” The connection of this verse is carried on from the
preceding, viz.
and lest I will not have mercy upon her children. An exceedingly apt illustration
of this verse is given by Jerome. It is to this effect:
When the children of
brought out of
who had thus perished, and whose carcases
had thus fallen in the wilderness, were
spared and permitted to enter the land of promise.
Now, however, the case is
different, and the punishment aggravated. The adulterous parent perishes, and
the children
of that parent perish also. Further,
the reason is assigned in the
concluding clause. The children proved themselves no better
than the mother that
bore them; they were THE WORTHLESS PROGENY OF A WORTHLESS
PARENT! (Compare II Peter 2:12)
5 “For their mother hath
played the harlot: she that conceived them hath
done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers,”
- The
charge of
idolatry under the figure of harlotry, spiritual harlotry,
is reiterated. “Mother” is
repeated in and emphasized by the parallel words, “she that
conceived them.”
A somewhat similar form of expression is that in
Psalm 58:3, “The wicked are
estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies.” To bosh,
to be ashamed, belong the Hiphil forms, hebhish and
hobhish
(the latter formed from zabhish), properly
“to
put to shame,” but also “to
practice shame or do shameful things.” The nature of her shameful conduct
is more definitely and
distinctly expressed in the clauses which follow; and consisted
of several
particulars. There is the persistent pursuit
of her lovers; then the
unblushing boldness with which she avows her
determination to continue
that course; and
next come her expectations from them – “that
give me my
bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my
drink
(margin, drinks).”
The original word here rendered “lovers” is the Piel
participle, which may have either its usual intensive sense
or its occasional
causative sense in which it is taken as “wooers.” It matters little which way we
understand it. The more important point is to determine who
or what are
here meant by lovers. Most commentators understand them to
be those
nations whose friendship
Egyptians and other nations, with whose idols
and from which in distress they vainly hoped for help. The Assyrians and
Egyptians joined in alliance to the Israelites, who
delivered them from their
enemies, so that they lived safely, in return for the gifts
(tribute) which they
(the Israelites) were in the habit of giving them. And as
they lived in tranquility
in virtue of the compact entered into with them, the
prophet represents it as if
they supplied them with all the necessaries of life. For
with their help they tilled
their land without fear and in safety traded from country
to country.” Kimchi
quotes at the same time his father’s (Joseph Kimchi) interpretation: “But my lord
my father of blessed memory explained ‘after her lovers’
of the sun and moon
and stars, which they worshipped; while their intention was
that they gave them
their food and their sufficiency, as they said, “But since we left off to burn
incense to the queen
of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her,
we have wanted all
things, and have been consumed by the sword and by
the famine.” (Jeremiah 44:18)
The Prophet Exhibits the Gross Sin of
1dolatry (vs. 2-5)
The prophet in this section exposes the shame as well as
sin of idolatry. It
is a mistaken notion to suppose, with some, that the tribe
of
urged to plead with the tribes of
propriety of speech or figure, be spoken of as the mother
in this case,
however possibly they may be addressed as brethren and
sisters. The
Church or nation is the mother, and the individual members,
as nursed and
brought up by her, are the children. The doctrines symbolized in the
preceding chapter are here more fully developed and
plainly set forth.
the first clause of this second
verse is ingenious, yet we must regard it as
rather specious than sound.
Instead of “plead,” he employs the word
“contend;” and interprets the
contention to imply that
censuring the seeming severity
of God’s dealings with them, should rather
condemn their mother’s sin as
the guilty cause of that severity, and thus
cast the blame of their
sufferings, not on God, as though he had falsified his
covenant, but upon their mother,
the
had fallen away and fallen far
from fulfilling the conditions of the covenant.
After referring to the mark of
disgrace fixed on the children born by a
marriage with a wife who has
been repudiated by her husband, he says,
“When a husband repudiates his
wife through waywardness, the children
justly regard him with hatred.
Why? ‘Because he loved not our mother as
he ought to have done; he has
not honored the bond of marriage.’ It is,
therefore, usually the case that
the children’s affections are alienated from
their father, when he treats
their mother with too little humanity or entire
contempt. So the Israelites,
when they saw themselves rejected, wished to
throw the blame on God. For by
the name mother are the people here
called; it is transferred to the
whole body of the people, or the race of
Abraham. God had espoused that
people to Himself, and wished them to be
like a wife to Him. Since, then,
God was a Husband to the people, the
Israelites were as sons born by
that marriage. But when they were
repudiated, the Israelites said
that God dealt cruelly with them, for He had
cast them away for no fault. The
prophet now undertakes the defense of
God’s cause, and speaks also in
his person. ‘Contend, contend,’ he says,
‘with your mother [your
dispute is not with me].’ He brings this charge
against the Israelites, that
they had been repudiated for the flagitious
conduct of their mother, and had
ceased to be counted the children of
God… the blame of their
rejection belonged to the whole race of Abraham
(i.e. the mother);
but no blame could be imputed to God.” We rather
understand the pleading
mentioned as that which the pious remnant of the
nation, who had still kept
themselves separate from idolatry and the general
degeneracy, are exhorted to
address to their mother, that is to say, to the
bulk of the people with the
heads of the congregation and rulers of the
nation. It is the duty of believers
to plead for God and His truth, even
though the great body of Church
or nation should be opposed to them.
This is specially the case in times of spiritual leanness, and in days of deep
declension or entire
apostasy. Thus our Lord and His
apostles pled with the
people of the Jews in their
days, charging their rulers, the chief priests and
scribes and Pharisees, with the
gravest dereliction of duty. Yet there must
be tenderness in this pleading.
It is remarkable that, as Jerome remarks, he
commands “the sons (children) to
speak not at all to the wife of their father
whom she forsook, but to their
mother who bare them.” Neither is there,
on the other hand, any
impropriety in thus pleading with an erring parent,
for we find that Jonathan thus
pleaded with his father, Saul, on behalf of
David. Humble and modest, yet
firm and faithful pleading, is not only
lawful, but dutiful even on the part of private persons against national
corruptions or
public profanations, as of God’s Name, or Word, or day,
or worship.
name or privilege of wife since
she had so grievously fallen away from
faithfulness and affection, and
though God disowned the relationship as she
had virtually dissolved her
marriage union by her unfaithfulness, yet she
had not actually and formally
received the bill of divorce putting her away;
in other words, her outward and
public rejection. There was thus still
left
space for
repentance, and room for hope in case of repentance. So
great is the mercy of God, that
if she lent an ear to the pleadings of her
children orphaned through her
misconduct, and put away her whoredoms or
defilements with many lovers,
and her adulteries or departures from her
rightful Husband and Lord, she
might hope for restoration. Thus God deals
with sinners in general, if they will only hearken to the
admonitions and
invitations of His Word, and put away from them the objects, one or
many, of their sinful attachment, which
withdraw their affection from
HIM WHO IS THEIR
TRUE AND PROPER OBJECT! There is a
practical comment by Matthew
Henry on the close of this verse which appears
to us well worth quoting. He
says, “Every sinful course persisted in is an
adulterous departure
from God; and here we may see what it is
truly to
repent of it and
turn from it.
Ø True penitents will forsake both open sins and secret sins;
will put
away, not only the whoredoms that lie in
sight, but those that lie in
secret between their
breasts — the sin that is rolled under the
tongue as a sweet morsel.
Ø
They will both avoid
the outward occasions of sin and mortify the
inward disposition to it.”
of impenitence consists of
several particulars.
Ø
There is destitution of the extremest
kind.
stripped of all the favors,
temporal and spiritual, which God had
bestowed, and be so
situated that she could not help herself. The
idea is more fully
developed by Ezekiel, who in ch.16:4-5 presents
us with a most pitiable
picture — that of an infant exposed, neglected,
nude, and helpless: “As for thy
nativity, in the day thou wast born
thy navel was not
cut, neither wast thou washed in water to
supple thee; thou
was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None
eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee; but thou wast cast
out in the open
field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that
thou wast born.”
Ø
Next to destitution is desolation. In this particular the representation
Is that of a wilderness and
a dry land, or rather of a traveler in such a
district. The nature of the wilderness or of the way
through it is easily
inferred from other
Scriptures; thus we read of
Horeb: “We went through
all that great and terrible wilderness”
(Deuteronomy 1:19); again it is written, “He found him in a desert
land, and in the waste howling wilderness” (Ibid. ch. 32:10). A
traveler, in journeying
through that waste and howling and terrible
wilderness, would meet
with many a rough road, many a rugged way,
many a rocky ascent, many
an uncultivated waste, many a harsh sound,
many a scaresome sight, many a tangled spot, many a thorny place,
many a toil, and many a
trial. Travelers passing through such a scene
of desolation are said to wander “in the wilderness in a solitary
way.” (Psalm 107:4)
Ø
The dangers of the wilderness
are manifold. There is the place of
lions’ dens, and of the
mountains of the leopards. (Song of Solomon
4:8). There, too, the Israelites of old encountered the fiery
serpents
that infested it. (I
recommend Spurgeon Sermon: Number 1500 or
Lifting up the Brazen
Serpent - # 6 – this web site – CY - 2012)
For a time they had been restrained, but afterwards
they were
uncontrolled, and even
commissioned to chastise the erring Israelites.
Ø
Death itself is
included in the threatened punishment: “And
slay
her with thirst”
(v.3). There is no water to cleanse, no
thirst-satisfying
fountain, no life-giving spring.
Of wayfarers in such a region it is written,
“They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted in them.”
(Psalm 107:5)
The repetition of “lest” at the beginning of v. 4 is
needed to make the meaning
plain and carry on the
connection. Particular members of a Church or nation
too often share the sins of
the general body or rulers of the people (see
Jeremiah 5:31); so too children, frequently following in the footsteps of
godless parents,
suffer by the sad heritage of those parents’ guilt; for
God “visits the sins of the fathers upon the children to the
third and
fourth generation of them that hate Him” (Exodus 34:7). It has been
well said that “God visits the
sins of the parents upon the children until the
entailed curse be cut off by
repentance.”
libidinous woman, who represents
greatest perversity. In spite of
warnings and threatenings, in spite of
entreaties and exhortations, and
in spite of inducements and invitations,
Shameless conduct. Like an abandoned woman, who has renounced
all the instinctive modesty of
womanhood, and who, instead of waiting
for the addresses of paramours, actually
takes the initiative, and pursues
them with her unwomanly appeals,
her idols, or, as some think, her idolatrous allies We may not, however,
overlook the fact that, besides the
gross idolatry of
SPIRITUAL IDOLATRY
UNTO WHICH ALL ARE EXPOSED,
and to which many are addicted. Anything that draws away our thoughts
and affections from
God, or that occupies that place in our heart
that belongs to
Him, IS AN IDOL — not so rude as the image of wood,
or stone, or metal, but not less
perilous, not less pernicious, not less insidious.
Let us beware of following such
lovers; let us beware of spiritual harlotry,
and of shamefully pursuing wealth,
or fame, or power, or pleasure, AND
OF TURNING ASIDE
FROM GOD!
from God. Her sottish stupidity was only equaled by her ingratitude (We
have just come through
Thanksgiving Day – this being November 25, 2012 –
CY), when she attributed all
she had to those miserable idols on which her
heart was fixed, and of which
she showed herself so dotingly fond. Put by
Jehovah into the possession of
such a life-some land, of food in abundance,
of raiment — garments inner and
outer — and of the luxuries as well as the
comforts of life, she forgot —
basely forgot — that she continued a
pensioner on His providence and
blessed by His bounties. Bad enough and
base enough as such
ingratitude was, it was still worse to transfer her
love and her gratitude to idols dumb such as
blinded nations fear.
How unspeakably mean it was on
as to value it according to the
worldly advantages to be derived from it, or
in proportion to the selfish
interests served by it! How much worse still to
depend on idols for such
advantages, and in hope of furthering those interests!
6 “Therefore, behold, I
will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall,
that she shall not find her paths.” i.e. - her lovers shall not be able
to help her,
meaning Assyria and
the second is very observable. This directness of address
is, in this instance, expressive
of deep indignation. She had avowed her determination to
pursue her evil courses
shamefully and
sinfully, as if in despite and defiance of the Almighty. In deep and
undisguised displeasure, and with a suddenness
springing from indignation, He affirms
His determination to thwart her course of sin and
shame; as though addressing
her personally and promptly, He said, “Then thou shalt not be able to carry
out thy plan or
accomplish thy purpose; I will see to that.”
The hedge and
wall are elsewhere, as in Job 1:10 and Isaiah 5:5, used for
protection and defense,
here for prevention and obstruction, and similarly in Job
19:8, “He hath fenced up
my way that I
cannot pass, and He hath set darkness in my paths;” and in
Lamentations 3:7, “He
hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out,” and v. 9,
“He hath enclosed my ways with hewn
stone, he hath made my paths crooked.”
After quoting his father’s explanation of lovers, he
proceeds: “So their way is as if
there were in it a thorn hedge, and thorns that she could
not pass through it, and could
not find her paths in which she walked.” The fence here is
double one a hedge of
thorns, sharp, prickly, and piercing, such as forbid her
forcing a way through: the other
a wall of stone that cannot be climbed, or leaped, or
otherwise got over. We
need not try to specify the particular circumstances that
thus hedged in and
walled about the adulteress — whether fightings
within or foes beleaguering without,
whether straitened means or stress of circumstances raising
an impassable barrier
against the practice of idolatry, or an enforced conviction
of its futility. If, she seeks
to Assyria and
7 “And she shall follow
after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them;
and she shall seek them, but shall not find them:” - This portion of the verse
expresses the consequence of the preceding. However eagerly
she follows after
them — and the form of the verb (Piel
conjugation) expresses that eagerness —
she shall only experience the ineffectual nature of
her efforts, and feel the impossibility
of overtaking the darling objects of her pursuit.
However earnestly she seeks them
(here the Piel is used
again), she shall find every passage barred and
every outlet
obstructed, so that, unable to find them, she shall be forced to abandon her
search as utterly vain and impossible - “then shall she say, I will go and
return to my first husband; for then was it better with me
than now.
The difficulties of her position, the distress in which she
found herself,
stimulated her to increased eagerness in pursuit of her
lovers; but it was
only for a brief space, and the efforts were unsuccessful;
the means as well
as opportunity for the sacrifices and services of
idol-worship failed, the
obstacles placed in her way were insurmountable. Or,
rather, the
disappointment was so great and grievous, when all the
fondly cherished
hopes of help, or succor, or support from those idols were
frustrated and
found entirely vain, that heartsick and chagrined by lack
of success, she resolves
on a change of course. With
mingled feelings of remorse and penitence she
makes up her mind to retrace her steps. She recalls the better days, the
happier time, the more prosperous circumstances, of
fidelity to her first and
rightful husband and head; and now she is just ready to
return to him. She
is just now at that stage at which the prodigal in the
parable had arrived
“when He came to himself,” and when he said, “How
many hired servants
of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I
perish with hunger! I
will arise and go to my father” (Luke
15:17-18). She will not say this until
she has borne the captivity a considerable time.”
8 “For she did not know
that I gave her corn, and wine, and
oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they
prepared for Baal.”
From vs. 6-13 inclusive, the suffering and sorrow
consequent on, and
occasioned by, her sins are enumerated; yet now and
again certain
aggravations of her guilt crop up. Here we have an account of her
ignorance of, and ingratitude to, the true and or of her mercies, together
with her sinful
misuse and sad abuse of those mercies.
The products of the
earth WHICH GOD BESTOWED
ON HER were corn and wine and oil —
ALL THAT WAS NEEDED FOR FOOD, FOR REFRESHMENT, AND
EVEN FOR LUXURY; the
prosperity in trade or commerce with which He
favored her resulted in the multiplied increase of
silver and gold. The
perversion
of these blessings consisted in her employment of them in
THE SERVICE
OF BAAL or of
idolatry in general. The sin of refusing to acknowledge the
Author of such manifold mercies was grievously augmented byTHIS
GROSS ABUSE OF THEM. The
last clause is a relative
one, asher, as
frequently being understood; while the words asu labbaal do not signify that
they made those metals into images of Baal, as implied in the
Authorized Version;
nor yet that they offered them to Baal; but that they
prepared or employed them in
the worship of that idol and the service of idolatry in
general. ˆgd, rad. hgd,
to
cover, multiply, i.e. multitude and plenty
covering ever everything; comp.
tego, vwOryt, rad. vry,
take possession of the brain in
intoxicating: rhxy,
rad. rhx,
to shine. All the goodness in the
possession of which
she had not except from me; because I sent my blessing on
the corn
and wine and oil,
and sent my blessing upon the work of their hands,
so that they had abundance of silver and gold; but Jeshurun waxed fat
and kicked. (Deuteronomy 32:15)
9 “Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time
thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will
recover my wool
and my flax given to cover her nakedness.” The
abuse of the Divine
bounties mentioned in the preceding verse fully justifies
the series of
punishments that follow. God thus vindicates those penal
inflictions.
Accordingly He threatens them in this ninth verse with the deprivation of
the bounties
which they had misused as the means of idolatry and sin; in
v.10 with disgrace; in v.11 with the departure of
all her merrymakings;
in v.12 with the destruction
of the sources whence the means of idolatrous
worship were supplied; and in v.13 with days of
visitation proportionate to
the time of declension and apostasy. The first clause of the verse under
consideration is better rendered:
express one idea in a modified
sense, the first denoting the manner, and so
equivalent to an adverb with us,
and the second signifying the matter; and
it is thus translated by Keil: “Therefore will I take back my corn.”
ἐπιστρέψω καὶ κομιοῦναι– epistrepso kai komiounai – come and
take. The manner of
the dispossession intensifies the punishment, just as their
abuse of those possessions had
augmented their guilt. The food, refreshment,
and raiment are to be taken away
this certainly would be bad enough by itself,
but the suddenness of the stroke
adds poignancy to the infliction. The
prospect of an indifferent
harvest and of a bad vintage for weeks previously
might have prepared them in some
sort for the disaster. But when the time
of harvest has already come and
the season of vintage just arrived, by some
sudden, unexpected calamity,
whether tempest or hostile invasion, the
bread-corn perishes and the
wine-grapes are destroyed. The food is thus
snatched, as it were, from their
mouth, and the cup dashed from their lips;
the sadness of the catastrophe
is immensely increased by the sudden
rudeness of the stroke by which
it comes. Nor is this all. In the case
of the
raiment, or rather the material,
the wool and the flax out of which it is
formed, its removal reduces the
intended wearer to perfect nudity, or, if we
understand it as figure, to
abject poverty and absolute penury. Whether as
in v. 9, the disaster is
attributed to hostile invasion - at its season when I shall
bring the enemies, to take away
the corn and the wine; or of Divine judgment::
“I will return and take away my
corn in its season, and my wine in its appointed
time, because I will send a
curse upon them in the time of harvest and at the
season of vintage, instead of
the blessing I used to send upon them. And so on
all the work of their hands I
shall send a curse, and all their gain shall be put into
a bag with holes (Haggai 1:6); and
they shall not have bread to eat nor raiment
to wear.
10 “And now will I
discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none
shall deliver her out of mine hand.” Deprivation
is followed by disgrace,
dispossession by dishonor. The figure of a faithless female being continued,
the
calamities of
The word navluth does
not elsewhere occur, but its meaning is not difficult to
ascertain. It denotes literally, “slackness,” “laxness,” or A WITHERED STATE,
from navel, to
be withered, and may be translated either “her shame” or
“her turpitude.” The Septuagint has ἀκαθαρσίαν – akatharsian - uncleanliness.
Thus she is exposed to the derision and disgust of
her former admirers and paramours;
while deliverance is out
of the question. Her lovers are the
idols, or,
become the object of disdain and contempt; nor is there
any of her quondam
lovers desirous of or able to deliver her out of the
hand of Him who administers the
justly deserved punishment.
11 “I will also cause all
her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons,
and her sabbaths, and all her
solemn feasts.” The enumeration is complete,
“Her feast days” were the three annual festivals of Passover,
Pentecost, and
Tabernacles. “Her new
moons” were the monthly celebrations at the commencement
of each month. “Her sabbaths’’ were the weekly solemnities of one day in seven,
dedicated to the Lord. Then there is a general
summing up of the whole by the
addition of “all her solemn feasts,” — all her festal days and seasons, including,
besides those named, the
beginning of the years, the solemn assembly or holy
convocation on the seventh day of the Passover and on the
eighth day of
Tabernacles. Preceding the enumeration is the general characteristic
of all
“In the day of your
gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the
beginnings of your
months, ye shall blow with the trumpets;” and
in
Deuteronomy 12:12 it
is expressly declared, “Ye shall rejoice before the
Lord... ye, and
your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants,
and your maidservants, and the Levite that is
within your gates.” ALL
THIS WAS TO CEASE: THE
COMING CAPTIVITY WOULD
RENDER
ALL SUCH CELEBRATIONS IMPOSSIBLE! For in the
distress there is no new moon and
no sabbath; and the beginnings of months
and sabbaths on which offerings were presented were days of joy. And so
with respect to the feast days
and solemn assemblies, which were days of
rest and quiet joy, they
shall not have in them any joy IN CONSEQUENCE
OF THEIR GREAT DISTRESSES!
He subsequently adds, “There is
a chag
which is not a moed, but
joy wherewith men rejoice and eat and drink; and it is
called chag,” referring
to Solomon’s feast of dedication; “and there is also a moed
which is not a chag,
as for signs and for seasons (moedim), and
at the appointed
time I will return unto thee” (raced, from r[y, to appoint as time and place).
12 “And I will destroy (make desolate) her vines and her fig trees,
whereof
she said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given
me:” - God had
already threatened to deprive
wool, and flax; He now threatens the removal of the
very sources whence that
support was derived. The vine and fig tree are
usually conjoined, and by a common
synecdoche convey the idea of all those sources that
combine to support life and
supply its luxuries. When the united
disruption, had obtained the zenith of prosperity in
the reign of Solomon, it is thus
expressed: “
under his fig tree, from Dan even to
(I Kings 4:25). Yet
turned aside to idols, but
most stupidly and most inexcusably attributed the many
mercies she enjoyed to the
idols which she worshipped. Like a foul adulteress
despising the tokens of
her husband’s affection and delighting in the rewards of
lewdness received from licentious paramours,
privileges, and forced the Lord to withdraw his bounties
and destroy their
very source. . גֶפֶן rad. גפן, equivalent to תאן, to be bent, from the arch made
by its drooping boughs, תְאֵנָה, rad. תאן, equivalent to תנן, תְאֵנָה, rad. תאן,
equivalent to תנן, to extend from its length - “and
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall eat
them.” The places where fig trees flourished
and vines abounded shall be
stripped of those trees, with their pleasant fruits —
shall become a forest. The
vineyards being no longer hedged or fenced, no
longer cultivated or cared for, the beasts
of the field shall, in consequence,
find free ingress and roam there at large,
devouring and devastating at
pleasure. The Septuagint translates the
first part of the above sentence by
καὶ θήσομαι αὐτὰ εἰς
μαρτύριον
– kai thaesomai auta
eis marturion –
“and
I will make them a testimony,” thus reading, according to Jerome,
עֵד, instead of יעַרַ;; while Cyril
comments on the words so read as follows:
“For these things being taken away shall testify as it were against
and render their punishment more signal, and make the wrath conspicuous.” The
context, however, militates against the reading in question, for in time of
war or
general devastation places, through
neglect, grow trees and brushwood,
where wild beasts lair and lay waste. The
explanation of the verse is well
given by Kimchi
in his commentary: “Because she said, ‘These are the hire
of my harlotry;’ because she said that
from the hand of her lovers came the
corn and must and oil and all good things;
— I will make them a
desolation, that she may know whether she
had those good things from me
or from them. אתנה, because he has compared her to a harlot, he calls
those good things אתנה, equivalent to אחנן וינה; while their signification
is identical with חנאי, and their root, תנה [extend, reach, give], the aleph
being prosthetic. But Jonathan renders אתנה by יְקַר, precious things.
And he mentions the vine and the fig tree because grapes
and figs are the
best part of the food of man after the produce of the earth
(i.e. corn); and
already he had said, ‘I will also take away my corn in its
season.’”
13 “And I will visit upon
her the days of Baalim, wherein she
burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her
ear-rings and
her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forget me, saith the
Lord.” The name of Baalim, that is, Baals in the plural, has respect to the
various forms of the Baal-idolatry,or
modification of the Baal-worship; for
example, Baal-peor, Baal-be-rith, Baal-zebub, Baal-perazim, Baal-zephon,
Baal-zamar, Baal-shalishu. The name of Baal came to be used generally as
the designation of any idol or false god. The days of the Baals were the
days consecrated to Baal, and on which
the WORSHIP OF THE
TRUE GOD WAS TRANSFERRED TO THAT IDOL! It matters little
whether we render “wherein” or “to whom,” referring to ימי, in which case,
however, we should expect בם, though the latter answers better to the meaning of
the preposition le in להם. After mentioning the object of their idolatrous worship,
God specifies the manner of it, which was the burning of
incense, the part of the
Process being employed by synecdoche for the whole. Every mincha, or meat
offering, which was presented by itself as a free-will
offering was
accompanied with frankincense; every day, morning and
evening, incense
was burnt in the holy place; while on the great Day of
Atonement the high
priest carried a censer of coals from the golden altar into
the holiest of all
and there burnt incense before the mercy-seat. But the word
has often a
wider sense than that of burning incense, and is applied to
the offering of
any sacrifice whatever. Just as the festivals of Jehovah
were transferred to
Baal, so His service was turned into that of Baal. Thus
herself and acted the part of a spiritual adulteress by her
worship of idols.
The same unsavory figure is resumed; and her assiduous efforts
to worship
the idol acceptably and propitiate his favor is presented
under the figure of
a whorish woman decking herself with meretricious
ornaments —
nose-rings and jewels, THUS
MAKING UP BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS
FOR THE LACK OF NATURAL BEAUTY— to attract the
attention
and gain the
admiration of her lovers. Thus Aben Ezra: “The meaning of ותעד
is metaphorical in allusion to a whorish woman who puts a nose-ring in
her nose
and a necklace on her neck to make
herself beautiful, in order to find favor in
THE EYES OF THE ADULTERER. The word עַד “ has for its verbal root
עדה, to overstep the boundary, transgress, plunder, draw to one’s self, put on;
while חֶלְיָה,(masculine חְלַיִ) is from חלה, to rub, polish, be smooth. But
when all fails to draw lovers unto her, she casts aside the last remaining fragment
of female delicacy (self-respect), and goes in pursuit of lovers (becomes
aggressive and chases men.
Thus did
place of Jehovah; she made a transfer of Jehovah’s festivals to Baal; she burnt
incense or offered sacrifice to her idol INSTEAD OF THE TRUE GOD,
she went to great
pains to secure the acceptance of her false
deities; “and me,”
says Jehovah very emphatically,” she forgat;” that is, me the true God, her
bountiful
Benefactor, her gracious Lord. and loving Husband, she forgot.
The visitation expressed by פקד with accusative of the
thing, and על before
the person, is paraphrased “For the transgressions of her (
the exile I will
visit upon her
the time that she served Baalim; and I will let
them remain long
in exile for
punishment, because they have left my service
and served other
gods. And even upon children’s children shall come this
punishment,
although they
do not serve strange gods in exile; thus
is the
sentence [literally, ‘judgment’] of their punishment, because their children’s
children shall not be
perfect in the service of God and in His commandments in
exile, therefore thus shall the
iniquity of their fathers who served strange gods
unite with their own punishment.
The Pains and Penalties that
are Attached to Sin (vs.6-13)
In the Book of Judges it is stated once and again that,
when the children of
their enemies. “They
forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
And the anger of
the Lord was hot against
into the hands of
the spoilers that spoiled them (Judges
2:13-14); The
children of
sold them into the hand of Jabin
King of
“And the children
of
delivered them
into the hand of Midian.” (Ibid. ch. 6:1)
hedge, which no one can crush
through without risk of painful lacerations.
God frequently draws round
sinful pleasures, as a fence, severe sufferings
to warn men against their
indulgence. But when all restraints are cast aside,
and men will
force their way through all such fences, there is another
mode of Divine operation, which opposes an
insurmountable barrier
to men’s lusts. If a hedge may be broken through, a wall cannot; if a
hedge
fail to check men in
their onward career of sin, a wall will effect the purpose.
If thorns in the flesh do not deter men from sinful
gratifications, a wall is
raised up that cannot be passed
over, when, through failure of bodily
strength, the crippling of
worldly resources, the removal of opportunity or
occasion, or otherwise, those
gratifications become impossible (Romans
1:27; Proverbs 5:9-12). The sorrows which
and idolatrous alliances were
only the hedge, and served merely for a
partial and passable fence; the
wall was a complete separation between
them and their sins.
the most minute search is
frustrated. For years and centuries the Hebrew
race has had their eyes directed
to a temporal Messiah, who would lead the
armies of His people, fight
their battles, triumph over all enemies, and raise
them to the highest pinnacle of
human greatness, and their nation to a
proud preeminence among the
kingdoms of the earth. We know the result.
God has hedged up their way and
walled up their path. So, too, with
sinners in
general. God often seeks by cross providences to withdraw
man from his
purpose. He places thorns and snares
in the way of the
froward, making the way of sin difficult, sometimes impossible, so
that they
follow after their
beloved lusts but do not overtake them, and seek them but
cannot find them. How different
with the search after gospel grace! It is
“ask, and ye
shall receive; seek, and ye shall find.”
(Matthew 7:7-8)
disappointments which
its sorrows (Luke 15:17), Having long and eagerly sought satisfaction
in the
pursuits of the world and in the
pleasures of sense, they are forced at last to
acknowledge their mistake. Such
things do not and cannot satisfy; they are
husks that starve but do not
support a hungry soul; their idols cannot
succor them in the time of need.
They recall the early history of their
nation, and, contrasting the
past with the present, are convinced of the
better days that had long gone
by. They thought of the time when Jehovah
was the God of Israel, sitting
between the cherubim, and when the
prosperity of
the people had kept pace with their piety. How different
now! How different ever after Jeroboam seduced
them to the idolatry of the
calves, or Ahab indoctrinated
them in the heathenish rites of the dual
deities of
departing from their
true Husband and Head. Finding themselves hardly
bestead, their condition
desperate, and their hopes blighted, they determine
to retrace their steps, and with
sentiments and language closely akin to the
prodigal in our Lord’s parable,
they set about the accomplishment of their
purpose.
prosperity they mistook the
source of their blessings, as also the right use
of them. They attributed them to
their idols, and abused them in their
service. Worldly prosperity was what
most cared for. (Is not this characteristic of the
2012) What contributed to bodily gratification,
luxurious living,
and worldly wealth, was most
esteemed by them. These they counted
blessings, and regarded as the
bestowments of their idols. Just as in
Jeremiah’s time their brethren,
or rather sisters, of
and stupidly to
the evil and error of their ways,
saying, “We will certainly
do whatsoever thing goeth forth
out of our own mouth, to burn incense
unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings
unto her, as we
have done, we, and
our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we
plenty of victuals,
and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to
burn incense to the
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto
her, we have wanted
all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by
the famine.”
(Jeremiah 44:17-18). Whatever
excuse the heathen may have had when they
spoke of their corn as coming from Ceres,
and their wine as the gift of Bacchus,
and their wealth as bestowed by
instructed in the knowledge of
the one living and true Cod, and early as
well as impressively reminded
that the good land, which yielded the corn
and on which the vine and olive grew,
was God’s gift; and that it was God,
moreover, who
gave them power to get wealth, so that however plentiful
the silver and
abundant the gold, they owed all to Him (Deuteronomy
8:18). Worst of all, they not only mistook the
Author of these mercies, but
perverted them to the service of
a rival deity, thus provoking Jehovah to
jealousy with that which was not
God, but the miserable idol of
to be expected. Created things
are given to man for his service, and man
himself was created for God’s service; but when man perverts the creatures
which God has given him, and,
instead of serving and glorifying God by
means of them, actually employs
them in ways and for purposes derogatory
to the Divine glory, no wonder the Almighty, in just indignation, should
snatch them from him
who so misuses and abuses them. As in
v.8 the
addition of the personal pronoun
to the verb gives emphasis, so in v. 9
the repetition of the possessive
pronoun with the nouns serves the same
end. “She did not know, not she, that I even I it was that gave her corn and
wine and oil,… therefore I will take away my corn, my wine, my wool,
and
my flax.” God requires two things at least in return for his
mercies:
Ø
that we gratefully
acknowledge the Giver in the gifts; and
Ø
that we employ them in
His service or to His glory.
Men praise the fruitful earth, but it is God that makes the earth fruitful;
men talk learnedly of the laws
of nature, but it is God that invests nature
with those
functions, or arranges those natural sequences called laws;
men boast of good fortune, but
such fortune is only the bounteous providence
of God. Whether, then, it is
articles of food, or materials of raiment, or the
precious metals which represent
wealth that men possess, it is God that
either gives or withholds at
pleasure. How beautifully this lesson is
inculcated in that precious
chapter, the eighth of Deuteronomy! “When
thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God
for the good
land which he hath given thee;” and
again, beware that
“thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand
hath gotten me
this wealth. But thou shalt
remember the Lord thy
God: for it is He
that giveth thee power to get wealth.” Further, the
question with
shall we eat,
and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we
be clothed?” (Matthew 6:31) whereas the question should be. “How
shall we use
God’s gifts to God’s glory; so that whether we eat
or drink, or
whatever we do, we may glorify God?”
(I Corinthians
10:31) The abuse of God’s mercies abridges the time of their
enjoyment; when we misuse or mismanage our stewardship, He turns us
out of office, and tells us we
may be
no longer stewards; when we forget
the Giver and forsake His
service, we
forfeit our interest in his gifts. The
manner, too, of their removal
adds justly
merited severity to the stroke.
Just as the time of reaping
arrives, the harvest
becomes a heap; just as
the ship reaches the port, it
becomes a wreck;
just at the season when
all seems sure and hopes are
highest, the blight
descends and expectation
ends in bitterest disappointment. (Compare Psalm 78:30-31)
is sometimes the most painful
punishment; men of greatest physical
courage have often been found
devoid of sufficient moral courage to bear
up against a laugh or resist a
sneer. Besides, when insult is added to injury,
the indignity is complete. When
and her
sin cloaked; her lewdness was long concealed, being
unseen,
or overlooked, or thought
lightly of. But when the prosperity is withdrawn,
the covering is cast aside and
the cloak torn off. Outward
prosperity,
while it lasts, is like gilding over many a lewd life, or like veneering
over a loose character. But when, in the providence of God, the day of
adversity comes, the inward
vileness becomes transparent; when
from her prosperous
state, her corruption was made manifest, even in the
sight of the idols she
loved, and whose love-tokens she fancied herself to
have enjoyed, or of the idolatrous nations whose alliance she
courted, or of
the sun and moon which as deities she worshipped; she is
stripped naked, and
exposed to shame, contempt, and
insult. Nor is there any hope of remedy
or prospect of recovery. It has
been well remarked that “those who will
not
deliver
themselves into the hand of God’s mercy,
cannot be delivered
out of the hand of his justice.”
DISTRESS.
religion, but the inward essence
had long departed; there was the
semblance of worship, but the
reality was altogether absent; there was a
form of godliness, but it was
destitute of the living power. Jeroboam had
made the worship of Jehovah a
state religion. The changes he introduced
were with the view of furthering
his political interests. The worship he
established was a sort of rival
worship, so that the breach between the ten
tribes and the two
might become wider and still widening.
(Is this not
the issue today between
Secularists and Fundamentalists? Between
the
blue states and red states? – CY
– 2012) He changed the manner of
worship
by the introduction of images or
symbols, so that Jehovah was worshipped
under the form of a calf, as
though in allusion to the cherubim over the mercy-
seat; he changed the place of
worship from its central seat at
in the north and
the case of the Feast of
Tabernacles, from the seventh month to the eighth, as
though the harvest was later in
the north than in the south; he changed the
ministers of worship, taking the priests out of all the tribes
without distinction,
and not from that of Levi, which had resisted his innovations and refused
to sanction his godless novelties. But notwithstanding these changes — and
important changes they were — he
retained so much of the national
worship as suited his purpose,
and did not clash with his usurpation or tend
to weaken his authority.
creation work completed; and the
month-sabbath, a monthly dedication to
God. They had the three yearly
festivals — the pesach, with the chag hamatzoth,
to commemorate the deliverance
from
or feast of weeks, called also chag ha-gatzir, the
feast of
harvest, and yom
ha-biccurim, day of firstfruits;
and the chag ha-asiph,
the
feast of ingathering, or chag ha-succoth. feast of
tabernacles, or simply
chag, the feast by way of
eminence, the completion of the ingathering of
fruits and vintage, and
commemoration of
wilderness; they had all the
other solemn feasts of thanksgiving to God for
special providences or
particular blessings. With all these feasts were
associated merry-makings,
especially with that of tabernacles; but now God
takes all these away. The
outward joy had for long been severed from that
inward spiritual joy of true
religion; only the semblance remained, FOR
THE SUBSTANCE
WAS GONE. And now shadow as well as substance
is to pass away. God in judgment
turns their joy into sorrow, their mirth into
melancholy. “Sin and mirth,”
says an old writer, “can never hold
long
together; but if
men will not take away sin from their mirth, God will
take away mirth from
their sin.”
POSSESSIONS. The
threatened destruction of their vines and fig trees
affected, not only their present
and actual possessions, but also their future
and possible prospects. The fruits
of one year, or even of several, might
fail; but other years of better
harvests and other seasons of greater
fruitfulness might repair in
some measure the loss. The destruction here
threatened, however, is not
only that of one year’s fruits or of one season’s
produce, but the cutting off of all future
hope. It is not only the
destruction of the fruits, but
of the trees, and so a ruin without remedy.
Neither is it a partial
destruction — some of those fruit-bearing trees being
still spared — but total; the
country would be laid waste, the fences would
be broken down, the enclosures
taken away, and the vineyards left as a
common; the fig trees would give
place to forest trees, and wild beasts devour
and dwell amid the ruins. Yet
for the prophet is careful to
remind them how foully they had abused the
favors of God’s
providence, and scandalously regarded
them as the fruits
of their idolatry, the gifts of
their idols, or the hire of their spiritual adultery.
God’s chastisements in
this, as often in other cases, bear an obvious proportion
to the heinousness of men’s
sin and the time of its continuance. Like wicked men
and seducers in general,
idolaters wax worse and worse (II Timothy 3:13).
From the wrong way of
worshipping God under the images of the calves
according to their own devices,
they had proceeded to the grosser sin of
setting up an idol in His place.
This idolatry had long continued, and that
continuance made an era in their
history here named the days of Baalim.
Ø
The variety of this
idolatry is specified. They worshipped Baal under
divers forms, for divers
purposes, and in divers places; and hence the
plural, Baalim.
Ø
We may notice the
devoutness of their idolatry. The burning of
incense preceded the
morning and succeeded the evening sacrifice
of a lamb in the temple. It
was symbolical of prayer and thanksgiving;
it was, in fact, the
highest and holiest of the priest’s functions, as we
may infer from Luke 1:9.
Ø
Further, the
preparation and pomp of this service to which
prostituted the wealth she
possessed, decking herself, adulteress-like,
with her earrings and her
jewels, and lavishing the good gifts of God’s
providence on contemptible
and filthy idols.
Ø
Her eagerness for
idol-worship is as noticeable as it is lamentable.
Unsought, unsolicited,
without inducement or allurement, she takes the
initiative, and with
unblushing importunity makes advances to her lovers.
Ø
The BLACKEST
SIN OF ALL and in some sort the source of all,
was her FORGETFULNESS OF GOD! Alas! how often do men
and women abuse the best
gifts of God, and pervert them to the vilest
purposes! How often are
they far more zealous in a wrong course
than in the right! How
often do sinful pursuits engross their noblest
powers! How often does the storm of evil passion sweep away all
thoughts of God
out of their mind! How often, amid the lusts
of the flesh,
the lusts of the eye, the pride of life, groveling avarice,
soaring
ambition, and schemes of worldliness, do men FORGET
GOD ALTOGETHER or at least how often do they consecrate to
self, or sensuality, or sin
in some of its countless forms, the thoughts,
affections, and
love WHICH GOD CLAIMS JUSTLY HIS DUE!
How often, too, does God visit with terrible
retribution the sins of such!
14 “Therefore, behold, I
will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak comfortably unto her.” As in vs. 2-5 we have an exposure of
sin, and in vs.
6-13 an enumeration of her sufferings by penal inflictions; so vs.14-23
contain a touching exhibition of Divine succor and
support. The transition is abrupt.
Vs. 14-17 exhibit the gradual change wrought in
of improvement employed by Jehovah.
mirror of her past history. The events of that history are
elegantly
employed to represent as by type or symbol the mercies in
store for
wayward and rebellious though she had proved herself to be.
Laken (from
le causal, and ken,
so, equivalent to “because it is
so”) at the beginning of
this verse (14) is rendered by some,
idolatry by the penal measures
named. Aben Ezra also understands it here,
as elsewhere, in its literal
sense; thus: “After she [the unchaste
wife
representative of
because that she had forgotten me, and had not known at the
beginning
that I dealt kindly with her; and when she will say, ‘Yet
will I go and
return to my former husband;’ then will I allure her with
words.” htp
is from the root tp
cognate with the Arabic in the sense of
“dividing,”
“being open,” “standing open;” thence it signifies “to be susceptible of
outward
impressions,” “allow access and
entrance;” in Piel, “to make one open.... be
susceptible or inclined,”
“induce by words.” The word laken,
“therefore,”
has somewhat puzzled
commentators, because the connection between the
judgments threatened in the
preceding verses and the mercies proffered in
what follows is not to a
superficial view at once apparent. Yet it is
mercy
and truth
meeting together, righteousness and peace kissing each
other. (Psalm
85:10). It
is:
of the Divine mercy; between the
vileness of our iniquities and the riches of
Divine grace. In like manner the
psalmist prays, “Pardon mine
iniquity,
for it is great” (Psalm 25:11); and God promises by the prophet, “For
the iniquity of
his covetousness was I wroth, and
smote him: I hid me,
and was wroth, and
he went on frowardly
in the way of his heart.
I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will lead him also, and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners” (Isaiah
57:17-18). Long previously
God had said, “I
will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake;
for the
imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth”
(Genesis 8:21).
The secret of such striking
contrasts is that where sin abounded grace
did much more
abound (Romans 5:20).
deliverance out of a servile, suffering condition.
leaving that country was a place
of freedom. They were emancipated, and
breathed the free air of the
wilderness; they were exercised with salutary
discipline after their emancipation; as they traversed the wilderness
they
were trained and tried. The
allurement which prefaces their deliverance
refers to the persuasion of
Moses and Aaron, who found it necessary to
persuade and even coax their
countrymen to turn their back on their
bondage and follow the leaders
whom God had sent them. The
“comfortable words”
mentioned in the clone of the verse were
addressed to them at a subsequent
period, when, allured out of the strange
land where they had sojourned so
long, they were led forth into the wilderness.
The“comfortable words” comprehended both temporal
and spiritual
mercies - relief
in every time of emergency, deliverance in danger and
distress, a
plentiful supply of their necessities, with pardon
of their sins,
assurances of
grace, and renewed tokens of God’s favor on repentance.
A difficulty has been found in
the words, “and bring her into the wilderness,”
Being interposed between the alluring and the speaking
comfortably. The
difficulty is removed;
thus: “After I shall
have brought her into the wilderness I wilt allure
and comfort her.”
Then the meaning would be, “After I have humbled them
thoroughly as I did their
forefathers in the wilderness, then will I speak
comfortably unto them.” God
humbled their forefathers in
did not suffice; He humbled them
afterwards in the wilderness, and then
brought them into
upon His own people, to break
their hearts, to humble them thoroughly,
and at last “HE SPEAKS COMFORTABLY UNTO THEM!” But:
experienced in the wilderness,
there were deliverances enjoyed. The
reference here may be to the
latter, and all the more as this part of the
chapter deals with merciful
providences. The particle vav and other
words
of the verse then retain their
natural sense; and, instead of a denunciation
of further afflictions, God
declares to
behalf such works of power,
wisdom, and goodness, at once great and
glorious, merciful and wonderful,
as He had wrought for their forefathers in
the wilderness after their
deliverance from
work miracles and
great works of wonder for them, such as I wrought in
the desert;” as though he said, “Whatever the condition may be into
which
you shall be brought, yet you
shall have me working in as glorious a way
for your good and comfort as
ever I did for your forefathers when they
were in the wilderness.”
The explanation of “wilderness” above, combining, as it
does, deliverance yet
discipline, care yet
chastisement, deserves the preference; it is neither to be
explained exclusively in the sense of promise, nor,
on the other hand, exclusively
in the sense of punishment. “I will lead her into the wilderness, which
for her is
like a wilderness and a dry parched land; and there she shall lay it to heart
that it was better with
her when she did my will than when she rebelled
against me.”
15 “And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the
for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the
days of her youth,
and as in the day when she came up out of the
of God are not confined to words; they comprise
works as well as words. Friendly
doings as well as sayings are embraced in the Divine goodness, and
MANIFEST THE DIVINE MERCY!
On emerging from the
wilderness, fruitful
vineyards, such as Sibmah, Heshbon, and Elea-leh,
east of
like that of Achor near
the river, shall be given them. These vineyards and
valleys would thus be the first
installments of God’s promise, and a prelude to the possession of the
whole, so that the door of hopeful expectation and
of joyful anticipation
would be thrown wide open to them. The verb עוה
has three meanings —
“humble one’s self.... answer,” “sing.” Hence the
Septuagint and older
interpreters adopt ταπεινωθήσεται– tapeinothaesetai – respond
there –
Calvin, “respondent;”
and Aben Ezra and Kimchi, “she shall sing and play.”
The last deserves the preference. No wonder if, under such
circumstances,
responded with songs of praise and thanksgiving, as in that
early day of the nation’s
youth, when, coming up out of
margin, while Miriam and the maidens of
the harmony. Now, all
these experiences of the past were TO REPEAT
THEMSELVES IN THE FUTURE OF
dispersion was obviously implied in this promised
deliverance and God’s gracious
dealings with them in the future. There is a different
explanation of one
expression in this verse, which deserves careful
consideration — an
explanation which turns on what once transpired in that
valley, and the
meaning of the name of it, troubling, derived from
that transaction; we
refer, of course, to the affair of Achan
(Joshua 7:1-26). The punishment of the
transgressor in that case, and the putting away of sin in
connection with penitence
and prayer, reopened, after defeat, the door of hope, and
restored the
enjoyment of Divine help. The discomfiture that so troubled
the host of
with the hope of soon possessing the whole land. So with
captivity — a dreary night of weeping was followed by a
bright and blessed
morning. So, too, in time to come, when, after a long and
sorrowful
expectation,
fatherland, or by faith and repentance to the paternal God,
the light of
better and more hopeful days shall dawn upon them. To the idea of
troubling Kimchi attaches the
notion of purification, quoting with approval
Rashi and Aben Ezra to the same
purpose. His comment is: “Because at
the beginning, when they went into the land in the days of
Joshua, this
misadventure befell them, namely, the matter of Achan, he gave them
confidence that they should not fear when they assembled in
the land, and
that no misadventure would occur to them, as they would all
be refined and
purified because, in the wilderness of the peoples, they
would be purified.
And that
depreciation; but a name of honor shall be given to it, and
it is a door of
hope. And
inasmuch as he says ‘door,’ and not ‘valley,’ as it should be, it is
because it shall be to them as a door, since from there
they shall enter into
the land as they did at the first, and it shall be to them
hope and the aim of
what is good; consequently they call it the door of hope.
And the sage
Rabbi Abraham explains the
viz.’ because I [Jehovah] troubled her there, it will turn
to a door of hope.’
And R.S.I. (Rashi) of blessed
memory explains it as the depth of the exile,
where they were troubled; so ‘I will give her a door of
hope, the beginning
of hope, that out of the
midst of those troubles I will give her a heart to
return to me.’”
To the same purpose he quotes a brief comment of Saadia
Gaon. כֶרֶם, cognate with Arabic karma, to be noble, equivalent to
“the
more fruitful and productive.” The word mishsham
is, according to some,
from the desert,” — others
explain it as
thence.” It is taken in the
last mentioned sense as follows: “From
the
wilderness I will
give the whole land, which she formerly possessed,
as if He said, ‘I will constitute
her there in the wilderness to do good
to her in her
land,’ because that in the wilderness of
the peoples He will
purify them and consume the rebellious and the transgressors, so that the
remainder shall fear (or flock reverently to Him). Consequently they shall
need consolations, and He shall speak to their heart. Because
God —
blessed be He! — shall give them their land as at the first; therefore
He
says, ‘And I will speak to their heart.’ And although we have explained
that the consolations
shall spring out of the distress which they endured in
exile, yet will the whole
be as well for the one (viz. the consolation) as for
the other (the trouble).”
It is aptly remarked by Aben Ezra, in relation to the
vineyards, that “the words form
a contrast to the other words of the
prophet, ‘And I will destroy their vine;’” – And why has the prophet
only mentioned their vineyards (i.e.
when purposing to give them the whole
land)? Because he had mentioned in their punishment, ‘I
will destroy her
vines,’ he mentions in the
promised consolation her vineyards.”
16 “And it shall be at that day, saith
the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi;
and shall no
more call me Baali.
17
For I will take away the names of
Baalim ouit of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by
their
name.” In these
verses a renewal of God’s covenant with
of a marriage contract, is predicted. The name by which
beloved shall be henceforth Ishi,
not Baali; that is, a term of tender
affection,
not of stern authority.
suppose that the latter title
was the idol’s name, which, in the lips of
had superseded that of the true
God, the meaning being
shall become so abhorrent
to their better feelings, as well as hateful to
Jehovah, that they shall pass away at once from their mouth and from
their memory, never more to be mentioned and never more to be
remembered. “Ye shall serve me out of love, and not out of
fear; ishi denoting
marriage and youthful love; baali, lordship
and fear.”
18 “And in that day will I make a covenant for them” - A state of tranquility
was to follow, a sort of golden age was to ensue. With
both the rational and irrational
creation they would be at peace, enjoying security from the
one and safety from the
other. Peace would be established with the hostile forces
of the outer world, and peace
at the same time national and political - “with the beasts of the field,” — viz,
the wild beasts, as contrasted with behemah,
tame animals — “and with
the fowls of heaven,” —
i.e. birds of prey, destructive of the fruits of the
field — “and with the creeping things of the ground:”
- detrimental to the
products of the earth, they would be in league; while
weapons of war
would be devoted to destruction - “and I will break the bow and the sword
and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie
down safely.”
The bow, sword and battle being broken, and not only so,
but BANISHED
OUT OF THE EARTH
so that
and protected by night as well as by day, would be made to
lie down safely.
Milchamah is constructed with
by zeugma; or it includes ALL IMPLEMENTS
OF WAR except the
bow and sword, which he has already mentioned.
Much as was included in these promises, more and better was
to follow. The
divorced wife was to be taken back; the marriage contract,
which her shameful
adultery had vitiated, was to be renewed, and past offences
condoned. This
certainly evidenced extraordinary forbearance and
affection. But it was not all.
A new and higher relationship was to be entered on; so
entirely had God forgiven
and forgotten, if we may so say, all the multiplied and
aggravated transgressions of
but to be henceforth regarded and treated as a chaste virgin,
and in that capacity
betrothed unto the Lord.
19 “And I will betroth
thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me
in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness,
and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth
thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the
Lord.” – “And I will betroth thee unto me” is the gracious promise thrice repeated,
and each time with an additional element of mercy; nor is this
betrothal of a temporary
character and of short continuance, like the previous
marriage compact which the wife’s
guilt a short time had rendered null and void. IT IS A DURABLE BETROTHAL
LASTING FOR EVER! Next to the time
during which this betrothal shall continue
is the manner in which it is effected, or rather, the basis
on which it is established.
Justice and judgment present righteousness
under two aspects —
subjective and objective. Tsedeq,
equivalent to tseda-qah, being
right, is
subjective righteousness and an attribute of God. Mishpat, equivalent to
objective right, either as executing judgment or as
existing in fact Some
attribute these characteristics to God and some to
both. Rashi and Kimchi understand both words tsedeq
and mishpat,
subjectively and in relation to the Israelites. The former:
“In righteousness
and judgment wherein ye shall walk;” the latter: “In
righteousness which
the Israelites shall practice.” Wunsche
and Hengstenberg understand the
righteousness and judgment of God’s doing justice and
faithfully fulfilling
His covenant obligations to
to mishpat when
distinguishing it from tsedeq, that a man may
render what
is right to persons and yet not be righteous; that is,
there may be objective
apart from subjective righteousness. Keil
attributes the attributes in
question, not only to God fulfilling His covenant
engagements to His
people, but purifying them through just judgment, and THUS PROVIDING
FOR THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS!
That God possesses these is
undeniable,
but it is equally obvious that He
bestows righteousness on His people both by
IMPUTATION and IMPARTATION; He also executes righteousness in their
case, purifying them by salutary chastisement, His object being, not only to
cleanse, BUT TO KEEP CLEAN. And yet such is the frailty of man’s fallen
nature, and so many are the faults and the failings to
which he is liable, that
loving-kindness (God’s condescending love, chesed, equivalent to ἀγάπη –
agape - love) and mercies (inmost compassion on man’s weakness, rachamim,
σπάχγνα –
splanchna – bowels;
inward affection; tender mercy ) on God’s
part must be added to righteousness and judgment in order
to SECURE
THE STABILITY OF THOSE WHOM HE TAKES INTO COVENANT
and the continuance of the contract. Nay; for the attainment of the desired
end still more is requisite, for, after all His bestowments and all
His discipline,
and in addition to all His favor and forbearance, His faithfulness
(unwavering
steadfastness, emunah, corresponding
as the reverse side to and securing the
leolam) is indispensable to
ULTIMATE AND LASTING SUCCESS. The special quality
on
side is true knowledge of God. (Greatly emphasized by Peter in I and II
Peter)
22 “And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the
oil; and
they shall hear
Jezreel. 23 And I will sow her
unto me in the earth; and
I will have
mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say
to the people,
Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.”
The eighteenth verse pictures a scene of peace for
following warrant the expectation of its perpetuity, owing to the higher and holier
relationship; the last two verses before us are a vivid
description of UNLIMITED
PROSPERITY. The corn and wine
and oil appeal, by a graphic personification,
to mother earth; earth appeals to the canopy over the
heavens; and the heavens
appeal to HIM WHOSE
THRONE IS IN THE HEAVENS, but whom the
heavens and heaven of
heavens cannot contain. Soon the floating cloud is
seen and the falling rain is heard; the parched earth
drinks in the moisture; and its
products, being nourished and refreshed, supply to the
utmost the wants and
wishes of Jezreel. This is the picture: in the season of salvation, the heavens
shall give their dew, and the earth shall give her increase. God will Hear the heavens
which were shut up when they were in the land, as in the
days of Ahab; on their
return to the land at the time of salvation they shall no
more be shut.’ And He says,
‘I will answer,’ as if the heavens asked that they might
give rain according
to their manner, and I will answer; [as if] their earth [asked] that they [the
heavens] might give rain after their manner, even showers of
blessing. And this
‘ I will answer’ denotes
that my favor shall be on them [the heavens]. ‘And
they shall answer the earth,’ as if the earth asked rain
and longed for it.
‘And the earth shall hear when it shall give its increase,
and the tree of the
field shall give its fruit…’ ‘And they shall hear Jezreel,’ for in the
multiplying of good things the eaters thereof multiply, for
the steppes shall
be full of the sheep of
Israel Jezreel, because they were
scattered among the nations. In the time
of salvation He likewise calls them Jezreel,
because they were sown in their
land; accordingly, He says afterwards, ‘I will sow them to me in the land.’”
Such is the prophet’s pictorial representation of a
prosperity including food
in abundance, refreshment limited by moderation, and even
luxuries
without stint. Old things are
passed away; sinful things have ceased; there
is A COMPLETE REVERSAL
of the sorrowful circumstances into which
sin had plunged
“I sow her” that they may multiply and be fruitful as the seed of the
earth.” The
unpitied one HAS FOUND MERCY, the rejected one is received
WITH REJOICING. “I will say to them which were not my people,
Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God!”
Sympathy with
The laken which
introduces v.14 is rendered by some “notwithstanding,” and
this is what we might expect; but it is opposed by
linguistic usage. We muse adhere
to the ordinary translation, which is “therefore.” The word thus translated tends to
exalt our idea of God’s goodness.
“therefore” we would expect, and the inference we would draw is God’s
final and
forever abandonment of such a sinful, God-forgetting
people. Not so, however.
they were utterly unable to extricate themselves. But their extremity is
God’s opportunity; their misery appeals to God’s mercy; and
what man
could not do, and man would not do if he could, GOD DOES, lifting
out of the pit of misery into which, through sin and
forgetfulness of God,
they had plunged. Not their desert, but their distress,
turned the eye of
Divine compassion upon them. “His
ways are not as our ways, neither are
his thoughts as our thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). “He hath not
dealt with us,”
says the psalmist, “after our sins; nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities”
(Psalm 103:10). He
had indeed dealt with
people to put away their idols, and now, to prevent them
giving way to despair,
He deals with them in mercy.
relief is described in terms calculated
to remind them of God’s gracious
dealings with their forefathers,
and to recall His merciful deliverance of
them out of
Ø
Several incidents
connected with their redemption out of the land of
bondage are laid hold of by
the prophet and impressed into his
prediction, which is thus
rendered beautifully vivid and picturesque, of
future deliverance. Among
these incidents, which give such a life-like
coloring to the prophecy,
are God’s persuasion of
servants, Moses and Aaron;
their exit from
the wilderness on the way
to
ealings with them in the wilderness, when He gave them that fiery,
yet just and good and holy
Law, instructed them in the ways and
means whereby they might
worship Him acceptably, and took them
into covenant with Himself.
Ø
The Prophet Isaiah
speaks of the wilderness becoming a fruitful field,
and again of the wilderness
and solitary place being gladdened, and of
the desert rejoicing and
blossoming as the rose. Whether, then, the
wilderness itself shall
bloom with vineyards for
emerging from the
wilderness, they were to be put in possession of
vineyards in the promised
land, the
promised blessing of restoration
remains the same; while the
responsive song of praise and thanksgiving,
such as Moses and the men
of
the Red Sea, and in which
Miriam and the women of
shall be repeated on the
occasion of
inheritance.
Ø
A remembrancer
of a practical kind is interjected, if we are to
understand Achor rather appellatively than locally. That remembrancer
of Achan’s
sin, and
sometimes difficult to
realize, that the bitterest
sorrow becomes the
source of
sweetest comfort to penitent souls.
God subjects His
people to humbling
providences in order to make them contrite; He
awakens within them painful
convictions, to prepare them for heavenly
consolations; He tries them
by distressing circumstances, but it is by way
of wholesome discipline; by
all their wanderings in the wilderness He
humbles and proves them in
order to do them good at the latter end.
If, too, like
may confidently
hope for God’s presence with us, and power to
prevail over all enemies around us. Mortifying
sin expels the
troubles from the camp; “trouble
for sin, if it be sincere, opens a
door of hope, for that sin that truly troubles us shall not ruin us.”
language of prophecy,
unfaithful; going after other
lovers, and thus committing spiritual adultery,
which is idolatry. Her
unfaithfulness had exposed her to the just judgments
of God, issuing in her
captivity.
Ø
From vs. 14-23, promises of mercy take the place of
denunciation and reproof. Because of
had threatened her with a
bill of divorce; but now He allures her,
that is, woos her again, as a young man a
maiden whom he
means to make his wife, and
in the sequel actually renews that
relationship, as we learn
from the words, “At that day thou
shalt
call me Ishi” — “my Husband” (v.16). He here dwells with
complacency on His manner
of dealing with her when alluring or
wooing her in order to make
her His wife. Having brought her into
the wilderness, or a state
of trouble and distress, and thereby humbled
her, He wins her heart, not
merely by pleasant words, but by most
valuable presents.
Ø
These precious
gifts are comfort,
hope, and joy. These are the
present manifestations of
His love which He promises to bestow on
forfeited; that is to say, He gives not only necessaries but delights,
not only subsistence but abundance. Vineyards affording wine,
which comforts and makes
glad the heart of man, imply comfort,
with the subsidiary notion
of rest and peace, from the figure of men
sitting restfully and
peacefully under their own vine and fig tree. The
second gift is hope. A door of hope,
wide and effectual, is opened
before God’s people, and
they are privileged to enter in. The third
is joy, spiritual joy, so
that they have good ground and a right
disposition to celebrate
with songs of joy the praises of their Maker,
who is at once
their heavenly Husband and gracious Benefactor.
Ø
We must, however, note
the manner of bestowal. It takes place after
much trouble and great
abasement. He gives “her vineyards
from
thence,” the
reference being to the wilderness mentioned in the
preceding verse. After
difficulties and distresses in a land where they
had been hardly bestead, and a condition in which they had been much
straitened, they would have comforts of a most valuable kind. Further,
the
from having been the scene where God troubled the troubler
of
when Achan,
who by his
sin had troubled the host of
to death. (Joshua
ch.7). SIN IS
THE SOUL-TROUBLER STILL
and when sin is slain and
forsaken, with sorrow of heart and bitterness
of repentance, the door of
hope flies open. Just as the valley of
Achor was the door of hope to
they got possession of on
entering
trouble though it was, it
became the source of much good to them; so
the valley of trouble and
humiliation is often the opening up of hope and
comfort to the believer.
Conviction of sin causes trouble. The awakened
sinner is troubled by a
sense of guilt and fear of deserved wrath; but
such troubling opens the
door to conversion and comfort.
Ø
The history of
o
The trials of the
wilderness were past, and
And happiness in the land
of promise, but on the very threshold
a sore trouble awaited
them. So with ourselves; we may fancy
trouble past, and flatter
ourselves with future happiness, at the
very time when other great
and sore troubles are awaiting us.
o
As
us for great mercies by
sore troubles or severe afflictions. “The
afflictions of the saints
are not only harbingers of mercies, but
doors of hope to let in
mercies, means to advance their
progress.
God commands light to shine, not only after
darkness, but out of
darkness. Joseph’s prison, David’s
persecution, Daniel’s den,
made way for the glorious mercies
God had in store for them.”
Many a one can say, “The undoing
of worldly prosperity has
been the making of me in religion;”
in times of trouble, therefore,
it is our duty to be patient, and
our privilege even to be
joyful.
o
Instead of “door of hope,” the Septuagint
translates,
“to open their understanding;” and, though an inaccurate
rendering, it conveys the meaning of God’s having opened the
understanding of
hot displeasure against it,
the dreadfulness of His wrath, the
holiness of His
commandments, and the duty of putting away
sin.
ANOTHER RESULT OF DIVINE MERCY. He draws them, and they run
after Him; He makes them willing in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3).
Relief from
suffering is followed by renunciation of sin; THIS IS A
BLESSED
CONSUMATION!
Ø
Other lords had
dominion over her, but now she renounces all these,
and devotes herself TO
JEHOVAH ALONE! So with sinners
when they give up the sin
that does most easily beset them. No longer
is some beloved lust the
subject of their thoughts or the object of their
affections; no longer are
they wedded to sensuality, or avarice, or
ambition, or worldliness,
or pride, or passion, or sin in any form; their
Maker is now their
Husband-even the Lord of hosts, which is His name.
Nay, more; they acknowledge
God as their Lord and Master, and so
He is; they look up to Him as their Patron and Protector, and so He is;
they confess His right of
ownership so as to dispose of them according
to His sovereign will and
pleasure — and they do well, for so He is.
Ø
But, above all this,
they can come nearer to Him and claim a closer
connection; with holy
boldness they can approach His throne with
more confidence and less
apprehension than Esther to her imperial
husband, when she touched
the golden scepter which he held out
to her. The Church can address
Jehovah not merely as Baali —
“my Lord,” but with true wifely
affection as Ishi — “my Husband.”
Or, if the distinction we
have intimated be disallowed, the name of
an idol shall never again
be put in the place of the living God,
according to the injunction
in Exodus 23:13, “Make no mention
of the name of
other gods, neither let it be heard out of
thy month.” So with whatever lust, or evil appetite, or sinful
gratification, or vicious
course we have had for an idol, let it not
be once named among us.
Ø
But how is the change
effected? It is God Himself who by His grace
brings it about. “I,” says God, “will take away the names of
Baalim out of her mouth” (v.17). The very
name is to be treated
with abhorrence; it
must never more
be mentioned, but consigned to
the oblivion of the past.
God Himself girds
His people with strength
for the sacrifice; “for it is God which worketh in
you both to
will and to work, for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
“The
dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that
idol be,
Help
me to pluck it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.”
is renounced and man is at peace
with God, he has peace with all around.
Ø
A scene of peace did once
prevail on earth; it was in
Those
peace with each other,
peace and communion with God. Day was
succeeded by night, and
night melted into day; they slept, they waked,
they walked; they kept that
Paradisaical spot and dressed it. Above,
around, within, the Divine
favor brightly shone. No sound of discord
was anywhere heard, nor did
jarring note intrude. But soon as man
broke the peace
by turning rebel against God, the
beasts, that till
then had been subject to
man and rendered him willing service, rose
in fury and in fierceness
against him. Man by sin turned a foe to
himself, roused to rage the creatures before subject to him,
and was at war with his
fellow.
Ø
But when
animate creation shall
resume subjection to him. Wild beasts of the
most savage nature, or
bloodthirsty disposition, or venomous character,
shall be at peace with him
(Isaiah 11:6-9); the fowls of heaven, the
winged emissaries of the
evil one, that snatch the Divine Word out
of the heart, shall lose
the power of injury; enemies resembling the
creeping things of the
ground, however harmful before in enticing to
low lusts, and leaving the
slimy trail of sin behind, shall be restrained
from hurting. Not only so;
the curse of war shall cease. Jehovah pledges
Himself by covenant to
bless
us on to that happy day
when the Prince of peace shall restore peace to
the individual heart, peace
to the domestic hearth, and peace to the
human family throughout all
the world.
Ø
When the weapons of
war shall have perished, men shall dwell, not
only in safety, but
security. They shall be fearless of every foe; fearless
of all the powers of evil;
fearless in life, for “perfect love casteth
out
fear” (I John 4:18), fearless in death, and
triumphant over the last
enemy. May the good Lord
hasten that time when
“No
strife shall rage, nor hostile feuds
Disturb these peaceful years;
To
ploughshares men shall beat their swords,
To pruning-hooks their spears.
No
longer hosts, encount’ring hosts,
Shall crowds of slain deplore:
They
hang the trumpet in the hall,
And study war no more.”
we take this Old Testament
picture and put it in a New Testament frame,
or if we take this Old Testament
flower and transplant it to the New
Testament parterre, we shall
realize the words of the apostle to the
Ephesians, when he says, “Christ also loved the Church, and gave
Himself for it;
that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the
Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious
Church, not
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish.… This is a
great mystery: but
I speak
concerning Christ and the Church.” (Ephesians 5:25-27,32)
Ø
The betrothal is in
righteousness, in truthful sincerity, without the
suspicion of dissimulation
on the one side or the shadow of hypocrisy
on the other; in judgment,
with due deliberation, not rashly, not
unadvisedly, not through
some sudden or fitful impulse; in loving-
kindness, in outward acts
of kindness and innumerable love-tokens;
in mercies, in bowels of
mercy; this is the source whence all those
countless acts of kindness
proceed, the fountain from which such
abundant streams of love
flow forth; in faithfulness, in stability on
the part of God, “with whom there is no variableness, neither
shadow of
turning” (James 1:17), and
steadfastness on the part
of the saint. These are the
precious stones in the wedding-ring
which the bride,
the Lamb’s wife, receives — righteousness
and judgment, lovingkindness and mercies, faithfulness
—
and thus the guarantee of A UNION THAT WILL LAST
FOR EVER!
beautiful picture is here
presented to us — we see a specimen of the
manifold wisdom of God, and of
the many links in the chain of His
providence. The boldness of the
figure, and the beauty of the
personification exhibiting
the chain of second causes, and their connection
with THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE OF ALL, have been much
admired.
When the people of God
stand in need of, and prayerfully seek, outward
comforts, “immediately the
corn and the wine and the oil, as if they heard their
complaints, shall say, O Lord, we would help Jezreel,
and satisfy these thy
servants. The corn shall cry to
the earth, O earth, let me come into thy
bowels; I will rot there that so
I may bring forth fruit for this people. The
vines and the olives shall
desire the earth to receive them, to impart juice
and nourishment to them, that
they may refresh these reconciled ones of
God. The earth shall say, Oh
that I may receive the corn and wine and oil
that I may be fruitful in my
kind! but, ye heavens, I can do nothing except I
have your influences, and the
warm beams of the sun to make me fructify;
come, therefore, and assist me,
that I may bear fruit for Jezreel. And the
heavens shall cry, Lord, we would
fain help the earth, that the earth may
help the corn and wine and oil,
that they may supply Jezreel; but we can do
nothing without thy hand;
therefore hear us and suffer us to ram upon the
earth, that it may become
fruitful.” Thus the creatures plead with each
other for the saints of God; God
hears the heavens, and the heavens the
earth, and the earth the corn
and wine and oil, and the corn and wine and
oil supply abundance to the
people of God.
Ø
If the creatures cry to
one another for help to the people of God, shall
we turn a deaf ear to the
appeals of God’s afflicted people when they
cry for help to us? Or
shall we refuse to hearken to the call of God
when He summons us to help
forward His cause and extend His
kingdom?
Ø
If God hears His
creatures when they cry to Him for our support, what
encouragement we have to
believe that He will hear His own Son,
when, as Advocate
and Intercessor, He pleads on our behalf and
in the presence
of God for us! (Hebrews 9:24)
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