Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 4.djvu/22

16 and therefore the whole soul is alienated from the life of God, Eph. iv. 18. Israel does not know, though their land was a land of light and knowledge; in Judah is God known, yet, because they do not live up to what they know, it is, in effect, as if they did not know. They know; but their knowledge does them no good, because they do not consider what they know; they do not apply it to their case, nor their minds to it. Note, (1.) Even among those that profess themselves God's people, that have the advantages, and lie under the engagements, of his people, there are many that are very careless in the affairs of their souls. (2.) Inconsideration of what we do know, is as great an enemy to us in religion as ignorance of what we should know. (3.) Therefore men revolt from God, and rebel against him, because they do not know and consider their obligations to God, in duty, gratitude, and interest.

IV. He laments the universal pravity and corruption of their church and kingdom; the disease of sin was epidemical, and all orders and degrees of men were infected with it; Ah, sinful nation! v. 4. The prophet bemoans those that would not bemoan themselves; Alas for them, wo to them! He speaks with a holy indignation at their degeneracy, and a dread of the consequences of it. See here,

1. How he aggravates their sin, and shows the malignity that there was in it, v. 4. (1.) The wickedness was universal; they were a sinful nation, the generality of the people were vicious and profane; they were so in their national capacity, in the management of their public treaties abroad, and in the administration of public justice at home, they were corrupt. Note, It is ill with a people when sin becomes national. (2.) It was very great and heinous in its nature. They were laden with iniquity; the guilt of it, and the curse incurred by that guilt, lay very heavy upon them; it was a heavy charge that was exhibited against them, which they could never clear themselves from; their wickedness was upon them as a talent of lead, Zech. v. 7, 8. And their sin, as it did easily beset them, and they were prone to it, was a weight upon them, Heb. xii. 1. (3.) They came of a bad stock, they were a seed of evildoers; treachery ran in the blood, they had it by kind, which made the matter so much the worse, more provoking and less curable; they rose up in their fathers' stead, and trod in their fathers' steps, to fill up the measure of their iniquity; (Numb. xxxii. 14.) they were a race and family of rebels. (4.) They were themselves debauched, did what they could to debauch others; they are not only corrupt children, born tainted, but children that are corrupters, that propagate vice, and infect others with it; not only sinners, but tempters, not only actuated by Satan, but agents for him. If those that are called children, God's children, that are looked upon as belonging to his family, be wicked and vile, their example is of the most malignant influence. (5.) Their sin was a treacherous departure from God, they were deserters from their allegiance; They have forsaken the Lord, to whom they had joined themselves; they are gone away backward; are alienated or separated from God, have turned the back upon him, deserted their colours, and quitted their service; when they were urged forward, they ran backward, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, Hos. iv. 16. (6.) It was an impudent and daring defiance of him; They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, wilfully and designedly; they knew what would anger him, and that they did. Note, The backslidings of those that have professed religion, and relation to God, are in a special manner provoking to him.

2. How he illustrates it by a comparison taken from a sick and diseased body, all overspread with leprosy, or, like Job's, with sore boils, v. 5, 6. (1.) The distemper has seized the vitals, and so threatens to be mortal. Diseases in the head and heart are most dangerous; now the head, the whole head, is sick, the heart, the whole heart, is faint; they were become corrupt in their judgment, the leprosy was in their head, they were utterly unclean; their affection to God and religion was cold and gone; the things which remained were ready to die away, Rev. iii. 2. (2.) It has overspread the whole body, and so becomes exceedingly noisome; From the sole of the foot even unto the head, from the meanest peasant to the greatest peer, there is no soundness, no good principles, no religion, (for that is the health of the soul,) nothing but wounds and bruises, guilt and corruption, the sad effects of Adam's fall; noisome to the holy God, painful to the sensible soul; they were so to David, when he complained, (Ps. xxxviii. 5.) My wounds stink, and are corrupt, because of my foolishness, Ps. xxxii. 3, 4. No attempts were made for reformation, or, if they were, they proved ineffectual; The wounds have not been closed, nor bound up, nor mollified with ointment. While sin remains unrepented of, the wounds are unsearched, unwashed, the proud flesh in them not cut out, and while consequently, it remains unpardoned, the wounds are not mollified or closed up, nor any thing done toward the healing of them, and the preventing of their fatal consequences.

V. He sadly bewails the judgments of God, which they had brought upon themselves by their sins, and their incorrigibleness under those judgments.

1. Their kingdom was almost ruined, v. 7. So miserable were they, that both their towns and their lands were wasted, and yet so stupid, that they needed to be told this, and to have it showed them; "Look, and see how it is; your country is desolate, the ground is not cultivated, for want of inhabitants, the villages being deserted, Judg. v. 7. And thus the fields and vineyards become like deserts, all grown over with thorns; (Prov. xxiv. 31.) your cities are burned with fire, by the enemies that invade you;" (fire and sword commonly go together;) " as for the fruits of your land, which should be food for your families, strangers devour them; and, to your greater vexation, it is before your eyes, and you cannot prevent it; you starve, while your enemies surfeit on that which should be your maintenance. The overthrow of your country is as the overthrow of strangers; it is used by the invaders as one might expect it should be used by strangers."—Jerusalem itself, which was as the daughter of Zion; (the temple built on Zion was a mother, a nursing mother, to Jerusalem;) or Zion itself, the holy mountain, which had been dear to God as a daughter, was now lost, deserted, and exposed, as a cottage in a vineyard, which, when the vintage is over, nobody dwells in, or takes any care of, and looks as mean and despicable as a lodge, or hut, in a garden of cucumbers; and every person is afraid of coming near it, and solicitous to remove his effects out of it, as if it were a besieged city, v. 8. And some think it is the calamitous state of the kingdom, that is represented by a diseased body, v. 6. Probably, this sermon was preached in the reign of Ahaz, when Judah was invaded by the kings of Syria and Israel, the Edomites, and the Philistines, who slew many, and carried many away into captivity, 2 Chron. xxviii. 5, 17, 18. Note, National impiety and immorality bring national desolation. Canaan, the glory of all lands, mount Zion, the joy of the whole earth, both became a reproach and a ruin; and sin made them so, that great mischief-maker.

2. Yet they were not at all reformed, and therefore God threatens to take another course with them; (v. 5.) "Why should ye be stricken any