In this chapter we have,
I. The great goodness of God towards his people
Israel
, and the great things he had done for them,
ver. 1, 3, 4. II. Their ungrateful conduct towards him, notwithstanding his
favours towards them, ver. 2-4, 7, 12. III. Threatenings of wrath against
them for their ingratitude and treachery, ver. 5, 6. IV. Mercy remembered in
the midst of wrath, ver. 8, 9. V. Promises of what God would yet do for
them, ver. 10, 11. VI. An honourable character given of Judah, ver. 12.
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God's
Goodness to Israel; The Ingratitude of Israel; God's Displeasure
with
Israel.
B. C. 730.
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1
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of
Egypt. 2 As they called them, so they went from them:
they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not
that I healed them. 4 I drew them with cords of a man, with
bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their
jaws, and I laid meat unto them. 5 He shall not return into the
land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to
return. 6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall
consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own
counsels. 7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me:
though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.
Here we find,
I. God very gracious to
Israel. They were a people for whom he had done more than for any people
under heaven, and to whom he had given more, which they are here, I will not
say upbraided with (for God gives, and upbraids not), but put in mind of, as
an aggravation of their sin and an encouragement to repentance. 1. He had a
kindness for them when they were young (v. 1): When Israel was a
child then I loved him; when they first began to multiply into a nation
in Egypt God then set his love upon them, and chose them because
he loved them, because he would love them, Deut. vii. 7, 8. When they
were weak and helpless as children, foolish and froward as children, when
they were outcasts, and children exposed, then God loved them; he
pitied them, and testified his goodwill to them; he bore them as the nurse
does the sucking child, nourished them, and suffered their manners. Note,
Those that have grown up, nay, those that have grown old, ought often to
reflect upon the goodness of God to them in their childhood. 2. He delivered
them out of the house of bondage: I called my son out of Egypt,
because a son, because a beloved son. When God demanded Israel's discharge
from Pharaoh he called them his son, his first-born. Note,
Those whom God loves he calls out of the bondage of sin and Satan into the
glorious liberty of his children. These words are said to have been
fulfilled in Christ, when, upon the death of Herod, he and his parents were called
out of Egypt (Matt. ii. 15), so that the words have a double aspect,
speaking historically of the calling of Israel out of Egypt and
prophetically of the bringing of Christ thence; and the former was a type of
the latter, and a pledge and earnest of the many and great favours God had
in reserve for that people, especially the sending of his Son into the
world, and the bringing him again into the land of Israel when they had
unkindly driven him out, and he might justly never have returned. The
calling of Christ out of Egypt was a figure of the calling of all that are
his, through him, out of spiritual slavery. 3. He gave them a good
education, took care of them, took pains with them, not only as a father or
tutor, but, such is the condescension of divine grace, as a mother or nurse
(v. 3): I taught Ephraim also to go, as a child in
leading-strings is taught. When they were in the wilderness God led them by
the pillar of cloud and fire, showed them the way in which they should go,
and bore them up, taking them by the arms. He taught them to go in
the way of his commandments, by the institutions of the ceremonial law,
which were as tutors and governors to that people under age. He took them by
the arms, to guide them, that they might not stray, and to hold them up,
that they might not stumble and fall. God's spiritual Israel are thus
supported. Thou has holden me by my right hand, Ps. lxxiii. 23. 4.
When any thing was amiss with them, or they were ever so little out of
order, he was their physician: "I healed them; I not only took a
tender care of them (a friend may do that), but wrought an effectual cure:
it is a God only that can do that. I am the Lord that healeth thee
(Exod. xv. 26), that redresseth all thy grievances." 5. He brought them
into his service by mild and gentle methods (v. 4): I drew them
with cords of a man, with bands of love. Note, It is God's work to draw
poor souls to himself; and none can come to him except he draw them, John
vi. 44. He draws, (1.) With the cords of a man, with such cords as
men draw with that have a principle of humanity, or such cords as men are
drawn with; he dealt with them as men, in an equitable rational way,
in an easy gentle way, with the cords of Adam. He dealt with them as
with Adam in innocency, bringing them at once into a paradise, and into
covenant with himself. (2.) With bands of love, or cartropes
of love. This word signifies stronger cords than the former. He did not
drive them by force into his service, whether they would or no, nor rule
them with rigour, nor detain them by violence, but his attractives were all
loving and endearing, all sweet and gentle, that he might overcome them with
kindness. Moses, whom he made their guide, was the meekest man in the world.
Kindnesses among men we commonly call obligations, or bonds,
bonds of love. Thus God draws with the savour of his good ointments
(Cant. i. 4), draws with lovingkindness, Jer. xxxi. 3. Thus God deals
with us, and we must deal in like manner with those that are under our
instruction and government, deal rationally and mildly with them. 6. He
eased them of the burdens they had been long groaning under: I was to
them as those that take off the yoke on their jaws, alluding to the care
of the good husbandman, who is merciful to his beast, and will not tire him
with hard and constant labour. Probably, in those times, the yoke on the
neck of the oxen was fastened with some bridle, or headstall, over the jaws,
which muzzled the mouth of the ox. Israel in Egypt were thus
restrained from the enjoyments of their comforts and constrained to hard
labour; but God eased them, removed their shoulder from the burden,
Ps. lxxxi. 6. Note, Liberty is a great mercy, especially out of bondage. 7.
He supplied them with food convenient. In Egypt they fared hard, but, when
God brought them out, he laid meat unto them, as the husbandman, when
he has unyoked his cattle, fodders them. God rained manna about their camp,
bread from heaven, angels' food; other creatures seek their meat, but
God laid meat to his own people, as we do to our children, was himself their
caterer and carver, anticipated them with the blessings of goodness.
II. Here is Israel very
ungrateful to God.
1. They were deaf and
disobedient to his voice. He spoke to them by his messengers, Moses and his
other prophets, called them from their sins, called them to himself, to
their work and duty; but as they called them so they went from them;
they rebelled in those particular instances wherein they were admonished;
the more pressing and importunate the prophets were with them, to persuade
them to that which was good, the more refractory they were, and the more
resolute in their evil ways, disobeying for disobedience-sake. This
foolishness is bound in the hearts of children, who, as soon as they are
taught to go, will go from those that call them.
2. They were fond of
idols, and worshipped them: They sacrificed to Baalim, first one Baal
and then another, and burnt incense to graven images, though they
were called to by the prophets of the Lord again and again not to do this
abominable thing which he hated. Idolatry was the sin which from the
beginning, and all along, had most easily beset them.
3. They were regardless of
God, and of his favours to them: They knew not that I healed them.
They looked only at Moses and Aaron, the instruments of their relief, and,
when any thing was amiss, quarrelled with them, but looked not through them
to God who employed them. Or, When God corrected them, and kept them under a
severe discipline, they understood not that it was for their good, and that
God thereby healed them, and it was necessary for the perfecting of
their cure, else they would have been better reconciled to the methods God
took. Note, Ignorance is at the bottom of ingratitude, ch. ii. 8.
4. They were strongly
inclined to apostasy. This is the blackest article in the charge (v.
7): My people are bent to backsliding from me. Every word here is
aggravating. (1.) They backslide. There is no hold of them, no
stedfastness in them; they seem to come forward, towards God, but they
quickly slide back again, and are as a deceitful bow. (2.) They backslide from
me, from God, the chief good, the fountain of life and living waters,
from their God who never turned from them, nor war as a wilderness to them.
(3.) They are bent to backslide; they are ready to sin; there is in
their natures a propensity to that which is evil; at the best they hang in
suspense between God and the world, so that a little thing serves to draw
them the wrong way; they are forward to close with every temptation. It also
intimates that they are resolute in sin; their hearts are fully set in
them to do evil the bias is strong that way; and they persist in their
backslidings, whatever is said or done to stop them; and yet, (4.)
"They are, in profession, my people. They are called by my
name, and profess relation to me; they are mine, whom I have done much
for and expect much from, whom I have nourished and brought up, as
children, and yet they backslide from me." Note, In our
repentance we ought to lament not only our backslidings, but our bent to
backslide, not only our actual transgressions, but our original
corruption, the sin that dwells in us, the carnal mind.
5. They were strangely
averse to repentance and reformation. Here are two expressions of their
obstinacy:-- (1.) They refused to return, v. 5. So much were
they bent to backslide that, though they could not but find, upon trial, the
folly of their backslidings, and that when they forsook God they changed for
the worse, yet they went on frowardly. I have loved strangers, and after
them I will go. They were commanded to return, were courted and
entreated to return, were promised that if they would they should be kindly
received, but they refused. (2.) Though they called them to the Most
High. God's prophets and ministers called them to return to the God from
whom they had revolted, to the most high God, from whom they had sunk into
this wretched degeneracy; they called them from the worship of the idols,
which were so much below them, and the worship of which was therefore their
disparagement, to the true God, who was so much above them, and the worship
of whom was therefore their preferment; they called them from this earth to
high and heavenly things; but they called in vain. None at all would
exalt him. Though he is the most high God they would not acknowledge him
to be so, would do nothing to honour him nor give him the glory due to his
name. Or, They would not exalt themselves, would not rise out of that
state of apostasy and misery into which they had precipitated themselves;
but there they contentedly lay still, would not lift up their heads nor lift
up their souls. Note, God's faithful ministers have taken a great deal of
pains, to no purpose, with backsliding children, have called them to the
Most High; but none would stir, none at all would exalt him.
III. Here is God very
angry, and justly so, with Israel; see what are the tokens of God's
displeasure with which they are here threatened. 1. God, who brought them
out of Egypt, to take them for a people to himself, since they would not be
faithful to him, shall bring them into a worse condition than he at first
found them in (v. 5): "He shall not return into the land of
Egypt, though that was a house of bondage grievous enough; but he shall
go into a harder service, for the Assyrian shall be his king, who
will use him worse than ever Pharaoh did." They shall not return into
Egypt, which lies near, where they may hear often from their own country,
and whence they may hope shortly to return to it again; but they shall be
carried into Assyria, which lies much more remote, and where they shall be
cut off from all correspondence with their own land and from all hopes of
returning to it, and justly, because they refused to return. Note,
Those that will not return to the duties they have left cannot expect to
return to the comforts they have lost. 2. God, who gave them Canaan, that
good land, and a very safe and comfortable settlement in it, shall bring his
judgments upon them there, which shall make their habitation unsafe and
uncomfortable (v. 6): The sword shall come upon them, the
sword of war, the sword of a foreign enemy, prevailing against them and
triumphing over them. (1.) This judgment shall spread far. The sword shall
fasten upon their cities, those nests of people and store-houses of
wealth; it shall likewise reach to their branches, the country
villages (so some), the citizens themselves (so others), or the bars
(so the word signifies) and gates of their city, or all the branches of
their revenue and wealth, or their children, the branches of their families.
(2.) It shall last long: It shall abide on their cities. David
thought three months flying before his enemies was the only judgment
of the three that was to be excepted against; but this sword shall
abide much longer than three months on the cities of Israel. They continued
their rebellions against God, and therefore God continued his judgments on
them. (3.) It shall make a full end: It shall consume their
branches, and devour them, and lay all waste, and this because of
their own counsels, that is, because they would have their own projects,
which God therefore, in a way of righteous judgment, gave them up to. Note,
The confusion of sinners is owing to their contrivance. God's counsels would
have saved them, but their own counsels ruined them.
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The
Divine Forbearance.
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B. C. 730.
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8
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel?
how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine
heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. 9
I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to
destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst
of thee: and I will not enter into the city. 10 They shall walk
after the LORD:
he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall
tremble from the west. 11 They shall tremble as a bird out of
Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in
their houses, saith the LORD.
12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with
deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.
In these verses we have,
I. God's wonderful
backwardness to destroy Israel (v. 8, 9): How shall I give thee
up? Here observe,
1. God's gracious debate
within himself concerning Israel's case, a debate between justice and mercy,
in which victory plainly inclines to mercy's side. Be astonished, O heavens!
at this, and wonder, O earth! at the glory of God's goodness. Not that there
are any such struggles in God as there are in us, or that he is ever
fluctuating or unresolved; no, he is in one mind, and knows it; but they are
expressions after the manner of men, designed to show what severity the sin
of Israel had deserved, and yet how divine grace would be glorified in
sparing them notwithstanding. The connexion of this with what goes before is
very surprising; it was said of Israel (v. 7) that they were bent
to backslide from God, that though they were called to him they would
not exalt him, upon which, one would think, it should have followed,
"Now I am determined to destroy them, and never show them mercy any
more." No, such is the sovereignty of mercy, such the freeness, the
fulness, of divine grace, that it follows immediately, How shall I give
thee up? See here, (1.) The proposals that justice makes concerning
Israel, the suggestion of which is here implied. Let Ephraim be given up, as
an incorrigible son is given up to be disinherited, as an incurable patient
is given over by his physician. Let him be given up to ruin. Let Israel be
delivered into the enemy's hand, as a lamb to the lion to be torn in pieces;
let them be made as Admah and set as Zeboim, the two cities that with Sodom
and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone rained from heaven upon
them; let them be utterly and irreparably ruined, and be made as like these
cities in desolation as they have been in sin. Let that curse which is
written in the law be executed upon them, that the whole land shall
be brimstone and salt, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah
and Zeboim, Deut. xxix. 23. Ephraim and Israel deserve to be thus
abandoned, and God will do them no wrong if he deal thus with them. (2.) The
opposition that mercy makes to these proposals: How shall I do it? As
the tender father reasons with himself, "How can I cast off my untoward
son? for he is my son, though he be untoward; how can I find in my heart to
do it?" Thus, "Ephraim has been a dear son, a pleasant child: How
can I do it? He is ripe for ruin; judgments stand ready to seize him;
there wants nothing but giving him up, but I cannot do it. They have
been a people near unto me; there are yet some good among them; theirs are
the children of the covenant; if they be ruined, the enemy will triumph; it
may be they will yet repent and reform; and therefore how can I do it?"
Note, The God of heaven is slow to anger, and is especially loth to abandon
a people to utter ruin that have been in special relation to him. See how
mercy works upon the mention of those severe proceedings: My heart is
turned within me, as we say, Our heart fails us, when we come to do a
thing that is against the grain with us. God speaks as if he were conscious
to himself of a strange striving of affections in compassion to Israel: as
Lam. i. 20, My bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me. As
it follows here, My repentings are kindled together. His bowels
yearned towards them, and his soul was grieved for their sin and misery,
Judg. x. 16. Compare Jer. xxxi. 20. Since I spoke against him my bowels
are troubled for him. When God was to give up his Son to be a sacrifice
for sin, and a Saviour for sinners, he did not say, How shall I give him up?
No, he spared not his own Son; it pleased the Lord to bruise him;
and therefore God spared not him, that he might spare us. But this is
only the language of the day of his patience; when men have sinned that
away, and the great day of his wrath comes, then no difficulty is made of
it; nay, I will laugh at their calamity.
2. His gracious
determination of this debate. After a long contest mercy in the issue
rejoices against judgment, has the last word, and carries the day, v.
9. It is decreed that the reprieve shall be lengthened out yet longer, and I
will not now execute the fierceness of my anger, though I am
angry; though they shall not go altogether unpunished, yet he will mitigate
the sentence and abate the rigour of it. He will show himself to be justly
angry, but not implacably so; they shall be corrected, but not consumed. I
will not return to destroy Ephraim; the judgments that have been
inflicted shall not be repeated, shall not go so deep as they have deserved.
He will not return to destroy, as soldiers, when they have pillaged a
town once, return a second time, to take more, as when what the
palmer-worm has left the locust has eaten. It is added, in the close of
the verse, "I will not enter into the city, into Samaria, or any
other of their cities; I will not enter into them as an enemy, utterly to
destroy them, and lay them waste, as I did the cities of Admah and Zeboim."
3. The ground and reason
of this determination: For I am God and not man, the Holy One of Israel.
To encourage them, to hope that they shall find mercy, consider, (1.) What
he is in himself: He is God, and not man, as in other things, so in
pardoning sin and sparing sinners. If they had offended a man like
themselves, he would not, he could not have borne it; his passion would have
overpowered his compassion, and he would have executed the fierceness of his
anger; but I am God, and not man. He is Lord of his anger,
whereas men's anger commonly lords it over them. If an earthly prince were
in such a strait between justice and mercy, he would be at a loss how to
compromise the matter between them; but he who is God, and not man, knows
how to find out an expedient to secure the honour of his justice and yet
advance the honour of his mercy. Man's compassions are nothing in comparison
with the tender mercies of our God, whose thoughts and ways, in receiving
returning sinners, are as much above ours as heaven is above the earth, Isa.
lv. 9. Note, It is a great encouragement to our hope in God's mercies to
remember that he is God, and not man. He is the Holy One. One
would think this were a reason why he should reject such a provoking people.
No; God knows how to spare and pardon poor sinners, not only without any
reproach to his holiness, but very much to the honour of it, as he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and therein declares his
righteousness, now Christ has purchased the pardon and he has promised
it. (2.) What he is to them; he is the Holy One in the midst of thee;
his holiness is engaged for the good of his church, and even in this corrupt
and degenerate land and age there were some that gave thanks at the
remembrance of his holiness, and he required of them all to be holy as he
is, Lev. xix. 2. As long as we have the Holy One in the midst of us
we are safe and well; but woe to us when he leaves us! Note, Those who
submit to the influence may take the comfort of God's holiness.
II. Here is his wonderful
forwardness to do good for Israel, which appears in this, that he will
qualify them to receive the good he designs for them (v. 10, 11): They
shall walk after the Lord. This respects the same favour with that (ch.
iii. 5), They shall return, and seek the Lord their God; it is spoken
of the ten tribes, and had its accomplishment, in part, in the return of
some of them with those of the two tribes in Ezra's time; but it had its
more full accomplishment in God's spiritual Israel, the gospel-church,
brought together and incorporated by the gospel of Christ. The ancient Jews
referred it to the time of the Messiah; the learned Dr. Pocock looks upon it
as a prophecy of Christ's coming to preach the gospel to the dispersed
children of Israel, the children of God that were scattered abroad. And then
observe, 1. How they were to be called and brought together: The Lord
shall roar like a lion. The word of the Lord (so says the
Chaldee) shall be as a lion that roars. Christ is called the lion
of the tribe of Judah, and his gospel, in the beginning of it, was the
voice of one crying in the wilderness. When Christ cried with a loud
voice it was as when a lion roared, Rev. x. 3. The voice of the
gospel was heard afar, as the roaring of a lion, and it was a mighty
voice. See Joel iii. 16. 2. What impression this call should make upon
them, such an impression as the roaring of a lion makes upon all the beasts
of the forest: When he shall roar then the children shall tremble.
See Amos iii. 8, The lion has roared; the Lord God has spoken;
and then who will not fear? When those whose hearts the gospel
reached trembled, and were astonished, and cried out, What shall we do?--when
they were by it put upon working out their salvation, and worshipping God
with fear and trembling, then this promise was fulfilled. The children
shall tremble from the west. The dispersed Jews were carried eastward,
to Assyria and Babylon, and those that returned came from the east;
therefore this seems to have reference to the calling of the Gentiles that
lay westward from Canaan, for that way especially the gospel spread. They
shall tremble; they shall move and come with trembling, with care and
haste, from the west, from the nations that lay that way, to the
mountain of the Lord (Isa. ii. 3), to the gospel-Jerusalem, upon hearing the
alarm of the gospel. The apostle speaks of mighty signs and wonders
that were wrought by the preaching of the gospel from Jerusalem round
about to Illyricum, Rom. xv. 19. Then the children trembled from the
west. And, whereas Israel after the flesh was dispersed in Egypt and
Assyria, it is promised that they shall be effectually summoned thence (v.
11): They shall tremble; they shall come trembling, and with all
haste, as a bird upon the wing, out of Egypt, and as a dove
out of the land of Assyria; a dove is noted for swift and constant
flight, especially when she flies to her windows, which the flocking
of Jews and Gentiles to the church is here compared to, as it is Isa. lx. 8.
Wherever those are that belong to the election of grace--east, west, north,
or south--they shall hear the joyful sound, and be wrought upon by
it; those of Egypt and Assyria shall come together; those that lay most
remote from each other shall meet in Christ, and be incorporated in the
church. Of the uniting of Egypt and Assyria, it was prophesied, Isa. xix.
23. 3. What effect these impressions should have upon them. Being moved
with fear, they shall flee to the ark: They shall walk after the
Lord, after the service of the Lord (so the Chaldee); they shall
take the Lord Christ for their leader and commander; they shall
enlist themselves under him as the captain of their salvation, and give up
themselves to the direction of the Spirit as their guide by the word; they
shall leave all to follow Christ, as becomes disciples.
Note, Our holy trembling at the word of Christ will draw us to him, not
drive us from him. When he roars like a lion the slaves tremble and
flee from him, the children tremble and flee to him. 4. What entertainment
they shall meet with at their return (v. 11): I will place them in
their houses (all those that come at the gospel-call shall have a place
and a name in the gospel-church, in the particular churches which are their
houses, to which they pertain; they shall dwell in God, and be at home in
him, both easy and safe, as a man in his own house; they shall have
mansions, for there are many in our Father's house), in his
tabernacle on earth and his temple in heaven, in everlasting habitations,
which may be called their houses, for they are the lot they
shall stand in at the end of the days.
III. Here is a sad
complaint of the treachery of Ephraim and Israel, which may be an intimation
that it is not Israel after the flesh, but the spiritual Israel, to whom the
foregoing promises belong, for as for this Ephraim, this Israel, they compass
God about with lies and deceit; all their services of him, when they
pretended to compass his altar, were feigned and hypocritical; when they
surrounded him with their prayers and praises, every one having a petition
to present to him, they lied to him with their mouth and flattered him
with their tongue; their pretensions were so fair, and yet their
intentions so foul, that they would, if possible, have imposed upon God
himself. Their professions and promises were all a cheat, and yet with these
they thought to compass God about, to enclose him as it were, to keep him
among them, and prevent his leaving them.
IV. Here is a pleasant
commendation of the integrity of the two tribes, which they held fast, and
this comes in as an aggravation of the perfidiousness of the ten tribes, and
a reason why God had that mercy in store for Judah which he had not for
Israel (ch. i. 6, 7), for Judah yet rules with God and is faithful
with the saints, or with the Most Holy. 1. Judah rules with
God, that is, he serves God, and the service of God is not only true
liberty and freedom, but it is dignity and dominion. Judah rules,
that is, the princes and governors of Judah rule with God; they use
their power for him, for his honour, and the support of his interest. Those rule
with God that rule in the fear of God (2 Sam. xxiii. 3), and it
is their honour to do so, and their praise shall be of God, as
Judah's here is. Judah is Israel--a prince with God. 2. He is faithful
with the holy God, keeps close to his worship and to his saints,
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose steps they faithfully tread in. They walk
in the way of good men; and those that do so rule with God, they
have a mighty interest in Heaven. Judah yet does thus, which
intimates that the time would come when Judah also would revolt and
degenerate. Note, When we see how many there are that compass God about with
lies and deceit it may be a comfort to us to think that God has his
remnant that cleave to him with purpose of heart, and are faithful to his
saints; and for those who are thus faithful unto death is reserved a crown
of life, when hypocrites and all liars shall have their portion without.
