I
S A I A H
CHAP. XXVIII.
In
this chapter, I. The Ephraimites are reproved and threatened for their pride
and drunkenness, their security and sensuality, ver. 1-8. But, in the midst of
this, here is a gracious promise of God's favour to the remnant of his people,
ver. 5, 6. II. They are likewise reproved and threatened for their dulness and
stupidity, and unaptness to profit by the instructions which the prophets gave
them in God's name, ver. 9-13. III. The rulers of Jerusalem are reproved and
threatened for their insolent contempt of God's judgments, and setting them at
defiance; and, after a gracious promise of Christ and his grace, they are made
to know that the vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God with which they
flattered themselves would certainly deceive them, ver. 14-22. IV. All this is
confirmed by a comparison borrowed from the method which the husbandman takes
with his ground and grain, according to which they must expect God would
proceed with his people, whom he had lately called his threshing and the corn
of his floor (ch. xxi. 10) ver. 23-29. This is written for our
admonition, and is profitable for reproof and warning to us.
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Ephraim
Reproved and Threatened; The Punishment of Ephraim;
The Degeneracy of Judah.
B. C. 725.
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1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards
of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are
on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of
hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing,
shall cast down to the earth with the hand. 3 The crown of pride,
the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: 4 And the
glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a
fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when
he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it
up. 5 In that day shall the LORD
of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue
of his people, 6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth
in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of
the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are
swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err
in vision, they stumble in judgment. 8 For all tables are
full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
Here, I. The prophet warns the kingdom of the ten tribes of the judgments that
were coming upon them for their sins, which were soon after executed by the
king of Assyria, who laid their country waste, and carried the people into
captivity. Ephraim had his name from fruitfulness, their soil being
very fertile and the products of it abundant and the best of the kind; they
had a great many fat valleys (v. 1, 4), and Samaria, which was
situated on a hill, was, as it were, on the head of the fat valleys.
Their country was rich and pleasant, and as the garden of the Lord: it was the
glory of Canaan, as that was the glory of all lands; their harvest and vintage
were the glorious beauty on the head of their valleys, which were
covered over with corn and vines. Now observe,
1. What an ill use they made of their plenty. What God gave them to serve him
with they perverted, and abused, by making it the food and fuel of their
lusts. (1.) They were puffed up with pride by it. The goodness with which God
crowned their years, which should have been to him a crown of praise, was to
them a crown of pride. Those that are rich in the world are apt to be
high-minded, 1 Tim. vi. 17. Their king, who wore the crown, was proud that he
ruled over so rich a country; Samaria, their royal city, was notorious for
pride. Perhaps it was usual at their festivals, or revels, to wear garlands
made up of flowers and ears of corn, which they wore in honour of their
fruitful country. Pride was a sin that generally prevailed among them, and
therefore the prophet, in his name who resists the proud, boldly proclaims a woe
to the crown of pride. If those who wear crowns be proud of them, let them
not think to escape this woe. What men are proud of, be it ever so mean, is to
them as a crown; he that is proud thinks himself as great as a king. But woe
to those who thus exalt themselves, for they shall be abased; their pride is
the preface to their destruction. (2.) They indulged themselves in sensuality.
Ephraim was notorious for drunkenness, and excess of riot; Samaria, the head
of the fat valleys, was full of those that were overcome with wine,
were broken with it, so the margin. See how foolishly drunkards act,
and no marvel when, in the very commission of the sin, they make fools and
brutes of themselves; they yield, [1.] To be conquered by the sin; it
overcomes them, and brings them into bondage (2 Pet. ii. 19); they are
led captive by it, and the captivity is the more shameful and inglorious
because it is voluntary. Some of these wretched slaves have themselves owned
that there is not a greater drudgery in the world than hard drinking. They are
overcome not with the wine, but with the love of it. [2.] To be ruined by it.
They are broken by wine. Their constitution is broken by it, and their health
ruined. They are broken in the callings and estates, and their souls are in
danger of being eternally undone, and all this for the gratification of a base
lust. Woe to these drunkards of Ephraim! Ministers must bring the
general woes of the word home to particular places and persons. We must say, Woe
to this or that person, if he be a drunkard. There is a particular woe to
the drunkards of Ephraim, for they are of God's professing people, and it
becomes them worse than any other; they know better, and therefore should give
a better example. Some make the crown of pride to belong to the
drunkards, and to mean the garlands with which those were crowned that got the
victory in their wicked drinking matches and drank down the rest of the
company. They were proud of their being mighty to drink wine; but woe to those
who thus glory in their shame.
2. The justice of God in taking away their plenty from them, which they thus
abused. Their glorious beauty, the plenty they were proud of, is but
a fading flower; it is meat that perishes. The most substantial fruits, if
God blast them and blow upon them, are but fading flowers, v. 1. God
can easily take away their corn in the season thereof (Hos. ii. 9), and
recover locum vastatum--ground that has been alienated and has run to
waste, those goods of his which they prepared for Baal. God has an officer
ready to make a seizure for him, has one at his beck, a mighty and strong
one, who is able to do the business, even the king of Assyria, who shall
cast down to the earth with the hand, shall easily and effectually, and
with the turn of a hand, destroy all that which they are proud of and pleased
with, v. 2. He shall throw it down to the ground, to be broken to
pieces with a strong hand, with a hand that they cannot oppose. Then the
crown of pride, and the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under
foot (v. 3); they shall lie exposed to contempt, and shall not be
able to recover themselves. Drunkards, in their folly, are apt to talk
proudly, and vaunt themselves most when they most shame themselves; but they
thereby render themselves the more ridiculous. The beauty of their valleys,
which they gloried in, will be, (1.) Like a fading flower (as before, v.
1); it will wither of itself, and has in itself the principles of its own
corruption; it will perish in time by its own moth and rust. (2.) Like the
hasty fruit, which, as soon as it is discovered, is plucked and eaten up;
so the wealth of this world, besides that it is apt to decay of itself, is
subject to be devoured by others as greedily as the first-ripe fruit, which is
earnestly desired, Mic. vii. 1. Thieves break through and steal. The
harvest which the worldling is proud of the hungry eat up (Job v. 5);
no sooner do they see the prey but they catch at it, and swallow up all they
can lay their hands on. It is likewise easily devoured, as that fruit which,
being ripe before it has grown, is very small, and is soon eaten up; and there
being little of it, and that of little worth, it is not reserved, but used
immediately.
II. He next turns to the kingdom of Judah, whom he calls the residue of his
people (v. 5), for they were but two tribes to the other ten.
1. He promises them God's favours, and that they shall be taken under his
guidance and protection when the beauty of Ephraim shall be left exposed to be
trodden down and eaten up, v. 5, 6. In that day, when the
Assyrian army is laying Israel waste, and Judah might think that their
neighbour's house being on fire their own was in danger, in that day of
treading down and perplexity, then God will be to the residue of his people
all they need and can desire; not only to the kingdom of Judah, but to those
of Israel who had kept their integrity, and, as was probably the case with
some, betook themselves to the land of Judah, to be sheltered by good king
Hezekiah. When the Assyrian, that mighty one, was in Israel as a tempest of
hail, noisy and battering, as a destroying storm bearing down all
before it, especially at sea, and as a flood of mighty waters overflowing
the country (v. 2), then in that day will the Lord of hosts, of
all hosts, distinguish by peculiar favours his people who have distinguished
themselves by a steady and singular adherence to him, and that which they most
need he will himself be to them. This very much enhances the worth of the
promises that God, covenanting to be to his people a God all-sufficient,
undertakes to be himself all that to them which they can desire. (1.) He will
put all the credit and honour upon them which are requisite, not only to
rescue them from contempt, but to gain them esteem and reputation. He will be
to them for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty. Those that
wore the crown of pride looked upon God's people with disdain, and trampled
upon them, for they were the song of the drunkards of Ephraim; but God will so
appear for them by his providence as to make it evident that they have his
favour towards them, and that shall be to them a crown of glory; for what
greater glory can any people have than for God to acknowledge them as his own?
And he will so appear in them, by his grace, as to make it evident that they
have his image renewed on them, and that shall be to them a diadem of beauty;
for what greater beauty can any person have than the beauty of holiness? Note,
Those that have God for their God have him for a crown of glory and a diadem
of beauty; for they are made to him kings and priests. (2.) He will give them
all the wisdom and grace necessary to the due discharge of the duty of their
place. He will himself be a spirit of judgment to those that sit in
judgment; the privy counsellors shall be guided by wisdom and discretion
and the judges shall govern by justice and equity. It is a great mercy to any
people when those that are called to places of power and public trust are
qualified for their places, when those that sit in judgment have a spirit of
judgment, a spirit of government. (3.) He will give them all the courage and
boldness requisite to carry them resolutely through the difficulties and
oppositions they are likely to meet with. He will be for strength to those
that turn the battle to the gate, to the gates of the enemy whose cities
they besiege, or to their own gates, when they sally out upon the enemies that
besiege them. The strength of the soldiery depends as much upon God as the
wisdom of the magistracy; and where God gives both these he is to that people
a crown of glory. This may well be supposed to refer to Christ, and so the
Chaldee paraphrast understands it: In that day shall the Messiah be a crown
of glory. Simeon calls him the glory of his people Israel; and he
is made of God to us wisdom, righteousness, and strength.
2. He complains of the corruptions that were found among them, and the many
corrupt ones (v. 7): But they also, many of those of Judah, have
erred through wine. There are drunkards of Jerusalem, as well as drunkards
of Ephraim; and therefore the mercy of God is to be so much the more admired
that he has not blasted the glory of Judah as he has done that of Ephraim.
Sparing mercy lays us under peculiar obligations when it is thus
distinguishing. Ephraim's sins are found in Judah, and yet not Ephraim's
ruins. They have erred through wine. Their drinking to excess is itself
a practical error; they think to raise their fancy by it, but they ruin their
judgment, and so put a cheat upon themselves; they think to preserve their
health by it and help digestion, but they spoil their constitution and hasten
diseases and deaths. It is also the occasion of a great many errors in
principle; their understanding is clouded and their conscience debauched by
it; and therefore, to support themselves in it, they espouse corrupt notions,
and form their minds in favour of their lusts. Probably some were drawn in to
worship idols by their love of the wine and strong drink which there was
plenty of at their idolatrous festivals; and so they erred through wine, as
Israel, for love of the daughters of Moab, joined themselves to Baal-peor.
Three things are here observed as aggravations of this sin:-- (1.) That those
were guilty of it whose business it was to warn others against it and to teach
them better, and therefore who ought to have set a better example: The
priest and the prophet are swallowed up of wine; their office is quite
drowned and lost in it. The priests, as sacrificers, were obliged by a
particular law to be temperate (Lev. x. 9), and, as rulers and magistrates, it
was not for them to drink wine, Prov. xxxi. 4. The prophets were a kind of
Nazarites (as appears by Amos ii. 11), and, as reprovers by office, were
concerned to keep at the utmost distance from the sins they reproved in
others; yet there were many of them ensnared in this sin. What! a priest, a
prophet, a minister, and yet drunk! Tell it not in Gath. Such a scandal
are they to their coat. (2.) That the consequences of it were very pernicious,
not only by the ill influence of their example, but the prophet, when he was
drunk, erred in vision; the false prophets plainly discovered
themselves to be so when they were in drink. The priest stumbled in
judgment and forgot the law (Prov. xxxi. 5); he reeled and staggered as
much in the operations of his mind as in the motions of his body. What wisdom
or justice can be expected from those that sacrifice reason, and virtue, and
conscience, and all that is valuable to such a base lust as the love of strong
drink is? Happy art thou, O land! when thy princes eat and drink for
strength, and not for drunkenness, Eccl. x. 17. (3.) That the disease was
epidemic, and the generality of those that kept any thing of a table were
infected with it: All tables are full of vomit, v. 8. See what
an odious thing the sin of drunkenness is, what an affront it is to human
society; it is rude and ill-mannered enough to sicken the beholders, for the
tables where they eat their meat are filthily stained with the marks of this
sin, which the sinners declare as Sodom. Their tables are full of vomit, so
that the victor, instead of being proud of his crown, ought rather to be
ashamed of it. It bodes ill to any people when so sottish a sin as drunkenness
has become national.
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The
Degeneracy of Judah.
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B.
C. 725.
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9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall
he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and
drawn from the breasts. 10 For precept must be upon
precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and
there a little: 11 For with stammering lips and another tongue
will he speak to this people. 12 To whom he said, This is
the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is
the refreshing: yet they would not hear. 13 But the word of the LORD
was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line
upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and
fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
The prophet here complains of the wretched stupidity of this people, that they
were unteachable and made no improvement of the means of grace which they
possessed; they still continued as they were, their mistakes not rectified,
their hearts not renewed, nor their lives reformed. Observe,
I. What it was that their prophets and ministers designed and aimed at. It was
to teach them knowledge, the knowledge of God and his will, and
to make them understand doctrine, v. 9. This is God's way of
dealing with men, to enlighten men's minds first with the knowledge of his
truth, and thus to gain their affections, and bring their wills into a
compliance with his laws; thus he enters in by the door, whereas the thief and
the robber climb up another way.
II. What method they took, in pursuance of this design. They left no means
untried to do them good, but taught them as children are taught, little
children that are beginning to learn, that are taken from the breast to the
book (v. 9), for among the Jews it was common for mothers to nurse
their children till they were three years old, and almost ready to go to
school. And it is good to begin betimes with children, to teach them, as they
are capable, the good knowledge of the Lord, and to instruct them even when
they are but newly weaned from the milk. The prophets taught them as children
are taught; for, 1. They were constant and industrious in teaching them. They
took great pains with them, and with great prudence, teaching them as they
needed it and were able to bear it (v. 10): Precept upon precept. It
must be so, or (as some read) it has been so. They have been
taught, as children are taught to read, by precept upon precept, and
taught to write by line upon line, a little here and a little there,
a little of one thing and a little of another, that the variety of
instructions might be pleasing and inviting,--a little at one time and a
little at another, that they might not have their memories overcharged,--a
little from one prophet and a little from another, that every one might be
pleased with his friend and him whom he admired. Note, For our instruction in
the things of God it is requisite that we have precept upon precept and line
upon line, that one precept and line should be followed, and so enforced by
another; the precept of justice must be upon the precept of piety, and the
precept of charity upon that of justice. Nay, it is necessary that the same
precept and the same line should be often repeated and inculcated upon us,
that we may the better understand them and the more easily recollect them when
we have occasion for them. Teachers should accommodate themselves to the
capacity of the learners, give them what they most need and can best bear, and
a little at a time, Deut. vi. 6, 7. 2. They courted and persuaded them to
learn, v. 12. God, by his prophets, said to them, "This way
that we are directing you to, and directing you in, is the rest, the
only rest, wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this will be the
refreshing of your own souls, and will bring rest to your country from the
wars and other calamities with which it has been long harassed." Note,
God by his word calls us to nothing but what is really for our advantage; for
the service of God is the only true rest for those that are weary of the
service of sin and there is no refreshing but under the easy yoke of the Lord
Jesus.
III. What little effect all this had upon the people. They were as unapt to
learn as young children newly weaned from the milk, and it was as impossible
to fasten any thing upon them (v. 9): nay, one would choose rather to
teach a child of two years old than undertake to teach them; for they have not
only (like such a child) no capacity to receive what is taught them, but they
are prejudiced against it. As children, they have need of milk, and cannot
bear strong meat, Heb. v. 12. 1. They would not hear (v.
12), no, not that which would be rest and refreshing to them. They had no mind
to hear it. The word of God commanded their serious attention, but could not
gain it; they were where it was preached, but they turned a deaf ear to it, or
as it came in at one ear it went out at the other. 2. They would not heed. It
was unto them precept upon precept, and line upon line (v. 13);
they went on in a road of external performances; they kept up the old custom
of attending upon the prophet's preaching and it was continually sounding in
their ears, but that was all; it made no impression upon them; they had the
letter of the precept, but no experience of the power and spirit of it; it was
continually beating upon them, but it beat nothing into them. Nay, 3. It
should seem, they ridiculed the prophet's preaching, and bantered it. The word
of the Lord was unto them Tsau latsau, kau lakau; in the original it is
in rhyme; they made a song of the prophet's words, and sang it when they were
merry over their wine. David was the song of the drunkards. It is great
impiety, and a high affront to God, thus to make a jest of sacred things, to
speak of that vainly which should make us serious.
IV. How severely God would reckon with them for this. 1. He would deprive them
of the privilege of plain preaching, and speak to them with stammering lips
and another tongue, v. 11. Those that will not understand what is
plain and level to their capacity, but despise it as mean and trifling, are
justly amused with that which is above them. Or God will send foreign armies
among them, whose language they understand not, to lay their country waste.
Those that will not hear the comfortable voice of God's word shall be made to
hear the dreadful voice of his rod. Or these words may be taken as denoting
God's gracious condescension to their capacity in his dealing with them; he
lisped to them in their own language, as nurses do to their children, with
stammering lips, to humour them; he changed his voice, tried first one way and
then another; the apostle quotes it as a favour (1 Cor. xiv. 21), applying it
to the gift of tongues, and complaining that yet for all this they would not
hear. 2. He would bring utter ruin upon them. By their profane contempt of God
and his word they are but hastening on their own ruin, and ripening themselves
for it; it is that they may go and fall backward, may grow worse and
worse, may depart further and further from God, and proceed from one sin to
another, till they be quite broken, and snared, and taken, and ruined, v.
13. They have here a little and there a little of the word of God; they think
it too much, and say to the seers, See not; but it proves too little to
convert them, and will prove enough to condemn them. If it be not a savour
of life unto life, it will be a savour of death unto death.
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Judgments
Announced; The Corner-stone in Zion.
B. C. 725.
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14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD,
ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are
we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not
come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we
hid ourselves: 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a
precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not
make haste. 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and
righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of
lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18 And your
covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall
not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be
trodden down by it. 19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall
take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and
it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 20
For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it:
and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD
shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the
valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass
his act, his strange act. 22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest
your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD
of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest of the word of God, here
goes on to reprove those that made a jest of the judgments of God, and set
them at defiance; for he is a jealous God, and will not suffer either his
ordinances or his providences to be brought into contempt. He addressed
himself to the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem, who were the
magistrates of the city, v. 14. It is bad with a people when their
thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful, when rulers are
scorners; but that the rulers of Jerusalem should be men of such a character,
that they should make light of God's judgments and scorn to take notice of the
tokens of his displeasure, is very sad. Who will be mourners in Zion if they
are scorners? Observe,
I. How these scornful men lulled themselves asleep in carnal security, and
even challenged God Almighty to do his worst (v. 15) You have said,
We have made a covenant with death and the grave. They thought themselves
as sure of their lives, even when the most destroying judgments were abroad,
as if they had made a bargain with death, upon a valuable consideration, not
to come till they sent for him or not to take them away by any violence, but
by old age. If we be at peace with God, and have made a covenant with him, we
have in effect made a covenant with death that it shall come in the fittest
time, that whenever it comes, it shall be no terror to us, nor do us any real
damage; death is ours if we be Christ's (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23): but to think of
making death our friend, or being in league with it, while by sin we are
making God our enemy and are at war with him, is the greatest absurdity that
can be. It was fond conceit which these scorners had, "When the
overflowing scourge shall pass through our country, and others shall fall
under it, yet it shall not come to us, not reach us, though it extend
far, not bear us down, though it is an overflowing scourge." It is the
greatest folly imaginable for impenitent sinners to think that either in this
world or the other they shall fare better than their neighbours. But what is
the ground of their confidence? Why, truly, We have made lies our refuge.
Either, 1. Those things which the prophets told them would be lies and
falsehood to them and would deceive, but which they themselves looked upon as
substantial fences. The protection of their idols, the promises with which
their false prophets soothed them, their policy, their wealth, their interest
in the people; these they confided in, and not in God; nay, these they
confided in against God. Or, 2. Those things which should be lies and
falsehood to the enemy, who was flagellum Dei--the scourge of God, the
overflowing scourge; they would secure themselves by imposing upon the enemy
with their stratagems of war, or their feigned submissions in treaties of
peace. The rest of the cities of Judah were taken because they made an
obstinate defence; but the rulers of Jerusalem hope to succeed better. They
think themselves greater politicians than those of the country towns; they
will compliment the king of Assyria with a promise to surrender their city, or
to become tributaries to him, with a purpose at the same time to shake off his
yoke as soon as the danger is over, not caring though they be found liars to
him, as the expression is, Deut. xxxiii. 29. Note, Those put a cheat upon
themselves that think to gain their point by putting cheats upon those they
deal with. Those that pursue their designs by trick and fraud, by mean and
paltry shifts, may perhaps compass them, but cannot expect comfort in them.
Honesty is the best policy. But such refuges as these are those driven to that
depart from God, and throw themselves out of his protection.
II. How God, by the prophet, awakens them out of this sleep, and shows them
the folly of their security.
1. He tells them upon what grounds they might be secure. He does not disturb
their false confidences, till he has first shown them a firm bottom on which
they may repose themselves (v. 16): Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone. This foundation is, (1.) The promises of God in
general--his word, upon which he has caused his people to hope--his covenant
with Abraham, that he would be a God to him and his; this is a foundation, a
foundation of stone, firm and lasting, for faith to build upon; it is a
tried stone, for all the saints have stayed themselves upon it and it
never failed them. (2.) The promise of Christ in particular; for to him this
is expressly applied in the New Testament, 1 Pet. ii. 6-8. He is that stone
which has become the head of the corner. The great promise of the
Messiah and his kingdom, which was to begin at Jerusalem, was sufficient to
make God's people easy in the worst of times; for they knew well that till he
came the sceptre should not depart from Judah. Zion shall continue
while this foundation is yet to be laid there. "Thus saith the Lord
Jehovah, for the comfort of those that dare not make lies their refuge,
Behold, and look upon me as one that has undertaken to lay in Zion a Stone,"
Jesus Christ is a foundation of God's laying. This is the Lord's doing.
He is laid in Zion, in the church, in the holy hill. He is a tried stone, a
trying stone (so some), a touch-stone, that shall distinguish between true and
counterfeit. He is a precious stone, for such are the foundations of the New
Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 19), a corner-stone, in whom the sides of the building
are united, the head-stone of the corner. And he that believes
these promises, and rests upon them, shall not make haste, shall not
run to and fro in a hurry, as men at their wits' end, shall not be shifting
hither and thither for his own safety, nor be driven to his feet by any
terrors, as the wicked man is said to be (Job xviii. 11), but with a fixed
heart shall quietly wait the event, saying, Welcome the will of God. He
shall not make haste in his expectations, so as to anticipate the time
set in the divine counsels, but, though it tarry, will wait the appointed
hour, knowing that he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. He
that believes will not make more haste than good speed, but be satisfied that
God's time is the best time, and wait with patience for it. The apostle from
the LXX. explains this, 1 Pet. ii. 6. He that believes on him shall not be
confounded; his expectations shall not be frustrated, but far out-done.
2. He tells them that upon the grounds which they now built on they could not
be safe, but their confidences would certainly fail them (v. 17): Judgment
will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. This denotes,
(1.) The building up of his church; having laid the foundation (v. 16),
he will raise the structure, as builders do, by line and plummet, Zech. iv.
10. Righteousness shall be the line and judgment the plummet. The church,
being grounded on Christ, shall be formed and reformed by the scripture, the
standing rule of judgment and righteousness. Judgment shall return unto
righteousness, Ps. xciv. 15. Or,
(2.) The punishing of the church's enemies, against whom he will proceed in
strict justice, according to the threatenings of the law. He will give them
their deserts, and bring upon them the judgments they have challenged, but in
wisdom too, and by an exact rule, that the tares may not be plucked up with
the wheat. And when God comes thus to execute judgment,
[1.] These scornful men will be made ashamed of the vain hopes with which they
had deluded themselves. First, They designed to make lies their refuge;
but it will indeed prove a refuge of lies, which the hail shall sweep away,
that tempest of hail spoken of v. 2. Those that make lies their refuge
build upon the sand, and the building will fall when the storm comes, and bury
the builder in the ruins of it. Those that make any thing their hiding place
but Christ shall find that the waters will overflow it, as every shelter but
the ark was over-topped and overthrown by the waters of the deluge. Such is
the hope of the hypocrite; this will come of all his confidences. Secondly,
They boasted of a covenant with death, and an agreement with the grave; but it
shall be disannulled, as made without his consent who has the keys and
sovereign command of hell and death. Those do but delude themselves that think
by any wiles to evade the judgments of God. Thirdly, They fancied that
when the overflowing scourge should pass through the land it should not come
near them; but the prophet tells them that then, when others were falling by
the common calamity, they should not only share in it, but should be trodden
down by it: "You shall be to it for a treading down; it shall triumph
over you as much as over any other, and you shall become its easy prey."
They are further told (v. 19), 1. That it shall begin with them; they
shall be so far from escaping it that they shall be the first that shall fall
by it: "From the time it goes forth it shall take you, as if it
came on purpose to seize you." 2. That it shall pursue them closely:
"Morning by morning shall it pass over; as duly as the day returns
you shall hear of some desolation or other made by it; for divine justice will
follow its blow; you shall never be safe nor easy by day nor by night; there
shall be a pestilence walking in darkness and a destruction wasting at
noonday." 3. That there shall be no avoiding it: "The understanding
of the report of its approach shall not give you any opportunity to make your
escape, for there shall be no way of escape open; but it shall be only a
vexation, you shall see it coming, and not see how to help yourselves."
Or, "The very report of it at a distance will be a terror to you; what
then will the thing itself be?" Evil tidings are a terror and vexation to
scorners, but he whose heart is fixed, trusting in God, is not afraid of
them; whereas, when the overflowing scourge comes, then all the
comforts and confidences of scorners fail them, v. 20. (1.) That in
which they thought to repose themselves reaches not to the length of their
expectations: The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself upon
it, so that he is forced to cramp and contract himself. (2.) That in which
they thought to shelter themselves proves insufficient to answer the
intention: The covering is narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it.
Those that do not build upon Christ as their foundation, but rest in a
righteousness of their own, will prove in the end thus to have deceived
themselves; they can never be easy, safe, nor warm; the bed is too short, the
covering is too narrow; like our first parents' fig-leaves, the shame of their
nakedness will still appear.
[2.] God will be glorified in the accomplishment of his counsels, v.
21. When God comes to contend with these scorners, First, He will do his
work, and bring to pass his act, he will work for his own honour and
glory, according to his own purpose; the work shall appear to all that see it
to be the work of God as the righteous Judge of the earth. Secondly, He
will do it now against his people, as formerly he did it against their
enemies, by which his justice will appear to be impartial; he will now rise
up against Jerusalem as, in David's time, against the Philistines in
Mount Perazim (2 Sam. v. 20), and as, in Joshua's time, against the
Canaanites in the valley of Gibeon. If those that profess themselves
members of God's church by their pride and scornfulness make themselves like
Philistines and Canaanites, they must expect to be dealt with as such. Thirdly,
This will be his strange work, his strange act, his foreign deed. It is
work that he is backward to: he rather delights in showing mercy, and does
not afflict willingly. It is work that he is not used to as to his own
people; he protects and favours them. It is a strange work indeed if he turn
to be their enemy and fight against them, ch. lxiii. 10. It is a
work that all the neighbours will stand amazed at (Deut. xxix. 24), and
therefore the ruins of Jerusalem are said to be an astonishment, Jer.
xxv. 18.
Lastly, We have the use and application of all this (v. 22):
"Therefore be you not mockers; dare not to ridicule either the
reproofs of God's word or the approaches of his judgments." Mocking
the messengers of the Lord was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin. The
consideration of the judgments of God that are coming upon hypocritical
professors should effectually silence mockers, and make them serious: "Be
you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong, both the bands by which
you are bound under the dominion of sin" (for there is little hope of the
conversion of mockers) "and the bands by which you are bound over to the
judgments of God." God has bands of justice strong enough to hold those
that break all the bonds of his law asunder and cast away all his cord from
them. Let not these mockers make light of divine threatenings, for the prophet
(who is one of those with whom the secret of the Lord is) assures them that
the Lord God of hosts has, in his hearing, determined a consumption upon
the whole earth; and can they think to escape? or shall their unbelief
invalidate the threatening?
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Husbandry
a Divine Art.
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B.
C. 725.
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23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and
hear my speech. 24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he
open and break the clods of his ground? 25 When he hath made plain
the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin,
and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their
place? 26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and
doth teach him. 27 For the fitches are not threshed with a
threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin;
but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor
break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his
horsemen. 29 This also cometh forth from the LORD
of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in
working.
This parable, which (like many of our Saviour's parables) is borrowed from the
husbandman's calling, is ushered in with a solemn preface demanding attention,
He that has ears to hear, let him hear, hear and understand, v.
23.
I. The parable here is plain enough, that the husbandman applies himself to
the business of his calling with a great deal of pains and prudence, secundum
artem--according to rule, and, as his judgment directs him, observes a
method and order in his work. 1. In his ploughing and sowing: Does the
ploughman plough all day to sow? Yes, he does, and he ploughs in hope
and sows in hope, 1 Cor. ix. 10. Does he open and break the clods?
Yes, he does, that the land may be fit to receive the seed. And when he has
thus made plain the face thereof does he not sow his seed, seed suitable
to the soil? For the husbandman knows what grain is fit for clayey ground and
what for sandy ground, and, accordingly, he sows each in its place--wheat
in the principal place (so the margin reads it), for it is the principal
grain, and was a staple commodity of Canaan (Ezek. xxvii. 17), and barley
in the appointed place. The wisdom and goodness of the God of nature are
to be observed in this, that, to oblige his creatures with a grateful variety
of productions, he has suited to them an agreeable variety of earths. 2. In
his threshing, v. 27, 28. This also he proportions to the grain that is
to be threshed out. The fitches and the cummin, being easily got out of
their husk or ear, are only threshed with a staff and a rod; but the
bread-corn requires more force, and therefore that must be bruised with a
threshing instrument, a sledge shod with iron, that was drawn to and fro
over it, to beat out the corn; and yet he will not be ever threshing it,
nor any longer than is necessary to loosen the corn from the chaff; he will
not break it, or crush it, into the ground with the wheel of his cart,
nor bruise it to pieces with his horsemen; the grinding of it is
reserved for another operation. Observe, by the way, what pains are to be
taken, not only for the earning, but for the preparing of our necessary food;
and yet, after all, it is meat that perishes. Shall we then grudge to
labour much more for the meat which endures to everlasting life? Bread-corn
is bruised. Christ was so; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that
he might be the bread of life to us.
II. The interpretation of the parable is not so plain. Most interpreters make
it a further answer to those who set the judgments of God at defiance:
"Let them know that as the husbandman will not be always ploughing, but
will at length sow his seed, so God will not be always threatening, but will
at length execute his threatenings and bring upon sinners the judgments they
have deserved; but in wisdom, and in proportion to their strength, not that
they may be ruined, but that they may be reformed and brought to repentance by
them." But I think we may give this parable a greater latitude in the
exposition of it. 1. In general, that God who gives the husbandman this wisdom
is, doubtless, himself infinitely wise. It is God that instructs the
husbandman to discretion, as his God, v. 26. Husbandmen have
need of discretion wherewith to order their affairs, and ought not undertake
that business unless they do in some measure understand it; and they should by
observation and experience endeavour to improve themselves in the knowledge of
it. Since the king himself is served of the field, the advancing of the
art of husbandry is a common service to mankind more than the cultivating of
most other arts. The skill of the husbandman is from God, as every good and
perfect gift is. This takes off somewhat of the weight and terror of the
sentence passed on man for sin, that when God, in execution of it, sent man to
till the ground, he taught him how to do it most to his advantage, otherwise,
in the greatness of his folly, he might have been for ever tilling the sand
of the sea, labouring to no purpose. It is he that gives men capacity for
this business, an inclination to it, and a delight in it; and if some were not
by Providence cut out for it, and mad to rejoice (as Issachar, that tribe of
husbandmen) in their tents, notwithstanding the toil and fatigue of this
business, we should soon want the supports of life. If some are more discreet
and judicious in managing these or any other affairs than others are, God must
be acknowledged in it; and to him husbandmen must seek for direction in their
business, for they, above other men, have an immediate dependence upon the
divine Providence. As to the other instance of the husbandman's conduct in
threshing his corn, it is said, This also comes forth from the Lord of
hosts, v. 29. Even the plainest dictate of sense and reason must be
acknowledged to come forth from the Lord of hosts. And, if it is from
him that men do things wisely and discreetly, we must needs acknowledge him to
be wise in counsel and excellent in working. God's working is according
to his will; he never acts against his own mind, as men often do, and there is
a counsel in his whole will: he is therefore excellent in working,
because he is wonderful in counsel. 2. God's church is his husbandry, 1 Cor.
iii. 9. If Christ is the true vine, his Father is the husbandman (John xv. 1),
and he is continually by his word and ordinances cultivating it. Does the
ploughman plough all day, and break the clods of his ground, that
it may receive the seed, and does not God by his ministers break up the fallow
ground? Does not the ploughman, when the ground is fitted for the seed, cast
in the seed in its proper soil? He does so, and so the great God sows his word
by the hand of his ministers (Matt. xiii. 19), who are to divide the word of
truth and give every one his portion. Whatever the soil of the heart is, there
is some seed or other in the word proper for it. And, as the word of God, so
the rod of God is thus wisely made use of. Afflictions are God's
threshing-instruments, designed to loosen us from the world, to separate
between us and our chaff, and to prepare us for use. And, as to these, God
will make use of them as there is occasion; but he will proportion them to our
strength; they shall be no heavier than there is need. If the rod and the
staff will answer the end, he will not make use of his cart-wheel and his
horsemen. And where these are necessary, as for the bruising of the bread-corn
(which will not otherwise be got clean from the straw), yet he will not be
ever threshing it, will not always chide, but his anger shall endure but for a
moment; nor will he crush under his feet the prisoners of the earth.
And herein we must acknowledge him wonderful in counsel and excellent in
working.
Contents
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