Still
the prophet is attempting to awaken this secure and stubborn people to
repentance, by the consideration of the judgments of God that were coming
upon them. He is to tell them, I. By the sign of a girdle spoiled that their
pride should be stained, ver. 1-11. II. By the sign of bottles filled with
wine that their counsels should be blasted, ver. 12-14. III. In
consideration hereof he is to call them to repent and humble themselves,
ver. 15-21. IV. He is to convince them that it is for their obstinacy and
incorrigibleness that the judgments of God are so prolonged and brought to
extremity, ver. 22-27.
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The
Marred Girdle.
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B.
C. 606.
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1 Thus saith the LORD
unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put
it not in water. 2 So I got a girdle according to the word of
the LORD,
and put it on my loins. 3 And the word of the LORD
came unto me the second time, saying, 4 Take the girdle that
thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates,
and hide it there in a hole of the rock. 5 So I went, and hid it
by Euphrates, as the LORD
commanded me. 6 And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD
said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which
I commanded thee to hide there. 7 Then I went to Euphrates, and
digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold,
the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. 8 Then the
word of the LORD
came unto me, saying, 9 Thus saith the LORD,
After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of
Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words,
which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to
serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good
for nothing. 11 For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a
man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the
whole house of Judah, saith the LORD;
that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise,
and for a glory: but they would not hear.
Here is, I. A sign, the marring of a girdle, which the prophet had worn for
some time, by hiding it in a hole of a rock near the river Euphrates. It was
usual with the prophets to teach by signs, that a stupid unthinking people
might be brought to consider, and believe, and be affected with what was
thus set before them. 1. He was to wear a linen girdle for some time, v.
1, 2. Some think he wore it under his clothes, because it was linen, and it
is said to cleave to his loins, v. 11. It should rather seem
to be worn upon his clothes, for it was worn for a name and a praise, and
probably was a fine sash, such as officers wear and such as are commonly
worn at this day in the eastern nations. He must not put it in water,
but wear it as it was, that it might be the stronger, and less likely to
rot: linen wastes almost as much with washing as with wearing. Being not
wet, it was the more stiff and less apt to bend, yet he must make a shift to
wear it. Probably it was very fine linen which will wear long without
washing. The prophet, like John Baptist, was none of those that wore soft
clothing, and therefore it would be the more strange to see him with a linen
girdle on, who probably used to wear a leathern one. 2. After he had worn
this linen girdle for some time, he must go, and hide it in a hole of a
rock (v. 4) by the water's side, where, when the water was high,
it would be wet, and when it fell would grow dry again, and by that means
would soon rot, sooner than if it were always wet or always dry. 3. After
many days, he must look for it, and he should find it quite spoiled, gone
all to rags and good for nothing, v. 7. It has been of old a question
among interpreters whether this was really done, so as to be seen and
observed by the people, or only in a dream or vision, so as to go no further
than the prophet's own mind. It seems hard to imagine that the prophet
should be sent on two such long journeys as to the river Euphrates, each of
which would take him up some week's time, when he could so ill be spared at
home. For this reason most incline to think the journey, at least, was only
in vision, like that of Ezekiel, from the captivity in Chaldea to Jerusalem
(Ezek. viii. 3) and thence back to Chaldea (ch. xi. 24); and the
explanation of this sign is given only to the prophet himself (v. 8),
not to the people, the sign not being public. But there being, it is
probable, at that time, great conveniences of travelling between Jerusalem
and Babylon, and some part of Euphrates being not so far off but that it was
made the utmost border of the land of promise (Josh. i. 4), I see no
inconvenience in supposing the prophet to have made two journeys thither;
for it is expressly said, He did as the Lord commanded him; and thus
gave a signal proof of his obsequiousness to his God, to shame the
stubbornness of a disobedient people: the toil of his journey would be very
proper to signify both the pains they took to corrupt themselves with their
idolatries and the sad fatigue of their captivity; and Euphrates being the
river of Babylon, which was to be the place of their bondage, was a material
circumstance in this sign.
II. The thing signified by this sign. The prophet was willing to be at any
cost and pains to affect this people with the word of the Lord. Ministers
must spend, and be spent, for the good of souls. We have the explanation of
this sign, v. 9-11.
1. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle in two respects:--
(1.) He had taken them into covenant and communion with himself: As the
girdle cleaves very closely to the loins of a man and surrounds
him, so have I caused to cleave to me the houses of Israel and Judah.
They were a people near to God (Ps. cxlviii. 14); they were his own, a
peculiar people to him, a kingdom of priests that had access to him above
other nations. He caused them to cleave to him by the law he gave
them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours which in his
providence he showed them. He required their stated attendance in the courts
of his house, and the frequent ratification of their covenant with him by
sacrifices. Thus they were made so as to cleave to him that one would think
they could never have been parted. (2.) He had herein designed his own
honour. When he took them to be to him for a people, it was that they
might be to him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, as a
girdle is an ornament to a man, and particularly the curious girdle of
the ephod was to the high-priest for glory and for beauty. Note,
Those whom God takes to be to him for a people he intends to be to him for a
praise. [1.] It is their duty to honour him, by observing his institutions
and aiming therein at his glory, and thus adorning their profession. [2.] It
is their happiness that he reckons himself honoured in them and by them. He
is pleased with them, and glories in his relation to them, while they behave
themselves as become his people. He was pleased to take it among the titles
of his honour to be the God of Israel, even a God to Israel, 1
Chron. xvii. 24. In vain do we pretend to be to God for a people if we be
not to him for a praise.
2. They had by their idolatries and other iniquities loosed themselves from
him, thrown themselves at a distance, robbed him of the honour they owed
him, buried themselves in the earth, and foreign earth too, mingled among
the nations, and were so spoiled and corrupted that they were good for
nothing: they could no more be to God, as they were designed, for a
name and a praise, for they would not hear either their duty to do it or
their privilege to value it: They refused to hear the words of God,
by which they might have been kept still cleaving closely to him. They
walked in the imagination of their heart, wherever their fancy led them;
and denied themselves no gratification they had a mind to, particularly in
their worship. They would not cleave to God, but walked after
other gods, to serve them, and to worship them; they doted upon
the gods of the heathen nations that lay towards Euphrates, so that they
were quite spoiled for the service of their own God, and were as this
girdle, this rotten girdle, a disgrace to their profession and not an
ornament. A thousand pities it was that such a girdle should be so spoiled,
that such a people should so wretchedly degenerate.
3. God would by his judgments separate them from him, send them into
captivity, deface all their beauty and ruin their excellency, so that they
should be like a fine girdle gone to rags, a worthless, useless, despicable
people. God will after this manner mar the pride of Judah, and the great
pride of Jerusalem. He would strip them of all that which was the matter
of their pride, of which they boasted and in which they trusted; it should
not only be sullied and stained, but quite destroyed, like this linen
girdle. Observe, He speaks of the pride of Judah (the country people
were proud of their holy land, their good land), but of the great pride
of Jerusalem; there the temple was, and the royal palace, and therefore
those citizens were more proud than the inhabitants of other cities. God
takes notice of the degrees of men's pride, the pride of some and the great
pride of others; and he will mar it, he will stain it. Pride will have a
fall, for God resists the proud. He will either mar the pride that is in us
(that is, mortify it by his grace, make us ashamed of it, and, like
Hezekiah, humble us for the pride of our hearts, the great pride, and cure
us of it, great as it is; and this marring of the pride will be making of
the soul; happy for us if the humbling providences our hearts be humbled) or
else he will mar the thing we are proud of. Parts, gifts, learning, power,
external privileges, if we are proud of these, it is just with God to blast
them; even the temple, when it became Jerusalem's pride, was marred and laid
in ashes. It is the honour of God to took upon every one that is proud
and abase him.
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The
Bottles Filled with Wine; Punishment Predicted; A Call to Repentance.
B. C. 606.
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12 Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this
word; Thus saith the LORD
God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say
unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with
wine? 13 Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD,
Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that
sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. 14 And I will dash
them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the
LORD:
I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. 15
Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD
hath spoken. 16 Give glory to the LORD
your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the
dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of
death, and make it gross darkness. 17 But if ye
will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride;
and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away
captive. 18 Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble
yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even
the crown of your glory. 19 The cities of the south shall be
shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away
captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive. 20
Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is
the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? 21
What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to
be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee,
as a woman in travail?
Here is, I. A judgment threatened against this people that would quite
intoxicate them. This doom is pronounced against them in a figure, to make
it the more taken notice of and the more affecting (v. 12): Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, every bottle shall be filled with wine;
that is, those that by their sins have made themselves vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction shall be filled with the wrath of God as a bottle
is with wine; and, as every vessel of mercy prepared for glory shall be
filled with mercy and glory, so they shall be full of the fury of the
Lord (Isa. li. 20); and they shall be brittle as bottles; and, like old
bottles into which new wine is put, they shall burst and be broken to
pieces, Matt. ix. 17. Or, They shall have their heads as full of wine as
bottle are; for so it is explained, v. 13, They shall be filled
with drunkenness; compare Isa. li. 17. It is probable that this was a
common proverb among them, applied in various ways; but they, not being
aware of the prophet's meaning in it, ridiculed him for it: "Do we
not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
What strange thing is there in that? Tell us something that we did not know
before." Perhaps they were thus touchy with the prophet because they
apprehended this to be a reflection upon them for their drunkenness, and
probably it was in part so intended. They loved flagons of wine, Hos.
iii. 1. Their watchmen were all for wine, Isa. lvi. 12. They loved
their false prophets that prophesied to them of wine (Mic. ii. 11),
that bade them be merry, for that they should never want their bottle to
make them so. "Well," says the prophet, "you shall have your bottles
full of wine, but not such wine as you desire." They suspected that
he had some mystical meaning in it which prophesied no good concerning them,
but evil; and he owns that so he had. What he meant was this,
1. That they should be a giddy as men in drink. A drunken man is fitly
compared to a bottle or cask full of wine; for, when the wine is in, the
wit, and wisdom, and virtue, and all that is good for any thing, are out.
Now God threatens (v. 13) that shall they shall all be filled with
drunkenness; they shall be full of confusion in their counsels, shall
falter in all their talk and stagger in all their motions; they shall not
know what they say or do, much less what they should say or do. They shall
be sick of all their enjoyments and throw them up as drunken men do, Job xx.
15. They shall fall into a slumber, and be utterly unable to help
themselves, and, like men that have drunk away their reason, shall lie at
the mercy and expose themselves to the contempt of all about them. And this
shall be the condition not of some among them (if any had been sober, they
might have helped the rest), but even the kings that sit upon the throne
of David, that should have been like their father David, who was wise
as an angel of God, shall be thus intoxicated. Their priests and
prophets too, their false prophets, that pretended to guide them, were as
indulgent of their lusts, and therefore were justly as much deprived of
their senses, as any other. Nay, all the inhabitants, both of the
land and of Jerusalem were as far gone as they. Whom God will
destroy he infatuates.
2. That, being giddy, they should run upon one another. The cup of the wine
of the Lord's fury shall throw them not only into a lethargy, so that they
shall not be able to help themselves or one another, but into a perfect
frenzy, so that they shall do mischief to themselves and one another (v.
14): I will dash a man against his brother. Not only their drunken
follies, but their drunken frays, shall help to ruin them. Drunken men are
often quarrelsome, and upon that account they have woe and sorrow
(Prov. xxiii. 29, 30); so their sin is their punishment; it was so here. God
sent an evil spirit into families and neighbourhoods (as Judg. ix. 23),
which made them jealous of, and spiteful towards, one another; so that the
fathers and sons went together by the ears, and were ready to
pull one another to pieces, which made them all an easy prey to the common
enemy. This decree against them having gone forth, God says, I will not
pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them; for they will not
pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy one another; see Hab. ii.
15, 16.
II. Here is good counsel given, which, if taken, would prevent this
desolation. It is, in short, to humble themselves under the mighty hand
of God. If they will hearken and give ear, this is that which God
has to say to them, Be not proud, v. 15. This was one of the
sins for which God had a controversy with them (v. 9); let them
mortify and forsake this sin, and God will let fall his controversy. "Be
not proud.; when God speaks to you by his prophets do not think
yourselves too good to be taught; be not scornful, be not wilful, let not
your hearts rise against the word, nor slight the messengers that bring it
to you. When God is coming forth against you in his providence (and by them
he speaks) be not secure when he threatens, be not impatient when he
strikes, for pride is at the bottom of both." It is the great God that
has spoken, whose authority is incontestable, whose power is irresistible;
therefore bow to what he says, and be not proud, as you have been.
They must not be proud, for,
1. They must advance God, and study how to do him honour: "Give glory
to the Lord your God, and not to your idols, not to other gods. Give him
glory by confessing your sins, owning yourselves guilty before him, and
accepting the punishment of your iniquity, v. 16. Give him glory by a
sincere repentance and reformation." The and not till then, we begin to
live as we should, and to some good purpose, when we begin to give glory
to the Lord our God, to make his honour our chief end and to seek it
accordingly. "Do this quickly, while your space to repent is continued
to you; before he cause darkness, before you will see no way of
escaping." Note, Darkness will be the portion of those that will not
repent to give glory to God. When those that by the fourth vial were
scorched with heat repented not, to give glory to God. When those
that by the fourth vial were scorched with heat repented not, to give
glory to God, the next vial filled them with darkness, Rev. xvi.
9, 10. The aggravation of the darkness here threatened is, (1.) That their
attempts to escape shall hasten their ruin: Their feet shall stumble
when they are making all the haste they can over the dark mountains,
and they shall fall, and be unable to get up again. Note, Those that think
to out-run the judgments of God will find their road impassable; let them
make the best of their way, they can make nothing of it, the judgments that
pursue them will overtake them; their way is dark and slippery, Ps. xxxv. 6.
And therefore, before it comes to that extremity, it is our wisdom to give
glory to him, and so make our peace with him, to fly to his mercy, and then
there will be no occasion to fly from his justice. (2.) That their hopes of
a better state of things will be disappointed: While you look for light,
for comfort and relief, he will turn it into the shadow of death,
which is very dismal and terrible, and make it gross darkness, like
that of Egypt, when Pharaoh continued to harden his heart, which was
darkness that might be felt. The expectation of impenitent sinners perishes
when they die and think to have it satisfied.
2. They must abase themselves, and take shame to themselves; the prerogative
of the king and queen will not exempt them from this (v. 18): "Say
to the king and queen, that, great as they are, they must humble
themselves by true repentance, and so give both glory to God and a good
example to their subjects." Note, Those that are exalted above others
in the world must humble themselves before God, who is higher than the
highest, and to whom kings and queens are accountable. They must humble
themselves, and sit down--sit down, and consider what is
coming--sit down in the dust, and lament themselves. Let them humble
themselves, for God will otherwise take an effectual course to humble them:
"Your principalities shall come down, the honour and power on
which you value yourselves and in which you confide, even the crown of
your glory, your goodly or glorious crown: when you are led away
captives, where will your principality and all the badges of it be
then?" Blessed be God there is a crown of glory, which those shall
inherit who do humble themselves, that shall never come down.
III. This counsel is enforced by some arguments if they continue proud and
unhumbled.
1. It will be the prophet's unspeakable grief (v. 17): "If
you will not hear it, will not submit to the word, but continue
refractory, not only my eye, but my soul shall weep in secret places."
Note, The obstinacy of people, in refusing to hear the word of God, will be
heart-breaking to the poor ministers, who know something of the terrors of
the Lord and the worth of souls, and are so far from desiring that they
tremble at the thoughts of the death of sinners. His grief for it was
undissembled (his soul wept) and void of affectation, for he chose to
weep in secret places, where no eye saw him but his who is all eye.
He would mingle his tears not only with his public preaching, but with his
private devotions. Nay, thoughts of their case would make him melancholy,
and he would become a perfect recluse. It would grieve him, (1.) To see
their sins unrepented of: "My soul shall weep for your pride,
your haughtiness, and stubbornness, and vain confidence." Note, The
sins of others should be matter of sorrow to us. We must mourn for that
which we cannot mend, and mourn the more for it because we cannot mend it.
(2.) To see their calamity past redress and remedy: "My eyes shall
weep sorely, not so much because my relations, friends, and neighbours
are in distress, but because the Lord's flock, his people and the
sheep of his pasture, are carried away captive." That should
always grieve us most by which God's honour suffers and the interest of his
kingdom is weakened.
2. It will be their own inevitable ruin, v. 19-21. (1.) The land
shall be laid waste: The cities of the south shall be shut up. The
cities of Judah lay in the southern part of the land of Canaan; these shall
be straitly besieged by the enemy, so that there shall be no going in or
out, or they shall be deserted by the inhabitants, that there shall be none
to go in and out. Some understand it of the cities of Egypt, which was south
from Judah; the places there whence they expected succours shall fail them,
and they shall find no access to them. (2.) The inhabitants shall be hurried
away into a foreign country, there to live in slavery: Judah shall be
carried away captive. Some were already carried off, which they hoped
might serve to answer the prediction, and that the residue should still be
left; but no: It shall be carried away all of it. God will make a
full end with them: It shall be wholly carried away. So it was in the
last captivity under Zedekiah, because they repented not. (3.) The enemy was
now at hand that should do this (v. 20): "Lift up your eyes.
I see upon their march, and you may if you will behold, those that come
from the north, from the land of the Chaldeans; see how fast they
advance, how fierce they appear." Upon this he addresses himself to the
king, or rather (because the pronouns are feminine) to the city or state.
[1.] "What will you do now with the people who are committed to your
charge, and whom you ought to protect? Where is the flock that was given
thee, thy beautiful flock? Whither canst thou take them now for shelter?
How can they escape these ravening wolves?" Magistrates must look upon
themselves as shepherds, and those that are under their charge as their
flock, which they are entrusted with the care of and must give an account
of; they must take delight in them as their beautiful flock, and consider
what to do for their safety in times of public danger. Masters of families,
who neglect their children and suffer them to perish for want of a good
education, and ministers who neglect their people, should think they hear
God putting this question to them: Where is the flock that was given thee
to feed, that beauteous flock? It is starved; it is left exposed to
the beasts of prey. What account wilt thou give of them when the chief
shepherd shall appear? [2.] "What have you to object against the equity
of God's proceedings? What will thou say when he shall visit upon thee
the former days? v. 21. Thou canst say nothing, but that God is
just in all that is brought upon thee." Those that flatter
themselves with hopes of impunity, what will they say? What confusion will
cover their faces when they shall find themselves deceived and that God
punishes them! [3.] "What thoughts will you now have of your own folly,
in giving the Chaldeans such power over you, by seeking to them for
assistance, and joining in league with them? Thus thou hast taught them
against thyself to be captains and to become the head."
Hezekiah began when he showed his treasures to the ambassadors of the king
of Babylon, tempting him thereby to come and plunder him. Those who, having
a God to trust to, court foreign alliances and confide in them, do but make
rods for themselves and teach their neighbours how to become their masters.
[4.] "How will you bear the trouble that is at the door? Shall not
sorrows take thee as a woman in travail? Sorrows which thou canst not
escape nor put off, extremity of sorrows; and in these respects more
grievous than those of a woman in travail that they were not expected
before, and that there is no manchild to be born, the joy of which shall
make them afterwards to be forgotten."
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Punishment
Predicted; Causes of Jerusalem's Ruin.
B. C. 606.
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22 And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore
come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy
skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare. 23 Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also
do good, that are accustomed to do evil. 24 Therefore will I
scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the
wilderness. 25 This is thy lot, the portion of thy
measures from me, saith the LORD;
because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. 26
Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may
appear. 27 I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the
lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the
fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall
it once be?
Here is, I. Ruin threatened as before, that the Jews shall go into
captivity, and fall under all the miseries of beggary and bondage, shall be
stripped of their clothes, their skirts discovered for want of upper
garments to cover them, and their heels made bare for want of shoes, v.
22. Thus they used to deal with prisoners taken in war, when they drove them
into captivity, naked and barefoot, Isa. xx. 4. Being thus carried
off into a strange country, they shall be scattered there, as the stubble
that is blown away by the wind of the wilderness, and nobody is
concerned to bring it together again, v. 24. If the stubble escape
the fire, it shall be carried away by the wind. If one judgment do not do
the work, another shall, with those that by sin have made themselves as
stubble. They shall be stripped of all their ornaments and exposed to shame,
as harlots that are carted, v. 26. They made their pride appear, but
God will make their shame appear; so that those who have doted on
them shall be ashamed of them.
II. An enquiry made by the people into the cause of this ruin, v. 22.
Thou wilt say in thy heart (and God knows how to give a proper answer
to what men say in their hearts, though they do not speak it out; Jesus,
knowing their thoughts, replied to them, Matt. ix. 4), Wherefore
came these things upon me? The question is supposed to come into the
heart, 1. Of a sinner quarrelling with God and refusing to receive
correction. They could not see that they had done any thing which might
justly provoke God to be thus angry with them. They durst not speak it out;
but in their hearts they thus charged God with unrighteousness, if he had laid
upon them more than was meet. They seek for the cause of their
calamities, when, if they had not been wilfully blind, they might easily
have seen it. Or, 2. Of a sinner returning to God. If there come but a
penitent thought into the heart at any time (saying, What have I done?
ch. viii. 6, wherefore am I in affliction? why doth God contend with
me?) God takes notice of it, and is ready by his Spirit to impress the
conviction, that, sin being discovered, it may be repented of.
III. An answer to this enquiry. God will be justified when he speaks and
will oblige us to justify him, and therefore will set the sin of sinners in
order before them. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us?
Let them know it is all owing to themselves.
1. It is for the greatness of their iniquities, v. 22. God does not
take advantage against them for small faults; no, the sins for which he now
punishes them are of the first rate, very heinous in their own nature and
highly aggravated--for the multitude of thy iniquity (so it may be
read), sins of every kind and often repeated and relapsed into. Some think
we are more in danger from the multitude of our smaller sins than from the
heinousness of our greater sins; of both we may say, Who can understand
his errors?
2. It is for their obstinacy in sin, their being so long accustomed to it
that there was little hope left of their being reclaimed from it (v.
23): Can the Ethiopian change his skin, that is by nature black, or
the leopard his spots, that are even woven into the skin? Dirt
contracted may be washed off, but we cannot alter the natural colour of a
hair (Matt. v. 36), much less of the skin; and so impossible is it, morally
impossible, to reclaim and reform these people. (1.) They had been long accustomed
to do evil. They were taught to do evil; they had been educated and
brought up in sin; they had served an apprenticeship to it, and had all
their days made a trade of it. It was so much their constant practice that
it had become a second nature to them. (2.) Their prophets therefore
despaired of ever bring them to do good. This was what they aimed at; they
persuaded them to cease to do evil and learn to do well, but could not
prevail. They had so long been used to do evil that it was next to
impossible for them to repent, and amend, and begin to do good. Note, Custom
in sin is a very great hindrance to conversion from sin. The disease that is
inveterate is generally thought incurable. Those that have been long
accustomed to sin have shaken off the restraint of fear and shame; their
consciences are seared; the habits of sin are confirmed; it pleads
prescription; and it is just with God to give those up to their own hearts'
lusts that have long refused to give themselves up to his grace. Sin is the
blackness of the soul, the deformity of it; it is its spot, the discolouring
of it; it is natural to us, we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get
clear of it by any power of our own. But there is an almighty grace that is
able to change the Ethiopian's skin, and that grace shall not be wanting to
those who in a sense of their need of it seek it earnestly and improve it
faithfully.
3. It is for their treacherous departures from the God of truth and
dependence on lying vanities (v. 25): "This is thy lot,
to be scattered and driven away; this is the portion of thy measures from
me, the punishment assigned thee as by line and measure; this shall be
thy share of the miseries of this world; expect it, and think not to escape
it: it is because thou hast forgotten me, the favours I have bestowed
upon thee and the obligations thou art under to me; thou hast no sense, no
remembrance, of these." Forgetfulness of God is at the bottom of all
sin, as the remembrance of our Creator betimes is the happy and hopeful
beginning of a holy life. "Having forgotten me, thou hast trusted in
falsehood, in idols, in an arm of flesh in
Egypt
and
Assyria
, in the self-flatteries of a deceitful heart." Whatever those trust to
that forsake God, they will find it a broken reed, a broken
cistern.
4. It is for their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, that sin which is of
all sins most provoking to the jealous God. They are exposed to a
shameful calamity (v. 26) because they have been guilty of a shameful
iniquity and yet are shameless in it (v. 27): "I have seen
thy adulteries (thy inordinate fancy for strange gods, which thou hast
been impatient for the gratification of, and hast even neighed after
it), even the lewdness of thy whoredoms, thy impudence and
insatiableness in them, thy eager worshipping of idols on the hills in
the fields, upon the high places. This is that for which a woe is
denounced against thee, O
Jerusalem
! nay, and many woes."
IV. Here is an affectionate expostulation with them, in the close, upon the
whole matter. Though it was adjudged next to impossible for them to be
brought to do good (v. 23), yet while there is life there is hope,
and therefore still he reasons with them to bring them to repentance, v.
27. 1. He reasons with them concerning the thing itself: Wilt thou not be
made clean? Note, It is the great concern of those who are polluted by
sin to be made clean by repentance, and faith, and a universal reformation.
The reason why sinners are not made clean is because they will not be made
clean; and herein they act most unreasonably: "Wilt thou not be made
clean? Surely thou will at length be persuaded to wash thee, and make
thee clean, and so be wise for thyself." 2. Concerning the time of
it: When shall it once be? Note, It is an instance of the wonderful
grace of God that he desires the repentance and conversion of sinners, and
thinks the time long till they are brought to relent; but it is an instance
of the wonderful folly of sinners that they put that off from time to time
which is of such absolute necessity that, if it be not done some time, they
are certainly undone for ever. They do not say that they will never be
cleansed, but not yet; they will defer it to a more convenient season, but
cannot tell us when it shall once be.
