There
are two great ordinances which divine wisdom has instituted, the wretched
profanation of both of which is complained of and sharply reproved in this
chapter. I. The ordinance of the ministry, which is peculiar to the church,
and is designed for the maintaining and keeping up of that; this was
profaned by those who were themselves dignified with the honour of it and
entrusted with the business of it. The priests profaned the holy things of
God; this they are here charged with; their sin is aggravated, and they are
severely threatened for it, ver. 1-9. II. The ordinance of marriage, which
is common to the world of mankind, and was instituted for the maintaining
and keeping up of that; this was profaned both by the priests and by the
people, in marrying strangers (ver. 11, 12), treating their wives unkindly
(ver. 13), putting them away (ver. 16), and herein dealing treacherously,
ver. 10, 14, 15. And that which was at the bottom of this and other
instances of profaneness and downright atheism, thinking God altogether such
a one as themselves, which was, in effect, to say, There is no God, ver. 17.
And these reproofs to them are warnings to us.
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The
Office of the Priesthood; Charge against the Priests; The
Priests
Censured and Threatened.
B. C. 400.
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1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is
for you. 2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it
to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD
of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your
blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it
to heart. 3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung
upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one
shall take you away with it. 4 And ye shall know that I have
sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith
the LORD
of hosts. 5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I
gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid
before my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and
iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity,
and did turn many away from iniquity. 7 For the priest's lips
should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is
the messenger of the LORD
of hosts. 8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused
many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith
the LORD
of hosts. 9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base
before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been
partial in the law.
What was said in the foregoing chapter was directed to the priests (ch.
i. 6): Thus saith the Lord of hosts to you, O priests! that despise my
name. But the crimes there charged upon them they were guilty of as
sacrificers, and for those they might think it some excuse that they offered
what the people brought, and therefore that, if they were not so good as
they should be, it was not their fault, but the people's; and therefore here
the corruptions there complained of are traced to the source and spring of
them--the faults the priests were guilty of as teachers of the people, as
expositors of the law and the lively oracles; and this is a part of their
office which still remains in the hands of gospel-ministers (who are
appointed to be pastors and teachers, like the priests under the law, though
not sacrificers, like them), and therefore by them the admonition here is to
be particularly regarded. If the priests had given the people better
instructions, the people would have brought better offerings; and therefore
the blame returns upon the priests: "And now, O you priests! this
commandment is purely for you (v. 1), who should have
taught the people the good knowledge of the Lord, and how to worship him
aright." Note, The governors of the churches are under God's
government, and to him they are accountable. Even for those who command God
has commandments. Nay (v. 4), you shall know that I have sent
these commandments for you. They should know it either, 1. By the power
of the Spirit working with the word for their conviction and reformation:
"You shall know its original by its efficacy, whence it comes by what
it does." When the word of God to us brings about, and carries on, the
work of God in us, then we cannot but know that he sent it to us, that it is
not the word of Malachi--God's messenger, but it is indeed the word
of God, and is sent, not only in general to all, but in particular to us.
Or, 2. By the accomplishment of the threatenings denounced against them:
"You shall know, to your cost, that I have sent this
commandment to you, and it shall not return void."
Let us now see what this commandment is which is for the priests, which,
they must know, was sent to them; and let us put into method the particulars
of the charge.
I. Here is a recital of the covenant God made with that sacred tribe, which
was their commission for their work and the patent of their honour: The Lord
of hosts sent a commandment to them, for the establishing of this
covenant (v. 4), for his covenant is said to be the word which he
commanded (Ps. cv. 8); and he sent this commandment by the
prophet at this time for the re-establishing of it, that it might not be cut
off for their persisting in the violation of it. Let the sons of Levi know
then (and particularly the sons of Aaron) what honour God put upon their
family, and what a trust he reposed in them (v. 5): My covenant
was with him of life and peace. Besides the covenant of peculiarity made
with all the house of Israel, there was a covenant of priesthood made with
one family, that they should do the services, and, upon condition of that,
should enjoy all the privileges, of the priest's office--that, as Israel was
a peculiar nation, a kingdom of priests, so the house of Aaron should
be a family of priests, set apart for the service and honour of God, to bear
up his name in that nation, as they were to bear up his name among the
nations; both the one and the other, in different degrees, were to give
glory unto God's name, v. 2. God covenanted with them as his
menial servants, obliged them to do his work and promised to own and accept
them in it. This is called his covenant of life and peace, because it
was intended for the support of religion, which brings life and peace to the
souls of men--life to the dead, peace to the distressed, or because life and
peace were by this covenant promised to those priests that faithfully and
conscientiously discharged their duty; they shall have peace, which implies
security from all evil, and life, which comprises the summary of all good.
What is here said of the covenant of priesthood is true of the covenant of
grace made with all believers, as spiritual priests; it is a covenant of
life and peace; it assures all believers of life and peace, everlasting
peace, everlasting life, all happiness both in this world and in that to
come. This covenant was made with the whole tribe of Levi when they were
distinguished from the rest of the tribes, were not numbered with them, but
were taken from among them and appointed over the tabernacle of
testimony (Num. i. 49, 50), by virtue of which appointment God says
(Num. iii. 12), The Levites shall be mine. It was made with Aaron
when he and his sons were taken to minister unto the Lord in the priest's
office, Exod. xxviii. 1. Aaron is therefore called the saint of the
Lord, Ps. cvi. 16. It was made with Phinehas and his family, a branch of
Aaron's, upon a particular occasion, Num. xxv. 12, 13. And there the
covenant of priesthood is called, as here, the covenant of peace,
because by it peace was made and kept between God and Israel. These great
blessings of life and peace, contained in that covenant, God gave to him,
to Levi, to Aaron, to Phinehas; he promised life and peace to them and their
posterity, entrusted them with these benefits for the use and behoof of
God's Israel; they received that they might give, as Christ himself did, Ps.
lxviii. 18. Now, for the further opening of this covenant, observe, 1. The
considerations upon which it was grounded: It was for the fear wherewith
he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The tribe of Levi gave a
signal proof of their holy fear of God, and their reverence for his name,
when they appeared so bravely against the worshippers of the golden calf
(Exod. xxxii. 26); and for their zeal in that matter God bestowed this
blessing upon them and invited them to consecrate themselves unto him.
Phinehas also showed himself zealous in the fear of God and his judgments
when, to stay the plague, he stabbed Zimri and Cozbi, Ps. cvi. 30,
31. Note, Those, and those only, who fear God's name, can expect the benefit
of the covenant of life and peace; and those who give proofs of their
zeal for God shall without fail be recompensed in the glorious privileges of
the Christian priesthood. Some read this, not as the consideration of the
grant, but as the condition of it: I gave them to him, provided that
he should fear before me. If God grant us life and peace, he expects
we should fear before him. 2. The trust that was lodged in the priests by
this covenant, v. 7. They were hereby made the messengers of the
Lord of hosts, messengers of that covenant of life and peace, not
mediators of it, but only messengers, or ambassadors, employed to treat of
the terms of peace between God and Israel. The priests were God's mouth
to his people, from whom they must receive instructions according to the
lively oracles. This was the office to which Levi was advanced; because, in
his zeal for God, he did not acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own
children, therefore they shall teach Jacob God's judgments, Deut.
xxxiii. 9, 10. Note, It is an honour to God's servants to be employed as his
messengers and to be sent on his errands. Angels have their name thence.
Haggai was called the Lord's messenger. This being their office,
observe, (1.) What is the duty of ministers: The priests' lips should
keep knowledge, not keep it from the people, but keep it for them.
Ministers must be men of knowledge; for how are those able to teach others
the things of God who are themselves unacquainted with those things or
unready in them? They must keep knowledge, must furnish themselves with it
and retain what they have got, that they may be like the good
householder, who brings out of his treasury things new and old.
Not only their heads, but their lips, must keep knowledge; they must not
only have it, but they must have it ready, must have it at hand, must have
it (as we say) at their tongue's end, to be communicated to others as there
is occasion. Thus we read of wisdom in the lips of him that has
understanding, with which they feed many, Prov. x. 13, 21. (2.)
What is the duty of the people: They should seek the law at his mouth;
they should consult the priests as God's messengers, and not only hear the
message, but ask questions upon it, that they may the better understand it
and that mistakes concerning it may be prevented and rectified. We are all
concerned fully to know what the will of the Lord is, to know it
distinctly and certainly; we should be desirous to know it and therefore
inquisitive concerning it. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? We
must not only consult the written word (to the law and to the testimony),
but must have recourse to God's messengers, and desire instruction and
advice from them in the affairs of our souls as we do from physicians and
lawyers concerning our bodies and estates. Not but that ministers ought to
lay down the law of God to those who do not enquire concerning it, or desire
the knowledge of it (they must instruct those that oppose themselves,
2 Tim. ii. 25, as well as those that offer themselves), but it is people's
duty to apply to them for instruction, not only to hear, but to ask
questions. Watchman, what of the night? Thus if you will enquire,
enquire you; see Isa. xxi. 8, 11, 12. People should not only seek
comfort at the mouth of their ministers, but should seek the law there; for,
if we found in the way of duty, we shall find it the way of comfort.
II. Here is a memorial of the fidelity and zeal of many of their
predecessors in the priest's office, which are mentioned as an aggravation
of their sin in degenerating from such honourable ancestors and deserting
such illustrious examples, and as a justification of God in withdrawing from
them those tokens of his presence which he had granted to those that kept
close to him. See here (v. 6) how good the godly priest was, whose
steps they should have trod in, and what good he did, God's grace working
with him. 1. See how good he was. He was ready and mighty in the scriptures:
The law of truth was in his mouth, for the use of those that asked
the law at his mouth; and in all his discourses there appeared more or
less of the law of truth. Every thing he said was under the government of
that law, and with it he governed others. He spoke as one having authority
(every word was a law), and as one that had both wisdom and
integrity--it was a law of truth, and truth is a law, it has a
commanding power. It is by truth that Christ rules. The law of truth was
in his mouth, for his resolutions of cases of conscience proposed to him
were such as might be depended upon; his opinion was good law. Iniquity
was not found in his lips; he did not handle the word of God
deceitfully, to please men, to serve a turn, or to make an interest for
himself, but told all that consulted him what the law was, whether it were
pleasing or displeasing. He did not pronounce that unclean which was clean,
nor that clean which was unclean, as one of the rabbin expounds it. And his
conversation was of a piece with his doctrine. God himself gives him this
honourable testimony: He walked with me in peace and equity. He did
not think it enough to talk of God, but he walked with him. The temper of
his mind, and the tenour of his life, were of a piece with his doctrine and
profession; he lived a life of communion with God, and made it his constant
care and business to please him; he lived like a priest that was chosen to walk
before God, 1 Sam. ii. 30. His conversation was quiet; he was meek and gentle
towards all men, was a pattern and promoter of love; he walked with God
in peace, was himself peaceable and a great peace-maker. His conversation
was also honest; he did no wrong to any, but made conscience of rendering to
all their due: He walked with me in equity, or rectitude. We must
not, for peace-sake, transgress the rules of equity, but must keep the peace
as far as is consistent with justice. The wisdom from above is first
pure, then peaceable. Ministers, of all men, are concerned to walk
with God in peace and equity, that they may be examples to the flock.
2. See what good he did; he answered the ends of his advancement to that
office: He did turn many away from iniquity; he made it his business
to do good, and God crowned his endeavours with wonderful success; he helped
to save many a soul from death, and there are multitudes now in heaven
blessing God that ever they knew him. Ministers must lay out themselves to
the utmost for the conversion of sinners, and even among those that have the
name of Israelites there is need of conversion-work, there are many to be
turned from iniquity; and they must reckon it an honour, and a rich reward
of their labour, if they may but be instrumental herein. It is God only that
by his grace can turn men from iniquity, and yet it is here said of a pious
laborious minister that he turned men from iniquity as a worker together
with God, and an instrument in his hand; and those that turn many to
righteousness shall shine as the stars, Dan. xii. 3. Note, Those
ministers, and those only, are likely to turn men from iniquity, that preach
sound doctrine and live good lives, and both according to the scripture;
for, as one of the rabbin observes here, When the priest is upright many
will be upright.
III. Here is a high charge drawn up against the priests of the present age,
who violated the covenant of the priesthood and went directly contrary both
to the rules and to the examples that were set before them. Many particulars
of their sins we had in the foregoing chapter, and we find (Neh. xiii.) that
many corruptions had crept into the church of the Jews at this time, mixed
marriages, admitting strangers into the house of God, profanation of the
sabbath-day, which were all owing to the carelessness and unfaithfulness of
the priests; here it is charged upon them in general, 1. That they
transgressed the rule: You have departed out of the way (v.
8), out of the good way which God has prescribed to you, and which your
godly ancestors walked before you in. It is ill with a people when those
whose office it is to guide them in the way do themselves depart out of it:
"You have not kept my ways, not kept in them yourselves, nor
done your part to keep others in them," v. 9. 2. That they
betrayed their trust: "You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,
have violated it, have contradicted the great intentions of it, and have
done what in you lay to frustrate and defeat them; you have managed your
office as if it were designed only to feed you fat and make you great; and
not for the glory of God and the good of the souls of men." This was a
corrupting of the covenant of Levi; it was perverting the ends of the
office, and making it subservient to those sensual secular things over which
it ought always to have dominion. And thus they forfeited the benefit of
that covenant, and corrupted it to themselves; they made it void, and
lost the life and peace which were by it settled upon them. We have no
reason to expect God should perform his part of the covenant if we do not
make conscience of performing ours. Another instance of their betraying
their trust was that they were partial in the law, v. 9. In
the law given to them they would pick and choose their duty; this they would
do and that they would not do, just as they pleased; this is the fashion of
hypocrites, while those whose hearts are upright with God have a respect
to all his commandments. Or, rather, in the law they were to lay down to
the people; in this they knew faces (so the word is); they accepted
persons; they wilfully misinterpreted and misapplied the law, either to
cross those they had a spleen against or to countenance those they had a
kindness for; they would wink at those sins in some which in others they
would be sharp upon, according as their interest or inclination led them.
God is no respecter of persons in making his law, nor will he in
reckoning for the breach of it; he regards not the rich more than the
poor, and therefore his priests, his ministers, misrepresent him, and do
him a great deal of dishonour, if, in doctrine or discipline, they be
respecters of persons. See 1 Tim. v. 21. 3. That they did a great deal of
mischief to the souls of men, which they should have helped to save: You
have caused many to stumble at the law, not only to fall in the law
(as the margin reads it) by transgressing it, taught and encouraged to do so
by the examples of the priests, but to stumble at the law, by
contracting prejudices against it, as if the law were the minister of sin
and gave countenance to it. Thus Hophni and Phinehas by their wickedness made
the sacrifices of the Lord to be abhorred, 1 Sam. ii. 17. There are many
to whom the law of God is a stumbling-block, the gospel of Christ a
savour of death unto death, and Christ himself a rock of offence;
and nothing contributes more to this than the vicious lives of those that
make a profession of religion, by which men are tempted to say, "It is
all a jest." This is properly a scandal, a stone of stumbling;
there is no good reason why it should be so to any, but woe to those by
whom this offence comes. 4. That, when they were under the rebukes both
of the word and of the providence of God for it, they would not hear,
that is, they would not heed, they would not lay it to heart; they
were not at all grieved or shamed for their sin, nor affected with the
tokens of God's displeasure which they were under. What we hear does us no
good unless we lay it to heart and admit the impressions of it: You will
not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, by repentance and
reformation. Therefore we should lay to heart the things of God, that
we may give glory to the name of God, may praise him in and for all that
whereby he has made himself known. It is bad in any to rob God of his
honour, but worst in ministers, whose office and business it is to bear up
his name and to give him the glory due to it.
IV. Here is a record of the judgments God had brought upon these priests for
their profaneness, and their profanation of holy things. 1. They had lost
their comfort (v. 2): I have already cursed your blessings.
They had not the comfort of their work, which is the satisfaction of doing
good; for the blessings with which they, as priests, blessed the people, God
was so far from saying Amen to that he turned them into curses, as he
did Balaam's curses into blessings. That profane people should not have the
favour of receiving God's blessings, nor those profane priests the honour of
conferring and conveying them, but both should lie under the tokens of his
wrath. Nor had they the comfort of their wages, for the blessings with which
God blessed them were turned into a curse to them by their abuse of them;
they could not receive them as the gifts of his favour when they had made
themselves so obnoxious to his displeasure by not laying to heart the
reproofs given them. 2. They had lost their credit (v. 9): Therefore
have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people. While
they glorified God he dignified them and supported their reputation, and a
great interest they had in the love and esteem of the people while they did
their duty and walked with God in peace and equity; every one had a
value and veneration for them; they were truly styled the reverend, the
priests; but when they forsook the ways of God, and corrupted the
covenant of Levi, they thereby made themselves not only mean, but vile, in
the eyes even of the common people, who, the more they honoured the order,
the more they hated the men that were a dishonour to it. Their conduct,
their misconduct, had a direct tendency to this, and God owns his hand in
it, and will have it looked upon as a just judgment of his upon them, and
not only produced by their sin but answering to it; they put dishonour upon
God, and made his table and the fruit thereof contemptible (ch.
i. 12), and therefore God justly put dishonour upon them and made them
contemptible; they exposed themselves, and therefore God exposed them. Note,
As sin is a reproach to any people, so especially to priests; there is not a
more despicable animal upon the face of the earth than a profane, wicked,
scandalous minister.
V. Here is a sentence of wrath passed upon them; and this the prophet begins
with, v. 2, 3. But it is conditional: If you will not lay it to
heart, implying, "If you will, God's anger shall be turned away,
and all shall be well; but, if you persist in these wicked courses, hear
your doom--Your sin will be your ruin." 1. They shall fall and lie
under the curse of God: I will send a curse upon you. The wrath of
God shall be revealed against them, according to the threatenings of the
written word. Note, Those who violate the commands of the law lay themselves
under the curses of the law. 2. Neither their employments nor their
enjoyments, as priests, shall be clean to them: "I will curse your
blessings, so that you shall neither be blessed yourselves nor blessings
to the people, but even your plenty shall be a plague to you and you shall
be plagues to your generation." 3. The fruits of the earth, which they
had the tithe of, should be no comfort to them: "Behold, I will
corrupt your seed; the corn you sow shall rot under ground and never
come up again, the consequence of which must needs be famine and scarcity of
provisions; so that no meat-offerings shall be brought to the altar, which
the priests will soon have a loss of." Or it may be understood of the
seed of the word which they preached; God threatens to deny his blessing to
the instructions they gave the people, so that their labour shall be lost,
as that of the husbandman is when the seed is corrupt; and so it agrees with
that threatening (Jer. xxiii. 32), They shall not profit this people at
all. 4. They and their services shall be rejected of God; he will be so
far from taking any pleasure in them that he will loathe and detest them: I
will spread dung in your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts. He
refers to the sacrifices that were offered at those feasts. Instead of being
himself pleased with the fat of their sacrifices, he will show himself
displeased by throwing the dung of them in their faces, which he does, in
effect, when he says, Bring no more vain oblations; your incense
is an abomination to me. Note, Those who rest in their external
performances of religion, which they should count but dung, that they may
win Christ, shall not only come short of acceptance with God in them,
but shall be filled with shame and confusion for their folly. 5. All will
end, at last, in their utter ruin: One shall take you away with it.
They shall be so overspread with the dung of their sacrifices that they
shall be carried away with it to the dunghill, as a part of it. Any one
shall serve to take you away, the common scavenger. Reprobate silver
shall men call them, and treat them accordingly, because the Lord has
rejected them.
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Unlawful
Marriages; Breach of the Marriage-covenant; Charge of Corrupt
Principles.
B. C. 400.
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10 Have we not all one father? hath not one
God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother,
by profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah hath dealt
treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem;
for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD
which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
12 The LORD
will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the
tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD
of hosts. 13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of
the LORD
with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth
not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your
hand. 14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD
hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of
thy covenant. 15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue
of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore
take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife
of his youth. 16 For the LORD,
the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one
covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD
of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not
treacherously. 17 Ye have wearied the LORD
with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye
say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD,
and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
Corrupt practices are the genuine fruit and product of corrupt principles;
and the badness of men's hearts and lives is owing to some loose atheistical
notions which they have got and which they govern themselves by. Now, in
these verses, we have an instance of this; we here find men dealing falsely
with one another, and it is because they think falsely of their God.
Observe,
I. How corrupt their practices were. In general, they dealt treacherously
every man against his brother, v. 10. It cannot be expected that
he who is false to his God should be true to his friend. They had dealt
treacherously with God in his tithes and offerings, and had defrauded him,
and thus conscience was debauched, its bonds and cords were broken, a door
was opened to all manner of injustice and dishonesty, and the bonds of
relation and natural affection are broken through likewise and no difficulty
made of it. Some think that the treacherous dealings here reproved are the
same with those instances of oppression and extortion which we find
complained of to Nehemiah about this time, Neh. v. 3-7. Therein they forgot
the God of their fathers, and the covenant of their fathers, and rendered
their offerings unacceptable, Isa. i. 11. But it seems rather to refer to
what was amiss in their marriages, which was likewise complained of, Neh.
xiii. 23. Two things they are here charged with, as very provoking to God in
this matter--taking strange wives of heathen nations, and abusing and
putting away the wives they had of their own nation; in both these they
dealt treacherously and violated a sacred covenant; the former was in
contempt of the covenant of peculiarity, the latter of the
marriage-covenant.
1. In contempt of the covenant God made with Israel, as a peculiar people to
himself, they married strange wives, which was expressly prohibited, and
provided against, in that covenant, Deut. vii. 3. Observe here,
(1.) What good reason they had to deal faithfully with God and one another
in this covenant, and not to make marriages with the heathen. [1.] They were
expressly bound out from such marriages by covenant. God engaged to do them
good upon this condition, that they should not mingle with the heathen; this
was the covenant of their fathers, the covenant made with their
fathers, denoting the antiquity and the authority of it, and its being the
great charter by which that nation was incorporated. They lay under all
possible obligations to observe it strictly, yet they profaned it, as if
they were not bound by it. Those profane the covenant of their fathers who
live in disobedience to the command of the God of their fathers. [2.] They
were a peculiar people, united in one body, and therefore ought to have
united for the preserving of the honour of their peculiarity: Have we not
all one Father? Yes, we have, for has not one God created us? Are
we not all his offspring? And are we not made of one blood?
Yes, certainly we are. God is a common Father to all mankind, and, upon that
account, all we are brethren, members one of another, and therefore
ought to put away lying (Eph. iv. 25), and not to deal
treacherously, no, not any man against his brother. But here it
seems to refer to the Jewish nation: Have we not all one father,
Abraham, or Jacob? This they prided themselves in, We have Abraham to our
father; but here it is turned upon them as an aggravation of their sin
in betraying the honour of their nation by intermarrying with heathens:
"Has not one God created us, that is, formed us into a people,
made us a nation by ourselves, and put a life into us, distinct from that of
other nations? And should not this oblige us to maintain the dignity of our
character?" Note, The consideration of the unity of the church in
Christ, its founder and Father, should engage us carefully to preserve the
purity of the church and to guard against all corruptions. [3.] They were
dedicated to God, as well as distinguished from the neighbouring nations. Israel
was holiness to the Lord (Jer. ii. 3), taken into covenant with him, set
apart by him for himself, to be to him for a name and a praise, and upon
this account he loved them and delighted in them; the sanctuary set
up among them was the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, of which
he said, It is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have desired
it; but by marrying strange wives they profaned this holiness, and laid
the honour of it in the dust. Note, Those who are devoted to God, and
beloved of him, are concerned to preserve their integrity, that they may not
throw themselves out of his love, nor lose the honour, or defeat the end, of
their dedication to him.
(2.) How treacherously they dealt, notwithstanding, They profaned themselves
in that very thing which was prescribed to them for the preserving of the
honour of their singularity: Judah has married the daughter of a strange
god. The harm was not so much that she was the daughter of a strange
nation (God has made all nations of men, and is himself King of
nations), but that she was the daughter of a strange god, trained up in
the service and worship of false gods, at their disposal, as a daughter at
her father's disposal, and having a dependence upon them; hence some of the
rabbin (quoted by Dr. Pocock) say, He that marries a heathen woman is as
if he made himself son-in-law to an idol. The corruption of the old
world began with the intermarriages of the sons of God with the daughters
of men, Gen. vi. 2. It is the same thing that is here complained of, but
as it is expressed it sounds worse: The sons of God married the daughters
of a strange god. Herein Judah is said to have dealt treacherously,
for they basely betrayed their own honour and profaned that holiness
of the Lord which they should have loved (so some read it); and
it is said to be an abomination committed in Israel and in Jerusalem;
it was hateful to God, and very unbecoming those that were called by his
name. Note, it is an abominable thing for those who profess the holiness of
the Lord to profane it, particularly by yoking themselves unequally with
unbelievers.
(3.) How severely God would reckon with them for it (v. 12): The
Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, that marries the daughter of
a strange god. He has, in effect, cut himself off from the holy nation, and
joined in with foreigners and aliens to the commonwealth of Israel,
and so shall his doom be; God will cut him off, him and all that belongs
to him; so the original intimates. He shall be cut off from Israel and
from Jerusalem, and not be written among the living there. The Lord
will cut off both the master and the scholar, that are guilty of this
sin, both the teachers and the taught. The blind leaders and the blind
followers shall fall together into the ditch, both him that wakeneth
and him that answereth (so it is in the margin), for the master calls
up his scholar to his business, and stirs him up in it. They shall be cut
off together out of the tabernacles of Jacob. God will no more own
them as belonging to his nation; nay, and the priest that offers an
offering to the Lord, if he marry a strange wife (as we find many of the
priests did, Ezra x. 18), shall not escape; the offering he offers shall not
atone for him, but he shall be cut off from the temple of the Lord, as
others from the tabernacles of Jacob. Nehemiah chased away from him,
and from the priesthood, one of the sons of the high priest, whom he found
guilty of this sin, Neh. xiii. 28.
2. In contempt of the marriage-covenant, which God instituted for the common
benefit of mankind, they abused and put away the wives they had of their own
nation, probably to make room for those strange wives, when it was all the
fashion to marry such (v. 13): This also have you done; this
is the second article of the charge. For the way of sin is down-hill, and
one violation of the covenant is an inlet to another.
(1.) Let us see what it is that is here complained of. they did not behave
as they ought to have done towards their wives. [1.] They were cross with
them, froward and peevish, and made their lives bitter to them, so that when
they came with their wives and families to worship God at the solemn feasts,
which they should have done with rejoicing, they were all out of humour; the
poor wives were ready to break their hearts, and, not daring to make their
case known to any other, they complained to God, and covered the altar of
the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying. This is illustrated
by the instance of Hannah, who, upon the account of her husband's having
another wife (though otherwise a kind husband), and the discontent thence
arising, whenever they went up to the house of the Lord to worship fretted
and wept, and was in bitterness of soul, and would not eat,
1 Sam. i. 6, 7, 10. So it was with these wives here; and this was so
contrary to the cheerfulness which God requires in his worshippers that it
spoiled the acceptableness of their devotions: God regards not their
offering any more. See here what a good Master we serve, who will not
have his altar covered with tears, but compassed with songs. This condemns
those who left his worship for that of idols, among the rites of which we
find women weeping for Tammuz (Ezek. viii. 14), and the blood of the
worshippers gushing out upon the altar, 1 Kings xviii. 28. See also what a
wicked thing it is to put others out of frame for the cheerful worship of
God; though it is their fault by their fretfulness to indispose themselves
for their duty, yet it is much more the fault of those who provoked them
to make them to fret. It is a reason given why yoke-fellows should live
in holy love and joy--that their prayers may not be hindered, 1 Pet.
iii. 7. [2.] They dealt treacherously with them, v. 14-16. They did
not perform their promises to them, but defrauded them of their maintenance
or dower, or took in concubines, to share in the affection that was due to
their wives only. [3.] They put them away, gave them a bill of
divorce, and turned them off, nay, perhaps they did it without the ceremony
that the law of Moses prescribed, v. 16. [4.] In all this they
covered violence with their garment; they abused their wives, and were
vexatious to them, and yet, in the sight of others, they pretended to be
very loving to them and tender of them, and to cast a skirt over them. It is
common for those who do violence to advance some specious pretence or other
wherewith to cover it as with a garment.
(2.) Let us see the proof and aggravations of the charge. [1.] It is
sufficiently proved by the testimony of God himself: "The Lord has
been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth (v. 14), has
been witness to the marriage-covenant between thee and her, for to him you
appealed concerning your sincerity in it and fidelity to it; he has been a
witness to all the violations of it, and all thy treacherous dealings in
contempt of it, and is ready to judge between thee and her." Note, This
should engage us to be faithful both to God and to all with whom we have to
do, that God himself is a witness both to all our covenants and to all our
covenant-breaches; and he is a witness against whom there lies no exception.
[2.] It is highly aggravated by the consideration of the person wronged and
abused. First, "She is thy wife; thy own, bone of thy
bone and flesh of thy flesh, the nearest to thee of all the relations thou
hast in the world, and to cleave to whom thou must quit the rest." Secondly,
"She is the wife of thy youth, who had thy affections when they
were at the strongest, was thy first choice, and with whom thou hast lived
long. Let not the darling of thy youth be the scorn and loathing of thy
age." Thirdly, "She is thy companion; she has long
been an equal sharer with thee in thy cares, and griefs, and joys." The
wife is to be looked upon, not as a servant, but as a companion to the
husband, with whom he should freely converse and take sweet counsel,
as with a friend, and in whose company he should take delight more than in
any other's; for is she not appointed to be thy companion?
Fourthly, "She is the wife of thy covenant, to whom thou art
so firmly bound that, while she continues faithful, thou canst not be loosed
from her, for it was a covenant for life. It is the wife with whom thou hast
covenanted, and who has covenanted with thee; there is an oath of God
between you, which is not to be trifled with, is not to be played fast and
loose with." Married people should often call to mind their
marriage-vows, and review them with all seriousness, as those that make
conscience of performing what they promised.
(3.) Let us see the reasons given why man and wife should continue together,
to their lives' end, in holy love and peace, and neither quarrel with each
other nor separate from each other. [1.] Because god has joined them
together (v. 15): Did not he make one, one Eve for one Adam,
that Adam might never take another to her to vex her (Lev. xviii.
18), nor put her away to make room for another? It is great wickedness to
complain of the law of marriage as a confinement, when Adam in innocency, in
honour, in Eden, in the garden of pleasure, was confined to one. Yet God
had the residue of the Spirit; he could have made another Eve, as
amiable as that he did make, but, designing Adam a help meet for him,
he made him one wife; had he made him more, he would not have had a meet
help. And wherefore did he make but one woman for one man? It was that
he might seek a godly seed--a seed of God (so the word is), a
seed that should bear the image of God, be employed in the service of God,
and be devoted to his glory and honour,--that every man having his own
wife, and but one, according to the law, (1 Cor. vii. 2), they
might live in chaste and holy love, under the directions and restraints of
the divine law, and not, as brute beasts, under the dominion of lust, and
thus might propagate the nature of man in such a way as might make it most
likely to participate of a divine nature,--that the children, being born in
holy matrimony, which is an ordinance of God, and by which the inclinations
of nature are kept under the regulations of God's command, might thus be
made a seed to serve him, and be bred, as they are born, under his
direction and dominion. Note, The raising up of a godly seed, which shall be
accounted to the Lord for a generation, is one great end of the
institution of marriage; but that is a good reason why the marriage-bed
should be kept undefiled and the marriage bond inviolable. Husbands and
wives must therefore live in the fear of God, that their seed may be
a godly seed, else were they unclean, but now they are holy, as
children of the covenant, the marriage-covenant, which was a type of the
covenant of grace, and the conjugal union, when thus preserved entire, of
the mystical union between Christ and his church, in which he seeks and
secures to himself a godly seed; see Eph. v. 25, 32. [2.] Because he is much
displeased with those who go about to put asunder what he has joined
together (v. 16): The God of Israel saith that he hateth
putting away. He hath indeed permitted it to the Jews, for the
hardness of their hearts, or, rather, limited and clogged it (Matt. xix.
8); but he hated it, especially as those practised it who put away
their wives for every cause, Matt. xix. 3. Let those wives that elope
from their husbands and put themselves away, those husbands that are cruel
to their wives and turn them away, or take their affections off from their
wives and place them upon others, yea, and those husbands and wives that
live asunder by consent, for want of love to each other, let such as these
know that the God of Israel hates such practices, however vain men may make
a jest of them.
(4.) Let us see the caution inferred from all this. We have it twice (v.
15): Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously
against the wife of his youth; and again, v. 16. Note, Those that
would be kept from sin must take heed to their spirits, for there all
sin begins; they must keep their hearts with all diligence, must keep a
jealous eye upon them and a strict hand, and must watch against the first
risings of sin there. We shall act as we are spirited; and therefore, that
we may regulate our actions, we must consider what manner of spirit we
are of; we must take heed to our spirits with reference to our
particular relations, and see that we stand rightly affected to them and be
of a good temper, for otherwise we shall be in danger of dealing
treacherously. If our own hearts deal treacherously with us, whom will they
not deal treacherously with?
II. Observe how corrupt their principles were, to which were owing all these
corrupt practices. Let us trace up the streams to the fountain (v.
17): You have wearied the Lord with your words. They thought to evade
the convictions of the word, and to justify themselves by cavilling with
God's proceedings; but their defence was their offence, and their
vindication of themselves was the aggravation of their crime; they affronted
the Lord with their words, and repeated them so often, and persisted so long
in their contradictions, that they even wearied him; see Isa. vii.
13. They made him weary of doing them good as he had done, and stopped the
current of his favours; or they represented him as weary of governing the
world, and willing to quit it and lay aside the care of it. Note, It is a
wearisome thing, even to God himself, to hear people insist upon their own
justification in their corrupt and wicked practices, and plead their
atheistical principles in vindication of them. But, as if God by his prophet
had done them wrong, see how impudently they ask, Wherein have we wearied
him? What are those vexatious words whereby we have wearied him? Note,
Sinful words are more offensive to the God of heaven than they are commonly
thought to be. But God has his proofs ready; two things they had said, at
least in their hearts (and thoughts are words to God), with which they had
wearied him:-- 1. They had denied him to be a holy God, and had asserted
that concerning him which is directly contrary to the doctrine of his
holiness. As he is a holy God, he hates sin, is of purer eyes than to
behold it, and cannot endure to look upon it, Hab. i. 13. He is
not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, Ps. v. 4. And yet they had
the impudence to say, in direct contradiction to this, Every one that
does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.
This wicked inference they drew, without any reason, from the prosperity of
sinners in their sinful courses (see ch. iii. 15), as if God's love
or hatred were to be known by that which is before us, and those must be
concluded good in the sight of the Lord who are rich in the world. Or
this they said because they wished it might be so; they were resolved to do
evil, and yet to think themselves good in the sight of the Lord,
and to believe that he delighted in them, notwithstanding; and
therefore, under pretence of making God not so severe as he was commonly
represented, they said as they would have it, and thought he was altogether
such a one as themselves. Note, Those who think God a friend to sin
affront him and deceive themselves. 2. They had denied him to be the
righteous governor of the world. If he did not delight in sin and sinners,
yet it would serve their turn to believe that he would never punish it or
them. They said, "Where is the God of judgment? That God who, we
have been so often told, would call us to an account, and reckon with us for
what we have said and done--where is he? He has forsaken the earth, and
takes no notice of what is said and done there; he has said that he will come
to judgment; but where is the promise of his coming? We may do
what we please; he sees us not, nor will regard us." It is such a
challenge to the Judge of the whole earth as bids defiance to his justice,
and, in effect, dares him to do his worst. Such scoffers as these
there were in the latter days of the Jewish church, and such there shall be
in the latter days of the Christian church; but their unbelief shall not
make the promise of God of no effect; for the day of the Lord will come. Behold,
the Judge stands before the door; the God of judgment is at hand.
