Verses 1-3. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Go and cry in
the ears of Jerusalem saying, Thus saith the LORD: I remember thee, the
kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after
me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto
the LORD, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shalt
offend; evil shall come upon then, saith the LORD.
God reminds his people of what they used to be in their first days, when
they came out of Egypt. They had very sadly declined from what they then
were. They were none too faithful to the Lord then; but they had fallen back
even from that condition. Does not this passage come home to some of you who
are not now what you once were? May the Lord graciously speak through these
words to your ear, and to your heart, if you have backslidden from him in
any degree!
4, 5. Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families
of the house of Israel: thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers
found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity,
and are become vain
What faults have you to find with God, that you have left him? What fault
have you seen in the ever-blessed Christ, that your love to him should have
grown cold?
6, 7. Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the
land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts
and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through
a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt And I brought you
into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness these
of; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an
abomination.
It is a sad charge against anybody that he forgets the care that God has
taken of him in the days of his poverty and affliction. When a man becomes
rich, and is surrounded by earthly comforts, it is a terrible thing that he
should then forget God; or that, the more God does for him, the less he
thinks of God. This is strangely ungrateful conduct, yet the children of
Israel acted thus. They were better in the wilderness,-though they were bad
enough there,-they were better in the wilderness than they were in Canaan,
better on the desert sand than they were in the land that flowed with milk
and honey. And there are some, nowadays, who were better in their poverty
than they are in their prosperity, and some who were better by a long way in
their times of sickness than they now are in their palmy days of health.
Alas, that it should be so!
8. The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law
knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets
prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
It is always ill with the people when the ministers go wrong. If the dogs do
not protect the flock, but are dumb dogs that cannot bark, what is to become
of the sheep?
9-11. Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your
children’s children will I plead. For pass over the isles of Chittim, and
see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such
a thing. Hath nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my
people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit,
God bids them go to the West, across the Mediterranean, to Chittim, that is,
probably Cyprus, or to go to the East, away there to Kedar, or Arabia, and
see whether any Gentile nation ever changed its gods, which really were no
gods. “And yet,” says the Lord, “here is a people that knew the one having
and true God, but they have turned aside to idols: ‘My people hath changed
their glory for that which doth not profit.’“ O friend, if there is no truth
in religion, I do not wonder that you give it up! But if you ever knew its
blessed sweetness, if Christ was ever precious to you, if you did once enjoy
the gospel of his grace, how is it that you have grown cold towards it, and
declined from its ways?
12, 13. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye
very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people hare committed two evils; they
have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold-no water.
To go away from the flowing fountain to the stagnant waters of a cistern, is
great folly; but to go and hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water,
but merely mock your thirst, is madness of the worst kind.
14. Israel a servant is he a home born slave? why is he spoiled?
God made him to be his son, not his slave; but Israel went aside from God,
and so became a slave, being carried away into captivity by the very nation
whose gods the chosen people worshipped.
15, 16. The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land
waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of Noph
and Tuhapanes have broken the crown of thy head.
The Israelites went and worshipped idols, and then the very nations whose
gods they worshipped invaded the land, and broke the crown of their head, or
made them bald, which was to the Jews a mark of mourning or of disgrace.
17. Hast thou not procured this-unto thyself, in that thou least forsaken
the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
You who are depressed in soul, you who have grown spiritually poor, you who
are in great trouble of heart, listen: “Hast thou not procured this unto
thyself?” Didst thou not make the rod for thine own back by going away from
thy God? It was well enough with thee when thou didst trust in him; but now
that thou hast turned aside from him, all these evils have come upon thee.
“Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken
Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way?”,
18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of
Sihor?
“The waters of the Nile;” or, as it may be read, “the waters of that muddy
river.” The Israelites had suffered so much during their long captivity in
Egypt, that one would have thought they would never have wanted to go near
the house of bondage again: “What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to
drink the waters of Sihor?”
18. Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of
the river?
You are trying to find pleasure in the world, you are going to the resorts
of sin, to seek amusement there. If thou art a child of God, “What hast thou
to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou
to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?” What doest
thou there, Elijah? Thou hast lost the comforts of religion by thy
backsliding; and now thou art trying to make up for them by going into the
world’s gaiety. It will never do; thou canst never fill thy belly with the
husks that the swine do eat. If thou wert one of the swine, thou mightest do
so; but if thou art thy Father’s son, it is only the bread in his house that
will satisfy thy hungry soul.
19-25. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shalt
reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter,
that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee,
saith the Lord GOD of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and
burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every
high hill and under every green tree then wanderest, playing the harlot. Yet
I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou
turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? For though thou
wash thee with nitre, and take thee much hope, yet thine iniquity is marked
before me, saith the Lord GOD, how canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have
not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done:
thou art a swift dromedary traversing her -ways; awild ass used to the
wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure: in her occasion who
can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves in her
month they shall find her. Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy
throat from thirst, but thou saidst, There is no hope no; for I have loved
strangers, and after them will I go.
God compares his erring people, in the delirium of their sin, to these wild
creatures that cannot be tamed, but are driven by their ungovernable
passions whithersoever they will. Alas, that men should be so sinful that
God can only find a parallel to them in the wild asses of the wilderness!
See, also, what despair will do for its victims. When a man says, “There is
no hope,” then he feels that for him there is no repentance. When he
believes that God will not forgive him, then he will not turn from his evil
ways. “Thou saidst, There is no hope: no, for I have loved strangers, and
after them will I go.” God save any here present who are getting into the
clutches of Giant Despair! May they know the true goodness of God, and may
that goodness lead them to repentance! Amen.
