We lie down in our shame— "God has justly abandoned us to our confusion: he has permitted, that the worship of those idols which we have adored, should serve only to throw us into a condition deplorable as death; into captivity, exile, and oppression." See Calmet.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, When for our sin we deserve to be abandoned, our God is merciful, and not willing that any should perish, as here most eminently appears.
1. Their iniquities were great, numberless, and aggravated. Like the most infamous prostitute, thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, multiplying their idols as their cities, chap. Jeremiah 11:13 and not a high place was in the land where their spiritual adulteries had not been committed. Nay, they had courted others to join them, as a vile prostitute sits by the way, soliciting the traveller; or as the Arabian robber, lying in wait for his prey. Brazen against reproof, they blushed at none of their abominations; but, as if trying how wicked they could be, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest; they glorified in their wickedness, and studied to provoke God to the uttermost. Note; (1.) Lewdness indulged by degrees banishes shame; and, this last relict of virtue lost, there is no hope of recovery. (2.) The thief who lies in wait for our purse is innocent, compared with the tempter, who, by leading us into sin, would rob us of our souls. (3.) They are advanced to the summit of wickedness, who give an unbounded loose to all their appetites, and know no restraint from sin but the want of ability.
2. God would be perfectly justified in giving them up to destruction. The law was express in case of an adulteress divorced, that she could no more be restored to her husband's bed, for the land would have been polluted thereby. God might, therefore, well treat them in the same manner, by an utter rejection; especially after he had in vain chastised them, by withholding their rain in its season; and instead of repenting they continued hardened under his judgments. Note; (1.) If sinners had to do with man instead of God, all reconciliation must be despaired of. (2.) When the heart is stubborn under the rod of correction, it is much to be feared the stroke of final judgment is near.
3. Notwithstanding all that was past, God invites them to return, and directs them in the way. Return again to me, saith the Lord, which contains a gracious intimation that he was yet ready to receive them. And the chief of sinners may be assured, whenever they in penitence cry to him, that he will yet speak pardon to them; and therefore wilt thou not from this time cry unto me? after such long and treacherous departures, it is high time at last, though late, to begin; and now is the accepted time, when the invitations of mercy are pleading, and without delay to be embraced. And lest, confounded at their guilt, they should not know what to say, God puts words in their mouth, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth; as returning prodigals, unworthy to be called children, yet hoping to find in God a merciful father; and as those who, since they have left him, have ever erred and wandered to and fro in misery, and therefore desire to be taken under his care, and henceforward, as in the days of youth, to be guided by his will and word. Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? No; he is God, and not man; and as his majesty is, such is his mercy to all that will return unto him. Note; (1.) If a sense of God's grace does not engage the sinner's heart to return, nothing can. (2.) They who begin to be sensible of their departures from God, will be importunate on their knees, to be restored to his forfeited favours. (3.) Whatever fears unbelief may suggest, God is a father, whose tender compassions fail not; and we may confidently trust in his mercy, if we will but return unto him.
2nd, Josiah heartily laboured after the reformation of the people; and the prophet, with his sermons, seconded his pious design; but we find that the labours of both were ineffectual. The kingdom of Judah was become apostate as the kingdom of Israel, and must shortly share her fate.
1. The sin and ruin of backsliding Israel are observed. The prophet, in the history of that kingdom, had seen their miserable end about ninety years before. They first revolted from David's successors, and then left God's worship for idolatry; not only in Dan and Bethel, but on every mountain and under every green tree their spiritual adulteries were committed. In vain the prophets warned, in vain the patience of God waited, in vain were all his gracious invitations to return; they persisted in their impenitence, and that produced their ruin: God gave them a divorce; thrust them out of his protection, and then they were quickly enslaved, and became a prey to their enemies. Note; Backsliders shall sooner or later be filled with their own ways, and rue their own choice.
2. Judah took no warning by the judgment. She is called her treacherous sister, sprung from the same stock of Jacob, and, though affecting to cleave to God's temple and worship, false and faithless in her professions. Instead of being awed or reformed by her sister's ruin, she plunged into the same sins, and played the harlot also. As abominable as ever Israel had been, she defiled the land, and with such base gods as stocks and stones committed adultery. Yea, notwithstanding the efforts made by the gracious monarch Josiah, and those who assisted him in the work, though for a time the people outwardly appeared reformed, their hearts were as unrenewed as ever, and their professions utterly hypocritical. Note; (1.) Appearances may impose upon men, but God trieth the heart. (2.) Hypocrisy is among the greatest sins, and the falsehearted professor may expect to meet an avenging God, as much as the abandoned profligate. (3.) They who will not take warning by others' falls, are hastening to their own ruin.
3. God justifies backsliding Israel more than treacherous Judah. The latter had greater means, greater warnings, and made greater professions, therefore their guilt was more aggravated. This does not excuse Israel, but it adds to Judah's iniquities. Note; The more we have received from God of mercies and means, the heavier will be our judgment if we have neglected and abused them.
3rdly, Seldom do the prophets proclaim any singular mercies to the Jewish people, but they intersperse some glorious promises of that mercy of all mercies, the coming of the Redeemer, to set up his church universally in the world, to be the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel. We have,
1. An invitation to Israel to return. This must be proclaimed towards the north, where now they were captives: Return, thou backsliding Israel, Jeremiah 3:12 and again, turn, O backsliding children, Jeremiah 3:14.—he is merciful, and therefore there is hope. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, and what less can be enjoined? yea, how can we do otherwise, when we reflect confounded on the past? that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, which relation to him aggravates their guilt; and every penitent sinner desires never to extenuate his sins, but to behold them in all their malignity; and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, committing idolatry as the vilest of prostitutes. Thus our particular sin must be confessed; the times place, circumstances, reflected upon with shame and horror: and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord; and such rebellion against the divine law, and rejection of God's warnings, call for deepest humiliation.
2. The great and precious promises made them to engage their return, which have a particular relation to their deliverance from captivity, when many of the ten tribes joined those of Judah and Benjamin, and embraced the proclamation of Cyrus; but they look farther, and are to be extended to all the Israel of God in Gospel-times, to all who accept of the offers of Gospel-grace, and are in consequence collected into the church of Christ.
[1.] God's anger shall remove, in consequence of their sins being forgiven, on their repentance. Note; The most powerful means to engage the soul to repent, is the promise of pardon.
[2.] They should on their penitent return be taken into the same endeared relation to God as before, for I am married unto you. Note; God not only forgives, but in some sense forgets the sins of his penitent people: they are in respect to guilt as if they had never been committed.
[3.] God will bring them to Zion, into the Gospel-church. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, a precious number would accept of proffered mercy—of Gospel-grace.
[4.] God will give them pastors after his own heart, to feed them with knowledge and understanding; and under such gracious ministrations the souls of the faithful will grow in grace and in meetness for glory. Note; (1.) They are no pastors who intrude into the ministry without a divine call, but wolves in sheep's cloathing. (2.) Christ's true ministers resemble their master in zeal, charity, and labour; the same mind is in them, and by their fruits ye shall know them. (3.) God's word is the food with which Christ's flock must be fed; and every pastor must be a wise householder, thoroughly acquainted with these sacred stores, and skilful to produce what is most suited to the variety of the wants of those to whom he ministers.
[5.] The typical and ceremonial institutions shall be all abolished. Christ, who is the sum and substance of them, being come, the ark, which was of old their glory, should be no more esteemed or remembered, when the church should be increased, and the Messiah's kingdom be set up.
[6.] The church of God, adorned with his presence and the accession of the Gentiles, would be more glorious, and more resorted to, than the temple with its Shechinah, and Jerusalem in the most frequented solemnities. They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, where his glory eminently appears, and his government is with delight obeyed; and all the nations shall be gathered into it from the Gentile lands; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart, being effectually turned from idols to serve the living and true God. Note; Our hearts are evil, very evil; yea, the imaginations of them only evil, till, by divine grace renewed, God gives a new heart, and puts a right spirit within us.
[7.] All enmity between Israel and Judah shall cease. They shall be united in affection, and become one people; and this was the case after their return from Babylon, and prefigured the union of Jews and Gentiles, and that perfect harmony which shall subsist between them when joined in the same body, of which Christ is the living Head.
3. Though on their part they were utterly unworthy of these mercies, yet God directs them what to plead for, and will accept it on their return. How shall I put thee among the children? so undeserving as they were of the relation, and of all the great blessings provided, of a pleasant land, and goodly heritage of the hosts of nations who possessed it, till God cast them out, to make room for his people. Of such favours they might well despair; but he proposes to them a way for overcoming the objections drawn from their unworthiness, consistent with his own glory. Thou shalt call me, My Father, returning in faith to him, through the Son of his love, and shalt not turn away from me, but approve henceforward their fidelity unshaken. Note; (1.) When we consider what we are by nature, and what we have been in practice, we may well wonder how it is possible that God should ever put us among his children. (2.) When by faith we truly turn to God, the vilest sinners and the foulest backsliders shall be advanced to the transcendant dignity of being counted the sons of God.
4thly, According to God's gracious invitation, we have Israel's penitent return. Like an adulterous wife, who had eloped from her husband, so had they departed from God; but now they begin to be convinced of their guilt and danger, and lament them.
1. They openly and aloud bewail their iniquities, on those high places before the scene of their abominations, and with tears in prayer acknowledge that they have perverted their way, and forgotten the Lord their God. Note; (1.) When do we so much need that our head should be waters, and our eyes a fountain of tears, as when we remember our past rebellions against, and ingratitude towards the blessed God?
(2.) Forgetfulness of God is at the root of all our sins. (3.) When the sinner is driven to a throne of grace, to unbosom his bitter anguish, he will ever find a God that heareth prayer.
2. God graciously invites them to come to him, backsliding children as they had been, and promises on their return to heal their backslidings and restore them again to his grace and favour. Note; (1.) God is more willing to hear than we to pray; and not a tear falls from the eye of his penitents, but it is noted in his book. (2.) The sinner's backslidings are then healed, when God pardons the past, and by his grace renews the heart, and stamps his image on the soul.
3. Genuine penitents earnestly and instantly accept his call, and echo back, Behold we come unto thee, without delay, without reserve; for thou art the Lord our God; yea, they will soon be enabled to add, late our offended but now our reconciled God, in whose favour we have a sure interest, to whose service we devote ourselves, and on whom alone our dependance is placed. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: their idol-gods and human-confidences they now renounce, convinced of their vanity and insufficiency. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel: out of him there is no salvation; in him there is all sufficiency to save to the uttermost; and as our God we may be assured of his power and grace to interpose on our behalf. While thus they express their confidence in him, they own their sin and shame, especially their idolatry, which they and their fathers had committed, and the dreadful consequences of which they felt to their confusion, in the curse of God upon all the labour of their hands, on their families and possessions; and own that the visitation was altogether righteous, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God. Note; (1.) Penitent sinners ever take shame and confusion of face to themselves, and justify God in his judgments. (2.) The sense of our own great unworthiness must not discourage us from exercising faith on the divine promises. (3.) There is a salvation wrought out for sinners, by which the most desperate may still find mercy through a Redeemer, and a reconciled God. (4.) When we return to Christ, we must renounce all other confidences, and make mention of his strength and righteousness only.