The beasts, &c.—the pastures— Every one of the beasts cries, &c.—the pleasant places.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The prophet opens his discourse,
1. With an address to all the inhabitants of Judea, old and young, whose attention he demands to the message that he was about to deliver: a message of judgment, such as the oldest could not remember, nor the tradition of former ages produce; and which ought to be handed down to the latest posterity, that, warned by the sufferings of their forefathers, they may avoid their sins.
2. The judgment itself is an invasion from a terrible enemy; and is by many applied to the Assyrians, who ravaged and desolated the country; but may literally be better referred to the armies of locusts and other insects, which, in swarms succeeding each other, devoured all the fruits of the earth, and left the whole land barren as the scorched desert. Despicable as they might seem apart, their multitudes made them formidable: not the ravages of the lions from the forest could be more fatal: not only the vine-leaves are eaten up, but the very fig-trees are barked and destroyed by them. Note; God never wants instruments of vengeance: the most insignificant insect can in his hand be made the severest scourge; and a locust terrible as a lion.
3. The drunkards are admonished to lament the judgment which their sins had provoked, and by which they would be particularly affected, because the new wine is cut off from their mouths. And justly does God punish those who abuse his favours, by depriving them of their good things, and leaving them in want and wretchedness to lament their baseness.
2nd, The whole nation, deeply affected with the calamity, is called upon to mourn in sackcloth, as a virgin who is robbed of her betrothed spouse, on whom her warmest affections were fixed, and whose loss fills her heart with bitterest anguish. Note; They who are wedded to worldly comforts find it death to part from them.
The corn, wine, and oil, are perished; the trees stripped of leaves and fruit, and withered away; the very earth looks dark, and mourneth over the desolations; because joy is withered away from the sons of men; the songs of harvest and the shouting of the vintage are silent, and nothing is heard but howling and groans. Particularly,
1. The husbandmen and vine-dressers are called to bewail the dreadful devastations: their labours are ruined, their hopes disappointed, themselves and families left to pine in want, and perish by famine.
2. The priests of the sanctuary are commanded to join the general cry, and mourn over the deserted altars, where no sacrifice smoked, no oblation was presented. They are called ministers of the altar, as bound to a constant attendance there; and ministers of my God, this being their distinguished honour; and the motive to their indefatigable labour. They would now be peculiar sufferers, and be destitute of that maintenance with which the altar used to supply them; but a nobler concern must fill their minds, and grief to see God's worship neglected must swallow up every other concern which is merely their own. Note; A true minister of the Gospel has God's glory more at heart than every other consideration: compared with this, he counts not even his own life dear unto himself.
3rdly, To avert the heavy wrath upon them, the prophet points out to them the properest means to be pursued. As their sufferings came from God's displeasure, to remove this must be their first concern.
1. Let a solemn fast be proclaimed, a day of deep humiliation sanctified and set apart; that with united supplications they might surround the throne of grace; and while by a strict abstinence from meat and drink they acknowledged themselves unworthy of every mercy, and, prostrate in the courts of the Lord's house, confessed the justice of the judgments that he had inflicted, they might with prayers and tears cry unto a pardoning God, that sin, the cause of their calamity, being forgiven, their sufferings, the dire effects thereof, might be removed, Note; (1.) National judgments call for national humiliation. (2.) When we are found in God's appointed ways, we may humbly hope that he will meet us in mercy. (3.) Affliction then answers the end for which it was sent, when it brings us to our knees, and raises the cry of fervent importunate prayer.
2. Abundant reason there is for this humiliation.
[1.] What they suffered already was grievous. If they looked into their garners, they were empty; if to God's house, no sacrifice or oblation was seen; if to the country, desolate it mourned, the seed under the clod is rotten, and the very beasts groan, perplexed for want of food, and pining away. Note; (1.) How terrible is famine: how thankful ought we to be for the great plenty that we in general enjoy; and how should we fear to provoke God, by our abuse of his mercies to withhold them! (2.) The very earth mourns, the very beasts groan under men's sins; and shall we ourselves be the only insensible beings in the whole creation?
[2.] What they feared was yet more terrible: for the day of the Lord is at hand. What they felt was but the beginning of sorrows, and a foretaste of the greater evil approaching; as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come; which may refer to the ruin of the nation at first by the Chaldeans, or afterwards by the Romans, sent to punish them for their iniquities by Jehovah, whose arm of omnipotence is irresistible. And, more generally, this may be applied to every sinner, whose judgment advances, whose damnation slumbereth not, whose everlasting destruction is at the door; unless he repent without delay, he perishes eternally. Well, therefore, may we cry, Alas for the day!
3. The prophet urges them hereunto by the examples before them.
[1.] His own. O Lord, to thee will I cry: as deeply affected with their sins and their sufferings, he earnestly addresses his prayer to God; to him who wounds, and alone is able to heal; the fire of whose wrath, whatever instruments were employed, had almost consumed them; and He only, who had kindled, could quench it. Note; They who call others to fasting and prayer, must themselves lead the way.
[2.] Of the beasts. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee; with sounds inarticulate indeed, but which the Lord can hear and pity. They are parched with thirst and famished with hunger; for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, scorched up with the excessive drought. Note; The very lowing of the oxen, yea, the ravens' cries, shall rise up in judgment to reproach the stupidity of the sinner who restrains prayer before God.