For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned.
A great privilege, wickedness, and ruin
I. A great national privilege. We learn herefrom that the Infinite Governor of the world had given them at least three great advantages, political freedom, right to the]and, and the highest spiritual teaching. He had given them,
1. Political freedom. For ages they had been in political bondage, the mere slaves of despots; but here we are told that God had “brought them out of the land of Egypt.” Political freedom is the inalienable right of all men, is one of the greatest blessings of a people, but one which in every age has been outraged by despots. The millions are groaning in every land still under political disabilities. He had given them--
2. A right to the land. Canaan was the common right of all; true, it was divided amongst the ten tribes, but this not for the private interests of shy, but for the good of all.
3. The highest spiritual teaching.
II. A great national wickedness. Possessing all these privileges, how acted these people--not merely the people of Israel, but the people of Judah as well? Was the sentiment of worship and justice regnant within them? Were they loyal to all that is beautiful, true, and good? Nay.
1. They rejected God.
2. They adopted idols, Mark
(1) the earnestness of their idolatry. With what unremitting zeal they promoted the cause of idolatry. Mark
(2) the cruelty of their idolatry. “And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire.”
III. Great national ruin.
1. Their ruin involved the entire loss of their country (verse 23).
2. Their ruin involved the loss of their national existence (verse 18). The ten tribes are gone, and no one knows whether they are now worth looking after, for they were a miserable type of humanity.
3. Their ruin involved the retributive agency of Heaven. (David Thomas, D. D.)
The need of obedience to God’s laws
Charles M. Sheldon says he was once called upon unexpectedly to preach at an insane asylum. Be asked the superintendent what subject he would advise him to take. “Preach on the great need of obedience,” was the prompt reply. After the service, in response to Mr. Sheldon’s inquiry as to how much of the sermon was probably understood, the superintendent said: “They understood nearly all of it. Besides, you must remember that there were more than fifty of us, counting doctors and attendants, who are sane, and I don’t know but what we need the doctrine of obedience preached into us just as much as the other people. I know that disobedience to God’s laws has brought most of these people into this asylum, and the rest of us are in danger of the same end if we do not learn to obey the commands of God.”
Following others in sin
Mr. Romanes, who has specially studied the minds of animals, says that we may infer intelligence in an animal whenever we see it able to profit by its own experience. But is it not the sign of a higher intelligence, that we are able to profit by the experience of others. This is the reason why history is written with so much elaboration, and studied with so much solicitude. But men, on a wide scale, disregard this history and refuse the solemn lessons. Men follow one another in sin as they do in nothing else. Baxter tells how he once saw a man driving a flock of lambs, and something meeting and hindering them, one of the lambs leaped on the wall of a bridge and fell over into the river; whereupon the rest of the flock, one by one leaped after it, and were nearly all drowned. Thus we men often act, blindly, madly, smitten by a profound infatuation we wildly follow one another, leaping into the gulf. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Confirmed sinners learn not from the past
“The burnt child dreads the fire;” it boldly trifles with sticks and papers until it is burnt or scalded, and henceforth keeps a respectful distance from the bars. This is equally true of men in their business life. Let a man speculate in some concern or other that turns out badly, people say, “Ah! he has burnt his fingers.” Now, when a man has done that, beware how you approach him with your rosy prospectuses. He has lost his money with a farm, or a bank, or a mine, or a mill; do not go to him with a farm, even were it in the land of Goshen, or a mill, even were it the mint, or a bank even were it the Bank of England. He will show you his blisters, and send you away with scant courtesy. As the Oriental says, “He who has suffered from a fire-brand is afraid of a firefly;” “He who has been bitten by a serpent is afraid of a rope,” a victim is afraid of anything that bears the most distant likeness to that from which he has suffered. This is rational--if a man acts otherwise it is because he is a fool But men are not thus cautious in regard to the moral life. (W. L. Watkinson.)