None shall deliver her out of My hand.
The Lord’s sentence
I. Taking away things necessary to life, Learn--
1. However the Lord communicate of His bounty with the children of men, yet He still retains the dominion of all the creatures in His own hand, that He may dispose of them at His pleasure.
2. Men’s abuse of prosperity, especially to uphold a false religion, doth justly forefault their right thereunto before God, and doth provoke Him to take away abused mercies.
3. As God’s former bounty will not secure pros perity to the abusers of it, so He will take it away when it promises fairest, as when it is come to the harvest.
4. As outward mercies are given for the supply of necessities, and not for fostering of luxury, so it is a special cause of God’s stroke that men do so far miscarry, because of that, without which they would be so vile. These things were given to cover her nakedness, and she would be vile without them. Yet she abused them, and therefore God will take them away.
II. Making her vileness appear to her lovers. Learn--
1. How right soever sinners may appear to themselves or others in their prosperity, yet God will, by judgments, make it appear how lewd and vile their way hath been.
2. God is so strong a party as when He contends with sinners, all their confidences in idolatry, false worship, or confederates, will fail them, and not be able to help them.
3. Idolatry, and abuse of prosperity to uphold it, doth ripen a visible Church for very speedy destruction.
III. Cutting short mirth and worship. Learn--
1. Sin and mirth will not last long together, but were there never so much of mirth, sin will cut it all short.
2. God will not be mocked with external performances of solemn worship to Him, when they join gross idolatry with them.
IV. Destruction even of the sources of blessing. Not only their fruits, but the trees they grew upon. Learn--
1. Spiritual judgments and deprivation of ordinances will have but little weight with wicked men, unless some other rod be sent with them.
2. Such is the desperate stupidity and obstinacy of declining sinners, as no cutting off of present enjoyments will affect them, unless their future expectations be cut off likewise.
3. As God doth not cut off enjoyments from sinners, but when they do abuse them, so we should take heed of God’s quarrel under calamities, and especially the abuse of prosperity, in not acknowledging God, but strengthening ourselves in an ill way, because of it. (George Hutcheson.)
God’s punishments are just
Whenever God deals severely with men, He visits their sins, and inflicts a just punishment. For though men may consider themselves to be chastised by the Lord, they yet do not thoroughly search and examine themselves as they ought. Hence the prophet repeats what we have before met with, and that is, that this chastisement would be just. At the same time, he shows us as by the finger what chiefly displeased God in the Israelites, which was, that religion was corrupted by them: for there is nothing more necessary to be known, than that in order men may ever habituate themselves to worship God in a pure manner, this should be testified to them, that all superstitions are such an abomination to God that He cannot bear them. (John Calvin.)