Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you.
God in ways of judgment
Here is a summons to all sorts of judgment. Three classes are named, “priests, people, house of the king.” All sorts are cited to judgment, for corruption was gone over all.
1. When God comes in ways of judgment, He expects we should seriously incline our minds to what He is doing. We should not only “hear,” but “hearken,” and “give ear.” We are bound to hearken and to give ear to God’s commanding word; but if we refuse it, He will have us to hear and give ear to His threatening word; and if that be refused, He will force us to hear and give ear to His condemning word.
2. Generality in sins is no means to escape God’s judgments. With men “one and all” is a word of security. Men think, I do but as others do, and I shall escape as well as they. With men this is somewhat, with God it is nothing; though all sorts offend, yet there is never a whir the more security thereby unto any.
3. The priests have usually been the causes of all the wickedness in, and judgments on, a nation.
4. The people will usually go the way the king and priests go. But they are not to be excused on this ground.
5. Kings and princes must have sin charged upon them, and be made to know that they are under the threats of God, as well as others. The charge is not on evil counsellors, but on the house of the king itself. Evil princes may be as great a cause why there are evil counsellors, as evil counsellors why there are evil princes. Evil counsellors usually see what the design of a prince is, and what is suitable to his disposition, and they cherish that with their wicked counsels.
6. Though kings are to be reproved for sin, some due respect ought to be shown to them.
7. When God pleads against us, let us not disregard. If we do so when He begins to plead His cause with us, if we neglect it because judgment is not upon us, it will proceed to a sentence. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
Nets to catch souls
How cunningly have men laid such nets! They say it is but yielding a little to a thing enjoined by authority; besides, it is really unimportant, and is countenanced by the example of many learned and godly men; yea, and why should you hinder yourself of the good you may do? It is after all a mere matter of circumstance connected with decency and order, and consistent with much devotion, and by yielding as far as we can, we may gain papists; none but a company of simple people oppose these ancient customs, which can plead the precedent of the fathers of the Church, yea, of many martyrs who have shed their blood. Thus many souls have been caught, as a bird in a snare, with these lines and twigs thus cunningly twisted together; and so caught that they could not tell how to get out, but being once involved in the meshes were ensnared more and more: as a bird once caught in the net, by its very flutterings is the more entangled; so men, when they yielded a little, could not tell where to stop, but at last have gone so far, and been so completely ensnared as to be wholly unable to extricate them selves, but by their very efforts have become more deeply involved. And the truth is, at length even their consciences have ceased to disquiet them: as a bird, that is perhaps at first alarmed when the net is but stirred, after a while loses its fear. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Mizpah and Tabor
Mizpah, the scene of the solemn covenant of Jacob with Laban, and of his signal protection by God, lay in the mountainous part of Gilead on the east of Jordan. Tabor was the well known (traditional) mountain of the Transfiguration, which rises out of the midst of the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, about a thousand feet high, and in the form of a sugar loaf. Of Mount Tabor it is related by St. Jerome that birds were still snared upon it. But something more seems intended than the mere likeness of birds taken in the snare of the fowler. This was to be seen everywhere. The prophet has selected places on both sides of Jordan, which were probably centres of corruption, or special scenes of wickedness. Mizpah, being a sacred place in the history of the patriarch Jacob, was probably, like Gilgal, and other sacred places, desecrated by idolatry. Tabor was the scene of God’s deliverance by Barak. There, by encouraging idolatries, they became hunters, not pastors, of souls. There is an old Jewish tradition that liers in wait were set in these two places to intercept and murder those Israelites who persisted in going up to worship at Jerusalem. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
God’s judicial process and sentence
The plain meaning is, that as fowlers and hunters lay snares and nets for birds and beasts on the mountains of Israel; so their priests and rulers, by their erroneous doctrine, fraudulent counsels, subtle edicts, and profane example, and countenancing of sin, deceived the people, and ensnared them to follow idolatry. Doctrine--
1. There is no rank, but they will be found to have guiltiness to lay to heart, in a time when God pleads a controversy with a land.
2. As the Word of God doth reach and oblige all ranks of persons, be in what eminency they will; and as the Lord’s faithful servants must preach against the sins of all, without respect of person; so the general overspreading of sin is no way to escape judgments, but rather to hasten them.
3. When God is coming against a people in judgment, it concerns them to be very serious in considering what He saith from His Word; and He will at last force audience and attention from the most stubborn.
4. The Lord’s contending with His people by His Word is not an ordinary challenge, as of one displeased only, but the judicial procedure and sentence of the Supreme Judge.
5. God may testify much of His anger against a people, in the teachers and rulers He gives them, as being fit means to ripen them for judgment.
6. Subtle snares and insinuations are more dangerous for drawing men wrong than open violences.
7. It is a great sin in men when they prove a snare to others, or by their insinuations, example, or policy, draw them to sin against God. (George Hutcheson.)