Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people
God never forsaken without good reason
“Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people.
” The term is logical God never forsakes His people in any whimsical way: He is not a man, or a son of man, that He should treat His creatures arbitrarily, moodily, renew full of sunshine in relation to them, and now covered with great clouds, without giving any reason for the change. It is a most noticeable feature in Biblical revelation that when God forsakes men He gives the reason for abandoning them. The reason is always moral. God never leaves man because he is little, or weak, or self-distrustful, or friendless, or homeless, or broken hearted; when God forsakes man it is because man has first forsaken Him, broken His laws, defied His sword, challenged His judgment, forsaken with ungrateful abandonment the altar at which the life has received its richest blessing. So, never let us neglect the word “therefore” in reading concerning Divine judgments. God will never forsake the life that trusts Him. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A forsaken people
Read: “for Thou hast cast off. .. they strike hands” (make alliances) “with the children of strangers.” (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)
God claims the sole sovereignty of the life
When we are forsaken it is because we have forsaken God. Is God to be the companion of idols? Is the Lord to be invited into darkened rooms, that He may be one of the deities of the universe, and take His place in order of seniority or of nominal superiority? Is He to be invited to compete with the fancies of the human brain for the sovereignty of human mind and the arbitrament of human destiny? Herein He is a jealous God. “The Lord alone shaft be exalted in that day.” If we make gods we must be content with the manufactures which we produce; but we never can persuade the eternal God to sit down with our wooden deities, and hold counsel with the inventions and fictions of a diseased imagination. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” “If Baal be God, serve him; if the Lord, serve Him.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
God had forsaken them as their Father and Friend
God had forsaken them as their Father and Friend, but He comes to call them to account as their Judge. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
A sad sequence: money leading to idolatry
Observe how the sequence runs: money in abundance: money will buy horses, and horses stand for power: horses will need chariots, and chariots mean dash, speed, ostentation--money, horses, chariots, can men end there? They cannot; and given money, horses, chariots, without a corresponding sanctification, without the inworking of that spirit of self-control which expresses the action of the Holy Ghost, and you compel men to go farther and to Fall their land with idols. The sequence cannot be broken Men may have money, horses, chariots, and the true God; but when men have money, horses, chariots, and no god that is true, they will make gods for themselves, for they must eke out their ostentation by some sort of nominal piety. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Spiritual idolatry
Men will build churches; men must have religious rites and ceremonies; and what can suit the worldly man better than an idol that takes no notice of him, a wooden deity that never troubles him with its disciplinary obligations. (J. Parker, D. D.)
An honoured yet God-forsaken people
I. The house of Jacob is here honoured with the character of THE PEOPLE OF GOD. They were His in a special manner, in consequence of His choosing them for His peculiar people; redeeming them with a strong hand and stretched out arm; and entering into covenant with them, so that they became His property, were called by His name, and professedly devoted to His service.
II. Notwithstanding this intimate connection, GOD HAD FORSAKEN THEM. He took off the restraining influence of His providence, whereby He prevented their enemies from executing their destruction; He removed the hedge of His kind protection, by which they enjoyed the most agreeable safety. He withheld from them His gracious direction, which had attended them In all their fortunes. The Most High hid counsel from them, so that they groped at noon day. He withdrew from them His Divine favour, which had long compassed them as a shield; He denied them His gracious presence and Holy Spirit, which was the beauty and glory of their assemblies, having In reserve for them the most awful temporal calamities. (R. Macculloch.)