Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tall, branch and rush, in one day
God giving account of His actions
I. THE GROUND OR OCCASION OF THE JUDGMENT in the particle “therefore.” Wherefore? (Isaiah 9:13). The cause which is here expressed may be conceived to proceed in the way of a three-fold gradation.
1. Of their simple impiety. Sin is the meritorious cause of all punishment.
2. Of their additional impenitency. Those that sin and so thoroughly provoke God’s anger against themselves, by repentance may happily divert and appease it. But the people in the text “turned not to Him that smote them.” And this made their judgment to be so much the surer to them. Impenitency seems in a manner to own and justify sin and stand in the commission of it. Further, it does in a manner trespass upon all the attributes of God, which it either questions or vilifies. The omniscience of God, as to the deserts of sin (Psalms 94:7). The truth of God, as to the threats of sin (2 Peter 3:4). The justice of God, as to the punishing of sin, The power of God, as to me executing of judgment.
3. Of their continued obstinacy. They did not “seek the Lord of hosts.”
II. THE JUDGMENT ITSELF. (T. Horton, D. D.)
God’s judgment on Israel
I. THE DENUNCIATION OF IT.
1. The Author of it. “The Lord.”
(1) His sovereignty and power. It is He only that is able to punish; it is He only that hath all men and creatures under His command.
(2) His purity. There are none who are so fit to punish others as those who are innocent persons.
2. The nature of it. “The Lord will cut off.” From correction He passes to destruction. First, He cuts them short; and if that will do no good upon them, He cuts them off. First the pruning knife, then the axe. There is a two-fold sword which God makes use of for cutting with, before He proceeds to cut off; the sword of His mouth, i.e., the Word of God, and the sword of His hand, i.e., the rod of God. “He will.”
(1) A word of premonition. Despise not God’s gracious hints and admonitions of judgment beforehand.
(2) A word of procrastination. God is slow to anger.
(3) A word of resolution. God will not be always willing; He will be at last doing.
3. The subject of it. If Israel shall provoke God by their impenitency and obstinacy against Him, even Israel shall be punished and cut off by Him 1 Peter 4:17).
II. THE EXTENT OF IT. That we have expressed in a double metaphor; the one from the nature of the head and the tail; the other from the nature of a tree, in the branches and roots: both of them coming to one and the same purpose. Whereby we have signified to us the universality and impartiality of the destruction which is here threatened; it shall be of so general an extent, as to reach to all sorts of persons, high and low, rich and poor, great and small, to one as well as to another.
1. The metaphor taken from a body in the head and the tail. We may reduce it by way of explication to a threefold rank of--
(1) Age: old and young.
(2) Estate: rich and poor.
(3) Place or authority: governors and governed; magistrates, ministers, and those who are subordinate and in subjection to them.
2. The metaphor taken from the nature of a tree or plant: the branch and the rush. It is not said the branch and the root, because the Lord reserved a remnant which should be spared by Him. But the branch and the rush; the branch as an emblem of usefulness--persons of parts and employments; the rush as a note of unfruitfulness--idle and unprofitable persons. The branch is a note of strength and solidity; the rush of weakness and inconstancy. The branch (in like manner as the head) is a note of supremacy, the rush of meanness, In the execution of public judgments for the impenitency and incorrigibleness of a nation, God’s hand is indifferent and impartial; He will spare no ranks or sorts or conditions of people at all
III. THE TIME OR SEASON OF IT. “In one day.” It is a day--
1. In regard of the certainty of it, as that which is set and fixed.
2. In regard of the suddenness, as that which is speedy and soon accomplished. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Judgment obliterates classifications
“Branch and rush--the allusion is to the beauteous palm tree: it shall be cut down notwithstanding its beauty; and the “rush”--the common growths round about it, entangled roots, poor miserable shrubs that crowd and cumber the earth--branch and rush cannot stand before God’s sword and fire: everything that is wrong goes down in a common destruction. Judgment obliterates our classifications. (J. Parker, D. D.)