And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find [it].
Ver. 12. And they shall wander from sea to sea] Trouble themselves to no purpose, take pains (as Esau did for venison, but lost his labour), run to all coasts and quarters to seek the word of the Lord.
And shall not find it] And why? they despised it when it was in their power; they rejected the counsel of God against themselves, with those lawyers, Luke 7:30. He would have gathered them, but they would not be gathered; he would have purged them, but they would not be purged, Ezekiel 24:13,14, they are therefore miserable by their own election; as Saul was, who slighted Samuel while he was alive, and would have been fully glad of his counsel when he was dead. He that would not once worship God in Samuel worships at length Samuel in Satan; and no marvel. Satan was now become his refuge, and preacheth his funeral; his Urim now was darkness, his prophet a ghost: O woeful condition! But what should a parent do when the child loathes and spills his victuals? snatch it from him, and lay it out of his reach. Samaria felt this more severe famine, when carried captive especially; so did Jerusalem, after Malachi, whose prophecy the Jews fitly call Chathimath Chazon, the sealing up of vision. Bath Chol, or the echo from heaven, they had now and then after this time, Mat 3:17 John 12:28; they had also the writings of Moses and the prophets interpreted after a sort by the Scribes and Pharisees, whom (while they sat close in Moses' chair, and kept it warm) men were bound to hear, Matthew 23:2,3, which because Dives did not, he suffered hunger and thirst in hell for ever, Luke 16:24. And had he been granted the liberty of hearing again upon earth but one more sermon, how far would not he gladly have gone for it! and how, as for life, would he have listened to it! But this could not possibly be, for out of hell there is no redemption, Psalms 49:8,9, and when the night of death once comes men can work no more. Night is a time not of doing work, but of receiving wages; up therefore and be doing, while it is yet day, John 12:35,36. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found," Isaiah 55:6, seek him seasonably, seek him seriously: "Then shall ye seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart," Jeremiah 29:13. That was a dismal doom that our Saviour passed upon those stiffnecked Jews and uncircumcised in hearts and ears (as St Stephen rightly styles them, Act 7:51), that were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever their fathers had been before them. "Ye shall seek me, and yet shall die in your sins: whither I go ye cannot come," John 8:21. Ye shall wander up and down for meat, making a noise like a hungry dog, and grudge that ye be not satisfied, Psalms 59:14,15. Do not the miserable Jews do so all the world over to this day, expecting their Messiah? quem tantis ululatibus exposcunt, throwing open their windows to behold him, and praying for the rebuilding of their temple, thus (Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. cap. 13), Templum tuum brevi, valde cito, valde cito, in diebus nostris citissime, nunc aedifica templum tuum brevi: Merciful God, great God, bountiful God, beautiful God, sweet God, mighty God, thou God of the Jews, now build thy temple, do it shortly, suddenly, quickly, very quickly, very quickly, very quickly, even in our days now, this day before the next, &c. Ah, poor creatures! they would not, when time was, know in that their day the things which belonged to their peace; therefore to this day they are hid from their eyes, and wrath is come upon them to the utmost, Luke 19:42. Alterius perditio tun sit caudio, Let their harms be our warning, not to stand out the day of grace, not to surfeit of the word, lest we suffer a famine of it; not to retain the snuffs of our sins, lest they dim our candlestick; a removal whereof, except we repent, may be as certainly foreseen and foretold as if visions and letters were sent us from heaven, as once to Ephesus telling them so, Revelation 2:5. And indeed it hath been the opinion, and is still the fear of some not unconsiderable divines, that Antichrist, before his abolition, shall once again overflow the whole face of the West, and suppress the whole Protestant Churches. Now if ever this come to pass (as justly we may fear it will), what may we thank but our detestable lukewarmness and loathing of the heavenly manna, our not receiving the love of the truth, that we might be saved? for which cause, if God shall send us strong delusions, even the efficacy of error, that we should believe a lie, 2 Thessalonians 2:10,11, that being infatuated we should be seduced, and being seduced be damned, as Austin glosseth that text, whom can we blame for it?