Ye looked for much, and, lo, [it came] to little; and when ye brought [it] home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that [is] waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
Ver. 9. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little] Spes in oculis, luctus in manibus, as Jerome here. The hope of unjust men perisheth, Proverbs 11:7, etiam spes valentissima, his likeliest hope, as some render it; he thinks himself sure, as Esau did of the blessing, but he only thinks so; God cuts off the meat from his mouth, Joel 1:16, takes away his corn in the time thereof, Hosea 2:9, confutes him in his confidences, which prove like the brooks of Tema, Job 6:17, and serve him as Absalom's mule did her master; his high hopes hop headless, as one phraseth it. It happens with him as with those perverse Israelites in the wilderness, made to tack about forty-two times after that they thought themselves sure of the promised land.
I did blow upon it] i.e. I dispersed it with ease. By a like phrase (for sense) God is said, Isaiah 25:11, to spread forth his hands in the midst of his enemies, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim; and to bring down their pride, together with the spoils of their hands, with greatest facility. The motion in swimming is easy, not strong; for strong violent strokes in the water would rather sink than support. In like sort God blasted their treasure or blew their hoards hither and thither, he consumed their substance and cursed their blessings, as Malachi 2:2. See Trapp on " Mal 2:2 "
Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, &c.] Their sin of preferring their own private interests and self-respects before God's work and service is here repeated, and exaggerated, as the ground and cause of all their calamities: and all little enough to bring them to a sound and serious sight and hatred of their sins. Such a deep kind of drowsiness hath surprised us, for the most part, that whereas every judgment of God should be a warning peal to repent, we be like the smith's dog, who the harder the anvil is beaten on lieth by and sleepeth the sounder; or like the silly hen, which loseth her chickens one by one by the devouring kite, and yet, as altogether insensible of her loss, continues to pick up what lieth before her. This is to swelter and pine away in iniquity, as if nothing could awaken men, Leviticus 26:39, and it is threatened last of all, as worse than all their losses, captivities, &c. A lethargy is no less deadly than the most tormenting disease. Let ministers, therefore, by such forcible and quick questions as this in the text and otherwise, arouse their hearers (as they once did here their dear friends in the sweating sickness, who, if suffered to sleep, died certainly), that they may awake, and recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, &c. It is well observed by one that the devil's particular sin is not once mentioned in Genesis, because he was not to be restored by repentance; but the sin of man is enlarged in all the circumstances. And why this? but that he might be sensible, ashamed, and penitent for his sin. They say in philosophy that the foundation of natural life is feeling; no feeling, no life; and that the more quick and nimble the sense of feeling is in a man the better is his constitution. Think the same of life spiritual, and of that hidden man of the heart, as St Peter calls him.
And ye run every man unto his own house] Or, ye take pleasure every man in his own house, q.d. Ye are all self-seekers, privatespirited persons, ye are all for your own interests; like the snail, that seldom stirs abroad, and never without his house upon his back; or like the eagle, which, when he flies highest, hath still an eye downward to the prey, that he minds to seize. In parabola oves capras suas quaerunt. In the parabole of the sheep, he seeks his sheep. They serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies, Romans 16:18; or if they serve Christ, it is for gain, as children will not say their prayers unless we promise them their breakfasts. In serving him they do but serve themselves upon him; as those carnal Capernaites did, John 6:26. Well might the apostle complain, as Philippians 2:21, and another since, that it is his pleasures, his profit, and his preferment that is the natural man's trinity; and his carnal self that is these in unity. May he be but warm in his own feathers, he little regards the dangers of the house. He is totus in se, wholly drawn up into himself, and insensible of either the public good or common danger: though the waterpot and spear be taken from the bolster, yet he stirs not. Far enough from St Paul's frame of spirit or speech, Who is offended, and I burn not? far enough from his care and cumber, anxiety and solicitude for the house of God (επισυστασις μεριμνα) and prosperity of his people, 2 Corinthians 11:28. Nothing like they are to Ambrose, who was more troubled for the state of the Church than for his own dangers. Nothing like Melancthon, of whom it is said, that the ruins of God's house and the miseries of his people made him almost neglect the death of his most beloved children. True goodness is public spirited, though to private disadvantage; as nature will venture its own particular good for the general, so will grace much more. Heavy things will ascend to keep out vacuity and preserve the universe. A stone will fall down to come to its own place, though it break itself in twenty pieces. It is the ingenuity of saints, in all their desires and designs, to study God's ends more than their own; to build God's house with neglect of their own, as Solomon did; to drown all self-respects in his glory and the public good, as Nehemiah did; of whom it might be more truly said than the heathen historian (Dio) did of Cato, that he did υπεραγαπαν το κοινον, overly loved the commonwealth, and that he did - toti genitum se credere mundo, believe himself born for the benefit of mankind (Lucan).