And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find [them]: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then [was it] better with me than now.
Ver. 7. And she shall follow after her lovers] Follow them hot foot, pursue them eagerly and earnestly, as the hunter doth his game, or the pursuivant the party to be arrested; so little was she bettered by her former sufferings. Thus the blind Sodomites continue groping still for the door as if they were ambitious of destruction, which was now even at next door by. And thus Pharaoh, that sturdy rebel, rageth against God, and menaceth Moses with death, then, when that palpable gross darkness was upon him. This was one of those wild bulls in a net that was full of the fury of the Lord, Isaiah 51:20. He was full of it, and yet lay raging against it, adding impatience to his impenitence, and passive disobedience to his active. Another bull of the same breed was Ahaziah, who sent a third captain after the two former had been consumed with fire from heaven; as if he would despitefully spit in the face of heaven, and wrestle a fall with the Almighty. And a third was that stubborn stigmatic Ahaz, who the more he was distressed the more he trespassed: "This is that king Ahaz," 2 Chronicles 28:22. These men lost the fruit of their afflictions; which indeed was a great loss, but that they were not sensible of it (Perdidistis fructum afflictionis. Aug.). Those that belong to God shall have stroke upon stroke, one cross in the neck of another, till they be kindly humbled, and brought home to their first busband. God will strike a parting blow between them and their sweethearts; and make them pollute the idols which they had once perfumed, Isaiah 30:22 .
She shall follow them, but she shall not overtake them] Persequetur, sed non assequetur. She shall meet with disappointment, but it shall be in mercy: she shall be crossed with a blessing, chastened by the Lord, that she may not be condemned with the world. She shall seek for favour and help from her sweethearts' hands, but all in vain, they shall all forsake her, and shall change their ancient love into mortal hatred, Jeremiah 2:36 Ezekiel 36:17. It is the usual practice of the devil and his instruments to bring men into the briars, and there to leave them to shift as they can: thus the Pharisees dealt by Judas; "What is that to us?" say they; "see thou to that," Matthew 27:4 : they left him when they had led him to his bane; like as familiars leave their witches, when they have once brought them into fetters. God dealeth not so with any of his, when he is most angry. But as in very faithfulness he afflicts them, that he may be true to their souls; so when they follow hard after him, as David did, they are sure to overtake him, though perhaps not presently; when they seek him, they are sure to find him, so they search for him with all their heart, Jeremiah 29:13. True it is, that God often by the hand of the enemy, as by a pursuivant at arms, fetcheth in bankrupt tenants, that is, his own untoward and backsliding people, and leaveth them in the pursuivant's hand, till they take some course to satisfy for their arrears. But that once done, he will soon set them at liberty, and make them glad, according to the days wherein he had afflicted them, Psalms 90:15. Let a poor soul but say, as here,
I will go and return to my first husband] That is, to God. I have run away from him by my sins; I will now return again to him by repentance. Let there be but such language in the hearts of God's prodigals, and he will soon relent toward them, meet them on the way, Isaiah 65:24, fall upon their necks and kiss them, Luke 15:20, he will receive them with all sweetness. Iam ex hoc loco licet colligere quae sit vera resipiscentia, saith Calvin here. By this text we may gather what true repentance is: namely, when a sinner not only confesseth himself guilty, and worthy of punishment, but truly displeaseth himself, and seriously returns to God. Here we have those two essential parts of true repentance, sc. contrition and conversion; or humiliation and reformation. The former is called in Scripture repentance for sin, the latter, repentance from sin: and the one without the other is to no purpose or profit.
For then was it better with me than now] It was so: but how came you to conceive or consider of it in this sort? but by disappointments and afflictions? These are to us as Benhadad's best counsellors, that sent him with a cord about his neck to the merciful king of Israel. The Septuagint render the text thus, For he was good to me then, or he is now. And what wonder? Is there anything to be gotten by departing from Christ, by leaving thy first love, by quenching the Spirit, and making apostasy from former degrees of grace and holiness? Can any son of Jesse do for us as Christ can? or do we think to mend ourselves by running out of God's blessing into the world's warm sun, as Demur did? "O call me not Naomi," said she once, but "call me Marah: for I went out full, and am come home empty," Ruth 1:20. So doth a revolted Christian say, when he comes from the act of sinning, when he hath been seeking after his sweethearts: he went with his heart full of peace, and his hand full of plenty; and meeting with a bargain of sinning, thought to eke out his happiness, and make it fuller (as Solomon did), but came home empty; empty of comfort, but laden with crosses. He hath lost his evidences, is excommunicated from the power of the ordinances, is under the terror of a wounded spirit, is buffetted by Satan, is out of hope of ever recovering the radiance of his graces, hath his back burden of afflictions: so that he is forced to confess it to be the greatest madness in the world to buy the sweetest sin at so dear a rate. David found it so. The Shulamite found it so, Song of Solomon 5:1,2, &c. No rest she had at home, nor comfort abroad, till she had recovered her first husband's company; for then it was better with her than now; and yet now, too, upon her hearty repentance, all becomes as well with her as ever it had been before, Hosea 6:4, &c. Was it not so likewise with Ephraim, Jeremiah 31:19,21, with the prodigal, Luke 15:16,19, with Peter after his shameful backslidinging and denial? Let this then be to all God's relapsed people as a valley of Achor, a door of hope, that they may be re-admitted. Shall Sarah receive Hagar into favour? Joseph his brethren? David his Absalom? Philemon his Onesimus? Shall that man Ahab show mercy to his professed enemies, the Syrians, that had the second time set upon him? And shall not God receive his repenting children? fetch home his banished yea, though they may seem to be as water spilt upon the ground? bring them back into his own bosom, though they have never so far wandered out of the way? He will, he will. Only he expects that they should say, and do, as the Church of Israel here, and as the Church of Ephesus is advised, Revelation 2:4. First, Remember whence ye are fallen: sc. not only from your former feelings and comforts, but also from your former fitness for God's kingdom; that ius aptitudinale (as the schools call it) that David himself had parted with for a season, and therefore is called plain David so oft together, and not my servant David, as formerly, 2 Samuel 24:12, &c. Secondly, Repent: Sigh out that of Job, "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shone upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle; when the Almighty was yet with me," Job 29:2,4. Oh, it was far better then with me than now. Thus relent, repent, revenge upon your backslidings; spare for no pains, but be extraordinarily humbled: detest yourselves, give God no rest till he return unto his rest. Thirdly, Do your first works with a redoubled diligence for your former negligence; and tie yourselves thereto by solemn covenant. Begin (though at first but faintly) to pray, read, confer, meditate, cease from sin, shun the occasions, recover by degrees as a weak body doth by good diet, moderate exercise, &c.