They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find [him]; he hath withdrawn himself from them.
Ver. 6. They shall go with their flocks, and with their herds] Cursitabunt, they shall cut up and down, from altar to altar, with all their stock, as if they would buy off their sins, redeem their sorrows, with hecatombs, a large number of animals for sacrifce and store of holocausts; whole burnt offerings and then be ready to say, as that heathen emperor did, when he was to meet his enemy in the field, Non sic Deos coluimus, aut sic viximus ut ille nos vinceret (Antonin. Philosoph.). We have not so served the gods, or lived so, that the enemy should have the better of us. They thought they had merited better at God's hands by their thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil, Micah 6:7, than to fall, as in Hosea 5:5, than to be relinquished by him, as here. Lo, this is the guise of graceless hypocrites: by their outward performances they think to oblige God unto them, and by their good deeds to set off for their bad. Thus Brunheldis (that French Athaliah), after many murders and much mischief wrought by her, 600 AD, built many colleges for priests and monks in Burgundy and Austria, eo scilicet beneficio maleficia sun expiavit, saith the French chronicler; thereby thinking to satisfy for all her cruelty. So here in King Stephen's time, there were more abbeys built than in a hundred years before. So the Papists at this day spend and are spent in their blind devotions; they "lavish money out of the bag," and run up and down from saint to saint with their cost; they pray publicly in public calamities, for forty hours together, by the pope's command, that they may pacify God, and divert his displeasure (Quarantoras Italico nomine istas preces recant. Polan. in loc.). For the same cause they make the same man (in their greater cities appointed) to preach every day in Lent without intermission; so as six days in the week he preacheth on the gospel of the days; and on the Saturday, in honour and praise of our Lady, as they call her (Spec. Europ.). Lo, thus they go, as they think, to seek God with their will worship and work done, but they find him as little as they did here, with their flocks, and with their herds. And why? First, they go to seek him; they run, but in a wrong way; and so fulfil that sacred proverb, "He that hasteth with his feet sinneth," Proverbs 19:2; for the faster he runs the farther he is out. Next, they pretend to seek him, but indeed they seek themselves; they seek him, but it is to be rid of his rod; they do not so much serve him as serve themselves, and their own turns upon him; as those hypocrites in Zachary fasted to themselves; not to get off their sins, but their chains, Zechariah 7:6. Thirdly, they go with their flocks, &c.; not mine, but theirs, saith God; he will not so much as own them, though they were tendered to him in sacrifice; because brought with a wicked mind, Proverbs 21:27, as Balak and Balaam did, Numbers 23:1,2, and as Cain did, Genesis 4:5, to whom therefore God had no respect, because he brought non personam sed opus personae, not himself but his sacrifice, as Luther hath it; who also calleth all those Cainists that offer to God the work done, but present not their bodies for a lively sacrifice, Romans 12:1. Hence he rejects their services with infinite disdain, as Isaiah 1:11,12; Isaiah 66:2,3, though never so numerous and precious, Micah 6:7 Hosea 8:13. And to set forth this, as he calleth them here, their flocks, and not his, so, fourthly, he calleth them flocks and herds, not sacrifices; that was too good a name for them. Thus, Jeremiah 7:21, in scorn he calleth their sacrifice flesh; such as was ordinary, sold in the meat markets. And thus also, Hosea 9:4, speaking of the meat offering appointed, Leviticus 2:5, he calleth it, their bread for their souls, or, for their life and livelihood, the bread for their natural sustenance; and saith, it shall not come into his house, he will have none of it. See Malachi 1:7. See Trapp on " Mal 1:7 "
But they shall not find him] Non erit ipsis domi, non favebit eis, saith an interpreter here, he will not be at home, not within, to open to them when they knock at his door; it will be as strange to them as ever they were to him, because they bring him not that best sacrifice of a broken heart; and because they come too late when the gate of grace is shut, when the gale of grace is over, when he hath fully resolved upon their ruin, and will not repent.
When he hath withdrawn himself from them] Heb, חלע hath snatched away himself, hath thrown himself out of their company, as Peter threw himself, επεβαλων, out from the rude soldiers into a bycorner, to weep bitterly, Mark 14:72. Cum se proripuisset, so Beza rendereth it. When God is well pleased with his people, they can no sooner cry but he will say, Here I am, Isaiah 58:9. And though they offer but small things unto him, as Samuel did a sucking lamb, 1 Samuel 7:9, they are highly accepted, and graciously answered. "But woe unto them when I depart from them," saith God, Hosea 9:12; yea, woe upon woe when God's soul is once disjointed from them, Jeremiah 6:8. "An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come," Ezekiel 7:5,6. And why? Because God was withdrawing from them. Hence all evils came rushing in, as by a sluice. In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh Chapter s of that prophecy God maketh divers removals. And still, as he goes out, some judgment comes in. First he removeth from the cherubims in the oracle to the threshold, Ezekiel 9:3, and upon that removal, see what followeth, Ezekiel 9:5,7, &c. Secondly, he removeth to the cherubims on the right side of the house, Ezekiel 10:1, and see what follows, Ezekiel 10:2. Thirdly, to the east gate of the house, and the first entrance into the temple, Ezekiel 10:19, and then see what succeeds, Ezekiel 11:8,10. Fourthly, he removed to Mount Olivet, quite out of the city, Ezekiel 11:23, and when God was quite gone, then followed the fatal calamity in the ruin thereof. As there is no light in the world but from the sun, no water but from the sea; so no sound comfort or happiness to be had but with and in God. Better have him angry with us than not have him at all with us. The loss of God is a piece of hell: in the suburbs whereof the saints feel themselves when but a while deserted.