Who [is there] even among you that would shut the doors [for nought]? neither do ye kindle [fire] on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
Ver. 10. Who is there among you that would shut the doors] To be a doorkeeper in God's house, to have any the lowest employment about him, David (though destined to a diadem) looked upon as a high preferment. Those Nethinims, mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah, were none other but the Gibeonites, who were made drawers of water to the temple, as a kind of punishment. God, who is a liberal paymaster, made this cross a mercy. Their employment, so near the house of God, gave them fit occasion to be partakers of the things of God. The Lord did wonderfully both reward and honour them. So he did all others, though but porters, that had any office about his house. "Know ye not," saith Paul, "that they which minister about holy things live with the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar" (though but to kindle a fire upon it) "are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live by the gospel," 1 Corinthians 9:18; 1 Corinthians 9:14; should have, if not tithes, as they had, yet honorary stipends, double honour, 1 Timothy 5:17, duplex, id est, multiplex (Calvin), as Isa 40:1-2 Jeremiah 17:18. Or, double, comparatively, to that of widows indeed, 1 Timothy 5:3, which yet was honourable maintenance, Et ex publico alebantur. The priests of the Old Testament were plentifully provided for by tithes and other revenues appointed them by God. True it is, that in the captivity little commodity was made of the priesthood; whereupon some priests, who had married themselves into the noble family of Barzillai, took scorn to be in the priest's register, but called themselves after the family of their wives. Now after the return to Babylon the priesthood grew into some gain and grace again; and then those degenerate priests would fain have thrust in among the priests of the Lord; but the Tirshatha would not suffer them, Ezra 2:62. Howbeit, those priests that had stuck to their offices, and been faithful in them, did not serve God on freecost; neither was he behindhand or in arrears with any of them, as appears by this text; but as they did their work, so they had their wages. God put into the heart of good Nehemiah to take order that these tithes were duly paid in to the treasurers for that purpose appointed, Nehemiah 13:10,11. What reason had these priests, therefore, to be so gripple and greedy of filthy lucre, as to take such lame and lean sacrifices of the people, for if fat and good, to change them for the worse ones among their own, as holding anything good enough for God? which, because they did,
I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hands] I care not for your persons, I respect not your performances. The Lord had respect, first to Abel, and then to his offering, Gen 4:4 Psalms 4:3 "But know" (saith David, to those that abused him) "that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself"; and this he makes the ground why his prayer should be heard. The blood of a swine may look better and brighter than the blood of a sheep; yet might it not be offered unto the Lord, because it was of a swine. Sordet in conspectu iudicis, quod fulget in conspectu operantis. A piece of wood may shine in the night from its rottenness; and that be fair in the sight of men that is abomination before God, Luke 16:15. The swan was rejected for sacrifice because of his black skin, notwithstanding his fair feather, Leviticus 11:18. The wicked man's incense stinks of the hand that offereth it; and all his devotion is but a beautiful abomination. There is in Lombard this sentence quoted out of Augustine, Omnis vita infidelium peccatum est: et nihil bonum sine summo bono The whole life of unbelievers is sin, neither is there any good without the chiefest good. Ambrose Spiera, the expositor, saith, Crudelis est illa sententia, This is a cruel sentence. But saith not the holy Scripture the very same in effect? Proverbs 15:8 Heb 11:6 John 15:5. What though Papists talk much of Opus operatum? and teach that good works, by whomsoever performed, are accepted of the Lord, as justice in an atheist is a good and acceptable work to him? St James assures us that it is "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man" only, and of one reconciled to God, that "availeth much," James 5:16. And, "for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee," saith David, Psalms 32:6. The leper's lips should be covered, according to the law. And to the wicked God saith, "What hast thou to do?" &c., Psalms 50:16. It is said of witches and their good prayers (as they call them), Si magicae, Deus non vult tales: si piae, non per tales, If those prayers be abused to witchcraft, God will have none of them; and if they be never so good, God will not have them from such kind of people. Before they pray men should see whether they are persons fit to pray; for God accepts not a good motion from an ill mouth, Jer 11:10-11 Joh 9:31 1Jn 3:22 Psalms 66:16. A wicked man lacks contrition, humility, faith, hope, feeling, fervency; he hath not a spirit of grace and supplication to indite his prayers; he hath not an intercessor in heaven to present and perfume his prayers. The breath wherein our prayers ascend should be like pillars of smoke perfumed with Christ's myrrh and incense. Otherwise our words will be like the Egyptian pots, reeking out the strong smelling onions and garlic of our own corruption, such as God can take no pleasure in, neither will he accept such an offering at our hands.