Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_100.lzh/6_103.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-17 | 7KB | 127 lines

Ver. 43. And there ye shall remember your ways, and
all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled, &c.]
Their rejection of the Messiah; their continued dis-
belief of him; their obstinacy, hardness, and irape-
nitence; their adherence to the traditions of the elders,
to the making void the word of God; together with
the most flagrant iramoralities that ever any people
were guilty of, and which are of a very defiling nature,
and made them abominable in the sight of God; these
now the spirit of God convincing them 'of, they'll re-
member with shame and confusion, and mourn over
them in an evangelical way; and the more so, when
th.ey s. hall find themselves reinstated in their own land,
enjoying all civil and religious privileges and liberties
under Christ their King, whom they will now know,
own, and serve; see Zech. xii. 10: and ye shall loath
yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye
have committed; against God and Christ; against the
law of the one, and the Gospel of the other. Sin is a
loathsome thing to God; and it is so to his people
When they arc thoroughly convinced of it, and they
loath themselves for it; and never more so than when
they have the greatest instances and clearest discoveries
of the love and grace of God in Christ to them; then
they blush, are ashamed of themselves and their sins,
and are confounded when they perceive the Lord is
pacified towards them,. and their sins are forgiven for
Christ's sake: sin-uevcr appears more odious aud loath-
some than when viewed in the glass of pardoning
love; see Ezra ix. 6, 8. Ezck. xvi. 63.
Vet. 44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, &c.]
Jehovah their righteousness, their Redeemer and Sa-
ytour, Lord and King; they shall know Christ, and him
crucified, and God in Christ as their covenant-God; see
the note on ver. 42: when I have wrought with you for
my name's sake; in the thorough conversion of them;
not that there is any co-operation with God in that
work; ministers indeed are co-workers, not as effi-
cleats, but instruments; persons converted are wholly
passive in the first work of conversion or regeneration;
and in all after-actings move as they are acted, turn
being turned, walk and run. being drawn, not being
able to do any thing as of themselves: but the phrase
signifies .a working in favour of them; doing great
things for them, and good things in them, well-pleasing
in his sight, and good untO them; plucking them as
brands out of the burning; taking them out of the
hands of Satan; calling them out of darkness into light,
and bringing them out of bondage into liberty; and all
this for hisown name's-sake, of hisown will and pleasure,
according to his abundant mercy, and for the glory of'
his rich grace: not according to your wiclced ways, not
according to your corrupt doings, 0 ye house of Israel,
saith the Lord God; had he, they must have perished
in their 'sins, and been miserable for ever; but he net-
ther proceeds according to the bad works nor the
good works of men, in calling and converting them,
but according to his own purpose and grace, 2 Tim. i. 9.
their evil works don't hinder his grace wh,en he's re-
solved to work, and their good works don't merit it; he
acts freely, and in a sovereign way.
Vet. 45. Moreover, the word-of the Lord came unto
me, saying.] Or the word of prophecy, as the Tar-
gum. Here begins a new prophecy, and most pro-
perly a new chapter should here begin; for the next
chapter is of the same argument with this, and an ex-
planation ot' it, and an enlargement upon it. And here
Ben Melcch begins one; and so Junius and Tremellius,
Piscator, and Castalto.
 Ver. 46. Son of man, set thy force toward the south,
&c.] The land of Judea, which lay south of Babylon,
where the prophet now was, as Babylon lay north of
that, Jet. i. 14. and iv. 6. to set his face was to speak
fieely and boldly, with courage and constancy, and
without fear and dread, to the inhabitants of it; and as
a token of the Lord's face being. set against them for
their sins. The Targum is," take a prophecy towards
"the way of the south." And drop thy word toward,
the south; or prophesy, as the Targum; doctrine or
prophecy being compared to rain, and the delivery of
it to-the dropping or distilling of rain; which fa11s
gently,. gradually, successively, and oftentimes with
weight, and to good purpose;see Deut. xxxii.
which metaphorical phrase is explained in the next
clause: and prophcsy against the forest of the south
field; the city- of Jerusalem, in the land of Judea,
which was very full of people, as a forest of ,trees; but
these barren and unfruitful, as the trees of the wood ge-
nerally are; and a rendezvous of wicked persons, compa-
rable to beasts of prey, that haunt in woods and forests.
- Ver. 47. And say to the forest of the south, &c.], TO
the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea: hear the ,word
of the Lord; attend to it, and receive it, believe it, and
take warning from it: thus saith the Lord GOd, behold,
I will kindle afire in thee; in Jerusalem; meaning that
he would send great calamities among them, the
sword of the Chaldean army, famine, and pestilence;
and that at last it should be burnt with fire, and the
remainder of the inhabitants be carried captive: and it
shall devour every green tree, and every dry tree; all
sorts of persons should be consumed by one or other of
the above calamities, high and low, rich and poor,
good and bad; and if good men should suffer, compa-
rable to green trees, which fire will not so easily burn,
not being fit fuel for it; then much more bad men,
who were by far the most numerous, comparable to
dry trees, and so fit fuel for the flames, and easily con-
sumed thereby: the flaming flame shall not be quenched
or, the flame, flame; or, the flame of flame o; signi.
lying either the succession of these calamities one,after
another; or the force and strength of them, which
should not be abated .until the ruin of the city was
completed: and all .faces .from the south to the north
shall be burnt therein; which some understand of an
utter destruction of the Jews, either by sword, famine,
and pestilence, or by captivity from Jerusalem or Judea
unto Babylon; but rather the meaning is, that all the
inhabitants thereof should suffer, from one end of it to
the other, from Beer-sheba to Dan, tim country lying
in such a position.
Vet. 48. And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have
kindled it, &c.] Not only the inhabitants of Jerusalem

{o} \^tbhlv tbhl\^ flamma flamma, pro flamma continua & perpetua,
Vatablus; flamma inflammatissima, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus;
flamma flammae, Montanus, Piscator.