Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_400.lzh/6_489.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-09 | 6KB | 117 lines

In this chapter the prophet goes on witIt his pro-
phecy against Israel, whom God had highly favoured,
and yet sinned against him, and therefore must expect
to be punished by him; and the rather, since he and
they were not agreed; and therefore there could be no
communion between them, ver. 1, 2, 3. and by various
similes are set forth the cause of divine judgments, the
certain design of them, and their continuance ,till the
end is answered; which should be attended to, since
every thing' of this kind is of God, who giving his
prophets notice of it, they are under an absolute ne-
cessity of declaring it; novshould they be blamed for
it, ver. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. and even the Heathen nations are
appealed unto as witnesses of the sins of Israel, that
caused such a denunciation of wrath; their tumults,
oppression, injustice, violence, and robbery, ver. 9, 10.
wherefore an adversary is threatened to be sent among
them, that should utterly destroy them, so that few
should escape, vet. 11, 12. particularly their idolatry
and luxury seem to have been reigni.ng sins, which had
a great hand in bringing on their rum, and for which
the Lord would punish them, vet. 13, 14, 15.
Ver. 1. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken
against you, 0 children of Israel, &c.] The prophecy
against Israel begins in the preceding chapter, where
notice is 'taken of their sins, at least some of them, and
of their aggravated circumstances, and sure destruc-
tion ;- and here they are called upon to hearken and
listen to what the Lord by his prophet had spoken,
and was about to speak unto them; and to receive
this word, as the Targum; to receive it as the word
of God, and not men, and with all humility and reve-
rence; and to take it, and apply it to themselves, to
whom it justly belonged; and to make a proper use and
improvement of it by humiliation and reformation. A
word this was, against the whole family which I brought
up from the land of Egypt; it was but a family that
went down into Egypt, and, though it greatly in-
creased there, it was no more when it was brought
up from thence: a family under the peculiar care of
Jehovah, as the bringing them out of Egypt, out of
the house Of bondage, when greatly distressed there,
abundantly shews; and which was a wonderful bless-
ing and fayour; and therefore often mentioned, and
led on to many other blessings and mercies: a family
which was the Lord's own, and therefore he had a
right to chastise and correct them for their sins. It
seems by this phrase, the whole .family, as if the two
tribes of Judah and Benjamin were included: though
the prophecy seems chiefly intended against the ten
tribes, which went by the name of Israel, ever since
the breach in Rehoboam's time, as distinct from
Judah.
Ver. S. You only have I known of all the families of
the earth, &c.] All the families or nations of the
earth, and all the inhabitants of it, are known by the
Lord, as he is the omniscient God; but none had
been known by him as a family, or a nation, with that
love and affection as this family had been, or distin-
guished by his fayours and blessings as they, not only
temporal, but spiritual; besides the land of Canaan,
and all the good things in it, they had the law of the
Lord, his word, worship, and ordinances, among them;
he chose them for himself above all people, and gave
peculiar marks of his affection to them, and special
instances of his goodness, and of his care over them,
and concern tbr them; see Dent. iv. 6, 7, S. and vii.
6, 7. Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. Rom. ix. 4, 5. Therefore I
will punish you for all your iniquities; or visit upon
you {}; or against you; in a way of chastisement and
correction; they were a family he had highly favoured,
and yet departed from him; children he had brought
up in a tender manner, and brought out ofa most
miserable condition, and yet rebelled against him; he
had followed and loaded them with his benefits, and
they had proved ungrateful to him; he had given them
a revelation of his mind and will, and they had rejected
it, and therefore knowing, and not doing it, were
worthy of more stripes; their sins were more aggra-
vated than others', being against goodness and mercy,
light and knowledge; and therefore the Lord was de-
termined to make an example of them; see 1 Pet. iv. 17.
Ver. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed ?]
Unless they meet together, and appoint time and
place, when and where they shall set out, what road
they will take, and whither they will go; without such
consultation and agreement, it cannot be thought they
should walk together; and not amicably, unless united
in friendship,. and are of the same affection to each
other, and of the same sentiments one with another;
or it is much if they don't fall out by the way. The
design of these words is to shew, that without friend-
ship there's no fellowship, and without concord no
communion; as this is the case between man and man,
so between God and man; and that Israel could not
expect that God should walk with them, and shew
himself friendly to them, and continue his favours with
them, when they walked contrary to him; when they
were so disagreeable to him in their sentiments of
religion, in their worship, and the rites of it, and
in the whole of their conduct and behaviour. _And
to a spiritual walk-with God, and communion with
him, agreement is requisite. God and man were ori-
ginally chief friends, but sin set them at variance;
a reconciliation became necessary .to their walking
together again; which was set on foot, not by man,
who had no inclination to it, nor knew how to go about
it if he had, and much less able to effect it; but by the
Lord, the offended party: it began in his thoughts,
which were thoughts of peace; it was set on foot. by
him in the council of peace, and concluded in the co-
venant of peace; and his Son was sent to bring it

{c} \^Mkyle dqpa\^ "visitabo super vos", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "vi-
sito, i.e. visitare soleo", Mercerus; "super vobis", Cocceius; "contra vos",
Piscator.