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The deliverance of God's people from their enemies.

1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

4 Fury is not in me who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. 7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged;

and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

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11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

LECTURE 1129.

The twofold application of prophetic words.

Some object to our supposing that the words of prophecy have a twofold fulfilment, part in the dispensation of the Law, and part in that of the Gospel. And it may indeed seem at first sight as if we gave to words a double sense, which would be next to taking away from them all certainty of meaning. But rightly apprehended, the Jewish and the Christian churches form but one

communion. Both together are God's one people, having one and a common fellowship with Him and with each other. The things which befel the Jews concern us. The things which appertain to us concern them. And if it was wonderfully ordered in God's providence, as we have good reason to think it was, that their dispensation was a type of ours, theirs the letter and ours the spirit, we need not hesitate to interpret prophecies at once literally of them, and spiritually of ourselves. In doing which, we take not words in doubtful senses; but rather we adore the divine wisdom, on finding that the same words, understood in their one and proper sense, at once describe beforehand the deliverance of the Jews out of captivity, and the redemption of all mankind from sin and death.

Thus the chapter before us is a prophecy of God's destroying the great powers which oppressed his people of old. It foretels the care which He would take of the Jewish nation, and the fury with which, merciful as He is to them that seek Him, He would consume his enemies. It draws a prophetic contrast between the chastisements inflicted on the Israelites, and the entire desolation of those who smote them; his own people being to be brought by their afflictions to repentance, and to amendment of their ways, and to be gathered together from all parts where they were scattered; whilst the defenced city of their chief oppressors would become no better than a wilderness. But their deliverance was a type of ours. And the words which shew how mercifully they were dealt with, tell also how mercifully God has dealt with us. Nay, they shew how mercifully God will yet deal, both with them and us, hereafter. "That old serpent, called the devil, and Satan," Rev. 12. 9, though now mortally wounded, has yet "a short time;" Rev. 12. 12; but hereafter he will be cast into "the lake of fire," together with "death and hell." Rev. 20. 10, 14. In the meanwhile God watches for the safety of his vineyard, and keeps it "night and day." Slow to anger, and averse to punishment, whilst He warns us of the end awaiting us if at enmity with Him, He invites us rather to be at peace; and He promises that many shall obey his invitation. And whilst there are some whom neither terrors nor mercy can persuade, He assures us that He will gather together many, and so gives us the inexpressible joy of knowing, that a multitude whom no man can number, will escape the wrath to come, and will partake with us in the gift of eternal life; if we through his grace attain unto partaking it together with them.

The sin and judgment of Ephraim and of Judah.

1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! 2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:

4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.

5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,

6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the

way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.

9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little ; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

LECTURE 1130.

That the sensual are not meet hearers of the Gospel. What a horrible abuse of God's good gifts is drunkenness ! What an abomination must it have been in the sight of God, for the Israelites, on whom He had bestowed a land abounding in all good things, to give themselves up to excess in strong drink! Most justly was woe here proclaimed from heaven against the proud kingdom of the drunkards of Ephraim. Most fearfully are they warned, that all the glory of their valleys is doomed to fade speedily away. Their destroyer is appointed. An enemy is at

hand, who will burst on them with the violence of a storm, with the fury of a deluge. And all the plenty which enriched and adorned their land must then vanish as a blossom that soon withers, as an early fruit that is immediately consumed.

Whilst thus it must fare with Israel, God would have a residue of his people in Judah, to whom He would "be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty," giving to their judges wisdom, and to their hosts strength. But alas, these also, as here foretold, would fall into the same sins as their brethren; they, and their teachers and their rulers. And to such an extent would drunkenness prevail, that according to the strong language of the prophet, no place would be free from this gross abomination. To whom then should God teach that saving knowledge, which his people were chosen on purpose to learn? In this general falling off, where would He find such as were fit to receive those heavenly doctrines, which, having been foreshewn by the prophets, were to be fully revealed in the Gospel? The worthy receivers thereof must be, as our Lord also plainly teaches, like unto little children. See Matt. 18. 3. And the Law was a schoolmaster to bring them that were under it unto Christ; see Gal. 3. 24; and would have brought them step by step, if humble and teachable scholars, and would have fitted them to hear with profit the glad tidings of rest for the weary, pardon for the guilty, life for the dead.

But a people such as is here described would not hear. And after their many chastisements, and some seasons of amendment, when Christ in due season came unto his own, "his own received him not." John 1. 11. Carnal and proud, wicked but self righteous, they refused to come to Him, who invited sinners to repentance. And therefore the very parables by which He taught them, though a method of instruction plain to the most simple minds, were to many of his hearers as if He were speaking in a strange tongue. Hearing, they heard not so as to understand; this burden being laid on them for their sins, that instead of learning, and profiting, they should "go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken." See Matt. 13. 13. 1 Cor. 14. 21. And yet with this warning in our hands, and with the doom of the Jews fulfilled before our eyes, what multitudes amongst us even now are drunkards! What multitudes in many ways are sensual! And how apt are such as these to wrest to their own destruction God's gracious tidings in the Gospel! Oh, if we would be meet hearers of the message of his love, let us cease to love our lusts! If we would not be beguiled by Satan, to turn the truth to our own destruction, let us flee sensuality, walk in the Spirit, and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. See Gal. 5. 16.

The sure foundation laid. 14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.

15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. 19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

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21 For the LORD shall rise up

The divine husbandry. as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. 22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?

25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?

26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.

27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.

28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.

29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

LECTURE 1131.

The vanity of trusting in a refuge of lies.

The scornful rulers in Jerusalem have had many to follow their example in saying, "We have made a covenant with death, and

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