The Priests Particularly Rebuked Here
This leads to further appeals, and still with the priests more particularly in view. “Like people, like priests:” if the people were bad, the priests were worse, as must usually be the case. “And now, O ye priests, lay it to heart” (vss. 1-2). It was not only that they acted wrongly, but where was their conscience? “Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it” (vs. 3). Jehovah proceeds to speak with the greatest contempt of the state to which He would reduce them as a chastening on their unfaithfulness. “And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts” (vs. 4). Levi is purposely introduced, because of his faithfulness at the crisis of the golden calf, in striking contrast with the conduct of him who ought to have been the most careful of Jehovah’s glory, even Aaron the high priest. “My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before My name” (vs. 5). Jehovah looks back to the time when Levi consecrated his service at the cost of every human consideration, in not less striking contrast with once bitter revenge for his outraged sister. Here again we see how habitually the Lord goes, as in chapter 1, to the source of things. So He took up Esau and Jacob at the beginning, and judges at the end. He pronounces on Levi and the priests. “The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with Me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts” (vss. 6-7). Then comes His solemn estimate: “But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept My ways, but have been partial in the law” (vss. 8-9).
Religious and Social Life of the Jews Alike Corrupt
As thus the sanctuary was polluted, and its ministers, and the offerings, so further we shall see the social life of Israel suffered no less. There is the deepest connection between a false religion, or a non-religion, and the practical ways of the people. “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of Jehovah which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god” (vss. 10-11). Thus, though not idolaters, they had contracted the nearest relationship in life with the heathen. “Jehovah will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto Jehovah of hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that He regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand” (vss. 12-13). The prophet describes the weeping of the Jewish wives, now repudiated for the sake of the heathen they chose. It is the same state of things in Ezra, and especially Nehemiah. The heart of the people was sick as truly, yea, much more sick than in the earlier days when Isaiah laid it to their charge.
Family Ties Relaxed With Indifference to the Will of God
Nor was the moral insensibility less now but more. “Yet ye say, Wherefore?” (vs. 14). They could not see wherein they were to blame. “Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant” (vs. 14). They were both placed on a common footing with God. “And did not He make one? Yet had He the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That He might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For Jehovah, the God of Israel, saith He hateth putting away” (vss. 15-16). What alienation from God’s mind and ways! They were given up to self. Their light spirit in divorce was now reaching its head among the Jews—in the remnant. “For one covereth violence with his garment, saith Jehovah of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously” (vs. 16).
Thus, as the first chapter looks more at their religious life, the second, at least the latter part of it, takes in their social life; and in both we see total ruin and hardness of heart before God. Nevertheless, it is well to observe how He connects together both elements, the social and religious. He begins with the root of it. If the soul is wrong towards God, there is not much hope for man, even in the closest relationships of this life.