This portion, which is intimately connected with chapter 29, gives us a clear, detailed view of the ways of God with His people and His land, more especially with Jerusalem, in the last days. Israel is to fade as a flower, Jerusalem to be in sore displeasure, but delivered gloriously and forever. I trust it may be seen plainly how impossible it is to apply what the Holy Ghost announces here as a whole, to anything that has yet been accomplished. We must leave room for a further and closer bearing of these woes of the prophet. Now simple as this may be, it is immensely important. For even many Christians are looking onward for the gradual progress (not testimony alone) of the gospel. They expect that, by the blessing of the Holy Ghost upon the preached word, the nations are to be by degrees brought in; moral evil, infidelity, every form of superstition, all the pride and worldliness of man, to be slowly broken down, when the power of the Holy Ghost shall fill men's hearts with righteousness, and peace, and joy, and thus the world in general be the reflection of the will and ways of God. To such persons the assertion seems strange that there is to be a total change of dispensation; that God, having first taken us away to be with Christ above, is going to restore Israel into pre-eminence in their own land, not to convert them simply and bring them into the Christian Church, but to lead them to repent and receive their own Messiah, when they shall have their own distinctive promises and the new covenant made good to them, Jehovah's glory shining upon Zion, themselves exalted above all nations, who then take a place of conscious, willing inferiority to Israel, and vie with one another which shall pay most honor to the chosen of the Lord. All this, in many weighty consequences, involves such a mighty revolution in people's thoughts, that those more accustomed to the word of God can hardly conceive what an immense draft it makes upon the faith of those who are unversed in the prophetic word; how repugnant it is to all that is most cherished in their minds, what a death-blow it gives to what they had considered the legitimate hope of the Church. If we come to God's word as the only source of truth and sure test of all previous thoughts, nothing can be plainer; for here we have clearly a vision of the terrible blow that is to fall upon Ephraim, which is not only the name of a particular tribe, but the general designation of the ten tribes who mustered under that leading tribe. Judah and Ephraim are the two chief titles by which the prophets continually contrast the two houses of Israel. What the prophet communicates here is the woe that is to fall specially on Ephraim, that is, on what we call the ten tribes. This furnishes us with means for judging the time and circumstances of its fulfillment, because no such judgment as is here described ever historically fell upon the Jews. The others (i.e., Israel) were carried away into captivity in Assyria, and were never as a people restored to the land. Isaiah wrote when this dreadful blow was fallen upon Israel, and goes onward to their last days, even to the days when Christ Himself, first in faith, then in delivering power and glory, shall be connected with the remnant of Judah. Looking at the past history of Judah, we fail to see any such connection of Christ with Judah, anything that answered to this recourse to the tried Stone, save in those disciples who left the synagogue for the Church at a later epoch. The ten tribes were carried away at an early day, and later on the two tribes were carried to Babylon, whence emerged only an inconsiderable remnant of Judah. The prophecy, therefore, has not yet been accomplished; and that which has not been, must be fulfilled. Surely no canon of interpretation can be surer or plainer than this. Scripture cannot be broken: the word of God must be verified sooner or later. The end of this age is the ripe season for making good the hulk of prophecy. Therefore the one question here is whether anything has occurred really and fully corresponding to these judgments that fell on the ten tribes and Judah, and Jerusalem also. That there never has been an adequate accomplishment, will be manifest enough as we pass on.
“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. 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.” I do not think drunkenness is to be taken in its merely literal acceptation. It represents their dreadfully excited, stupefied, careless state, given up to their own pleasure, to self-indulgence and the shame of the true God. What drunkenness is among men with its frightful natural effects, such in a large moral sense will be the condition of these proud insensate men of Ephraim. Fulfilled at whatever time it may be, plainly it will be in Israel as such.
“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, and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.” But was the condition of Judah better? “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. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.” In vain had God met their weakness, and fed them with infants' food. (Ver. 9, 10.) Another dealing is needed and will surely follow. “With stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.” Not with that child-like instruction which they had slighted, but with the foreign tones of enemies who would scourge them.
They would not have His words of rest for the weary, they must need have a nation they understood not. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
Thus the Assyrian is first represented as a hailstorm coming down from the north on Ephraim, “mighty and strong one,” “as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing.” It is the “king of the north,” as he is described in Dan. 11. I have already drawn attention to the mistaken supposition that the lawless one, who is to be manifested as “the king” in Palestine, is the only danger of the Jews. No doubt, he, though their king, is at bottom an enemy of the worst character. For what can be more afflicting or disastrous than to have one in your very midst whom you have embraced as a friend, and who turns out the bitterest foe? Such will be the case when the Antichrist appears in the midst of the Jews and reigns, accepted by them as the Messiah. The Antichrist will be in evil and in false pretensions what Christ is in deed and in truth. Though Jesus was God, yet, when He came as man among men, He never asserted His rights as God in His ordinary path here below, however true the glory of His person was to faith. He never used the Godhead to avert trials and sufferings, or man's contempt of Him. He waited on God and trusted in Him. His obedience as man contributed only the more, because of His divine dignity, to show, that He was willing to encounter all shame and reproach, yea, the death of the cross, that God the Father might be glorified. Antichrist will, on the contrary, use all that Satan gives him (and Satan will endue him with such energy as never has been possessed before by man upon the earth), will use all power and signs and lying wonders. The consequence will be that the Jews, who have always been looking out for external tokens and prodigies, will accept and worship him as the Messiah and Jehovah their God in Jerusalem. This is the person the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians warns us is to come. Upon him specially is the day of the Lord to fall; though that day will take in the whole course of judgments, from its first act in destroying the Antichrist till the end of the thousand years. All this period will be not only for the display of divine glory, but there will be also the execution of judgment from time to time on those that oppose themselves. Thus, of the other enemies of the Lord, the chief is this very king of the north, the Assyrian scourge that comes down upon Ephraim. Clearly he is an enemy that is outside the Holy Land, whereas Antichrist will reign in the land, being there received by the Jews, and probably a Jew himself, for otherwise he could hardly hope to pass himself as Messiah. But the other external enemy, though he may set up to understand dark sentences (Dan. 8), will rather appear antagonistically, as a fierce king and mighty man of craft.
From chapters 28, 29, we hear of two attacks on Jerusalem. First of all the enemy comes on Ephraim, entering the Holy Land from the north, on which occasion he has it his own way. He humbles the pride of Ephraim (ver. 3), and is allowed of God to gain a partial success over Jerusalem also. “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. 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: 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. 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. 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.” Was this the case in past history? Supposing you look at Sennacherib and his army (2 Kings 18), what is there like it, save as a preparatory type? Was not his power completely bumbled before the Jews? (Chap. 19) Was it not a godly son of David who then reigned at Jerusalem? Had not Ephraim been swept off years before? It is manifest and certain that Sennacherib never gained an advantage over Jerusalem, whereas this power is to be victorious in the first instance, and even in the second to reduce them to the utmost. Mark the language of the prophet here, “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.” (Ver. 14) The fact is, when Sennacherib came against Jerusalem then, the pious king Hezekiah ruled there, who, instead of making a covenant with death, implored the help of the Lord against the scornful king of Assyria. The result was that the angel of the Lord smote the host of Assyria, so that there fell no less than 185,000. Save that the Assyrian will once more oppose the Jews, there is scarce a feature in the past which is not the reverse of what we have here.
Let rationalists, if they will, conclude that the book (for the Spirit of God they deny) has made a mistake; believers may be assured that it mainly looks onward to the judgments of the last days. Indolent readers, unintelligent or prejudiced commentators may slur over the distinctive points of the prophecy, turning what they can to moral profit. But if a man follows out the matter closely, he must accept the truth of the future, or become a rationalist, i.e., an infidel. It is perfectly certain that nothing that approaches the prediction has yet occurred. Therefore, the only legitimate inference to be drawn from it is either that the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled, or that the pseudo-prophet was guilty of a lie or a flourish. The Christian believes on the contrary, that God has written nothing in vain, and that every word, not yet accomplished, must be fulfilled to the letter, among the rest this wonderful dealing in which God is to make the land of Israel the grave of man's pride and power. Then God will appear for the everlasting deliverance of poor Israel. And that very people, now so proverbial for their obstinate rejection of Christ, will go forth zealously spreading the tidings of divine mercy to the ends of the earth. What an evident contrast with that which exists now! Israel will be brought into their own land and blessed there, when Jehovah of hosts shall reign in mount Zion. Now God has no land that is more particularly holy. The Land, holy in His purpose, is the possession of the Turk. It is still largely a barren land, though proofs of fertility are not wanting in the midst of barrenness. How is so vast a change to be brought about? When consummated, God will lead Israel to build a magnificent temple. The priests, the sons of Zadok, shall minister in due order. The land shall be divided among the twelve tribes after a new fashion. This and more we know from the last chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel. Indeed, abundant proofs are manifest elsewhere to any person moderately acquainted with the prophecies. At the present time, the characteristic facts are—Israel rejected, the Gentiles called, the Church formed in union with Christ on high and by the Holy Ghost here below, in which Church is neither Jew nor Gentile. Thus the character of blessing for man is entirely altered. Instead of outward honor resting upon the Jews, they are cast out and dispersed, and have yet to pass a fiery tribulation at the close. We are God's people, God's children now, not they. Peace in Christ is ours, but in the world we have tribulation. In the days that are coming all will be changed; God, instead of rejecting the Jews, will again choose them to stand forth in their own land, converting them to Himself, quenching all tendency to rest on ordinances and idols forever taken away; whereas they formerly mixed up idols with the worship of Jehovah, and rejected their Messiah. It is plain that a new state of things must have come in. The prophecies may take us down to the change; but how is the change itself to be brought about? By more tremendous judgments on Israel, and especially on their enemies, than the world has ever witnessed; not only a great nation, but the east and west, their old enemies, represented in their descendants. All nations of the earth, in short, will have their representatives there and then. The result will be, that God will judge all the nations, at length blessing His ancient people, according to the promises He had ensured to the fathers, then accomplished to the children. In order to bring about this change, not only must there be an execution of judgment, but also the removal of the heavenly saints to be with the Lord above; for as long as the Church goes on here below, it is impossible, morally speaking, that God could accomplish these events of a wholly contrasted character. For it is contrary to all analogy that God would act upon two opposite principles at the same time. For instance, how could God both give and withhold outward honor for the Jew? How form the Church at the same time that He restores and owns Israel? If a Jew were to believe now, he, baptized by the Holy Ghost, becomes a member of Christ's body; whereas, what we find in the prophets is, that a godly Jew, in the last days, remains a Jew. The Spirit will regenerate him, no doubt; but he will be found in his own land and, instead of suffering, he will be blessed in earthly things. Thus it is an altogether different state of things. To this the New Testament supplies the key. Before the Lord begins thus to work in Israel, He removes the Church to heaven. Hence, in the Book of Revelation, the great first lesson is this, that when “the things that are” or the seven churches terminate, and those that are true believers now are seen glorified with the Lord in heaven, then (Rev. 7) God takes up a new work among the Jews and the Gentiles, who will be, both of them, blessed, but even so distinct from each other. No doubt, the Jews will return to their land in unbelief, and Satan will get them to install a man as their Messiah, who will draw them by degrees to worship himself and an idol. Some might think it strange to assert, that these civilized, Christianized nations who count it impossible that the educated could worship idols or the Antichrist, should fall into that very snare. But Scripture is explicit, that it is those who now boast of progress, knowledge, and religion, that will at that time fall into the anti-Christian pit and idolatry. All Western Europe will be drawn into the snare with the mass of the Jews. God will have previously removed all properly called Christians. Then the apostasy will take place, though in the midst of this fearful evil, the Spirit of God will work specially among certain of the Jews, who will go through this scene faithful to God, some being killed for the truth, and others surviving in the flesh—a remnant God will reserve to Himself to make of it as it were a new Israel. He will come in the midst of this wickedness; He will execute judgment upon the ungodly, preserving the spared remnant, who will become the chosen means of spreading the truth throughout the millennial age.
When the Holy Ghost says, “because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death” (ver. 15), we are not to suppose that this is to be taken as if they confessed it. God is rather exposing their true evil and danger. They may boast of their covenant, but they do not know it is with hell. They are deceived to accept a false Messiah, whose power will turn out to be of Satan, but they are ignorant of the cheat. Men would not openly say that they had entered into a contract with the devil; one must be in an extraordinary state in order to own such a thing; nor does the word. of God at all limit us to such an interpretation. I suppose the reference is to those that enter into a covenant to save themselves from the king of the north. It appears to be a contract entered into between the false prophet and the beast. The power that Scripture designates as the Beast, is the emperor of the west, the last Roman ruler when that empire re-appears. There is a living man even now, who has his mind set upon some such scheme. It is a notable fact that within the last few years the project has entered into the brain of one who has proved that an idea governs him. Nor is it absolutely new, this yearning after the reorganization of the empire, with Rome for its capital. The plan is, not to overthrow other European nations, but to make them subject kingdoms, each having its king, under one supreme head. That this is the theory of a living monarch, there can be no more question than that it was the idea of another before him. I may add, that he, too, like his predecessor, meddled with the affairs of the Holy Land, and that both have sought a hold of Rome. Some of us have held these interpretations of the prophecies long before the war of the holy places or the possession of Rome. They were thoughts derived not from political events but from Scripture. Plainly, then, a great power shall arise, in Scripture called “the Beast,” or the revived Roman empire, with this peculiar form, that instead, of putting aside the various kings of Europe, it will allow of separate kingdoms under him, nominally independent, but really dictated to by the emperor, who accordingly is the contracting party with the apostate Jews, in concert with their king the Antichrist; the emperor of the west being the political head, as the prophet king will be the spiritual head of Christendom (then properly anti-Christendom). Thus Jerusalem, which has been the cradle of professing Christendom, will be its grave. As to the particular person who will effect all this, one says nothing. He shall be revealed in his own time. The great point is the manifestation of the chiefs at Jerusalem and Rome. Rome will be the center of an earthly empire, with separate but dependent kings in western Europe, each having their kingdom subject to the one head. This is one feature. The other is, that the Jews will be in their own land, and that this will bring them into the bands not of Christ but Antichrist.
When the Jews are there, the rest of the great drama will follow; they will soon have its predicted leader. Then comes the scene spoken of here. (Ver. 14, 15) In order to strengthen themselves against the great northern oppressor, or the overflowing scourge, they enter into a covenant with “the Beast.” In vain do they think to escape. At this very time God will raise to Himself the hearts of a little band of faithful Jews, who will feel assured that the wicked prince cannot be their Messiah; that the true God is a holy God; that His servant, their promised King, must be, not a man of sin, but a man of righteousness. The false messiah they refuse, their hearts in penitence cry, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of Jehovah. These are the very persons here spoken of as “he that believeth.” (Ver. 10.) The rest plot, make preparations, and hope to be saved from the overflowing scourge. But no; God will permit the mass to be trodden down. (Ver. 17-20.) God will not let them escape. The first attack upon Jerusalem is to be successful. In the next chapter we see a very different result, when the people in the city have been purged and Jehovah interferes. (Comp. Zech. 13; 14)
Thus Jerusalem is the great battle-field of the nations, and the main platform of the judgments of God. I am not speaking now about the last eternal judgment—the great white throne—for this has nothing to do with the earth. Heaven and earth will have fled away before that. Remember there is to be a judgment of the habitable earth, not only a judgment of the dead, but also and previously of the quick. Every baptized man professes that Christ is coming to judge the quick and the dead. How many understand and believe it? All will not take place at the same time. The judgment of the quick we speak of here. The reason why Jerusalem becomes the scene of God's judgments on the nations is that Jerusalem, Judah, and the people of Israel are the chosen center of God among the nations. In the latter day He will resume His former relations with Israel, though on a better and everlasting ground.
What solemn words in verse 14-29, for the scornful men ruling in Jerusalem) In vain to plead past favor or present privileges. Jehovah should rise up to do His work, His strange work, and accomplish His act, His strange act. He loves not vengeance, but mercy. But mockers are odious: most of all in Zion. A consumption therefore is determined upon the whole earth. He is the same unchanging God: let them not presume because of His long-suffering. Even with man it is not always plowing, nor always sowing-time. Threshing comes at last, and in divers modes and measures. So will it be in God's judgment of the earth. “This also cometh from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsels and excellent in working.”