God grant, that this admonition may have its full effect upon us; that we may go and meditate, and pray; pray daily for the blessing of an humble and a teachable heart; pray for God’s grace, to correct all our sinful follies, and supply all our deficiencies. Probably, my brethren, we have been “leaning too little upon the hope of this heavenly grace;” we have been relying upon our own perception of right and wrong, our own choice and decision, our own feeble resolutions; if so, no wonder that we have failed, in our work of repentance and spiritual change. “Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned:” { 188} here lies our hope and our strength, in the renewing influence of the Spirit of God. As we do desire, so let us fervently pray, that we may, in our course of penitence, imitate the example of the royal psalmist, and let contrition “have its perfect work;” that we may, here below, with heart and soul, join in the pious and repentant strains of David’s harp, and thus may be admitted to sing to other harps hereafter, in the chorus of the Redeemed above.
_Ye say_, _the way of the Lord is not equal_. _Hear now_, _O house of Israel_; _is not my way equal_? _are not your ways unequal_?
THE main purport of this chapter was, to obviate some objections which had been groundlessly entertained against the dealings of God with His people. They were at that time suffering in a state of captivity; and the calamities attendant upon it had been threatened long before, as a punishment for the sins of their ancestors. The Jews, therefore, assuming that this was the only cause of divine vengeance; imagining, in the blindness and pride of their hearts, that there were no delinquencies of their own to deserve such retribution, presumed to charge the Almighty with injustice, for this visitation of His wrath.
The prophet, in the opening of the chapter, thus remonstrates with them: “What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel?” (concerning the evils with which it is afflicted,) that ye say, in the language of accusation and reproach, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge?”—thereby meaning, that the present generation are unjustly punished for the transgressions of their forefathers. “As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion to use this proverb any more in Israel.” I will make so visible a discrimination between the righteous and the wicked, between those who tread in the steps of their wicked progenitors, and those who take warning by their examples, that you shall not have any further occasion to use this proverb amongst you.