Exalted relationship and enormous sin.
"And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine."
I. A RELATIONSHIP OF THE HIGHEST PRIVILEGE. "She was mine." Aholah is intended to represent the people of Israel as distinguished from the people of Judah. The Lord here says that she was his. In common with all other peoples, Israel was his:
1. Tender affection. We may see this in the way in which St. Paul writes of the love between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:23-32). When marriage is contracted without true mutual affection, the relation is desecrated.
2. Exalted privilege. In taking the Israelites to be his, God gave himself to them as their supreme Portion. "They shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Jeremiah 32:38). "This of God's being our God," says Charnocke, "is the quintessence of the covenant, the soul of all the promises: in this he hath promised whatsoever is infinite in him, whatsoever is the glory and ornament of his nature, for our use; not a part of him, or one single perfection, but the whole vigor and strength of all. As he is not a God without infinite wisdom, and infinite power, and infinite goodness, and infinite blessedness, etc; so he passes over, in this covenant, all that which presents him as the most adorable Being to his creatures: he will be to them as great, as wise, as powerful, as good, as he is in himself. And the assuring us, in this covenant, to be our God, imports also that he will do as much for us as we would do for ourselves, were we furnished with the same goodness, power, and wisdom: in being our God, he testifies it is all one as if we had the same perfections in our power to employ for our use; for he being possessed with them, it is as much as if we ourselves were possessed with them for our own advantage, according to the rules of wisdom, and the several conditions we pass through for his glory."
3. Scrupulous fidelity. The relationship imperatively demands this. God would not fail in one jot or tittle on his part. "If we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself." And Israel was required to be true to him in obeying his commands, and above all in worshipping him alone. "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me," etc. (Exodus 20:1, seg.). Through Jesus Christ we may each enter into this exalted relationship. Through him we may each be enabled, without presumption, to say of the great God, "He is my God and my Father."
II. A SIN OF THE GREATEST HEINOUSNESS. "And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine." Israel is here represented as a wife who has been unfaithful to her husband. The primary reference is to the sin of Jeroboam in setting up the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan, and calling upon the people to worship God through them (1 Kings 12:26-33). And this was but the beginning of Israel's sin. Afterwards they worshipped Baal and Astarte. Their sin involved:
1. Positive injustice. They robbed God of his rights. He has a just claim on our obedience, our reverence, and our love. This claim is firmly based upon what he is in himself—the Supremely Great and Good; and upon what he is and does in relation to us—our Creator, etc. Not to comply with his claims is to defraud him o; his due.
2. Base ingratitude. How shameful were the returns which Israel made for his great kindness to them! Very strikingly is this set forth in Ezekiel 16:1-63. And their conduct has been too closely reproduced by us. For his fidelity we have returned unbelief; for his love, coldness of heart; for his beneficence, disobedience. How heinous this ingratitude is! And yet, alas, how common!
"Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
"Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the Waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not."
(Shakspeare.)
3. Heinous infidelity. This is the aspect of Israel's sin to which prominence is given in the text. In forsaking the Lord God for idols they committed a treacherous breach of a sacred engagement. Their conduct is an illustration of the action of those who, having avowed their allegiance to him, turn their backs upon him and upon his cause. Terrible is their guilt, and deplorable their condition. "It is a miserable thing," says Bishop Ryle, "to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things that can befall a man, I suppose it is the worst. A stranded ship, a broken-winged eagle, a garden overrun with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins,—all these are sad sights; but a backslider is a sadder sight still." And appalling will be their doom, even "a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries." Says Bunyan, "They fall deepest into hell who fall backwards into hell." Let backsliders return unto the Lord while there is yet time. "Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; I will not look in anger upon you," etc. (Jeremiah 3:12,Jeremiah 3:14; Hosea 14:1-4).—W.J.