Priestly neglect and its consequences.
This section deals with the sin and punishment of the priests, as the preceding one had described the sin and punishment of the people. The priests here referred to were probably Levitical priests still scattered through the northern kingdom, since God speaks of them as his priests; while those which Jeroboam appointed out of other tribes than that of Levi, and from all, even the lowest, ranks of society, were rather priests for the worship of the calves.
I. MINISTERIAL UNFAITHFULNESS. The ignorance of the people is here attributed to priestly negligence. They disliked and despised the knowledge of God for themselves, and consequently had no heart for dispensing it to others. The means available for knowing God they did not take advantage of, and accordingly their own ignorance unfitted them for instructing the people. Idleness combined with indifference in the ease of these unfaithful ministers of religion, so that they were neither rightly instructed themselves nor capable of instructing others; while their carelessness increased their incapacity. It is incumbent on all public teachers to be diligent in their private studies; and a fearful responsibility is incurred by those who, appointed to instruct others in religious matters, refuse to take the pains necessary to qualify them for the efficient discharge of such important duty. It is a grievous sin for ministers of religion to serve God with what costs them nothing, and so to feed God's people with husks instead of the finest of the wheat. How different is the picture our Lord gives us of one who is faithful to such an important trust! "Therefore," he says, "every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."
II. THE PUNISHMENT CORRESPONDS TO THEIR SIN. They had rejected Divine knowledge; God rejects their priestly services. They had forgotten the Law from disuse, no doubt having previously forsaken it; God threatens to forget them, and, what was more galling, their children after them, so that the priesthood would be lost to them forever. Wunsche and some others insist that it is the people and not the priesthood that is here addressed; that the whole nation is addressed as a single person, and that consequently the children are the individual members of the nation. Both priests and people were guilty in this matter. Both had shut their eyes upon the light, and the light was at length withdrawn. Both had said, "Depart from us: we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;" and God in turn had virtually said to them, "Depart from me: I know you not." The priests, whose duty was to teach the people knowledge, had been unable or unwilling to do so, and the people remained in ignorance; the people, who should have received the Law from the priests' lips, are represented as striving with, and gainsaying, their spiritual instructors. The consequence was that they destroyed themselves, for the verb nidmu has here the proper reflexive sense of the Niphal; nor is it without knowledge, but because of the want of (mibbeli) the necessary knowledge. The punishment, if it be not a re-echo, yet reminds us of 1 Samuel 15:26, where Samuel says to Saul, "For thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." The worst feature of the case was their gross and grievous ingratitude; for just in proportion as,, they increased in numbers and in wealth they multiplied transgression; just as of old when Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked," Kimchi, indeed, in mentioning the exposition of those who regarded the increase as financial rather than numerical, says, "Some interpret 'according to their increase' as equivalent to as I increased them in wealth and riches so they sinned after the manner of 'when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked.'" Their either in number or riches—and both we think, are included—ministered to the sins of an unthankful people, and afforded occasions of trespassing yet more and more against God. Justly, then, did God turn to shame that which he had given Israel for the Divine glory, but which Israel used for vain-glory. "He," says Pusey," not only gives them shame instead of their glory; he makes the glory itself the means and occasion of their shame. Beauty becomes the occasion of degradation; pride is proverbially near a fall; 'vaulting ambition overleaps itself and falls on the 'other side;' riches and abundance of population tempt nations to wars which become their destruction, or they invite other and stronger nations to prey upon them." Jehoash's reproof of Amaziah and the result, as recorded in 2 Kings 14:9-14, furnishes a good illustration of this subject.
III. GAIN TAKES THE PLACE OF GODLINESS. Whichever interpretation be adopted, the general sense here remains the same. The priests pandered to the sins of the people, and, lest they should lose their influence with them, they connived at and countenanced their sins when they should have sharply censured them. Or they encouraged sin that they might share the sin offerings presented in expiation. What was this in either case but to live by and upon the sin of a people sinful and laden with iniquity? Calvin, who makes the priests and people share the sin in common, says, "There is a collusion between the priests and the people. How so? Because the priests were the associates of robbers, and gladly seized on what was brought; and so they carried on no war, as they ought to have done, with vices, but, on the contrary, urged only the necessity of sacrifices; and it was enough if men brought things plentifully to the temple. The people also themselves showed their contempt for God; for they imagined that, provided they made satisfaction by their ceremonial performances, they would be exempt from punishment. Thus, then, there was an ungodly compact between the priests and the people; the Lord was mocked in the midst of them."
IV. WHAT IS GOT BY SIN GIVES NO SATISFACTION. "Ill got, ill gone," is a common proverb and a very pithy one; so with these faithless priests in their ministrations for a sinful people. They said in effect, "The more sin the more sacrifices, and so the greater share of our profits;" but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by our share of profits;" but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by them.
1. The pleasures of sin are mostly sensual; they last only for a season—a short one; and they afford no real satisfaction even when they do last. "What profit," asks the apostle, "had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death."
2. The priests, instead of reproving sin, did practically recommend it by their own godless conduct; and the people were well pleased to have it so. Alike in sin, however, they shall be alike in suffering; they helped each other in sin, they must have their share in punishment. The priests abused their position by neither practicing piety themselves nor inculcating its practice on others; the people, freed from all restraint and having no fear of God before their eyes, sinned with a high hand. Both ran to an excess of riot, and both are to be punished with equal severity; neither can reasonably expect to be spared.
3. The root of the evil was their leaving off to take heed to the Lord. The word shamar, here rendered "to take heed to," is very expressive; it means to have a sharp eye upon, then to observe attentively. Applied to a person, it signifies to have the eye steadily set on his will, to meet his wishes, to obey. Thus it is said of one waiting on his master, as in Proverbs 27:18, "He that waiteth on his master shall be honored;" while in the hundred and twenty-third psalm we have a good practical illustration of the observance indicated: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us."