Mixing with the ungodly.
"Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people "—had adopted heathenish ways, had sot at naught the command of God requiring separation from the ungodly, had intimately associated himself with the idolatrous nations around. The mixing, as Keil well points out, was an inward one before it became an outward one. There is first a mixing in the heart with the spirit of the world, then comes outward worldly conformity. It is this which Christians have constantly to guard against (Romans 12:2). Their calling is to be separate (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). They need to remember that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4) and that "if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Mixing with the world—the sin of the Church today, as it was the sin of Israel of old—has its effects.
I. SPIRITUAL INCONSISTENCY. "Ephraim is a cake not turned"—overdone on the one side, underdone on the other; not of a piece throughout; one side "scorched and black, the other steamed, damp, and lukewarm; the whole worthless, spoiled irremediably, but only to be cast away" (Pusey). The unturned cake is an emblem:
1. Of partial conversion. We have this where the Divine life has not penetrated the nature, but affects only parts and sides of it. The conscience is sensitive on some points, but not on others. Favorite duties are attended to, while others not less important are neglected. The conduct in some things shows the power of religion, in others it appears untouched by its influence. There is a want of pervasion, of through-and-throughness in the character. An illustration is afforded in what Stanley says of Saul: "He became ' another man,' yet not entirely. He was, as is so often the case, half converted, half roused. His mind moved unequally and disproportionately in its new sphere. Backwards and forwards in the names of his children we see alternately the signs of the old heathenish superstition, and of the new purified religion of Jehovah.… His religion was never blended with his moral nature. It broke out in wild ungovernable acts of zeal and superstition, and then left him more a prey than ever to his own savage disposition."
2. Of zeal for the forms of religion combined with denial of its power. Pharisaism was an instance of this. We have other examples in Judah and Israel. The people of the two kingdoms seem never to have failed in their zeal for the outward services of religion. They kept up sacrifices and offerings (Hosea 6:6); observed the feast days (Hosea 2:11; Isaiah 1:11-14; Amos 5:21, Amos 5:22); were unusually attentive to these forms when trouble seemed impending. With all this they were iniquitous in heart and life. They neglected the weightier matters of the Law—judgment, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). With excess of zeal for the forms, there was no zeal at all for the reality. For this, God likens them to an unturned cake.
3. Generally, of religious profession, with inconsistency of conduct. Religion is intended to pervade the life. It should be as manifest on week-days as on Sundays; in the ordinary business of life as in the devotions of the sanctuary. Yet how many fail in thus carrying out the life of the gospel! What grievous inconsistencies are seen in their conduct I They maintain their profession, yet "mix with the people," and fall in freely with the world's ungodly ways. Surely this is to be "a cake not turned."
II. SPIRITUAL DECAY. "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, grey hairs," etc. Ephraim had already suffered much from the people among whom he had chosen to mix himself. But even he was not aware of the amount of harm they had done him. He did not perceive how this intercourse with the heathen had sapped the moral strength of the nation; had deteriorated its politics; had beguiled it into a false dependence on foreign helpers; had given a mighty impetus to every disintegrating force already at work in the kingdom. The grey hairs—significant of decay—were thickly strewn upon him, but he perceived it not. Deterioration inevitably results from the mixing of Christians with the world.
1. Worldly conformity leads to a decay of inward religious earnestness. The diversion of thought and affection from spiritual things to the objects about which alone the world cares necessarily brings about this result. The temperature of the spiritual life fails in conformity with its environment. Interest in religion gives place to interest in the things which are the constant subjects of thought, talk, and concern in the circles in which we move. It is, besides, soon found that participation in the world's pleasures and follies is incompatible with serious attention to the things of the soul, and the latter, accordingly, is soon abandoned.
2. Inward spiritual decay reveals itself by various outward tokens. As grey hairs upon the head reveal the gradual approach of age. Among the indications of decay of piety we may notice neglect of prayer, and of the reading of God's Word; aversion to religious conversation; the preference of the society of the worldly to the society of God's people; neglect of the sanctuary; a light, depreciating way in speaking of religious earnestness, etc.
3. The progress of spiritual decay is often not noticed by the sinner himself. It comes on gradually. There is an unwillingness to look closely into the spiritual state. The power of spiritual perception gets lost.
III. SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. Ephraim did not know, and would not be warned. Darkness had blinded his eyes. "The pride of Israel" testified to his face, but Ephraim understood neither
"For all this" he would not return to God. Sin is blindness, fatuity, folly. The worldly conformist speedily becomes blinded. The god of this world blinds him, and he is willing to be blinded (2 Corinthians 4:4). He "cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (2 Peter 1:9). "He knoweth nothing," says Pusey.