SECOND GROUP: THE POWER OF GOD IN THE AFFLICTION OF MEN.-Verses 27-34

Once the sinner having set himself against God, he of necessity suffers in mind, body, and estate. The primitive laws of nature become executors of God's power and judgments.

I. God's power displayed in human life. God is absolutely supreme, a law unto Himself and does what He will among men. 1. In the human body (ver. 27). God, who built our body, can smite it with disease; acute and loathsome; torture every nerve, and render man hideous from "the sole of the foot to the crown of the head." 2. In the human mind (ver. 28). Mental sufferings are greater than bodily. If the mind is smitten and reason dethroned, man is down and no physician can help him up. With a healthy body, elevated desires and happy prospects, we may triumph over physical suffering. But when body and mind are tortured, how terrible! "A wounded spirit, who can bear?" 3. In the social circle (ver. 30). Wife, house and vineyard, everything most dear would be touched and taken by the curse. Sin robs of family joys and family status. Domestic comfort, reputation and property all go. Often from heights of worldly greatness, families fall to the lowest depths of degradation and distress. "For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this (2 Chron. xxix. 9).

II. God's power displayed in national history. Nations are but men, governed by the providence, according to the purpose of God. He can dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. God has power. 1. Over the possessions of nations. "Vineyards "Vineyards" are planted by Him. Sheep and oxen; "the cattle on a thousand hills are His." A nation's property may be great, constantly accumulating, and apparently secure, but if unjustly gained, ungratefully held or wickedly abused, God may give it to the "enemies and thou shalt have none to rescue (ver. 31). "He increaseth the nations and destroyeth them; He enlargeth the nations and straiteneth (carrieth them away) again (Job xii. 23). 2. Over the population of nations. God builds up a people in number, as well as in material wealth. But "He breaketh down and it cannot be built again." Vice poisons the blood and destroys the life; war, famine and pestilence waste the inhabitants of nations. Posterity, to whom are committed the interests of commerce, the defence of the throne and the glory of our name, are often cut off by divine judgments. "I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord."

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

III. God's power irresistible in its displays. Israel would see their children carried captives but have "no might in their hand " to rescue them, and would pine away in sorrow (ver. 32). 1. Powerless to resist His doings. Power is seen in creation, sustenance and government of the world. "He is mighty in strength," the force of all forces, in heaven and earth. "Men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts." I will work and who shall let it" (hinder, or turn it back) Is. xliii. 13. 2. Powerless to resist his purpose. No man, no combination of men can prevent the fulfilment of His plan. He is of one mind, and who can turn Him?" Can a pebble hinder the advancing tide? God moves on in majestic power. Nations are futile in their rage and opposition. "If he cut off and shut up (i.e. arrest and imprison), or gather together (call an assembly for judgment), then who can hinder Him?" (Job xi. 10). What folly to resist God. "Why dost thou strive against Him?" Has He done you harm? Can you succeed? Submit, avoid the curse and secure the blessing.'

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HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Vers. 28, 29. The dreadful power of suffering. "Smite thee with madness. God's judgments reach the mind as well as body and estate, make men a terror to themselves and drive them to desperation.

Blindness, physical and mental, loss of sight and confounding of understanding. Unable to devise means to prevent or remove calamities, and led to adopt those which tended directly to their ruin. How true the saying, Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat "Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first infatuates." What a warning to nations! What an awful type of wicked men !

THIRD GROUP: THE REJECTION AND DEGRADATION OF ISRAEL,- Verses 35-46.

We have here solemn gradation of evils. Confusion and anarchy, uniting with oppression, produce madness of heart; disease pursues its ravages in most malignant forms; labour and enterprise are blasted by the curse, and the nation sinks into total disgrace and ruin.

I. Israel would be cut off from fellowship with God (ver. 35). From "the sole of the foot unto the crown of the head" they would be smitten with loathsome and incurable disease, a sore botch that cannot be healed." Leprosy cut off from the society of man, so Israel would be excluded from fellowship with God.

II. Israel would become impoverished at home. 1. The fruits of the land would be consumed. Locusts would devour the seed. They might carry much into the field, but would reap little (ver. 28); the planting and dressing of the vineyard would give no wine to drink, for the worm would devour the vine (ver. 39); the trees would yield no oil to anoint, but would be uprooted or destroyed (ver. 40). 2. They would fall into an inferior position. They would have to borrow money instead of lending (ver. 44); strangers would rise above them in wealth and social rank, "become the head, and they would be the tail; their condition would be the opposite to verse 13. 3. A curse would rest upon their children. Children may deteriorate through sin, and carry in their persons the curse of God to future generations. And upon thy seed for ever." Israel as a nation would be rejected, but a remnant would be saved (cf. Is. x. 22 ; vi. 13; Rom. ix. 27 ; xi. 5).

III. Israel would be a terror to spectators. "For a sign and for a wonder' (ver. 46). God's doings are not simply wonderful, but signs of supernatural interposition, illustrations of spiritual truth. Never was a people such a sign as the Jews, whose seed for thousands of years have been a wonder over the face of the earth!

IV. Israel would be brought under subjection to a foreign Power. 1. They were taken into captivity (ver. 36). Their kings-Jehoichin (2 Kings, xxiv.

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12, 14), Zedekiah (2 Kings, xxv. 7, 11), and Manasseh (2 Ch. xxxiii. 11)—were taken away by foreign nations. Edward III. had the King of Scots and the King of France captives together. Monarchs with body-guards and means of protection cannot escape the vengeance of God. How hopeless that case when the defender shares the fate of the subjects! 2. They were forced to serve other gods. As in Babylon and in Popish countries. "Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favour " (Jer. xvi. 13).

V. Israel would become a byeword among nations (ver. 37). Jews have been despised among Mahometans, Pagans, and Christians. There is scarcely any part of the globe where the prediction has not been verified. "In short, the annals of almost every nation, for 1800 years, afford abundant proofs that this has been, as it still is, the case, the very name of Jew being a universally recognised term for extreme degradation and wretchedness, and is often applied by passionate people in derision- You Jew!'" "And now am I their song; yea, I am their byeword" (Job xxx. 9).

GOD'S CONTROL OVER NATURE.-Verses 35 and 38-42.

I. In the material department. Earth with its produce, in fields and vineyards-heaven with its sun and its showers, are under the superintendence of God and governed in the interests of men. The heavens satisfy the earth and the earth yields its increase to men; but all things in heaven and earth depend upon God. "So that without His bidding," says Calvin," not a drop of rain falls from heaven, and the earth produces no germ, and consequently all nature would be barren, unless he gave it fertility by his blessing." "How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein."

II. In the intelligent department. Over the bodies and minds of men. The beauty of the one and the vigour of the other. The strength of the limb (ver. 35) and the use of reason (ver. 28) come from Him. The condition of the parents and the fate of the children are fixed by His providence (ver. 41). God directs and controls all forces and all agencies to accomplish His designs. None are beyond the reach and none can escape the punishment of God. All troubles," says Bishop Reynolds, "have their commission and instructions from Him-what to do, whither to go, whom to touch, and whom to pass over."

PARENTAL DISAPPOINTMENT.-Verse 41.

I. Parents anticipate great things from children. Dutiful conduct and reverence, joy, advancement, honour and prosperity. Gratitude, needful help and preservation of family name.

II. Parents are often disappointed in their children. Sometimes cut down by early death. They often turn out badly, a curse instead of a blessing. They are taken captives by evil habits and evil company-because disloyal and unnatural. God help me, my own children have forsaken me," said James II. who stands forth a type of a deserted father. "A wise son maketh a glad father but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."

Ver. 35.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND suggestioNS.

Diseases. 1. Painful. 2. Degrading. 3. Incurable (cf. Is. i. 4-6).

Ver. 37. A Proverb. 1. A fact. 2. A dishonour. 3. A punishment. 4. A witness to prophetic truth. What a fall from the original mission of Israel. "Poets, dramatists, have all taken the Jew as the personation of what is mean, grasping, and avaricious ("Greedy as a Jew." Avaricious as a Jew"). Yet he is not more so, intrinsically, than we are; it is circumstances that have made him so; it is persecution and ill-treatment that have crushed him. And all this is the fulfilment of prophecies old as the days of Moses, and yet not the justification of his persecutors."

- Dr.

Cumming. This teaches two im-
portant lessons: First, he explains
this severe persecution, permitted by
God to fall upon them because they
were set up as a model nation chosen
from heathendom, enriched with privi-
leges, glory and position. But they
were untrue, forsook God; and the
height of the dignity to which they
were raised, is the measure of the
depth of degradation to which they
have sunk for abuse of it. Secondly,
how impossible to escape the conclu-
sion that the Book of Deuteronomy is
inspired!
inspired! The predictions in this
chapter, and in the ensuing one, are
so specific, so literal, that they carry
in their own bosoms the tests of in-
spiration.-(Idem).

FOURTH GROUP: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD RESULTING IN SERVITUDE TO MAN. Verses 47-57.

Every department of national life has been under the curse; yet, in love to His people and earnest desire to preserve them from wrath, the faithful servant of God goes further, and pictures greater severity in bondage to heathen yoke. Having forsaken God, they were left in servitude to man.

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I. If Israel would not obey God, they would be compelled to serve enemies. "Because thou servedst not the Lord, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies (ver. 47, 48). 1. Serve in hunger and want. "In hunger, thirst, nakedness and in want of all things." "Man's life," says Calvin, "is not shut up in bread, but hangs on the Sovereign will and good pleasure of God." He can withhold bread, take away water, create natural and spiritual distress in schools, churches, and nations. 2. Serve in vigorous oppression. "He shall put a yoke of iron about thy neck" (ver. 49). Instead of the easy yoke of God, they would be slaves to a cruel foe (cf. Jer. xxvii. 11, 12). Those who refuse reasonable service to God, will have to bow to the tyranny of sin.

II. These enemies would be most barbarous and cruel. This description might apply to the Chaldeans when compared with Moabites, Philistines and other neighbours in Judea, but the Romans answer best to it. 1. Enemies which scorn the distant foe. They came "from far," from France, Spain and Britain-then considered the end of the earth. 2. Enemies which defy the strength of battlements (ver. 52). All fortified places to which the people escaped were taken, and the walls of Jerusalem razed to the ground. 3. Enemies which have no pity for the people. "Not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young" (ver. 50). Josephus says the Romans had no mercy for infants and spared neither sex nor age. Cruel and insensible to human instincts. 4. Enemies of ruthless vengeance. "Fruit of thy cattle, fruit of thy land," all consumed. The invader destroyed everything within reach, every

district through which they passed was strewed with wrecks of devastation. 5. Enemies of sudden approach. Swift as an eagle-the ensign of the standards of the Roman army-pouncing violently upon its prey. It is true morally and physically that "where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

III. In their distress and siege Israel would be driven to horrible extremities (vers. 53-57). 1. Famine would lead them to eat the fruit of their own body (ver. 53). Fulfilled 2 Kings vi. 25, 28, 29; Lam. ii. 20; iv. 10; Baruch ii. 3; and in the Roman siege. 2. Famine would create domestic jealousy. The man of luxury would envy his relatives if better off than himself; or avoid them in jealousy and fear lest they should discover and demand a share of his unnatural viands. "In every house where there was any appearance of food, the dearest relatives fought each other for it-even mothers their infants."(Josephus). 3. Famine would destroy natural affection. The delicate and sensitive woman would be unrestrained by natural affection and appease her hunger with her offspring and afterbirth. In the siege of Samaria, a woman boiled her son (2 Kings v. 28, 29), which was also done in the siege by the Romans. Famine was so terrible, that "for want of all things," the leather of girdles, shoes and shields, and even stale dung of oxen were eagerly devoured (cf. Ezek. v. 10; Jer. xix. 9). Such were the awful consequences of forsaking God.

One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

So fast they follow.-Shakspeare.

Thus woe succeeds woe, as wave a wave. — -Herrick.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Vers. 47. Joyful Service. I. Its Motive. God's goodness in personal mercies, family mercies, spiritual mercies. II. Its embodiment in secret and social devotion, in songs of praise, grateful offerings and loyal obedience. Here we have duty and favour, "the duty of delight," as a modern writer would say, labour and sunshine. "The love which does not lead to labour will soon die out; and the thankfulness which does not embody itself in sacrifices is already changing to ingratitude."

Vers. 47, 48. The dread alternative. God or man, with joyfulness or in want, etc.

Vers. 49-52. Foreign conquest. I. The foe described swift, cruel and

strong. II. The mischief he commits. III. The impotence to resist.

Ver. 52. Confidence in strongholds. Jews seldom ventured to fight in open fields. They trusted to high and fenced walls. In a special manner they confided in the strength and situation of Jerusalem, as Jebusites, former inhabitants did before them (2 Sam. v. 6, 7). Vain is the confidence of the sinner. His stronghold a refuge of lies (Is. xxviii. 15). Divine Retribution. 1. Discovers every subject. None can hide from God. 2. Överturns every stronghold. 3. Penetrates every place.

Prince's palaces are not above, the poor man's cottage is not beneath the judgment of God." God is the only stronghold in whom we should trust. Christ is the refuge, flee to him!

THE GLORIOUS AND FEARFUL NAME,- Verse 58.

The name of Jehovah most prominent here to check the downward course, secure glory and regard. Pause and consider its nature and demands.