“Therefore will I return,” that is, I will change the way of My administrations toward them; I will go out of My way of mercy, and turn into My way of judgment; I will go back again. “I will take away My corn in the time thereof.” That is in the very time of harvest and vintage. “And will recover My wool.” I will snatch it away; I will spoil you of it. I will recover it out of the hands of usurpers. Or those creatures, corn, wine, wool, are now in bondage to you, and I will recover them out of your hands. Observe--
1. Though God gives mercy out of free grace without cause in ourselves, yet He takes not away mercy without cause.
2. Sin causes God to change the way of His administrations towards His people.
3. Abuse of mercy causes the removing of mercy.
4. God keeps the propriety of all that we have.
5. The taking away the good things which we enjoy is a means Of making us return to God.
6. There is an uncertainty in all things in the world; though they promise fair, yet they are ready to fail us when they promise most.
7. God often shows His displeasure to those who provoke Him, when they are at the greatest height of prosperity.
8. When men abuse mercies, they forfeit their right in those mercies.
9. All the time the creature serves wicked men, it is in bondage, and God looks upon it with pity.
10. God gives His blessings to us, not for luxury, but for necessity,
11. When abundance is abused, it is just with God that we should want necessaries. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
And take away My corn.
Blessings unimproved resumed by their owner
Two subjects for reflection; the goodness of God, and the wickedness of man. The Jews were fair specimens of human nature.
I. the source of our mercies. “I gave her.” Here we do not refer to those blessings which we call spiritual. We speak of temporal good things. “He giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” Never suffer instruments to keep your thoughts from God.
1. Unconscious instrumentality. This takes in what we call nature.
2. Voluntary instrumentality. Our fellow-creatures may do us good in a thousand ways. They act knowingly and freely in relieving us, and display the noblest principles of their nature. But here God has higher claims; for who placed these friends and benefactors in our way?
3. Personal instrumentality. Few of the good things of life are obtained without some exertions of our own. Indeed, if they were, they would not be half so sweet. But from whom have we derived our natural talents? Whose providence fixed us in a situation favourable to our efforts?
II. Our guilt in the use of our mercies. Here are two charges.
1. Ignorance. God does much more good in the world than is ever known. He has done us all countless acts of kindness of which we have never been aware. There are two kinds of knowledge, speculative and practical. The former is nothing without the latter; it is no better than ignorance.
2. Perversion. Instead of using God’s gifts in the service and for the glory of God, we appropriate them to the use of idols. This is worse than the former, as indifference is exceeded by insult. What would you feel more provoking than for a man to borrow of you, in order to publish a libel upon your character? Is not God perpetually thus affronted and dishonoured?
III. The removal. “Take away My corn,” etc.
1. We see how precarious everything earthly is.
2. God withdraws our comforts as well as gives them.
3. God does not relinquish His propriety in any of His blessings when He bestows them. Still they are His. When He comes for them He comes but to resume.
4. He often removes our blessings and comforts when they seem most attractive and most necessary, when their loss is least expected, and we are rejoicing to see them flourish.
5. God does not deprive us of our enjoyments without a cause. It is our non-improvement, it is our abuse of our mercies that endangers them.
6. His conduct, in the removal of our joys, looks forward as well as backward. He punishes, not for our destruction but advantage, and the very consequences of sin are made to cure. While this subject leads us to magnify the Lord, it should afford instruction and encouragement to those who are afflicted. No affliction will ever do us good unless it excite in us both fear and hope. The day of trouble is a period peculiarly eventful and important. Salvation or destruction may hinge upon it. (William Jay.)
Forfeited blessings
The goodness of God and the ingratitude of man meet us everywhere, and in our own hearts are as prominent as in the world.
I. God’s mercies. All our blessings come direct from God. Whatever may be the instrument, the gift is of God.
1. There is nature.
2. There is human instrumentality.
3. There is personal exertion. “It is the Lord thy God giveth thee power to get wealth.”
II. Man’s abuse of God’s mercies. Here are twocharges.
1. Ignorance.
2. Perversion.
III. The just and inevitable result.
1. God reminds us that our mercies are only lent.
2. God only allots them to us on the condition of using them rightly. (Homilist.)
God’s gifts taken away
God shews us that His gifts come from Him, either by giving them when we almost despair of them, or taking them away, when they are all but ours. It can seem no chance when He so doeth. The chastisement is severer also, when the good things, long looked for, are at the last taken out of our very hands, and that, when there is no remedy. “Recover My wool.” God recovers and, as it were, delivers the works of His hands from serving the ungodly. While He leaves His creatures in the possession of the wicked, they are holden, as it were, in captivity, being kept back from their proper uses, and made the hand maidens and instruments and tempters to sin. It is against the order of nature to use God’s gifts to any other end short of God’s glory, much more, to turn God’s gifts against Himself, and make them serve to pride, or luxury, or sensual sin. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
Necessaries of life withheld
So full and continual are our mercies that we are prone to forget the Giver in the enjoyment of the gift, until a voice of sternness calls us home. I heard recently of a young student at college, who became so interested in sports and other things that he neglected to write to his parents. The mother became exceedingly anxious and wanted the father to go to the city and learn the cause. But the father found a simpler method. The supply of money was withheld, and very soon a letter came. Even so, God sometimes withholds from us the very necessaries of life until we learn that while He is willing to supply our needs, He earnestly desires our fellowship. As in the case of the prodigal, He permits a mighty famine in the land where we are feeding swine, in order to bring us to the home table, where His bounty is spread. (Good Tidings.)
God’s discipline
Trees, if the roots run too deep into the earth, must be cut shorter; if the branches spread too far, they must be lopped; and if canker or caterpillar once infest, and cleave to them, then they must be blazed and smoked. Thus, the children of God, when they be too much rooted by their affections in the things of this world, and with great and large boughs of their ability, wrong and impoverish their poor neighbour, or let their money like the canker eat into their souls--God will give them many a cutting, lopping, and fumigating; and as they cannot but naturally do tile one, so God, intending to heal them spiritually, will do the other; His care will be still for them, notwithstanding their several failings. (J. Spencer.)
