for he is not what he seems to be, what he pretends to be, what we fancy him to be. Man is like to vanity, nay, he is vanity, he is altogether vanity, he is less, he is lighter, than vanity, when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. 2. How wise therefore they are that cease from man; it is our duty, it is our interest, to do so. "Put not your trust in man, nor make even the greatest and mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not your eye be to the power of man, for it is finite and limited, derived and depending; it is not from him that your judgment proceeds: let not him be your fear, let not him be your hope; but look up to the power of God, to which all the powers of men are subject and subordinate; dread his wrath, secure his favour, take him for your Help, and let your hope be in the Lord your God."
CHAP. III.
The prophet, in this chapter, goes on to foretell the desolations that were coming upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, both that by the Babylonians, and that which completed their ruin by the Romans; with some of the grounds of God's controversy with them. God threatens, 1. To deprive them of all the supports, both of their life and of their government, v. 1..3. II. To leave them to fall into confusion and disorder, v. 4, 5, 12. III. To deny them the blessings of magistracy, v. 6..8. IV. To strip the daughters of Zion of their ornaments, v. 17..24. V. To lay all waste by the sword of war, v. 25, 26. The sins that provoked God to deal thus with them, were, 1. Their defiance of God, v. 8. 2. Their impudence, v, 9. 3. The abuse of power to oppression and tyranny, v. 13..15. The pride of the daughters of Zion, v. 16. In the midst of the chapter, the prophet is directed how to apply himself to particular persons. (1.) To assure good people that it should be well with them, notwithstanding those general calamities, v. 10. (2.) To assure wicked people that, however God might, in judgment, remember mercy, yet it should go ill with them, v. 11. O that the nations of the earth, at this day, would hearken to the rebukes and warnings which this chapter gives!
1.FOR, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water. 2. The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, 3. The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. 4. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 5. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and everyone by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. 6. When a man shall take hold of his brother, of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: 7. In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer: for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. 8. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen ; because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had given a necessary caution to all, not to put confidence in man, or any creature; he had also given a general reason for that caution, taken from the frailty of human life, and the vanity and weakness of human powers: here he gives a particular reason for it—God was now about to ruin all their creature-confidences, so that they should meet with nothing but disappointments in all their expectations from them, v. 1. The stay and the staff shall be taken away; all their supports, of what kind soever, all the things they trusted to, and looked for help and relief from. Their church and kingdom were grown old, and going to decay, and they were (after the manner of aged men, Zech. viii. 4.) leaning on a staff; now God threatens to take away their staff, and then they must fall of course; to take away the stays both of the city and of the country, of Jerusalem and of Judah, which are indeed stays to one another, and if one fail, the other feels from it.
He that does this, is the Lord, the Lord of hosts; Adon, the Lord that is himself the Stay or Foundation; if that Stay depart, all other stays certainly break under us, for he is the Strength of them all. He that is the Lord, the Ruler, that has authority to do it, and the Lord of hosts, that has ability to do it, he shall take away the stay and the staff. St. Jerom refers this to the sensible decay of the Jewish nation, after they had crucified our Saviour, Rom, xi. 9, 10. I rather take it as a warning to all nations not to provoke God: for if they make him their Enemy, he can, and will, thus make them miserable. Let us view the particulars:
I. Was their plenty a support to them? It is so to any people; bread is the staff of life: but God can take away the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; and it is just with him to do so, when fulness of bread becomes an iniquity, (Ezek. xvi. 49.) and that which was given to be provision for the life, is made provision for the lusts. He can take away the bread and the water, by withholding the rain, Deut xxviii. 23, 24. Or, if he allow them, he can take away the stay of bread and the stay of water, by withholding this blessing, by which man lives, and not by bread only, and which is the staff of bread; (Matt. iv. 4.) and then the bread is not nourishing, the water not refreshing, Hag. i. 6. Christ is the bread of life and the water of life; if he be our Stay, we shall find that a good part not to be taken away, John vi. 27. ch. iv. 14.
II. Was their army a support to them—their generals and commanders, and military men? These shall be taken away: either cut off by the sword, or so discouraged with the defeats they meet with, that they shall throw up their commissions, and resolve to act no more; or they shall be disabled by sickness, or dispirited, so as to be unfit for business; the mighty man, and the man of war, and even the inferior officer, the captain of fifty, shall be removed. It bodes ill with a people when their valour is lost, and their valiant men. Let not the strong man therefore glory in his strength, nor any people trust too much to their mighty men; but let the strong people glorify God, and the city of the terrible nations fear him, who pan make them weak and despicable, ch. xxv. 3.
III. Were their ministers of state a support to them—their learned men, their politicians, their clergy, their wits and virtuosos? These also should be taken away; the judges, who were skilled in the laws, and expert in administering justice, and the prophets whom they used to consult in difficult cases, the prudent, who were celebrated as men of sense and sagacity above others, and were assistants to the judges; the diviners, (so the word is,) those who used unlawful arts, who, though rotten stays, yet were stayed on; but it may be taken, as we read it, in a good sense; the ancients, elders in age, in
