Ezra 9:13-14 And after all that is come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass… We find in Scripture upon the most solemn occasions of humiliation that good men have always testified a thankful sense of the goodness of God to them. The greater and more lively sense we have of the goodness of God to us, the more we shall abhor ourselves, nothing being more apt to melt us to tears of repentance than the consideration of great and undeserved mercies vouchsafed to us. The goodness of God doth naturally lead to repentance. In the text we have — I. A CASE SUPPOSED, WHICH INVOLVES — 1. That sin is the cause of all our sufferings. 2. That great sins have usually proportionable punishment. 3. That all the punishments which God inflicts in this life do fall short of the demerit of our sins. 4. That God many times works very great deliverances for those who are very unworthy of them. 5. That we are but too apt, even after great judgments and after great mercies, to relapse into our former sins. 6. That it is good to take notice of the particular sins that have brought the judgments of God upon us. II. A SENTENCE AND DETERMINATION IN THE CASE — "Wouldest not Thou be angry with us till Thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?" This question implies a strong affirmative. 1. It is a fearful aggravation of sin after great judgments and great deliverances to return to sin, and especially to the same sins again. (1) To return to sin after great judgments is an argument of great obstinacy in evil. The longer Pharaoh resisted the judgments of God, the more was his wicked heart hardened, till at last he arrived at a monstrous degree of hardness. And we find that after God had threatened the people of Israel with several judgments, He tells them that if they "will not be reformed by all these things, He will punish them seven times more for their sins." What a sad complaint doth Isaiah make of the people of Israel growing worse for judgments (Isaiah 1:4, 5; Isaiah 9:13; Isaiah 26:11). There is a particular brand set upon Ahaz because affliction made him worse (2 Chronicles 28:2). (2) When sin is committed after great mercies and deliverances vouchsafed to us is an argument of great ingratitude. This we find recorded as a heavy charge upon the people of Israel (Judges 8:34, 35). How severely doth Nathan reproach David on this account (2 Samuel 12:7-9). And he was angry with Solomon for the same reason (1 Kings 11:9). However we may slight the mercies of God, He keeps a strict account of them. It is noted as a blot of Hezekiah that "he returned not again according to the benefits done unto him." Ingratitude to God is so unnatural and monstrous that we find Him appealing against us for it to the inanimate creatures (Isaiah 1:2). And then He goes on and upbraids them with the brute creatures as being more grateful to men than men are to God (Isaiah 1:3; Isaiah 26:10). There is no greater evidence of an untractable disposition than not to be wrought upon by kindness, not to be melted by mercies, not to be obliged by benefits, not to be tamed by gentle usage. Nay, God expects that His mercies should lay so great an obligation upon us that even a miracle should not tempt us to be unthankful (Deuteronomy 13:1, 2). (3) To return to the same sins after great mercies and judgments is an argument of a perverse and incorrigible temper. With what resentment God speaks of the ill returns the children of Israel made to Him for the great mercy of their deliverance from Egypt (Judges 10:11-14) Upon such an occasion well might the prophet say, "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy sins shall reprove thee," etc. (Jeremiah 2:19). 2. To return to the same sins again after great judgments and deliverances is a sad presage of ruin to a people. (1) Because this doth ripen the sins of a nation (Genesis 15:16). When neither the mercies nor the judgments of God will bring us to repentance, we are then fit for destruction (Romans 9:22). (2) Because this incorrigible temper shows the case of such persons to be desperate and incurable (Isaiah 1:5; Matthew 23:37, 38). When God sees that all the means which He can use do prove ineffectual, He will then give over a people as physicians do their patients when they see that nature is spent and their case past remedy. When men will not be the better for the best means that Heaven can use, God will then leave them to reap the fruit of their own doings and abandon them to the demerit of their sin. (Abp. Tillotson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; |
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