Isaiah 58:2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God… When the prophet went about to show them their transgressions, they pleaded they could see no transgressions they were guilty of; for they were diligent in attending God's worship, and what more would he have of them? Now, 1. He owns the matter of fact to be true. As far as hypocrites do that which is good, they shall not be denied the praise of it; let them make their best of it. It is owned that they have the form of godliness. (1) They go to church, and observe their hours of prayer. "They seek Me daily."(2) They love to hear good preaching. "They delight to know My ways," as Herod, who heard John gladly, and the stony ground, that received the seed of the Word with joy; it is to them as a lovely song (Ezekiel 33:32). (3) They seem to take a great pleasure in the exercises of religion, and to be in their element when they are at their devotions. "They delight in approaching to God," not for His sake to whom they approach, but for the sake of some pleasing circumstance — the company or the festival(4) They are inquisitive concerning their duty, and seem desirous only to know it, making no. question,, but that then they should do it." "They ask of Me the ordinances of justice, the rules of piety in the worship of God, the rules of equity in their dealings with men, both which are ordinances of justice. (5) They appear to the eyes of the world as if they made conscience of doing their duty. They are "as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God. But, 2. He intimates that this was so far from being a cover or excuse for their sin, that really it was an aggravation of it. Show them their sins that they go on in, notwithstanding their knowledge of good and evil, sin and duty, and the convictions of their consciences concerning it. ( M. Henry.) Parallel Verses KJV: Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. |
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