A Warning to Israel

Having judged the Gentile nations, God goes on to lay bare, one by one, the sins of Judah and Israel. Those in power sold the righteous for a piece of silver and the poor for the price of a pair of sandals; father and son went in to the same woman, and they committed this immorality without shame. Beside the altar they lay down on garments taken in pledge from the poor and drank wine.

While they were weak, they strove to live by the Word, but once prosperity came, they took up the very sins of the Gentile nations. They credited grace to their own merit and forgot to give thanks; they made the Nazirites drink wine and threatened the prophets, commanding them not to prophesy. This was not the ignorance of the Gentiles. It was a sin that only a people who had received the Law could commit.

God reminded them once more of the grace that had brought them out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness, and he gave them the opportunity to turn back, but Israel would not listen. When judgment comes, pressing down as a cart loaded with sheaves presses the earth, neither the swift nor the strong will find anywhere to flee. Before judgment arrives, God’s people must not leave the place of repentance, for he rejoices at even the first sign of their turning.