The Curse of Abandonment Reluctantly Executed
HosEA ii. 8. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim 1 How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah, and set thee as Zeboim ‘?
There is no being in the universe to whom men do so much injustice as the God of heaven. Those who most esteem and love him, are far from giving him that place in their esteem and love which he deserves; while those who hate him, look upon him as a very tyrant, and think and speak of him as the cruellest despot in the world.
The Scriptures exhibit him as lovely, as he is great; as amiable, as he is infinite. And what we are more specially concerned to remark, is, they set forth the tenderness of his character, in those very acts in which he appears to men as hard and severe.
I see not how any person of fair and candid mind can read the text without looking upon it as a most amiable — nay, a most touching view of God. Admah and Zeboim were two cities on the western shore of what is now the Dead Sea, that were destroyed by fire from heaven, when Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed for their wickedness. Ephraim was the younger son of Joseph, and was reckoned among the sons of Jacob. His descendants constituted a distinct tribe, which in process of time became numerous and powerful. Upon the revolt of the ten tribes from Judah and Benjamin, Ephraim became the seat of empire for the ten tribes, and the whole ten tribes were called Ephraim. From the time of this separation, the ten tribes became to the last degree degenerate, and God threatened to abandon them to the fate of Sodom and the cities of the plain. All hope of reforming this idolatrous people seemed to have died away, and with it all hope of their salvation. Justice seems to have entered upon the process of destruction; but just as the blow was about to fall, the arm of Omnipotence hesitates, and the sword is returned to its scabbard. It is an irrecoverable blow when once it is struck; once kindled, the flame is one that is never quenched. It were God’s strange work thus to abandon the creatures he has made to destruction. “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim?”
I. The first remark suggested by this affecting representation, is, that there are instances in which men are given up of God.
All men who finally perish, wax worse and worse, until the cup of their iniquity is full. We know not where the point is in this descending path, beyond which there is no return; but such a point there is, and when the irrecoverable step is taken, and the sinner is ripe for destruction, it is in vain to persuade him, in vain to pray, or even hope for him.
It is a very common thing for God to deprive such persons of all the ordinary means of salvation. The Bible, the Sabbath, the ministry of reconciliation, the offers of mercy, and all the things which belong to their peace, are hidden from their eyes. “Where no vision is, the people perish;” they are like the heathen, who, because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, are given over to a reprobate mind. Take away from any man, or any class of men the ordinary means of salvation, and you leave them little hope, because little opportunity of entering the kingdom of God.
From such persons, God also is very apt to withdraw and withhold the influences of his Spirit. He gives his Spirit in order to preserve or rescue men from a reprobate mind; when the sinner is abandoned, these influences are taken away. The Spirit of God no longer convinces him of sin; nor condescends to demolish his excuses and show him his lost condition. His conscience is no longer troubled; he no longer trembles at the coming wrath, nor feels the need of a Saviour. He has so long resisted the Spirit of God, that he has taken his final departure from him. And the consequence is that he laughs and sports on the brink of perdition, and does not awake until he awakes in hell. God has said, “my Spirit shall not always strive with man.” But he also says, “Woe be unto thee when I depart from thee!” When he thus departs, he departs to return no more: the fate of the sinner is sealed. There may be a short reprieve for him; but his fate is sealed. Wherever and however long he may live, and wherever he may wander over sea or land, not one ray of heavenly light shall beam on his way. He has forsaken God; God has forgotten him, and he has no helper.
From those who have thus grieved his Spirit, God also more usually withholds those restraints upon wickedness which are imposed by his providence. His patience has become wearied, and he leaves them to
3# themselves. They little know how much they are indebted to his restraining and preventing providence; nor how sad the sentence that is passed upon them, when he commissions these ten thousand restraints and preventives to let them alone. Let the sinner loose from all these, and it takes but little to make his heart like a rock of adamant. Nothing moves him; he is rash and reckless; he is ungovernable and headstrong; he is just fitted for perdition. God suffers his law to have its course upon him and he dies in his iniquity. His character is formed; and the divine long-suffering has done for him all that it can perform. He needs no farther day of grace; it is of no use to wait upon him any longer. Mercy has uttered her last admonition, and given him over to the hands of inexorable justice. He has not a friend in the universe. Heaven has no helper for him now. God himself is his enemy. Justice, so slow to anger, and so long delayed, now takes its course. The tempest beats upon him; keen and bitter are its blasts of irritated and eternal vengeance. Thus it is that the sinner is sometimes given up of God. Now we say it is a fearful act thus to give him up. A righteous act it is, none may fault it; but it is not the less grievous and fearful. Holiness calls for just such hatred of iniquity as this; justice demands just honors. They have been multiplied in ages that are past, and will be repeated in ages yet to come. Yet it is most reluctantly that such deeds are done, and that such acts of Almighty vengeance must be recorded. We are at no loss to understand the solicitude, the tenderness, which would stay, and if possible, arrest the blow. It is but a natural expression of all that is kind and Godlike in the Deity, that he should be represented as saying, “How shall I give thee up? how shall I deliver thee? how shall I set thee as Admah, and make thee as Zeboim?” The sentence is too terrible a one not to be reluctantly executed; nor does God ever execute it but with reluctance.
We shall dwell a few moments on this truth, and illustrate it by the following considerations. We prove it from what God is, from what he has said, and from what he has done.
1. In the first place, it is evident from what God is. There are those who can contemplate the abandonment and perdition of men with indifference; they care not whether they are saved or lost. There are those, also, who contemplate such a disaster with a gratified and malignant pleasure; and who, could they execute the sentence, would execute it with right good will. But they are vile men that feel thus; they are more like devils than like men. It is the devil’s work to tempt and seduce men to destruction, and glory in their death.
But God is no such being as this. He does not look on the sinner’s destruction, even with indifference, much less with pleasure. God is good; God is love. Goodness is his distinguishing character; it is his glory, and may be said to constitute his whole nature. He is kind to the meanest, to the vilest, to the most ungrateful of his creatures. “He is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.” No man can believe that such a being made men on purpose to damn them; that he takes pleasure in the death of the sinner; and that he waits eagerly for the opportunity and the time to destroy them. No, no; it would be making him a very different being from what he is, to suppose that it is any pleasure to him that the wickedest sinner in the world should lie down in hell. He may consign him, and unless he repents, will consign him to everlasting sorrow; but nothing but necessity, nothing but firm and unyielding principle, nothing but the safety of his great empire, would ever urge him to such an act of punitive justice. “Fury is not in him.” He has not one feeling of cruelty, one mahgnant emotion in his bosom. There is no being in the universe whose heart is so full of tenderness as his.
2. But we may advert, in the second place, to what he has said. I mean what he has said upon this subject. And what has he said? what is he now saying? When he revealed his name to Moses, it was “The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and of great kindness.” Again he says, “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Elsewhere he declares that “he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” And as though he doubted if men would believe him, before heaven and earth he makes the still more solemn and emphatic asseveration, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” In perfect accordance with declarations like these are the urgent and pressing invitations of his grace. “Ho every one that thirsteth, come.” “All ye that are weary and heavy laden, come unto me.” “The Spirit and the Bride say come; let him that heareth say come; let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Of the same import and spirit are the commands of his Gospel, when
RELUCTANTLY EXECUTED. Ql
he says, “Wash you, make you clean;” “repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin;” “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” If there are warnings in his word, they are to induce men to flee from the wrath to come; if there are exhortations and admonitions, they are to urge them to lay hold on eternal life. God would not thus invite, and command, and admonish, and exhort men to escape from hell and flee to heaven, if he had no benevolent hesitation, no scruples of tenderness, no solicitude, no reluctance to destroy. There are so many declarations in his word which show the spirit expressed in our text, that we find it difficult to make a selection of them. We beg you to read his word; to listen to the melting appeals of his compassion there; to mark the struggle within his heart, as he gives up the incorrigible to their doom; and after he has given them up, to hear him say, “O that thou hadst known the things which belong to thy peace.”
3. Let us advert then in the third place, to what he has done. “Actions speak louder than words.” What has he done, in order to show men that if he must destroy, it is only because he must, and not because he delights so to do. First of all, he sent his Son to seek and to save that which was lost; through trials, through shame, through the humiliation of our nature, and the agony of the accursed tree. He has made his works and providence subservient to this redemption, urging its claims and unfolding its tenderness. He has revealed his truths and grace in his word; he has instituted the Sabbath and its sanctuaries and ministrations, and so multiplied the means of grace and salvation, that it is difficult for us to see how could he have done more than he has already done. Never did sinner come to him who was cast out; never did a poor prodigal return to him, but he was made welcome, and there was joy on his return, both on earth and in heaven. And even those whom he has been constrained to destroy, has he borne with, with great long-suffering. He has waited upon them, till further waiting was useless. There is not a reprobate now in the world of darkness, whose history does not honor the Divine clemency and forbearance. He keeps back the blow till he can keep it back no longer, till the last hour in the death-warrant of the sentenced offender is on the wing. And even then he reluctates — even then he hesitates to strike — even then he is saying, “How shall I give them up? how shall I set thee as Admah, how shall I make thee as Zeboim?” And not till then is the hardened reprobate given over to the tormentors.
Some of you, my friends, God may thus give up; but if he does so, it will not be because he has no regard for you, nor that your eternal welfare is with him a matter of no concern. It will be through your own folly and fault, and because you are so sinful. Sin he must hate, and the incorrigible sinner he must destroy. He cannot help pitying, but he cannot help cursing him. It were more than his honor is worth to hold such a man guiltless.
It is a fearful thing to be thus given up of God; I pray you see to it that you are not thus abandoned. Now God offers you his mercy; in a little while, the voice of his mercy will be dumb. You have his Sabbaths now; and they cheer you. They are full of hope. But these sweet cheerings of this day of the Son of Man, these bright hopes will ere long become depression and despair, if you seek not more earnestly to enter into the kingdom. What you need is the same sincerity in seeking, which God expresses in offering you eternal Ufe; the same reluctance to endure, which he feels in inflicting, the death you deserve. His sincerity in offering is indorsed by motives as tender and endearing as his own infinite and loving mind knows how to express; his reluctance in inflicting is testified by expostulations, and entreaties, and tears. Will you be unmindful of them — deaf to them? Is there nothing that can persuade you to be holy and happy? Will nothing induce you to become willing to be saved?” “Wilt thou not be made whole? When shall it once be? Will you, — why will you die?”