Haggai 2:17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you turned not to me, said the LORD. This insensibility, which prevents people from turning to the Lord, is a moral evil, and ought to be charged on the guilty. 1. Instances and examples of this insensibility (Isaiah 5:24, 25; Isaiah 9:17, 20, 21; Amos 4:6-11; Jeremiah 5:3; Revelation 9:20, 21). Human nature continues always the same. Some vices have a local and temporary prevalence. Insensibility is the palsy of the soul; a stupor that with respect to spiritual things seizeth all its faculties. Hence in its nature it is both immoral and penal; penal, as a judicial stroke on the minds and consciences of men from a righteous and provoked God; immoral, as a course of opposition to His Word and providence, comprehending what Scripture means by stopping the ear, shutting the eyes, hardening the neck, pulling away the shoulder, walking contrary to the Lord, and in the way of our own heart. This insensibility is a reigning principle in natural men. Redemption by Christ from the curse of the law secures His people against its dominion, and yet it frequently prevails and hurts the spiritual life. 2. Investigate its cause. That is atheism, which may be either gross or refined. Though seldom avowed, gross atheism has a secretly malignant influence on manners in the middle and lower ranks of society. There is a refined atheism among persons who profess to know God, and in works deny Him. The truths they hold are not operative and holy principles. 3. Charge this insensibility upon the guilty as a moral evil, which prevents them from turning to the Lord when He smites them with material evil. (1) Those charged with it are the Lord's people. (2) The charge is made by a man invested with the authority of a prophet. (3) The charge is made in the name of the Lord. (4) He in whose name the charge is made knew it to be just. (5) The charge was delivered publicly, in the hearing and presence of the guilty. (6) The charge was designed to bring former misconduct to remembrance, and to encourage them to present duty.Application — 1. Sinners are destroyers of their own comfort. 2. The course of nature fulfilleth the purpose and performeth the Word of the Lord. 3. The Lord hath kind intentions in smiting His people. 4. Sensible and material things are uncertain property. (A. Shanks.) Parallel Verses KJV: I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD. |
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