A Charge to the Lord's Prophet

The Lord's prophet had to do with a very rough and hard timber at that time; he had to do with a stiff-necked people. Not only had the prophet of God to do with the ten tribes to prophesy to them, but sometimes he also prophesied against the church and the kingdom of Judah. The greater part of this chapter is prophesied against the kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes, and the last verse is prophesied against Judah.

Because the Lord's prophet had to do with such a stiff-necked and rebellious people, therefore he used more threatenings than he does promises, and he has more threatenings than any of the rest of the prophets. For this prophet lived in a time when the people where he lived had no sense nor knowledge of God. The kings and princes of these lands had set their heads and their shoulders together for bearing down the true worship of God. And you know that a great knot of timber requires a hard wedge to make it to split. Even so, because they had all revolted from God, and had taken themselves to a false worship, he must speak to them as one who knew very well what was in their hearts. Therefore, for the most part, he spoke to them of the wrath and anger of God.

In this chapter, the prophet, inspired by the Spirit of God, began with a charge and a proclamation: “Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD.” That is, declare unto them that there is war coming against them from the Lord. Then he gives a reason why he makes this proclamation. Some explain this to be the king of Assyria, Salmanasar, who was to come against this people, who should “come as an eagle against the house of the LORD,” and some explain it in other ways. But it is sure that this was some swift judgment that was to come against them.

Some of them thought this judgment was long in coming; but when it comes, it comes with eagle's wings. It is a better judgment, if any judgment can be better than another, that comes upon feet than that which comes upon horseback. But against whom shall this judgment come? It would not come against the wicked folks in the world, but against the house of the Lord, against His own sworn and covenanted people. His main quarrel and controversy that He has is against them.

What causes the Lord to come against His own house? He must be very angry when He does so. A father who comes against his own child to strike him, if he be wise, must have a just cause for it and be very angry at him. And the prophet says that the Lord has just cause to do it. In the first verse He gives one reason of it: “Because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law.” That is a warrantable judgment that comes for such a cause. When there is sin against God's law and transgressing of His covenant among a people, He has just cause to punish them.

What, will Israel make no apology for themselves when the wrath of God comes upon them? Yes, said the prophet, they will have their own excuses at that time. “Israel shall cry unto Me, My God, we know Thee.” That is the first protection that the pursued people of God find to hide themselves under, and a hypocritical people, when they are plagued, make this objection against the Lord first. Will the Lord, they say, send a destroying enemy against us, since Thou art our God and Thou art in covenant with us. So why should we be put to the worse? Why should Assyria come as an eagle against us, seeing we say, “We know Thee,” and we profess Thee to be our God?

In the third verse that objection is answered, as there is nothing that a plastered hypocrite can say to God as an excuse of his ill but that the Lord has an answer to it. “Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.” It is not said that they have forsaken good, but that they have forsaken the thing that is good. They have forsaken the Lord and taken themselves to Balaam; they have forsaken the fountain of living waters and digged to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Therefore judgment shall come upon them; the enemy shall pursue them.

Now for the first part, there is a charge given to the Lord's prophet, “Set the trumpet to thy mouth.” What is the duty of those who are the Lord's ministers when wrath is coming upon a people? They must either tell them of it, or their blood shall be upon the pastor's head. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1). All ministers and prophets of God who would be free of the blood of lost souls are bound and obliged before God to tell them freely of their sins. The Lord said to the prophet Ezekiel, “Tell them from Me what it is that they have deserved.” Then all ministers are heralds sent out in God's name to denounce woe against all God's foes and to speak peace unto God's friends. They are messengers sent out from the Lord to tell what is the will of God to His people, to declare whether He be at peace, or whether He be at war with a nation.

Why is a trumpet mentioned here? It is because a trumpet is a shrill instrument of war, and a trumpet is ordinarily blown to waken all and to stir them up who are not thinking of war, nor have any mind for it. So this is as much as if it were said, “Set thy trumpet to thy mouth; let them hear on the deaf side of their head.” The thing that we are to learn here is that a sleeping world and a sleeping church must have a trumpet blown to waken them, for they will not be wakened with whispering in their ear to tell them that God is angry at them. But we must blow a trumpet and tell you of the wrath of God and of His anger against you. Nature will never tell a man the thousandth part of the ill and sinfulness of sin, and therefore the Lord must cry it into the soul as with a trumpet.

(1600-1661)

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