Awful as was their punishment in Babylon, it fell short of these menaces, which were only to receive their full accomplishment, when they should have filled up the measure of their iniquities in the murder of their Messiah. This is evident from that part of the song which is,]
3. Promissory —
[Fixed as was God's determination to inflict " vengeance" upon them " in due time," he revealed also his determination not to cast them off for ever, but in their lowest extremity to remember and restore themg. He would indeed banish them from that good land, and admit the Gentiles into fellowship with him as his peculiar people in their stead : but, whilst he calls on " the Gentiles to rejoice" on this account, he calls on the Jews also to •participate their joy : for though they should be long oppressed by cruel enemies, God would appear again for them, " avenging the blood of his servants, and rendering vengeance to his adversaries," and would again " be merciful unto lus land, and to his once most highly-favoured people11."
These promises shall in due time be fulfilled : and we trust that the time for their accomplishment is not now far distant. " The root of Jesse now stands for an ensign to the nations ;" and whilst " the Gentiles are seeking to it," we hope that God will speedily set it up also as an ensign to the Jews, and " as- semble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth i."]
These things were comprehended in " a song, which was to be taught the children of Israel." We proceed to consider,
II. Its peculiar use —
It was * to be a witness for God against the children of Israel," and was for this end to be transmitted to their latest posterity. It was intended in this view,
1. To justify God —
[When God should have inflicted all these judgments upon his people, they might be ready to reflect on him as variable in his purposes, and cruel in his dispensations. But he here tells them beforehand what he would do, and for what reason he would do it. The change that was to take place, would not be in him, but in them. The very change of his dispensations would prove to them the unchangeableness of his nature. It was for the wickedness of the Canaanites that he was about to cast them out : and for the same reason he would cast out the
« Deut. xxxii. 36. h Deut. xxxii. 43. with Rom. xv. 10.
1 Isai. xi. 10—12, 15, 16.