2. Their desert — [It is not their misfortune merely, but their fault, that they are in this sad bondage : they have " sold themselves to it by their iniquities'1:" as Esau bartered away his rights of pri- mogeniture for a mess of pottage6, so have they their liberty. They have chosen the gratifications of the flesh from the very first moment that they began to act : the indulgence of their corrupt inclinations was more to them than the favour of their God ; so that by continual and wilful habits they have con- firmed their natural propensities, and riveted the chains which Adam forged. Feeling themselves thus " sold under sinf,'' and become, as it were, the lawful property of Satan, they ask, " Shall the lawful captive be delivered?" The many acts of wilful transgression by which they have given him a right over them, appear an insurmountable bar to their deliverance, insomuch that the dry bones in Ezekiel's vision scarcely appear in a more hopeless state than they s. In this view of their just desert, they are tempted to say, " There is no hopeV]
These feelings however may well be assuaged by, II. The gracious promises of God to them —
It is delightful to observe how directly God meets the wants and wishes of his people : the very language of their fears is here adopted by him, and made the vehicle of his promises to their souls. He engages that,
1. He himself will interpose for their deliverance —
[In a most wonderful way did he rescue his people from their captivity in Babylon. He raised up against that city an enemy; and, in the precise way that he had foretold, delivered it into his hands, even into the hands of Cyrus, whom he had specified by name above two hundred years before he existed in the world; and by him he dealt to the Babylonians that measure which they had before meted to his people1, " feeding them with their own flesh, and making them drunk with their own blood." And thus " will he bruise Satan also under his people's feetV Strong as Satan is, God has raised up against him One stronger than he, who has overcome him, and taken from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and utterly de- spoiled him1. The Lord Jesus " came on purpose to destroy the works of the devil™;" and he did destroy them. " Upon the cross he triumphed over him openly"," and " by his own
d Isai. 1.1. e Heb. xii. 16. f Rom. vii. 14. s Ezek. xxxvii. 11. h Jer. ii. 25.
1 See Jer.xxxi. especially vcr. 35, 36,49, f>0. k Rom. xvi. 20.
1 Luke xi. 21, 22. m 1 John iii. 8. n Col. ii. 15.