The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 301

wide-reaching the principle of idolatry I The delight in genius, the admiration for it, may enter into religious feeling as one of its richest elements; it may, on the other hand, be separated from religious feeling altogether, and be the principle of an idolatry. IT. IT IB IlU'UllE AND CRUEL. There ie an allusion to the worship of Baal and .Ashto:eth, and what we know of t~ese deities indicates beings conceived by those worshippers as dark, wrathful, malignant, and lustful. Baal, often named in the plural Baalim, is closely related to, if not identical with, Moloch (see J er. vii. 31 ; xix. 6; xxxii. 35), whose terrible wrath was supposed to be manifested in the torrid beat of summer, and who exacted human sacrifices. In great dangers kings sacrificed to this Bel-Moloch their only sons (2 Kings iii. 27); and this is sternly denounced in Lev. xx. 3. It would seem that Israelites in their declension confounded the nature of this heathen god with.that of Jehovah (Judg. xi. 34; Numb, xxv. 4). Read the eloquent protest of Micah vi. 7, and see how clearly in that animated passage the contrast is made between the merciful and holy religion of Jehovah and the cursed ritual of 13aal or of Moloch. "To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God," -these are the requirements of true religion. By the side of Baal was .Ashtoreth in Canaan (Judg. x. 6) and in Syria. The Greeks called her Astarte. At Babylon she was known as Mylitta or Bellis, consort of Bel; and Herodotus describes the darkly superstitious and impure character of her worship, which involved the profanatioll of women (i. 199). The religion of Israel knows no goddess; the people itself, when true to their faith, felt themselves to be as a people, the bride of Jehovah, and unfaithful- ness to him is a crirµe analogous to unfaithfulness to the nuptial tie. "Israel my people, I their God," is the symbolic word of the covenant between spirit and Spirit, which religion ever is, in its truth and purity. There are lessons for us in all this. There are ever tendencies at work to degrade and defile the holy ideas of our religion. Sometimes it is wealth, sometimes it is ignorance, sometimes greed and other passions. Men would subdue the spirit of Christianity to their own liking, and bow down, if not to the work of their fingers, to the impure idols of an u.nchastened fancy. The preacher, the true prophet, must, on the other hand, be ever upholding the purity of doctrine, and exhibit those grand reqnirements to which the conscience must, how- ever relnctantly, respond. And he must lay it to heart that the purer religion can never be the most fashionable. If the people turn aside to groves and altars more snited to their taste, at least let him make it his one concem to " save himself and them that hear him.''--J. Vers. 9-11.-Forgeifulness of God and its consequences, I. GoD AB AN OBJEar OF THE iiOUL's ATTENTION. He is the" God of men's salvation." His Name calls up all those ideas of power, of grace, of goodness, necessary to the Deliverer, the Saviour. To acknowledge that such a. Being exists is not enough ; the eye of the spirit must be turned to him, its gaze fixed npon him, its ear bent towards the place of his holy oracle. :Micah says in evil times, "I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me." To think of God in his moral relations to us brings confidence and security to the heart. And hence the expressive image of the Rock on which the fortress stand!!, as symbolic of him, so frequently employed in Scripture (Deut. x.xxii. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37; 1 Sam. ii. 2; 2 Sam. XX;ii, 2, 3! 32; Ps. xviii. 31, 46; xix. 14; xxviii. 1; xxx. 1, 2). How much depends ID our mtel- lectual life on attraction-the grasp of objects, the remembrance of what they a.re, &he finn hold of principles and truths I Impressions are made upon us as in wax or in ruuning water, without this tension of the will. And how in various ways does Scripture press upon us the need of attention in religious things I "Earnestly give heed " "Remember" 1 "Be mindful," "Look unto the Lord," etc., a.re all exhortations implyino- the need 0( prayer and habitual direction of the sphit to higher things. '!'here C:n be no clear memory and no confident expectation where tho mind has been lax and listless. II. CoNSEQUENCEB OF l'OBGETTING GoD. Ephraim, turning away from its true rocky stronghold in Jehovah, will see its own castles lie in ruin and desolation. The estrangement from God is marked by indulgence in plea.sure and idolatry. The people planted pleaaa.nt gardens, and sowed them with strange grapes; i.e. formecl an alliance ou. xvn. 1-H.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 297