Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
The trouble was procured by Israel for itself, by forsaking the Lord its God who had guided and led it by the way. Though exalted with the privileges of God's chosen people, by rejecting Him it failed to be the light of the world. Its own wickedness would correct it and its backslidings reprove it, revealing how evil and bitter a thing it is to abandon God and to live without reverence for Him.
Turning away from God leads toward dependence on other sources and ends in harm and reproach. The warning applies to all who profess to belong to God yet turn away from Him. For God's people in a later time, setting aside God's life-giving Word and making human writings the chief textbooks repeats Israel's departure from the fountain of living water, leaving them with what cannot satisfy or guide them.
The trouble was procured by Israel for itself, by forsaking the Lord its God who had guided and led it by the way. Though exalted with the privileges of God's chosen people, by rejecting Him it failed to be the light of the world. Its own wickedness would correct it and its backslidings reprove it, revealing how evil and bitter a thing it is to abandon God and to live without reverence for Him.
Turning away from God leads toward dependence on other sources and ends in harm and reproach. The warning applies to all who profess to belong to God yet turn away from Him. For God's people in a later time, setting aside God's life-giving Word and making human writings the chief textbooks repeats Israel's departure from the fountain of living water, leaving them with what cannot satisfy or guide them.