Vain attempts to sanctify self.
"They that sanctify themselves. shall be consumed together." The prophetic allusion is to those who attempted secure themselves by "fearing the Lord, and serving other gods." They wanted to secure all possible Israelite privileges, yet wanted to sanctify themselves by means of the heathen rites which were the fashion of their times. "Such a blending of incompatible elements was eminently characteristic of the reign of Manasseh." The things specially noticed are wilful throwings off of all the restraints of the Mosaic Law. These mistaken ones dared to indulge in swine's flesh, and eat even other unclean foods. Van Lennep has a curious note on eating the mouse. "The mouse is extremely common in Western Asia, and the Mosaic prohibition of its flesh continues to be generally observed. We have reason to believe that those who have tasted the flesh of the mouse acquire as great a relish for it as the Frenchman does for his frog diet, or the German for sauerkraut. We once had a servant from one of the Greek islands who was addicted to this habit, and could be induced to relinquish it neither by expostulation nor by ridicule." Swine are always spoken of in both the Old and New Testaments with horror and disgust, especially for their close association with pagan rites.
I. ATTEMPTS TO SANCTIFY SELF. Explain the forms such work has taken in old times, and is taking now. There is a proper sanctifying of self, which goes with due dependence on God's sanctifying, and is our "working out our own salvation with fear and trembling;" but what is reproved here is trying to sanctify one's self in one's own strength, in one's own way, and for one's own ends.
II. THE VANITY OF ATTEMPTS TO SANCTIFY SELF. We cannot. It is running after a "Will-o'-the-wisp." It is hurrying to drink of the "mirage." Solomon tried to satisfy, if we may not say to sanctify, himself, and ended with a wail, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!"
III. THE DEGRADATION OF ATTEMPTS TO SANCTIFY SELF. We are sure to come down from trying high things to trying low ones. We come at last to making much of some tree, or eating swine's flesh, or abominable mice, or counting beads, or grovelling among stones, or drinking of so-called "holy wells." And there is no hope in God for any of us until we are wholly willing to give up all these attempts, and just take God's way of sanctifying us, which is at once the only way, and the best way.—R.T.