The woe against Moab.
Much that has been said of Ammon applies equally to Moab. The two nations had close relations and affinities, and in Scripture are generally mentioned together. Both were mildly treated by Israel (Deuteronomy 2:9, Deuteronomy 2:19) as long as such treatment was possible. Yet were they at one in an implacable hatred of her, and a national policy of outrage towards her. A spring raid into Hebrew territory seems to have been an established Moabitish institution (2 Kings 13:20, literally, "were wont to come"). Again, Moab adopted the novel and unlikely expedient of employing a prophet of God to curse his own people (Numbers 23:7). Of the comprehensive and thorough character of the national hatred, which these doings reveal, we have evidence in the passage before us.
I. THE NATIONAL HATES OF MOAB WERE DETERMINED BY ITS HATE OF ISRAEL. "It has burned the bones of the King of Edom." The particular occasion referred to here is not known. But the events that led up to it are briefly recorded. Moab was for some time tributary to Israel, and rebelled against it in the reign of Jehoram (2 Kings 3:1, 2 Kings 3:4, 2 Kings 3:5). In the repressive war that followed, Jehoram was joined by the King of Judah and the King of Edom, then probably a tributary of Judah (2 Kings 8:20). This war, the only one in which Edom and Moab came into conflict, exasperated Moab against it even more fiercely than against Israel itself (2 Kings 3:26, 2 Kings 3:27). The horrible sacrifice of the King of Edom's son by the King of Moab, and the subsequent burning of the King of Edom's bones by the Moabites, were both expressions of this wild and savage resentment. Moab's hatred of Edom was hatred of her as Israel's ally, and therefore at bottom was hatred of Israel itself. So the ungodly hate things from the standpoint of their connection with religion. They hate believers for Christ's sake (Matthew 10:22), and the friends of believers for believers' sakes. The compensation for this is that for Christ's sake also Christians love each other and the ungodly as well, and God for his own sake loves them all.
II. MOAB'S WAS A HATE THAT EVEN DEATH COULD NOT APPEASE. This fact illustrates its insatiability. "The soul being after death beyond man's reach, the hatred vented upon his remains is a sort of impotent grasping at eternal vengeance. It wreaks on what it knows to be insensible the hatred with which it would pursue, if it could, the living being who is beyond it" (Pusey). The employment of the burnt bones as lime is a circumstance which, like the ripping of pregnant women by Ammon, reveals the savage debasement of the people, and that contemptuous disregard of the human body which is generated by a career of blood and lust. There is a sacredness about death. It introduces an unseen factor, marks off a territory into which we may not intrude. There is a sacredness, too, about the human body. It is for a temple of the Holy Ghost, and to be treated as holy (1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 6:20). Its members are to be members of Christ, and to be treated as consecrated things (1 Corinthians 6:15-18). The best guarantee against intemperance, uncleanness, violence, and every abuse of the body is respect for it as the home and instrument of God.
III. THE CIRCUMSTANCE THAT MAKES MOAB THE ENEMY OF EDOM MAKES GOD HER FRIEND. Edom's alliance with Israel had results in two directions, it embroiled her with Israel's enemies, and commended her to Israel's friends. And primarily it commended her to Israel's God. His favour to his people includes, to certain intents, their friends. Members of the families of Noah and Lot were spared for their fathers' sake. A mixed multitude of foreigners were fed miraculously in the desert, because they were servants to the Israelites. Even the Egyptians were favoured because they for a time had given Israel a home (Deuteronomy 23:7). So with Edom. He was a brother by blood (Deuteronomy 23:7), and had been an ally against Moab, and so his cause is championed by God in this exactly as the cause of Israel is in the other woes. So with more spiritual relations. The virgin companions of the bride, the Church, are brought, as her companions, to the King (Psalms 45:14). The final judgment apart, service rendered to God's people will not go unrewarded (Matthew 10:40-42). No investment brings in surer return than help and kindness shown to the saints of God.
IV. MOAB'S DOOM WAS ONE THAT MATCHED ITS LIFE. "Shall die with tumult." The Moabites were "sons of tumult" (Numbers 24:17; Jeremiah 48:45), and as in tumult they lived, so in tumult they should die (see Pusey). This is providential, the punishment being made appropriate to the crime. It is also natural, violence provoking violence, and so fixing the character of its own punishment. Moab had probably lost its kings before the prophecy was fulfilled, but the judges and princes who had headed the nation in its violence fitly head it in its destruction also.
The woe against Judah.
In the form of this woe, as compared with those before, is nothing to indicate the difference of underlying principles which it involves. A woe on a Hebrew and a heathen have little in common but the inevitable connection between punishment and sin.
I. THE SINS FOR WHICH GOD VISITS RESPECTIVELY THOSE WHO KNOW HIM AND THOSE WHO KNOW HIM NOT ARE VERY DIFFERENT. The six woes against the heathen are fathered exclusively on their sins against Israel or its friends. This woe against Judah is denounced with exclusive reference to sins against God himself. This is exactly what we might expect. Each is judged out of his own law (Romans 2:12). The revelation of God and duty to him was the first great commandment of the Law given to the Jews (Matthew 22:37, Matthew 22:38), and for this God reckons with them—first, because it was at once the guiltiest sin, and the sin of which they were oftenest guilty. The law revealed to the heathen made known the existence and many perfections of God (Psalms 19:1; Romans 1:20), and threw a side light on the way to worship him (Acts 17:29). But this was not their clearest revelation, and so their sin against it is not the sin that is emphasized. The law written on their heart (Romans 2:14, Romans 2:15)—i.e. speaking in reason, conscience, and human feeling—was specially the law of duty to their fellow creatures; and it is for their sin in this matter specially that God brings them into judgment. It is its blindness, and not its darkness, that is the condemnation of the world (John 3:19). Where the white ray of revelation focusses, there the red ray of judgment shall fall and burn.
II. CONTEMPT OF LAW AND THE VIOLATION OF LAW INVOLVE EACH OTHER. "Despised the Law of Jehovah, and kept not his commandments." The Law is the abstract thing—God's revealed will as a whole. The commandments are the "particular precepts" (Keil) into which it is broken up. The first, Being general, is fitly described as being "despised;" i.e. its drift disliked and its authority spurned. The second, Being precepts enjoining particular duties, is said with propriety to be disobeyed. The order of enumeration is also the logical and natural order. Action is ever the outcome of sentiment, and its expression. What a man outwardly disobeys he has begun by inwardly despising. And so what he begins by despising he naturally goes on to disobey. It is in the heart that the eggs are hatched which, in a later stage, are the birds of evil doing. It is, therefore, at the door of his heart that the wise man will mount guard (Proverbs 4:23).
III. ALL TRANSGRESSION IS THE OUTCOME OF IDOLATRY. Their lies led them astray. "By 'lies' here we are to understand idols. And the figure is most appropriate. Amos calls the idols 'lies,' not only as res quoe fallunt, But as fabrications and nonentities" (Keil; see 1 Corinthians 8:4). It is this lying character that makes them inevitably the occasion of sin. The first sin was brought about by a lie, in which the truth of God's threat was denied, and so its practical power destroyed. And every idol is just such a lie in embodied form. It is an abrogation of God's authority, a denying of his very existence; and it is a substitution for these of a god and a code congenial to our fallen nature. Under such circumstances violation of God's Law is a foregone conclusion.
IV. THE IDOLS OF THE CHILDREN ARE THE IDOLS OF THE FATHERS. Imitation is easier than invention. Hence Israel, when they first wanted an idol, adopted the calf of Egypt (Exodus 32:4); and Jeroboam, also just left Egypt, set up calf worship in Dan and Bethel (1 Kings 12:28). Then, other things being equal, the persons men are most likely to imitate are their fathers, who are their teachers and guides and natural examples. Add to this that national tastes and habits and characters, formed in connection with a particular idol worship, would be in special harmony with it, and would be transmitted with it from sire to son.
V. SIN INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE SPIRITUAL CIRCLE IS DEALT WITH ON THE SAME PRINCIPLES. The manner of the sin was the same with Judah and the heathen. It was a transgression, or act of disobedience to a known law, as distinguished from a sinful disposition. It was a series of these acts, culminating in a final one of special enormity. "For three transgressions, and for four." The manner of treatment was the same. God threatened to strike. Then he lifted his hand for the stroke. Then he withheld it for a time. Then he declared the limit of forbearance was past, and nothing could now prevent the falling of the blow. The mode of punishment was to be the same. The agent would be devouring fire. This would fall on the capital. Sin in a visible spiritual relation, and however mixed up with acts of worship, is no whit less guilty. There is only one hell, and all sin alike deserves it, and, unrepented of, must bring to it.