nt, just where the Benjamites had been
then, and set themselves in dogged resistance, as these had done, 'that
the battle against the children of unrighteousness might not touch
them.'

Stiff-necked setting oneself against God's merciful fighting with evil
lasts for a little while, but verse 10 tells how soon and easily it is
annihilated. God's 'desire' brushes away all defences, and the obstinate
sinners are like children, who are whipped when their father wills, let
them struggle as they may. The instruments of chastisement are foreign
armies, and the chastisement itself is described with a striking figure
as 'binding them to their two transgressions'; that is, the double sin
which is the keynote of the chapter. Punishment is yoking men to their
sins, and making them drag the burden like bullocks in harness. What
sort of load are we getting together for ourselves? When we have to drag
the consequences of our doings behind us, how shall we feel?

The figure sets the Prophet's imagination going, and he turns it another
way, comparing Israel to a heifer, broken in, and liking the easy work
of threshing, in which the unmuzzled ox could eat its fill, but now set
to harder tasks in the fields. Judah, too, is to share in the
punishment. If men will not serve God in and because of prosperous ease,
He will try what toil and privation will do. Abused blessings are
withdrawn, and the abundance of the threshing-floor is changed for
dragging a heavy plough or harrow.

Verse 12 still deals with the figure suggested in the close of the
previous verse. It is the only break in the clouds in this chapter. It
is a call to amendment, accompanied by a promise of acceptance. If we
'sow for righteousness'--that is, if our efforts are directed to
embodying it in our lives--we 'shall reap according to mercy.' That is
true universally, whether it is taken to mean God's mercy to us, or ours
to others. The aim after righteousness ever secures the divine favour,
and usually ensures the measure which we mete being measured to us
again.

But sowing is not all; thorns must be grubbed up. We must not only turn
over a new leaf, but tear out the old one. The old man must be slain if
the new man is to live. The call to amend finds its warrant in the
assurance that there is still time to seek the Lord, and that, for all
His threatenings, He is ready to rain blessings upon the seekers. The
unwearying patience of God, the possibility of the worst sinne