Knowing this first
In the first place, principally, and chiefly, and which might
easily be known and observed from the writings of the apostles
and prophets; see ( 1 Timothy
4:1 1 Timothy
4:2 ) ( 2 Timothy
3:1 ) ;
that there shall come in the last days
scoffers,
or "mockers"; such as would make a mock at sin, make light of it,
plead for it, openly commit it, and glory in it; and scoff at all
religion, as the prejudice of education, as an engine of state, a
piece of civil policy to keep subjects in awe, as cant,
enthusiasm, and madness, as a gloomy melancholy thing, depriving
men of true pleasure; and throw out their flouts and jeers at
those that are the most religious, for the just, upright man, is
commonly by such laughed to scorn, and those that depart from
evil make themselves a prey; and particularly at the ministers of
the word, for a man that has scarcely so much common sense as to
preserve him from the character of an idiot, thinks himself a wit
of the age, if he can at any rate break a jest upon a Gospel
minister: nor do the Scriptures of truth escape the banter and
burlesque of these scoffers; the doctrines of it being
foolishness to them, and the commands and ordinances in it being
grievous and intolerable to them; yea, to such lengths do those
proceed, as to scoff at God himself; at his persons, purposes,
providences, and promises; at Jehovah the Father, as the God of
nature and providence, and especially as the God and Father of
Christ, and of all grace in him; at Jehovah the Son, at his
person, as being the Son of God, and truly God, at his office, as
Mediator, and at his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, which
they trample under foot; and at Jehovah the Spirit, whom they do
despite unto, as the spirit of grace, deriding his operations in
regeneration and sanctification, as dream and delusion; and, most
of all, things to come are the object of their scorn and
derision; as the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the
dead, a future judgment, the torments of hell, and the joys of
heaven; all which they represent as the trifles and juggles of
designing men: such as these, according to the prophets and
apostles, were to come in "the last days"; either in the days of
the Messiah, in the Gospel dispensation, the times between the
first and second coming of Christ; for it is a rule with the Jews
F19, that wherever the last days are
mentioned, the days of the Messiah are intended; see ( Hebrews 1:1 ) ; when
the prophets foretold such scoffers should come; or in the last
days of the Jewish state, both civil and religious, called "the
ends of the world", ( 1
Corinthians 10:11 ) ; a little before the destruction of
Jerusalem, when iniquity greatly abounded, ( Matthew
24:11 Matthew
24:12 ) ; or "in the last of the days"; as the words may be
rendered; and so answer to (Mymyh
tyrxab) , in ( Isaiah 2:2 ) , and may
regard the latter part of the last times; the times of the
apostles were the last days, ( 1 John 2:18 ) ; they
began then, and will continue to Christ's second coming; when
some time before that, it will be a remarkable age for scoffers
and scorners; and we have lived to see an innumerable company of
them, and these predictions fulfilled; from whence it may be
concluded, that the coming of Christ is at hand: these scoffers
are further described as
walking after their own lusts;
either after the carnal reasonings of their minds, admitting of
nothing but what they can comprehend by reason, making that the
rule, test, and standard of all their principles, and so cast
away the law of the Lord, and despise the word of the Holy One of
Israel; or rather, after their sinful and fleshly lusts, making
them their guides and governors, and giving up themselves
entirely to them, to obey and fulfil them; the phrase denotes a
continued series of sinning, a progress in it, a desire after it,
and pleasure in it, and an obstinate persisting in it; scoffers
at religion and revelation are generally libertines; and such as
sit in the seat of the scornful, are in the counsel of the
ungodly, and way of sinners, ( Psalms 1:1 ) .
F19 Kimchi in Isa. ii. 2.