Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and
unwise
This is also a proper character of the Jews in the times of
Christ, who are often by him called "fools", ( Matthew
23:17 Matthew
23:19 ) ; being very ignorant of the Scriptures, and of the
prophecies in them respecting him, setting up their own
traditions on a level with the word of God, or above it; they
were ignorant of the law of God, and the meaning of it; of the
righteousness of God, of the righteousness of his nature, and of
what the law required, as well as of the righteousness of Christ,
and of him as a spiritual Redeemer, and of salvation by him; and
a most egregious instance of their folly, and of want of wisdom,
was their ingratitude to him, in disesteeming and rejecting him;
which is what is here referred to and meant by ill-requiting him,
though not expressed till ( Deuteronomy
32:15 ) ; and a most sad requital of him it was indeed, that
he should come to them, his own, in so kind and gracious a
manner, and yet be rejected by them; that he should become man,
and yet for that reason be charged with blasphemy, for making
himself God; horrid ingratitude, to infer the one from the other!
and because he appeared as a servant, disowned him as the Son of
God; and because he came in the likeness of sinful flesh to take
away sin, they traduced him as a sinner:
[is] not he thy Father, [that] hath bought thee? hath he
not made thee,
and established thee?
Moses, in order to aggravate this their ingratitude, rehearses
the various instances of divine goodness to them, from the
beginning of them as nation; it was the Lord that was the founder
of them as a nation, whose Son, when sent unto them, was rejected
by them; it was he that bought them, or redeemed them from
Egyptian bondage, that made or formed them into a body politic,
or civil commonwealth, that established and settled them in the
land of Canaan: this is expressed in general terms; particular
instances of the goodness of God to them are after enumerated: or
if this is to be understood of Christ himself, who was rejected
by them, it is true of some among them, in a spiritual and
evangelic sense, and so, by a figure, the whole is put for a
part, as sometimes the part is for the whole: Christ, the
everlasting Father of the world to come, had many children in the
Jewish nation, for whose sake he became incarnate, and whom he
came to seek and to save; and whom he "bought" with his precious
blood, and whom, by his Spirit and grace, he "made" new
creatures, the children of God, kings and priests unto God; and
"established" them in the faith of him, and upon him, the sure
foundation; or whom he fashioned, beautified, and adorned with
his righteousness, and with the graces of his Spirit.
