The text suggests much concerning this way from the far country of sin to the home of our Father and God. The Lord is here lamenting that none of the people of Jerusalem were walking in it. Note -

I. THE STAGES OF THE WAY.

1. Realization of the ruin wrought by our sin. The soul is represented as contemplating this ruin, and asking, "What have I done?" This is the first stage.

2. Repentance. Each one is to repent of" his wickedness." We are not to lose ourselves in a general confession of sin, as too many do, but to think of our own sin apart from that of other people, and to think of what is especially our sin. Thus personal and particular, our repentance is the more likely to be genuine and godly.

3. Confession. "These that have sinned, these and these only speak aright when they speak of repenting, and it is sad when they who have so much work for repentance do not say a word of repenting." But confession is this "speaking aright" which God desires to hear from us. Now, this confession is so acceptable to God because it glorifies his holiness and his love. His holiness; for the sinner has come to see sin as God sees it, and hence to hate and abhor it. He is of one mind with God about it as he never was before. And his love; for confession casts itself in faith upon a love that is deeper than its sin. Deep as is God's abhorrence of sin, the sinner in confession appeals to and lays hold on a love that is deeper still. Hence, when the sinner makes his sincere confession before God, he is at once right out of "the far country," and home in the heart of God. The robe, the ring, the shoes, are put upon him; the feast is prepared, and the merry-making, the joy in the presence of the angels of God, at once begins.

II. THE ATTENTIVE OBSERVER OF THOSE WHO TRAVEL BY THIS WAY. It is God who is represented as bending down his ear, hearkening to what is said, listening for any words of confession, and ready to hear them if spoken. The text is the language of gracious expectation and desire on the part of God. It calls to mind the father's waiting for the prodigal's return. How often had he looked with longing, loving gaze down the road along which his returning son must come, if ever indeed he would come I He had looked so often that a speck in the far distance would at once be discerned by him. Hence, "when a great way off," the father saw him. And so here God is represented as thus waiting for his guilty people's return. And how much there is to confirm our faith in this Divine solicitude for the sinner's salvation! Look at the very constitution of our nature. That, as Bishop Butler has shown, is evidently on the side of virtue, that is, of obedience to God, and against the disobedient. "Who will harm you, if ye be doers of that which is good? " - thus the apostle appeals to the universally recognized fact, that the constitution of man's nature is such as to favor the good. And, on the other hand, the declaration that "the way of transgressors is hard," is based on another like fact of universal experience. Such is one evidence of "the care" with which, as George Herbert sings, "Lord, with what care thou hast begirt us round? Then the revelation of his truth is yet further in evidence. That truth, as ministered to us by the written Word or by the lips of prophets, apostles, pastors, teachers - it matters not - is a perpetual proof of the Divine solicitude for our eternal good. And his providence, making it to be well with the righteous and ill with the unrighteous. Well and ill with each respectively in mind, body, and estate. And his Spirit. That Spirit speaking to us in conscience and in the powerful pleadings of his grace in our hearts, of which we are all so often conscious. And, last of all, God has shown us this loving care of his for us in his Son. He has shown himself in a manner adapted to touch and move all hearts, and to draw all men unto him. Now, all this mass of evidence is in keeping with that solicitude which this verse and so many other portions of God's Word reveal as felt by him towards sinful men. And if it be asked "What moves this solicitude?" the character of God furnishes the answer. The holiness of God. "Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way." And we are bidden "Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." It is the nature of holiness to be distressed at all that contradicts it and is unlike itself. It rests not until it has assimilated all around it to itself. Were, then, is one reason of God's perpetual appeals to sinful men. His wisdom also. It is the characteristic of God's wisdom to adjust means to ends. How wonderfully and beautifully this is seen in all departments of nature! But for the fulfilling of the high purposes of his grace, what instrument can he find more fit than the regenerated, redeemed soul? Even now and here we see this. A soul aglow with love and faith towards God, what will not that soul do for God? Hence to the principalities and powers in heaven shall be made known by the one Church - the company of the redeemed shall evidence it - the manifold wisdom of God. His love also. If the beholding of scenes of distress touch our hearts and make us eager to render help, can we imagine that he who made us is less willing than ourselves to show pity and render help? Our Lord's argument is, "If ye, evil though ye be, know how" - and we do know how - "to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give," etc.? Humanity, as it has been well said, is the heavenly Father's sick child. Will not the Father's love, therefore, be all the more called forth to that child? And his compassion also. For this life is the critical period of that child's malady. It is the time when the great question of its life or death is being determined. Terrible forces are against it, and the struggle is now at its most momentous hour. This fact would cause the Father's love to go forth, as it has gone and is going forth, in active compassion, in open manifestation of its solicitude. Such are some of the considerations which lead to our Father's attentive observance of all those who travel by this homeward way.

III. THE END OF THE WAY. They who come there will find restoration to the Father's love, the implantation of a new nature, the complete pardon of the past, power to live as God's dear child for the future, and ultimately the everlasting dwelling in the very presence and home of God.

IV. BROOKS BY THE WAY. It is said, "He shall drink of the brook by the way, therefore shall he lift up the head." We may apply these words to the travelers in the way we are speaking of; for they need, in the weary and often most difficult journey, the refreshments which God alone can supply. Such aids are given in the promises of God, the fellowship of God, the communion of fellow-travelers on the way, and in the service and worship of God.

V. THE SOLITARINESS OF THE WAY. It is but "here and there a traveler" that is found. The way is not thronged. This verse is God's lament that scarce any are found willing to go along this road; for it is not the way of worldly advantage. They who "are given to covetousness" (Ver. 10) will never choose this way. They have persuaded themselves that they are as well off and better where they are. They are deceived, and, what is worse, are willing to be deceived: "They hold fast deceit, and so refuse to return." We should have thought that surely it would be otherwise.

1. Reason bids them return (Ver. 4). If a man have fallen, he will not lie content on the earth, but will arise. If in an ordinary journey he have missed his way, he will at once retrace his steps. Reason rules in such cases, but not here.

2. Conscience bids them return. They could not but know that their sin had done them sore harm; but none of them asked, "What have I done?" however loudly conscience might summon them to such repentance.

3. God's Word bade then return (Ver. 8), but lo! certainly in vain he made it.

4. Providences bade them. The events that had taken place were all admonitions of God; but though the birds of the air marked and obeyed the providence of God, sinful man "knew not the judgment of the Lord" (Ver. 7). Hence the way is solitary. CONCLUSION. But the question for us is, "Are we in this way?" Let us bless God if we are, and press on therein. Let us note how short the day is in which we can travel, how its few fleeting hours are lessening, lest when we would start on the way we have to exclaim (Jeremiah 6:4), "Woe unto us I for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out." - C.

The judgment of God is either directive, corrective, or destructive. This last is meant here. It is spoken of the judgment of utter ruin and desolation upon whom the former judgment has not taken due effect. In the count of the Holy Ghost in Scripture, a man knows no more than he believes, and is affected with, and makes use of: they knew not, they considered not, believed not, were not affected with, neither did they make use of it, either the judgment itself, nor the time of the judgment, either to fear it, or to fly from it: so that they were more unwise for themselves, and for their temporal and eternal safety, than the unreasonable creatures; they knew not the judgment of the Lord.

I. THERE IS UNTO A SINFUL NATION A SET AND APPOINTED TIME OF JUDGMENT.

1. There is a time of sinning, a set and an appointed time.(1) A fulness of sin, appointed by God that it shall have its period (Genesis 15:16; Zechariah 5:6).(2) A measure of wrath, which every vessel of wrath shall treasure up (Romans 2:4, 5).

2. There is a time of patience, when the Lord holds His peace and reproves not (Psalm 50:21, 23). There is a time of repentance, when God defers the judgment after sinning, on purpose that man may return and come in (Revelation 2:21).

3. The times of patience and repentance have their periods; indeed these times are not of the same length to all: to some God shows but a little patience, and to others a great deal, riches of patience and forbearance. But the longest day hath its evening.

4. When the time of patience is expired, there is then a time for judgment, a day of recompense, a year of vengeance, a time for the expending of those treasures of wrath that have been so long laying in; because there was by sinning a time of treasuring: and so there shall also come a time of spending (Romans 2:4, 5); a time for the wall that is swelled out to hang, but there will come a time also when it will fall (Isaiah 30:13).

5. When this time doth come, the Lord will forbear a people no longer: this determinating of judgment in the time of it is exceedingly set before us in the Word, and that under divers expressions.(1) The Lord doth express it by a full and a peremptory resolution that He will do it (Ezekiel 21:27).(2) It is called a decree, or the bringing forth the decree (Zephaniah 2:2). Decrees are acts of authority. They are established and firm.(3) It is called swearing in His wrath (Psalm 9:11).(4) Those means that usually prevail with God, and turn away threatened judgment, prevail nothing in the time of judgment. Repentance, prayer, fasting, intercession of the godly. When once the set time for judgment is come, the Lord will forbear a people no longer.

II. THIS TIME OF JUDGMENT MAY AND MOST BE KNOWN. Otherwise they could not be blamed. What, then, are the signs preceding judgment?

1. A fulness of sin (Joel 3:16; Jeremiah 1:11, 12). An almond tree hath the first ripe fruit of any tree, and it notes the hastening of them to ripen their sins; and the Lord saith, as they did hasten their sins to a ripeness, so He would hasten to ripen His judgments, so that this is a certain sign foregoing judgment. But when is sin full? When is it ripe in a nation?(1) When a people seeks to make void the law.(2) Corrupting the worship of God by human inventions.(3) Confederacy with idolaters.(4) Abusing the messengers of God.(5) Not laying to heart the afflictions of our brethren.

2. The beginnings of judgment are an evident token that the time of judgment draws near (Luke 2:30, 31). By a lesser judgment God makes way for His anger, for a perfect and an utter ruin (Psalm 78:50).(1) All nations about them were against them (Jeremiah 12:9).(2) The general corruption and decay of truth and wisdom of men in places of greatest trust (Isaiah 1:22).(3) The subversion of fundamental laws (Psalm 82:5).(4) Private and intestine divisions.Use —

1. Not to know the time is misery enough; therefore men are taken suddenly and unawares (Ecclesiastes 9:12).

2. That you may know the time to improve this promise (Ecclesiastes 8:5).

3. A wise man foresees the evil, and hides himself, but fools pass on and are punished (Proverbs 22:3).

(1)By a work of humiliation (Habakkuk 3:16).

(2)A work of reformation (Zephaniah 2:3).

(3)Improve all the promises.

(4)Be much in prayer.

(5)Betake thyself to the mediation of Christ.

(W. Strong.)