A Review of Israel’s History as a Source of Consolation
He made His own people to go forth like sheep, under His protecting leadership, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock, Ps. 77, 21.
V. 53. And He led them on safely, so that they feared not, there was no reason for worry or fear; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies, covering them, wiping them out.
V. 54. And He brought them to the border of His Sanctuary, literally, “to the boundary of His holiness,” the region or land in which His holiness was to rule, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased, the Holy Land itself.
V. 55. He cast out the heathen also before them, under the leadership of Joshua, and divided them an inheritance by line, Josh. 13, 7, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents, every family in its own home, according to the allotment.
V. 56. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, even after they were in possession of the Promised Land with all its blessings, Judg. 2, 11, and kept not His testimonies, all the regulations intended for the guidance of their conduct, v. 57 but turned back, aside from the prescribed path, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers, they apostatized from their promised loyalty to Jehovah; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow, one which turns back and thus fails to shoot the arrow placed upon it.
V. 58. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, the altars on the hills devoted to idolatry, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images,with the idols to which they turned in preference to Him.
V. 59. When God heard this, He was wroth, filled with indignation, and greatly abhorred Israel, although not to the point of total rejection, v. 60. so that He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh, where it had first been erected after the conquest of the country, Josh. 18, 1; the tent which He placed among men, where He had promised to dwell and to reveal Himself to His people, for the Tabernacle was later erected near Gibeon, apparently on the hill between this town and Nob; v. 61. and delivered His strength, namely, the Ark of the Covenant, into captivity, by letting the Philistines capture it, 1 Sam. 4, and His glory into the enemy’s hand, 1 Sam. 4, 21. 22.
V. 62. He gave His people over also unto the sword, 1 Sam. 4, 10; and was wroth with His inheritance, with the people which belonged to Him by virtue of their deliverance.