Aggravated evil.
I. THAT SIN IS OFTEN FOUND IN AN AGGRAVATED FORM. It may take the forms of which the prophet here complains.
1. Unprovoked aggression. "Thou spoilest, and (though) thou wast not spoiled." Men may go so far as to assail their fellow-men without the slightest justification; this may be in the shape of open war, or of brutal individual assault, or of unlawful appropriation, or of shameful slander.
2. Inexcusable treachery. "And dealeth treacherously, and (though) they dealt not," etc. Men will go so far in iniquity as to deceive, entrap, and even ruin—and that not only in a pecuniary, but even in a moral sense—those who are guileless and unsuspicious; they will take a mean and execrable advantage of the innocence which should not appeal in vain for the protection of the strong. Those thus wantonly and heinously guilty may beguile others from the paths of
II. THAT WHEN THUS FOUND IT EXCITES GOD'S DEEP DISPLEASURE. The Divine "woe" is pronounced against it. And this "woe" is only one note in a large and full outpouring of Divine indignation in all parts of the sacred Scriptures. Prophet and psalmist and apostle, yes, and the Lord of love himself (see especially Matthew 23:1-39.), unite to utter the awful anger of God "against them who commit such things." It includes:
1. His holy indignation directed against the evil-doers themselves; not the sin, but the sinner (Psalms 7:11; Romans 2:8, Romans 2:9).
2. His boundless hatred of the evil deed; not the agent, but the act (Jeremiah 44:4; Habakkuk 1:13). All sin is a leprous, a loathsome, thing in God's sight: how much more so those aggravated forms of it in which man wantonly injures and ruins his fellow-man!
III. THAT IT IS CERTAIN TO MEET WITH RETRIBUTION ANSWERING TO THE OFFENSE. We know:
1. That impenitent sin will be followed by the judgments of a righteous God. The Divine "woe" points to severe punishment—to loss, sorrow, ruin, death (Exodus 34:7; Proverbs 11:21; Romans 2:6, etc.).
2. That retribution will be proportionate to the magnitude of the offence (Luke 12:47, Luke 12:48; John 9:41; John 15:22; Romans 2:12).
3. That retribution is likely to take a form which corresponds to the offence. "When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled," etc.