Doting on the Assyrians.
This foolish, fatal infatuation of Israel for the Assyrians may be taken as a striking instance of the fascination of worldliness. Israel had known the true God, and had been called to a peculiar destiny as a holy and. separate nation; yet she turned aside from her high vocation, lured by the fatal charms of military splendor and sensuous luxury in a great heathen empire.
I. GOD'S PEOPLE ARE REQUIRED TO SEPARATE THEMSELVES FROM THE WORLD, who hear the call of God must follow him into the wilderness, or, if he gives them a land flowing with milk and honey, must still keep themselves apart from the evil world. This does not mean the physical separation of a hermit's exile or a monk's cloistered imprisonment. The true separation is spiritual, not local. We are called to forsake the spirit of the world, to renounce its evil practices, and to repudiate its low, material, sensuous tone of life.
II. THE WORLD ENDEAVORS TO ENSNARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD. It is not content to let them stand aloof; it appears as a tempter trying to charm the bride of Christ into infidelity. We cannot afford to despise its fascinating influence, for this is most subtle and potent. It comes through various means.
1. Proximity. Assyria was a "neighbor" of Israel. The Church is in the world. Christian men are in daily intercourse with worldly men. "Evil communications corrupt good manners."
2. Earthly attractiveness. There was a material splendor in the great empire of Assyria which the marvelous sculptures and inscriptions that have been made familiar to us by Layard and others put beyond question. The "governors and rulers clothed most gorgeously," and the horsemen, "all of them desirable young men," awoke the admiration of the poor little semi-barbarous nation, Israel. The luxury of the world, its luscious literature and sensuous art, its enormous resources, and its elaborate culture of earthly refinement, are necessarily most fascinating.
3. Natural inclination. The world could not touch us for harm if it found nothing sympathetic in us. But it easily discovers remains of its old dominion. The old Adam is not quite dead. Passion within may be roused to answer to temptation from without.
III. THE SNARES OF THE WORLD ARE FATAL TO THOSE WHO ARE ENTANGLED IN THEM. Israel's doting upon the Assyrians was fatal to her religion, her morals, and her national existence. To succumb to the spirit of the world is to make shipwreck of life.
1. Religious ruin. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." The spirit of worldliness is antagonistic to God. As surely as this spirit gains ground in our lives, the spirit of devotion will recede.
2. Moral ruin. True worldliness is morally evil. It is not a mere habit of external and earthly living. It carries with it the indulgence of the lower life. At least it tends to this, and all its fascinations drag the soul down.
3. Life-ruin. In the end the Christian man who gives himself up to the attractions of worldly living will reap the consequences of his tin in corruption and death.