Earnest sinners.
A contrast is suggested between various grades of evil doing. Some are. not so much active as passive in sin. They drift; they are led; when sinners entice them they "consent," perhaps reluctantly at first. For want of resisting power they are found walking "in the counsel of the ungodly." Ere long they bestir themselves to gratify some sinful desire. At first they are half-hearted in the service of sin, for memory and conscience still restrain them. "Their heart is divided," and it is only one band they stretch out to grasp the forbidden fruit. Their other hand has gill hold on the book of the Law of their God which they learned at their mother's knee. They soon find that they cannot serve two masters. The book of God is dropped; the hand that held it, released from the mysterious magnetic power which the Bible exerts on those that study it, is stretched out to cooperate with its fellow in deeds of sin. Practice makes perfect; the appetite grows by what it feeds upon; and soon the transgressor, who not so long ago blushed even at the enticements to sin that were addressed to him, now is foremost among those who "do evil with both blinds earnestly." In these earnest sinners we note the following points.
1. Unity of purpose. They are men of one idea—how to please themselves. As they have abandoned all thought of seeking their pleasure in doing the will of God, and doing "good unto all men;" they concentrate their energies, "both hands," on gratifying every desire whatever the cost may be.
2. Perversion of conscience. We are reminded of this by Jerome's rendering, "They call the evil of their hands good." They speak of the evil done as "well done." They could hardly be so earnest in sin unless they had in some way perverted conscience. Some of the forms of iniquity disclosed in Micah 7:3-6 imply this. And certainly this is one of the most fatal results of sinning. Acts of sin form habits of sinning which react on the judgment and pervert it till the doom is incurred, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil!" etc. (Isaiah 5:20).
3. A conspiracy of men of influence. We expect a certain amount of crime and moral obliquity in what has been called the residuum of society; but profligacy in high places is a scandal and "a reproach to any people." See Jeremiah's experience (Jeremiah 5:1-5). Wherever the infection began, it has spread now to the court and the judgment hall: "Death is entered into our palaces." There is such a dearth of good men (verses 1, 2) that the restraint of their protests, or even of the silent testimony of their presence, is awanting. The princes expect bribes, or "black mail." The judges judge for reward. The testimony of contemporaneous and later prophets on this point is very strong (Isaiah 1:23; Ezekiel 22:27; Hosea 4:18; Amos 5:12). And they veil these crimes under milder names. The prince demands, but calls it "asking." The judge's bribe is called a reward for service rendered. The great man hesitates not to "utter his mischievous desire" in the presence of meaner men, who, he knows, will be ready enough to carry it out, if they can thus curry favour with him or earn money, though it be the price of blood; "thus they weave it together" (Revised Version). Illustrate by the conspiracy of Ahab, Jezebel, and the elders and nobles in the robbery and murder of Naboth.
4. We see this infection extending to the most sacred scenes of family life. What a terrible picture is suggested by verses 5, 61 The great men who have conspired in crime carry the contagion home with them. They cannot leave their sin on the threshold, like an infected garment. Their children catch the plague. Even a wife is not above suspicion. Thus curses come home to roost. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. Families are demoralized. "The end of those things is death."
Learn.
1. Earnestness is not in itself an excellent thing. The devil is terribly in earnest, "going about as a roaring lion," etc. (1 Peter 5:8). False teachers are sometimes more earnest than the true. "They zealously seek you in no good way" (Galatians 4:17). Earnestness may be as glowing as a fire, and as destructive.
2. Earnest sinners should be a motive and stimulus to the servants of Christ. If they are so eager in the work of destruction, what manner of persons ought we to be in the work of salvation? Yet some move neither hand, but stand all the day idle. Others are half-hearted, and therefore ply their work with but one hand, not devoting all their faculties to him whom they own as both Redeemer and Lord. Illustrate from King Joash's interview with Elisha (2 Kings 13:14 19). Loyalty to our Saviour-King demands concentration of energy and enthusiasm of devotion, that we may do good "with both hands earnestly."—E.S.P.