Verse 3

VER. 3.

They shall not dwell in the Lords Land.

Before God was to them as a father taking maintainance away from them, leaving them to suffer want; but here his anger encreases, & here he puts them out of his house; as a Father, first he withdraws allowance from his stout Son, and when that will not do, then he thrusts him out of his house: So does God here, The wine-press & the flour shall not feed them. And not only so, says God, but, They shall not dwell in the Lords Land. I will cast them out of my house, cast them out of my Land, I will not suffer Ephraim to dwell any longer there.

First, God would make them to know that it was his Land, and that they were but tenants at will, and that they did enjoy the Land upon conditions of obedience, as appears in (Leviticus 18:26). As if he had said, you are tenants and hold the Land by this tenure, we read in (Leviticus 25:23) of an ordinance that God made there that no land in Canaan should be sold for ever, but only to the year of Jubilee, the richest man that was that bought never so much land they could not buy it for ever, he could not have such a tenure as runs among us, To have and to hold for ever. But you will say, what is the reason? It is given in the 23. vers. The land shall not be sold for ever: Why? For the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me; I have brought you to the Land, and you are but sojourners with me in my land. God may dispose of all as he pleases. It's a good meditation for us to work upon our hearts thus, That we are God's stewards, the Lord is the great landlord of all the world. When you go abroad into the fields, now you that are godly you may see more land than is your own, but you cannot see more land than is your Father's.