Verse 8
"The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us."
There is evident in this verse a principle to which we have repeatedly called attention in our discussion of the prophets, that all of the great punitive judgments of God, such as the locust plague of Joel, or the sweeping away of Israel into captivity here, are also typical of the ultimate punitive judgment upon the whole race of mankind at the time of the Second Advent, an echo of which is most assuredly present in the concluding words of this verse. These very words were used by Jesus in Luke 23:30, and by the prophet in Revelation 6:16, as a statement of the terror that shall accompany the final judgment.
"The high places of Aven ..." The omission of Bethel, sometimes used with this word shows that the stress is upon the "vanity" of the places where the idol-worship was indulged. Not merely some of such places, but all of them were to be destroyed, robbed of their treasures, stripped of everything useful, and left for the thorns and brambles to overrun them. This extended to all of the local places of idol-worship throughout Israel; and, as Myers said, "They were the scene, not only of illegitimate worship but of actual licentiousness and debauchery."[17]
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