Gold Nugget 189 - Let Him Alone
A father has used all legitimate means to reclaim his profligate, prodigal, or rebellious son; and when all has proved in vain, he is forced to say, “I have done with him; … I will have nothing more to do with him; I will leave him to himself, and let him alone.”
So God lets men alone when he gives them over to themselves, leaving them to their own devices, to their lusts, to their evil ways, to their doings that are not good. “They would none of me,” saith God, “so I gave them up to their own counsels.” The Spirit of the living God has striven with that man to turn him away from his injustice, or profanity, or drunkenness, or impurity, or hypocrisy; but he has resisted the Spirit, stifled the voice of conscience, and gone on his way of wickedness, till God, long-suffering though he be, and full of infinite loving-kindness, says at last, “My Spirit shall not always strive. Let him that is filthy be filthy still; let him that is unjust be unjust still.”
Consider the dreadful import of this brief sentence – “Let him alone.” It is as if God said, “Let him alone – he is rushing on ruin; let no barrier interpose to stop him; let him take his own way. Hitherto, and for long, he has been checked by the restraints of Providence; now let him alone.” It is all very well when a man is at ease, in safety, or among his friends, to let him alone; but when he is rushing into the sweltering tide of ocean, or into the blazing fire of a widespread conflagration, or in among most deadly enemies, to let him alone is to consign him to destruction. …
Beware of committing willful sin, lest God should say, “Let him alone.” Dread of being thus let alone is a sure sign that God has not let us alone, and safe way of keeping us from being let alone. May the good Lord preserve us from such a fearful fate!
The Pulpit Commentary, Hosea p. 114, Hosea 4:15-19, (J. J. Given)
Gold Nugget 189
Let Him Alone
