Pride stops their cars.
They have chosen their own way, and they will keep it. They would
not object to be forgiven, if they might be forgiven without
repenting. But they do not like to confess themselves in the wrong.
They do not like to face their foolish companions' remarks and sneers
about their changed ways. They do not like even good people to say
of them: "You see now that you were in the wrong after all; for you
have altered your mind and your doings yourself, as we told you you
would have to do." No; anything sooner than confess themselves in
the wrong; and so they turn their backs on God's mercy, for the sake
of their own carnal pride and self-will.
But, of course, they want an excuse for doing that; and when a man
wants an excuse, the devil will soon fit him with a good one. Then,
perhaps, the foolish sinner behaves as Jehoiakim did. He tries to
forget God's message in the man who brings it. He grows angry with
the preacher, or goes out and laughs at the preacher when service is
over, as if it was the preacher's fault that God had declared what he
has; as if it was the preacher's doing that God has revealed His
anger against all sin and unrighteousness. So he acts like
Jehoiakim, who tried to take Jeremiah the prophet and punish HIM, for
what not he but the Lord God had declared.
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