Now, bearing that it mind, the three main divisions of the book are very simple for us, and it is in connection with those that I want to speak tonight. In the first two chapters, down to the fifth verse of the third chapter, you get the first division, which is introductory. Then in the last five chapters you get the third division. In the center of the book from the third chapter, fifth verse, through the sixteenth chapter, you get the main part of the book, that which gives us its theme, which is declension with its causes.
Then coming in, as I might say, almost in a sort of incidental way, you have that which is inevitable when God's mercy is in activity, God coming in to restore and recover His people from their own folly. But you have in these three main divisions of the book, the people's rebellion from Him first of all, then their bondage as a result of that rebellion, and, in the third division, you have this corrupt inward state fully manifested, worse even than the bondage which you have in the second part.