Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 48:11
Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
11. Moab hath been at ease from his youth ] He hath not been driven from his land hitherto. The feeling of horror at suffering expatriation, as compared with the consequences of a more ordinary defeat in battle such as the nation had often suffered in past time, is well exhibited by these verses.
settled on his lees ] Wine improved by being allowed to rest upon its sediment (Isa 25:6; but contrast the use of the figure in Zep 1:12). Its “taste” and “scent” were unimpaired. If emptied from vessel to vessel it would become vapid, without fragrance and tasteless. Something like this was now to happen to the nation by being taken captives.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11 19. See introd. summary to the ch.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Moab from the time it conquered the Emims Deu 2:9-10, and so became a nation, had retained quiet possession of its land, and enjoyed comparative prosperity. From the Moabite Stone we gather that King Mesha, after the death of Ahab threw off the yoke of Israel; nor except for a short time under Jeroboam II was Israel able to bring the Moabites back into subjection. They gradually drove the Reubenites back, and recovered most of the territory taken from the Amorites by Moses, and which originally had belonged to them.
He hath settled on his lees – Good wine was thought to be the better for being left to stand upon its sediment Isa 25:6, and in all cases its flavor was rendered thereby stronger (marginal reference). By being emptied from vessel to vessel it became vapid and tasteless. So a nation by going into captivity is rendered tame and feeble. By his taste is meant the flavor of the wine, and so Moabs national character.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 48:11-12
Moab hath been at ease from him youth, and he hath settled on his lees.
The shrill trumpet of admonition
For a considerable season the country of Moab had been free from the inroads of war and the terrors of pestilence. The nation had, therefore, become so conceitedly secure, that the lord said, We have heard the pride of Moab (he is exceeding proud), his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart. The people became vain, hectoring, and boastful, and mocked at their afflicted neighbours the Israelites, manifesting ungenerous joy in their sorrows. For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy. From this pride sprang luxury and all those other vices which find a convenient lair in the repose of unbroken prosperity. The warriors of Moab said, We are mighty and strong men for the war; as vainglorious sinners, they defied all law and power; trusting in Chemosh, they despised Jehovah, and magnified themselves against the Lord. The prophet compares that country to wine which has been allowed to stand unstirred and unmoved: it settles on its lees, grows strong, retains its aroma, and gathers daffy fresh body and spirit. But, saith he, the day shall come when God shall shake this undisturbed liquor, when He shall send wandering bands of Chaldeans that shall waste the country, so that the bottles shall be broken and the vessels shall be emptied, and the proud prosperity of Moab shall end in utter desolation. The fact that continued prosperity breeds carnal security, is not only proved by the instance of Moab, but is lamentably confirmed in the history of others.
I. I shall first speak to the unconverted, the godless, the prayerless, the Christless.
1. The bold offenders who are at ease in open sin. They began life with iniquity, and they have made terrible progress in it. They go from iniquity to iniquity, as the vulture from carcass to carcass; they labour in the way of evil, as men dig for hid treasure; And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? And if He doth know, say they, what care we? Who is Jehovah, that we should obey Him? Who is the Almighty, that we should tremble at His word? Yet, Oh, ye haughty ones, take heed, for Pharaoh, who was your prototype in the olden days, found the way of pride to be hard at the end.
2. A far more common form of that carelessness which is so destructive, is that of men who give themselves wholly up to the worlds business. Such men, for instance, as one whom Christ called Fool. Gain is the worlds summum bonum, the chief of all mortal good, the main chance, the prime object, the barometer of success in life, the one thing needful, the hearts delight. And yet, Oh, worldlings, who succeed in getting gain, and are esteemed to be shrewd and prudent, Jesus Christ calls you fools, and He is no thrower about of hard terms where they are not deserved. Thou fool, said He, and why! Because the mans soul would be required of him; and then whose would those things be which he had gathered together?
3. A third case is more common still, the man who forgets God and lives in slothful ease. It is not enough to abstain from outward sin, and so to be negatively moral; unless you bring forth fruits unto righteousness, you have not the life of God in you; and however much you may be at ease, there shall come a rough awakening to your slumbers, and the shrill sound of the archangels trumpet shall be to you no other than the blast of the trumpet of condemnation, because ye took your ease when ye should have served your God.
4. There are many in the professing Christian Church Who are in me same state as Moab. They have the virgins lamp, but they have no oil in the vessel with their lamps; and yet so comfortable are these professors, that they slumber and sleep. Remember, you may think yourself a believer, and everybody else may think so too, and you may fail to find out your error until it is too late to rectify it; you may persevere for years in the way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Be ye not, Oh, ye professors, like Moab, that had settled upon his lees!
5. Equally true is this of the mass of moral men who are destitute of faith in Jesus. I have no doubt but what it will be all right with me at last. I pay my neighbours their own; I give a guinea to a hospital, when they ask me for it; I am a first-rate tradesman. Of course, I have sown a few wild oats, and I still indulge a little; but who does not? Who dares deny that I am a good-hearted fellow? Do you envy him? You may sooner envy the dead in their graves because they suffer no pain.
II. We speak to the believer. A Christian man finds himself for a long time without any remarkable trouble: his children are spared to him, his home is happy, his business extremely prosperous–he has, in fact, all that heart can wish; when he looks round about him he can say with David, The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Now, the danger is that he should think too highly of these secondary things, and should say to himself, My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved. He has not been poured from vessel to vessel; he has not been sternly tried by Providence, or sorely tempted by the devil; he has not been led to question his own conversion, he has fallen into a profound calm, a deep dead peace, a horrible lethargy, and his inmost heart has lost all spiritual energy. The great disease of England is consumption, but I suppose it would be difficult to describe the causes and workings of consumption and decline. The same kind of disease is common among Christians. It is not that many Christians fall into outward sin, and so on, but throughout our Churches we have scores who are in a spiritual consumption–their powers are all feeble and decaying. The rapid results of this consumption are just these: a man in such a state soon gives up communion with God; it is not quite gone at first, but it is suspended. His walk with God is broken and occasional. His prayers very soon suffer. By degrees, his conversation is not what it used to be. He was once very earnest for Christ, and would introduce religious topics in all companies. He has become discreet now, and holds his tongue. He is quite ready to gossip about the price of wheat, and how the markets are, and the state of politics, and whether you have been to see the Sultan; but he has no words for Jesus Christ, the King in His beauty. Spiritual topics have departed from his general conversation. And now, strange to say, the minister does not preach as he used to do: at least, the back-slider says so. The reason why I think he is mistaken, is, that the Word of God itself is not so sweet to him as it once was; and surely the Bible cannot have altered! After a while the professor slackens a good deal in his liberality; he does not think the cause of God is worth the expense that he used to spend upon it; and as to his own personal efforts to win souls, he does not give up his Sunday-school class, nor his street preaching, nor distributing of tracts, perhaps, but he does all mechanically, it is a mere routine. He might just as well be an automaton, and be wound up, only the fault is, that he is not wound up, and he does not do his work as he should do; or, if he does it outwardly, there is none of the life of God in what he does. Very much of this sluggishness is brought on by long-continued respite from trouble. It were better to be in perpetual storms, and to be driven to-and-fro in the whirlwind, and to cling to God, than to founder at sea in the most peaceful and halcyon days. The great secret danger coming out of all this is, that when a man reaches the state of carnal security, he is ready for any evil. We have heard of two negroes who were accustomed to go into the bush to pray, and each of them had trodden a little path in the grass. Presently one of them grew cold, and was soon found in open sin; his black brother warned him that he knew it would come to that, because the grass grew on the path that led to the place of prayer. Ah! we do not know to what we may descend when we begin to go down hill; down, down, down, is easy and pleasant to the flesh, but if we knew where it would end, we should pray God that we might sooner die than live to plunge into the terrors of that descent. I must pass on to observe Gods cure for this malady. His usual way is by pouring our settled wine from vessel to vessel. If we cannot bear prosperity, the Lord will not continue it to us. We may pamper our children and spoil them; but the Divine Father will not. Staying for a while in the valley of Aosta, in Northern Italy, we found the air to be heavy, close, and humid with pestilential exhalations. We were oppressed and feverish–ones life did not seem worth a pin. We could not breathe freely, our lungs had a sense of having a hundred atmospheres piled upon them. Presently, at midday, there came a thunder-clap, attended by big drops of rain and a stiff gale of wind, which grew into a perfect tornado, tearing down the trees; then followed what the poet calls sonorous hail, and then again the lightning flash, and the thunder peal on peal echoing along the Alps. But how delightful was the effect, how we all went out upon the verandah to look at the lightning, and enjoy the music of the thunder! How cool the air and bracing! How delightful to walk out in the cool evening after the storm! Then you could breathe and feel a joy in life. Full often it is thus with the Christian after trouble. What ought we to do if we are prospering? We should remember that prevention is better than cure, and if God is prospering us, the way to prevent lethargy is–be very grateful for the prosperity which you are enjoying; do not pray for trouble–you will have it quickly enough without asking for it; be grateful for your prosperity, but make use of it. Do all you possibly can for God while He prospers you in business; try to live very close to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Ease injurious to Christian character
I have somewhere read the following incident in the life of a distinguished botanist. Being exiled from his native land, he obtained employment as an under-gardener in the service of a nobleman. While he was in this situation, his master received a valuable plant, the nature and habits of which were unknown to him. It was given to the gardener to be taken care of; and he, fancying it to be a tropical production, put it into the hothouse (for it was winter), and dealt with it as with the others under the glass. But it began to wither away and decay. And the strange under-gardener asked permission to examine it. As soon as he looked at it he said, This is an Arctic plant; you are killing it by the tropical heat into which you have introduced it. So he took it outside, and exposed it to the frost, and, to the dismay of the head-gardener, heaped pieces of ice around the flower-pot; but the result vindicated his wisdom, for straightway it began to recover, and was soon as strong as ever. Now, such a plant is Christian character. It is not difficulty that is dangerous to it, but ease. Put it into a hothouse, separate it from the world, surround it with luxury, hedge it in from every opposition, and you take the surest means of killing it. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Emptied from vessel to vessel.
The blessing of disturbance
The illustration is taken from the manner in which wine is prepared. The juice of the grape, at first thick and impure, is allowed to ferment. Then it is left for a time undisturbed, until a sediment, here called lees, is precipitated. After that it is drawn off into another vessel so carefully that all the matter so precipitated is left behind, and this emptying of it from vessel to vessel is repeated again and again, until the offensive odour that came at first from the must is gone, and it becomes clear and beautiful. Now, by the analogy of this process, familiar even to the common people of a vine-growing country, the prophet accounts for the character and condition of Moab as a nation. In the providence of God nothing had come to unsettle that people. No external enemy had attacked them. No great national disaster had ever fallen on them. We have here explained to us the reason why we are, as we phrase it, so frequently upset in life. We complain that we are never allowed to become settled. Ever, as we think we have reached some place of rest, there comes a new upheaval to shake us up and out, so that we cry, Is there to be no end of these changes? As well talk of a ship as settled in the midst of the ever-restless, ever-changeful ocean, as talk of a man being settled in life. But, in the light of this verse, such repeated disturbance is recognised as a blessing.
I. What there is in these emptyings that fits them to promote our spiritual advancement.
1. Such dispensations have in them an influence which is well calculated to reveal us to ourselves. Sudden emergency is a sure opener of a mans eyes to his own defects. He may contrive to get on, in seasons of prosperity and outward calm, without becoming conscious of the weak points of his character; but let him be thrown, all at once, upon his own resources by the coming upon him of some crushing calamity, and he will then find out whether he has that within him that can stand the strain that has been put upon him. It was a shrewd remark of Andrew Fuller, that a man has only as much religion as he can command in the day of trial; and if he have no religion at all, his trouble will make that manifest to him. Just as the strain of the storm tells where the ship is weakest, and stirs up the mariner to have it strengthened there, so the pressure of trial reveals the defects of character which still adhere to the Christian. One affliction may disclose an infirmity of temper; another may discover a weakness of faith; a third may make it evident that the power of some old habit is not yet entirely broken; and thus, from this constant revelation to him of the evils that still remain in him, he is led, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, to the attainment of a higher measure of holiness than other-wise he could have reached.
2. The frequent unsettlements which come upon us in Gods providence have a tendency to shake us out of ourselves. We find that where we thought ourselves wise we have been supremely foolish. Where we imagined that we had taken all possible contingencies into the account, we discover that we had left no place for God. So our most matured schemes have been abortive, our most cherished hopes have been blasted; yea, just when we conceived that now at length we had reached our ultimatum, and were beginning to congratulate ourselves on the prospect of repose, there came a sudden reverse, which emptied us out again, and we were compelled to begin anew. Thus we are brought to distrust ourselves. We find that it will not do to lean always to our own understanding. By many bitter failures we are made to acknowledge that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps, and then by the Spirit of God we are led up to confidence in Jehovah. We have heard enough of the success of the millionaire; let us hear more now of the success of the unsuccessful–yea, of the success of soul that sometimes comes through the ruin of earthly fortune and the blighting of our fondest plans. Character is nobler than riches or position, and the growth of that in holiness and stability ought to be the highest aim, as it will be the noblest achievement of life.
3. These frequent unsettlements have a tendency to keep us from being wedded to the world, or from thinking of rooting ourselves permanently here. Some years ago, while rambling with a friend in the neighbourhood of Windermere, we came upon a house surrounded by the most beautiful shrubs I ever saw, and I was naturally led to make some inquiry concerning them. My companion informed me that, by a judicious system of transplanting, constantly pursued, the proprietor was able to bring them to the highest perfection. I thought at once of the manner in which God, by continuous transplanting, keeps His people fresh and beautiful, and prevents them from becoming too closely attached to the world. To be weaned from earth is one of the means of making us seek our spiritual food from heaven; and the trials of earth, transplanting us from place to place and from plan to plan, tend to prepare us for the great transplanting which is to take us from this world altogether, and root us in the garden of the Lord above.
II. The particular qualities of character which providential unsettlements are most calculated to foster.
1. Purity of motive and conduct; and where shall we find a better illustration of that than in the history of Jacob? He began life as a supplanter. He out-bargained Esau. He imposed on Isaac. He out-generaled Laban. We cannot admire him, and we are not drawn to him then. But when he lay on his death-bed, no characteristics strike us more than his honesty in dealing with his sons, and his sincerity in dealing with God. And how was that transformation wrought? By the Spirit of God, you answer, and you answer well; but I would supplement your statement by putting it thus, By the Spirit of God, through and in connection with the frequent unsettlements to which he was subjected.
2. They tend to foster strength, either for endurance or for action. Take for example, here, the case of Abraham. He was tried in Canaan and in Egypt; he was tested by the long delay in the fulfilment of the promise in regard to Isaac, and by the domestic discord that arose concerning Ishmael; and his wrestlings with these afflictions developed in him, by the grace of God, that spiritual might in which he conquered on the mount of the Lord, when he earned for himself the title of the father of the faithful.
3. The recurrence of these emptying processes deepens the sympathy and widens the charity of the Christian. Indeed hazard the assertion that no man can be called complete in character who has not been subjected to them. It is in this very relation that our Lord Himself is said to have been made perfect through suffering, and each of us has doubtless had an experience of his own which enables him to understand what seems at first so strange. Experience is thus the mother of sympathy and charity. The older a Christian grows he learns to feel for others more, and to condemn them less, and he is a true son of consolation only in the proportion in which be is able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith he himself is comforted of God. What I have been saying, then, all tends toward these two propositions, namely, that unbroken prosperity would be a curse to a man, and not a blessing; and that providential unsettlements, when rightly interpreted and improved, are really favours, though they do come draped in sadness. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The discipline of sorrow
I trust it is the wish of each of us that Gods will be done in us and about us: I trust it is our daily prayer, not so much that God would give us what we wish, as that He would teach us, simply and completely, to submit our will to His, and that He would give us grace and strength to bear whatever He may send. Let us seek that the utterance of our hearts may be that of the blind Galileo; who said, It has pleased God that it should be so; and it must please me too. And yet it is natural to us to wish that it might please God to lead us by as easy and pleasant a way as may be: that it might please God to appoint us as peaceful and happy a life as possible, and to send us just as little evil and sorrow as may suffice to work upon us the wholesome results of evil and sorrow. God has made us so, that we wish for what is pleasant, and shrink from what is painful. But it does not follow that the thing we like best is the best thing for us. And the text tells us that a life of unbroken ease, a life in which all goes well with us, is a most perilous thing. The kingdom of Moab had enjoyed long tranquillity, though there were troublesome neighbours near, and though it was a state of no great power: it had pleased God to order it so. Moab had been at ease from his youth. Then comes the comparison to wine: Moab had not been subjected to captivity, nor to other changes and troubles which are to a nation what pouring from one vessel to another is to wine: thus he had remained standing upon the lees, losing no part of his original strength and flavour. The suggestion is, that Moab was not good to start with: and he had not been tried with processes which might indeed have been painful, but in which he would have got rid of a good deal of the evil that was in him at the first. Moab had been secure in prosperity: and so he had remained the same as at the beginning,–all his bad qualities being only confirmed by time and use. Now the great lesson from all this is, that there is spiritual danger in the quiet lot, and in the quiet heart: that it is not Gods purpose that those He loves should enjoy entire worldly tranquillity; that there is something good for you and me, in care, unrest, disquiet, sorrow, bereavement, disappointment, perplexity–in all that breaks up that perilous calm, in which we grow too well satisfied with this world, and in which we feel ourselves too little dependent on our Saviour and our Comforter; and in which we come too much to feel as if things went on in their own way, forgetting that God directs them all; and in which we fail to realise it, that the one thing needful is something quite different from worldly enjoyment or worldly gain. So you see, how in love and mercy, and tender consideration for our best good, our Father sends us trouble. Philosophers vex and bewilder themselves in trying to explain how there is such a thing as evil in this world: we do not pretend to understand that, but one thing we do know perfectly, we know why evil and sorrow have been sent into our own lot and heart. They have come to make sure that we shall not settle on our lees: they have come to keep this world from engrossing our affection: they have come to wean us from this world by making us feel its bitterness: they have come to teach us the grand, all-comprehending lesson, that if we want what will satisfy our souls, we must go to Christ and find it there. Yes, it is not good for us in this world to be evenly at peace: and thus sorrow is Gods discipline, and disappointment, and bereavement,–in short, everything that is painful and disquieting,–all being sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. And here is a truth we cannot remember too seriously. In all our troubles we cannot too earnestly and constantly pray for the presence and influence of the Holy Ghost. For sorrow does not necessarily sanctify; it is just as likely to sour, if left to its natural tendencies. You who have known many trials: you who have watched by the dying bed, and bent over the grave: you who set your heart on things which God said were never to be: you whose sensitive nature makes the little worries of daffy life sit very heavily on you, and whose quick heart and fancy eat the enjoyment out of your life by suggesting a hundred anxieties and fears: let me ask, Have all these things been sanctified to wean you from this world, and make you feel that your portion must be in Christ and seek it there: or do you still cling to the earth, and refuse to profit by your Heavenly Fathers teaching through all these trials and cares? Every grief that these hearts have ever known was a sharp lesson given by the best Teacher: and was meant to show us that this world will not do; and that if we want peace and rest for our souls, we must look for them in our Saviour. Now, do you accept that lesson heartily? (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Spiritual dislodgments
Observe–
1. How God manages, on a large scale, in the common matters of life, to keep us in a process of change, and prevent our lapsing into a state of security such as we desire. The very scheme of life appears to be itself a grand decanting process, where change follows change, and all are emptied from vessel to vessel. Here and there a man, like Moab, stands upon his lees, and commonly with the same effect. Fire, flood, famine, sickness in all forms and guises, wait upon us, seen or unseen, and we run the gauntlet through them, calling it life. And the design appears to be to turn us hither and thither, allowing us no chance to stagnate m any sort of benefit or security. Even the most successful, who seem, in one view, to go straight on to their mark, get on after all, rather by a dexterous and continual shifting, so as to keep their balance and exactly meet the changing conditions that befall them. Nor is there anything to sentimentalise over in this ever-shifting, overturning process, which must be encountered in all the works of life; no place for sighing–vanity of vanities. There is no vanity in it, more than in the mill that winnows and separates the grain.
2. That the radical evil of human character, as being under sin, consists in a determination to have our own way, which determination must be somehow reduced and extirpated. Hence the necessity that our experience be so appointed as to shako us loose continually from our purpose, or from all security and rest in it. The coarse and bitter flavour of our self-will is reduced in this manner, and gradually fined away. If we could stand on our lees, in continual peace and serenity, if success were made secure, subject to no change or surprise, what, on the other hand, should we do more certainly than stay by our evil mind, and take it as a matter of course that our will is to be done; the very thing above all others of which we most need to be cured. It would not even do for us to be uniformly successful in our best meant and holiest works, our prayers, our acts of sacrifice, our sacred enjoyments; for we should very soon fall back into the subtle power of our self-will, and begin to imagine, in our vanity, that we are doing something ourselves.
3. That our evils are generally hidden from us till they are discovered to us by some kind of trial or adversity. What good man ever fell into a time of deep chastening who did not find some cunning infatuation by which he was holden broken up, and some new discovery made of himself? The veils of pride are rent, the rock of self-opinion is shattered, and he is reduced to a point of gentleness and tenderness that allows him to suffer a true conviction concerning what was hidden from his sight. Nor is anything so effectual in this way as to meet some great overthrow that interrupts the whole course of life; all the better if it dislodges him even in his Christian works and appointments. What was I doing, he now asks, that I must needs be thrown out of my holiest engagements? for what fault was I brought under this discipline?
4. That we are prepared in this manner for the gracious and refining work of the Spirit in us. Under some great calamity or sorrow, the loss of a child, the visitations of bodily pain, a failure in business, the slanders of an enemy, a persecution for the truth or for righteousness sake, how tender and open to God does the soul become!
5. Too great quiet and security, long continued, are likely to allow the reaction or the recovered power of our old sins, and must not therefore be suffered. Suppose a man is converted as a politician–there is nothing wrong certainly in being a politician–but how subtle is the power of those old habits and affinities in which he lived, and how likely are they, if he goes straight on by a course of prosperous ambition, to be finally corrupted by their subtle reaction. When he is defeated, therefore, a little further on, by untoward combinations, and thrown out of all hope in this direction, let him not think it hard that he is less successful now in the way of Christ, than he was before in the way of his natural ambition. God understands him, and is leading him off, not unlikely, to some other engagement, that He may get him clear of the sediment on which he stands. In the same way, doubtless, it is that another is driven out of his business by a failure, another out of his family expectations by death and bereavement, another out of his very industry and his living by a loss of health, another out of prayers and expectations that were rooted in presumption, another out of works of beneficence that associated pride and vanity, another out of the ministry of Christ, where, by self-indulgence, or in some other way, his natural infirmities were rather increased than corrected. There is no engagement, however sacred, from which God will not sometimes separate us, that He may clear us of our sediment and the reactions of our hidden evils.
Application–
1. It brings a lesson of admonition to the class of worldly men who are continually prospering in the things of this life. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. I commend it to your deepest and most thoughtful attention.
2. Others, again, have been visited by many and great adversities, emptied about from vessel to vessel all their lives long, still wondering what it means, while still they adhere to their sins. There is, alas! no harder kind of life than this, a life of continual discipline that really teaches nothing. Is it so with you, or is it not? There is no class of beings more to be pitied than defeated men, who have gotten nothing out of their defeat but that dry sorrow of the world which makes it only more barren, and therefore more insupportable.
3. It is necessary, in the review of this subject, to remind any genuine Christian what benefits he ought to receive in the trials and changes through which he is called to pass. Receive them meekly, rather, and bow down to them gladly. Bid them welcome when they come, and, if they come not, ask for them; lift up your cry unto God, and beseech Him that by any means He will correct you, and purify you, and separate you to Himself. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Alternations in religious experience
Transitions from elevation to depression of soul, from joy and peace in believing, to spiritual anxiety, arc beneficial as disturbing perilous security, as leading to such critical scrutiny of conduct and of the motives which underlie it, as reveals shortcomings which there would be no effort to detect were spiritual enjoyment to continue unbroken, In such ease of soul the feeling of security–though not, perhaps, finding audible expression in the words, I shall never be moved, Thou, Lord, of Thy goodness, hast made my hill so strong, might find in them a fitting description. Then, a season comes when God, for a time, hides His face and causes trouble, when the chastened soul is taught humility, and mercifully roused from a dangerous state of over-confidence. To be left, Moab-like, at ease, so as never to be subject to apprehensions and doubts, would indeed be detrimental to the health of the soul, and therefore, by wisely contrived changes, alternations experienced in that life which is hid with Christ in God, the Christian is experimentally taught that salvation is not promised to the experience of feelings, however ardent, but to patient continuance in well-doing, to endurance unto the end, to gradual progress in conformity to the will of Him who has made obedience to His commandments the test of the genuineness of professed discipleship. In the way by which heaven is to be reached, there are salutary changes from one kind to another of spiritual experience, and by their means invaluable lessons are conveyed to the soul. If there be a tendency to become less vigilant, to restrain prayer before God, to grow remiss in religious exercises, public and private, there is a change to the experience of some humiliating conviction. If, on the other hand, there be a tendency to spiritual dejection, which if too long dominant, would have the effect of paralysing effort, there is a change to an experience animating and consolatory. Whether God manifests His power in the soul by gladdening it with tokens of His favour, or depresses it with a painful sense of their withdrawal, He is, all the while, educating it for immortality. But further. For all who carefully observe it there is spiritual teaching in what the Church terms, in one of her comprehensive prayers, the sundry and manifold changes of the world. Evidences of mutability and uncertainty in the world external to us, are set before us in order that we may be disciplined for that life immortal, which is promised to those who walk by faith. The present state is designed to be one of pupilage for a higher and a nobler, and no sadder aspect of it can be imagined than when it is viewed as a season of opportunity wasted, a life in which nothing has been learned which is of profit to the imperishable soul. Of momentous import, therefore, is the consideration, whether you be really advantaged by the teaching of those mutabilities. The manner in which prosperity and adversity are borne, the effect which these opposite experiences produce upon character, the spirit in which benefits upon the one hand, and trials upon the other, are received–it is to that you must look if you be desirous of arriving at a reliable conclusion as to whether or not you be spiritually disciplined under Gods providential dispensations. May the mutable nature of all sublunary things be so impressed upon you, as an influential conviction, that the result may be the sure fixing of your hearts where true joys are to be found. (C. E. Tisdall, D. D.)
Divine plan in changes
Why these constant removals from town to town; from church to church; from situation to situation? Why this perpetual change and revolution in our plans? Why this incessant going into captivity to irksome and trying circumstances? All this is part of Gods manufacture of the wine of life. We must be emptied from vessel to vessel, else we should settle on our lees, and become thick and raw and unpalatable, when the next change comes in your life, do not fear it. The blessed God will see to it that no drop of the precious fluid shall be spilt on the ground. With the tenderest care He conducts the whole operation. Perhaps there is a counterpart to this incessant change from place to place in the perpetual flux of our emotions. We never feel the same for long together. We are constantly being emptied from one blessed frame into another, not quite so joyous or peaceful. We have to hold the most heavenly emotions with a light hand, not knowing how soon they may have passed. And it is well. Otherwise we should never lose the taste of our proud self-complacency. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Moab hath been at ease] The metaphor here is taken from the mode of preserving wines. They let them rest upon their lees for a considerable time, as this improves them both in strength and flavour; and when this is sufficiently done, they rack, or pour them off into other vessels. Moab had been very little molested by war since he was a nation; he had never gone out of his own land. Though some had been carried away by Shalmaneser forty years before this, he has had neither wars nor captivity.
Therefore his taste remained in him] Still carrying on the allusion to the curing of wines; by resting long upon the lees, the taste and smell are both improved. See Clarke on Isa 25:6.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Moab hath been at ease from his youth; the Moabites ever since they began to be a people have been a quiet people, not exercised with wars, and enemies making inroads upon them.
He hath settled on his lees; like to a cask of wine, that hath not been racked, but hath continued in the same state.
And hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; he follows the metaphor of wine, which is drawn out from vessel to vessel, when it is drawn off the lees. It is expounded by the next words,
neither hath he gone into captivity. And this is the reason why they retain their old sins, pride, presumption, luxury, and old wickednesses, as wine while it remaineth in the lees retains more its nature, strength, and colour than when it is once racked.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. settled on . . . lees(Seeon Isa 25:6; Zep1:12). As wine left to settle on its own lees retains its flavorand strength (which it would lose by being poured from one vesselinto another), so Moab, owing to its never having been dislodged fromits settlements, retains its pride of strength unimpaired.
emptied from vessel,&c.To make it fit for use, it used to be filtered from vesselto vessel.
scentretaining theimage: the bouquet or perfume of the wine.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moab hath been at ease from his youth,…. Lived in great peace and prosperity from the time they became a kingdom; being very little disturbed with wars by their neighbours, or very rarely; so that they were in very prosperous and flourishing circumstances, which occasioned that pride and haughtiness they were notorious for. This is an emblem of unregenerate men; who, though sinners from their birth, and liable to the curse of the law, subject to the stroke of death, and must come to judgment; yet stupid and quite at ease, having no sight of sin, nor feeling of the burden of its guilt, nor grief or trouble for it; no sense of danger, or fear of hell; but in the utmost security: all which arise from ignorance, hardness of heart, profaneness, and infidelity; thoughtlessness about their immortal souls; putting the evil day far from them; and being under the influence of Satan, who keeps his goods in peace:
and he hath settled on his lees; a metaphor taken from wine; which, the longer it remains on the lees, the better body it has, and the richer and stronger it is; and denotes the great tranquillity of the Moabites; the riches they were possessed of, and in which they trusted. The Targum renders it,
“quiet in their substance;”
herein they were an emblem of unconverted sinners, who are settled and hardened in the corruptions of their nature; and not at all disturbed at the evil of sin; the wrath of God; his judgments on men; the last and awful judgment; or at the terrors of hell; and likewise of such who trust in their own righteousness, and depend upon that for salvation:
and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; like wine that has never been racked off from the vessel or vessels it was first put into: they were never removed from place to place, but always continued in their land; in which they were an emblem of such who have never seen their own emptiness, and their want of the grace of God, and have never been emptied of sin, nor of self-righteousness:
neither hath he gone into captivity; this explains in proper words the metaphor in the preceding clause: the Moabites had never been carried captive out of their own land into others; an emblem of such who have never seen their captive state to sin and Satan; or ever brought to complain of it, or become the captives of Christ;
therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed; his wealth, riches, and prosperity, continued without any change and alteration; and also his sins and vices, idolatry, pride, luxury, and which were the cause of his ruin; and for that reason are here mentioned; an emblem of unregenerate men, whose taste is vitiated by sin, and continues as it was originally; they relish sin, and disrelish everything that is good; and savour the things that be of man, and not the things of God; and so are in a most dangerous condition.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Va. 11-25: MOAB SHAMED AND JUDGED
1. In this section Moab is referred to in the masculine gender; as sediment which accumulates at the bottom of the wine vat from which no wine is poured, he has become stale in his proud and haughty independence, (vs. 11; contr. Nah 2:2).
2. Though Moab has had no trouble for many years, he will be emptied out (tilted, as a vessel) and smashed like a jar, (vs. 12); he will then be as ashamed of the impotency of Chemosh as the house of Israel had been of their two golden calves at Bethel, (vs. 13; comp. Isa 45:16; Hos 8:5-6).
3. How utterly ridiculous for the Moabites to declare themselves heroic and gallant warriors! (vs. 14; comp. Isa 10:13-16; Psa 33:16).
4. Jehovah, the King, and Lord of hosts, declares that the destroyer (Babylon) is come upon Moab and his cities; his chosen young men are seen as fallen in a great slaughter, (vs. 15; comp. Jer 46:18; Jer 50:27).
5. The calamity of Moab is near – it approaches speedily, (vs. 16).
6. Those whose security has been linked to Moab are called to mourning (comp. Jer 9:17-20) because his “sceptre and staff” (symbolizing “strength and authority’s are broken, (vs. 17; comp. Isa 14:5).
7. Verses 18-24 describe the cry of humiliation, poverty, shame and destruction that is brought upon the populace of Moab by Babylon.
8. The horn (power, authority) of Moab is said to be sawed off -his arm broken, (vs. 25; comp. Psa 75:10).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Here he expresses more clearly what we have before seen, that Moab in vain promised to himself perpetual impunity, because he had for a long time been prosperous. Then the Prophet says that he would be suddenly destroyed, when God ascended his tribunal to execute his judgment.
He first says, that he had been quiet from his childhood, because when the Israelites had been often harassed, that nation remained untouched, and never felt any disadvantage, as though fortified on all sides by their own defences; for they dwelt in part amidst mountains, but had a level country, as it is well known, beyond Jordan. It was a land in a moderate degree fertile, so that as they enjoyed continual peace, they collected great wealth. But it was very hard for the Israelites, when God afflicted them with various calamities, to see the Moabites secure and safe from all trouble and all losses. As, then, this thought might have grievously wounded the minds of the faithful, the Prophet here exhorts them not to envy the happiness of the Moabites, because God would at length stretch forth his hand against them, according to what was done by David, who also exhorted the faithful patiently to wait for the day of the Lord, when they saw the ungodly enjoying all kinds of pleasure, and meeting with success according to their wishes. (Psa 37:1.) We now then understand the object of the Prophet.
He compares Moab to an old man, who had passed his whole life in security, without any losses, without any grief or sorrow. Quiet, then, has Moab been, or quiet from his childhood, even from the time he became a nation. For what was the childhood of Moab? even from the time they expelled the giants and other inhabitants and dwelt in their land. Then success ever attended them; and hence he says, that they settled on their dregs, so that they underwent no change. Here is another metaphor: as wine which remains in its own vessel, and is never changed into another, retains its taste, its strength, and its savor; so also the Prophet says that Moab had always been in the enjoyment of perpetual felicity, like wine which remains on its own dregs. For the dregs preserve the wine, as it is well known; for the wine, being taken off from its dregs, loses in part its own strength, and at length becomes vapid; but wine, being not changed, continues in its own strength.
We hence see how apt is the comparison, when the Prophet says, that Moab had not been changed from vessel to vessel, but had settled on his dregs And he explains himself without a figure when he adds, that he had not gone, or removed, into captivity He yet intimates that this perpetual peace would avail the Moabites nothing, because as the Lord had resolved to destroy them, he would cause the strength of Moab to fail and all his wealth to be reduced to nothing.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
C. Prophetic Explanation Jer. 48:11-17
TRANSLATION
(11) From his youth Moab has been at ease, and settled on his lees; he was not emptied from vessel to vessel, nor had he gone into captivity; therefore, his taste remains in him and his aroma has not changed. (12) Therefore, behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when I will send to him tilters, and they shalt tilt him; and they shall empty his vessels, and smash their bottles. (13) Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their trust. (14) How can you say; We are mighty men, valiant men of war? (15) Moab is plundered, and one assaults her cities, and the finest of her young men have gone down to the slaughter (oracle of the king whose name is the LORD of hosts). (16) The calamity of Moab is close at hand, and his misfortune hastens quickly. (17) Mourn for him all you who are round about and who know his name. Say: How sad it is that the strong staff is broken, the glorious staff.
COMMENTS
Why is Moab to suffer so terribly? In answering this question Jeremiah utilizes the figure of wine and wine jars. Owing to its mountainous terrain and some-what isolated geographical position (shielded by the Dead Sea on the west and the desert on the east) Moab had remained comparatively undisturbed throughout history. The country had been invaded from time to time and periodically had been subject to tribute. But unlike surrounding nations which had faced the fierce wrath of the Assyrian and Chaldean conquerors, Moab had never seen her cities totally destroyed and her people carried away into captivity. Jeremiah compares the nation to wine which has settled on the lees (sediment). It was the custom to leave new wine for a time on its sediment in order to heighten its strength and flavor. In other words, due to its relatively undisturbed existence Moab had become a strong and proud nation with a culture and character unchanged by foreign influences.[385] All that is about to change. God is about to send to Moab what the KJV renders as wanderers. The ASV gives a better translation, them that pour off, and the RSV a still better translation tilters. The reference is to those whose job it was to pour the wine out of the aging vessels into vessels of skins or earthenware. The tilters who will come to Moab will not perform their task in the careful manner which men of that profession normally used. They will in fact pour Moab on the ground and then smash his vessels (Jer. 48:12). Moab is to experience a radical and abrupt change in fortunes. Her proud, ancient culture will be poured out like wine from the jar; her political existence smashed like an earthenware jar.
[385] Many commentators take the figure settled on his lees in a somewhat more negative sense: Moab is compared to an inferior wine which has been left too long on the lees and hence had become sour and bitter.
Two aspects of Moabite pride are doomed to horrible disappointment. First, their confidence in Chemosh will be shaken in that day when they discover that he is unable to save his people from calamity. Like the inhabitants of the fallen kingdom of Israel who had placed their trust in the fake religious system established by Jeroboam at Bethel,[386] the Moabites would come to realize the folly of misplaced trust (Jer. 48:13). They would come to realize that Chemosh was a nonentity. secondly, their pride in military might will prove unjustified. How sad it is, says Jeremiah, that you are saying, We are strong men, powerful men of war! (Jer. 48:14). What sinful vainglory! Moab shall be spoiled, the walls of her cities scaled by the enemy,[387] her chosen young men slaughtered in battle. This is the oracle which the King of all nations and the God of history, the Lord of Hosts, has spoken concerning Moab (Jer. 48:15). The ruin of Moab was prophesied by Balaam eight hundred years before (Num. 24:17) and foretold by Amos (Jer. 2:1-3) and Isaiah (chaps. 1516) is now rapidly approaching (Jer. 48:16). All who are friends of Moab are sincerely urged by the prophet to bemoan the fate of that nation for the scepter of Moabite sovereignty and the rod of Moabite splendor is broken (Jer. 48:17).
[386] Jeroboam I established a counterfeit form of worship for the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. Golden calves were erected at Bethel and Dan and later at Samaria. Israel was carried away into captivity in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians.
[387] The translation of the ASV they are gone up into his cities, is much to be preferred over the KJV which takes the phrase to be referring to the Moabites and translates and gone up out of her cities.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(11) He hath settled on his lees.The image, found also in Zep. 1:12, is drawn from the practice of pouring wine from one vessel into another to clarify it and improve its flavour. Wine not so treated retained its first crude bitterness. So, the prophet says, it is with nations. It is not good for them to remain too long in a prosperity which does but strengthen their natural arrogance. There is a wholesome discipline in defeat, even in exile. In Jer. 48:47 we have the hope of the prophet that the discipline will do its work. The vessels and bottles of Jer. 48:12 are, of course, the cities and villages of Moab. (Comp. the imagery of Jer. 19:10.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. The reason for these judgments is here given. Moab had remained at ease, and in the enjoyment of a prosperity which had vitiated her life. Hence she is compared to wine which has remained long on the lees a process which improves good wine, but makes poor wine more harsh and thick. The teaching of the figure is, that if a people retain undisturbed possession of their country for a long time their characteristic national qualities will have a high development, but if they be emptied from vessel to vessel, the process may indeed purify them, but may also render them light, weak, and insipid. What is true of national life is true also of individual life; and what is true of life in its lowest conditions applies also to life in its highest aspects. (See, on this last, the most ingenious and admirable sermon of Dr. Horace Bushnell on The Necessity of Spiritual Dislodgments.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 48:11. Moab hath been at ease Instead of hath been at ease, the Chaldee renders, hath been opulent;from his youth, means from the time of Salmanezer. He hath never felt any calamity, since that judgment foretold by Isaiah, and inflicted by Salmanezer; so that there were forty years between that captivity, and this here spoken of. The comparison between the state of the Moabites and that of wine, is elegant. It is kept up with great propriety: and as it is well known, that wine which remains long on its lees, is of a strong body, the prophet’s simile imports that the Moabites increased in spirit and insolence in proportion to the duration of their national success and tranquillity. By wanderers in the next verse, are meant the Chaldean soldiers. The words may be read, He hath settled upon his lees, and hath not been decanted from vessel to vessel: that is, he hath never gone into captivity; therefore his flavour remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed or sowered; Jer 48:12. ThereforeI will send unto him decanters, or, those who shall decant him, and dash his bottles; or disturbers, who shall shake him up, and shall rack off his vessels, and their bottles in pieces.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 48:11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
Ver. 11. Moab hath been at ease from his youth. ] And his ease hath destroyed him. as Pro 1:32 He dwelleth near the mare mortuum, and is become a very mare mortuum, i.e., a dead sea. Because he hath had no changes, therefore he feareth not God. Psa 55:19 Sibi constat in facultatibus, &c., he is rich and testy. Here is good booty for the soldiers, who should therefore bestir them.
And he hath settled on his lees.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 48:11-20
11Moab has been at ease since his youth;
He has also been undisturbed, like wine on its dregs,
And he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
Nor has he gone into exile.
Therefore he retains his flavor,
And his aroma has not changed.
12Therefore behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will send to him those who tip vessels, and they will tip him over, and they will empty his vessels and shatter his jars. 13And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
14How can you say, ‘We are mighty warriors,
And men valiant for battle’?
15Moab has been destroyed and men have gone up to his cities;
His choicest young men have also gone down to the slaughter,
Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
16The disaster of Moab will soon come,
And his calamity has swiftly hastened.
17Mourn for him, all you who live around him,
Even all of you who know his name;
Say, ‘How has the mighty scepter been broken,
A staff of splendor!’
18Come down from your glory
And sit on the parched ground,
O daughter dwelling in Dibon,
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you,
He has ruined your strongholds.
19Stand by the road and keep watch,
O inhabitant of Aroer;
Ask him who flees and her who escapes
And say, ‘What has happened?’
20Moab has been put to shame, for it has been shattered.
Wail and cry out;
Declare by the Arnon
That Moab has been destroyed.
Jer 48:11-20 Notice that all the English translations have different ways to divide this chapter into paragraphs/strophes. It is often difficult to distinguish between prose and poetry. Even though these divisions are not inspired (i.e., marked in the original text) they serve the hermeneutical purpose of determining the literary units and how they relate to each other. Every paragraph/strophe has one main truth. This information is crucial in trying to find and follow the original inspired author’s intent. See Biblical Interpretation Seminar online at www.freebiblecommentary.org .
Jer 48:11-12 This is imagery drawn from the wine industry (see Special Topic: Biblical Attitudes Toward Alcohol and Alcoholism ). Notice how this is also seen in Jer 48:26; Jer 48:33. Because of these allusions to wine making these poems may have been joined together in one context.
Jer 48:13 Idol worship brought shame and humiliation, to Israel or to Moab (i.e., Jer 48:35; Isa 44:10-11; Isa 45:16).
The allusion to Bethel: (1) a title for God used by the Jewish inhabitants of Elephantine, an island in the Nile River (lit. House of God) or (2) a place name involving Jeroboam I setting up a rival temple site at Bethel where the symbol of YHWH (i.e., the golden calf, cf. Exodus 32) was turned into Canaanite fertility worship (cf. 1Ki 12:25-33).
As fallen humans trust (BDB 105) in the power of manmade gods and reject or ignore the one true God, there is no hope, confidence, or security! Idols cannot affect reality!
Jer 48:17-20 This part of a larger poem addresses two groups.
1. those who live near Moab
2. those who have heard of it
These two groups are collectively personified and give advice to Moab.
1. mourn, Jer 48:17 – Qal IMPERATIVE
2. say, Jer 48:17 – Qal IMPERATIVE
3. come down, Jer 48:18 – Qal IMPERATIVE
4. sit, Jer 48:18 – Qal IMPERATIVE(Qere)
5. stand by, Jer 48:19 – Qal IMPERATIVE
6. keep watch, Jer 48:19 – Piel IMPERATIVE
7. ask, Jer 48:19 – Qal IMPERATIVE
8. say, Jer 48:19 – Qal IMPERATIVE
9. wail, Jer 48:20 – Hiphil IMPERATIVE
10. cry out, Jer 48:20 – Qal IMPERATIVE
11. declare, Jer 48:20 – Hiphil IMPERATIVE
Jer 48:17 scepter. . .staff These are both royal symbols of power.
1. scepter – BDB 641, a staff or rod
2. staff – BDB 596
They could refer to
1. a shepherd’s staff (cf. Gen 32:10)
2. a traveler’s stick (cf. Exo 12:11)
3. riding stick (cf. Num 22:27)
4. weapon (cf. 1Sa 17:40; Eze 39:9)
5. diviner’s rod (cf. Hos 4:12)
6. kingly power (i.e., Messianic in Zechariah 11)
Here it refers to the kingdom of Moab.
Jer 48:18-28 The Jewish Study Bible (p. 1022) asserts that this poem/oracle is based on the imagery of a woman being raped (i.e., Moab by Babylon), possibly because there are so many FEMININE SINGULAR forms.
Jer 48:18
NASB, NRSV,
NJB, REBsit on the parched ground
NKJV, JPSOAsit on the ground in the dust
LXXsit on moist ground
PESHITTAsit in disgrace
ABsit in filth [?]
The footnote in the AB (Anchor Bible Commentary by John Bright) lists the options as (p. 315):
1. basso’ah – filth/excrement
2. bassama – thirst (MT)
3. bassame – on parched ground (cf. Isa 44:3)
The JPSOA footnote says Meaning of the Heb. uncertain (p. 1022). Often in poetry one must rely on
1. context (i.e., parallelism and strophe emphasis)
2. cognate roots in other Semitic languages
3. parallel passages (for Jeremiah 48 use Isaiah 15-16)
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (p. 662) has a chart that shows the relationship between Isaiah 15-16 and Jeremiah 48.
Isa 15:2 – Jer 48:1
Isa 15:2-3 – Jer 48:37
Isa 15:3 – Jer 48:38
Isa 15:4 – Jer 48:21; Jer 48:5
Isa 15:4-6 – Jer 48:5; Jer 48:34
Isa 15:5 – Jer 48:3
Isa 15:5; Isa 16:7; Isa 16:11 – Jer 48:31
Isa 15:7 – Jer 48:36
Isa 16:6 – Jer 48:29
Isa 16:8-9 – Jer 48:32
Isa 16:10 – Jer 48:33
Isa 16:11 – Jer 48:36
Isa 16:12 – Jer 48:35
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
hath been at ease. Since Moab had driven out the Emims (Deu 2:10).
remained = stood.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 48:11-17
Jer 48:11-17
DESTRUCTION AND DISILLUSIONMENT
Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will send unto him them that pour off, and they shall pour him off; and they shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces. And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence. How say ye, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war? Moab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts. The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast. All ye that are round about him, bemoan him, and all ye that know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!
Settled on his lees…
(Jer 48:11). This expression came from the wine-making industry. The best wine cannot be produced without a process of draining off the liquid from the dregs repeatedly, and by pouring the wine from vessel to vessel during the fermentation process. If this is not done, the color of the wine, its taste and quality are inferior. The metaphor of Moab being settled on their lees meant that they had been very fortunate, due to their location, and had not been exercised, as a people, by the hardships and calamities which, had they suffered such, might have hardened and prepared the people for what would eventually come upon them. It was simply a case of a nation growing, fat, lazy and incompetent, a situation which this writer fears is gradually coming upon our own country at this very moment. For over a hundred years all of our wars have been fought on the other man’s homeland, not ours.
They shall pour him off…
(Jer 48:12). This is a metaphor, meaning that the Babylonians will fall upon Moab, which will be helpless before them and will suffer total ruin.
Ashamed of Chemosh . .. as Israel was ashamed of Bethel…
(Jer 48:13) Israel was indeed ashamed of Bethel. That city was where Jeroboam established the sinful altar for Israel, setting up the calf worship there. This is where all Israel kissed the calf (Hos 13:2); but kissing the calf did them no good whatever when Shalmanezer fell upon Samaria and mined the nation forever. Israel must indeed have been ashamed of all that calf-kissing when the blow fell! So would it be with Moab and their pagan, man-made Chemosh!
They are gone up into his cities…
(Jer 48:15). Textual uncertainties here have led to alternate renditions, i.e., Her cities have gone up in smoke (burnt). and, The waster of Moab and of her towns is coming up to the attack, and her chosen youths are gone down to the slaughter.
The calamity of Moab is come near, and his affliction hasteth fast…
(Jer 48:16). The certainty of our dealing with a predictive prophecy here is seen in the construction of these sentences. It would have been impossible, after the destruction of Moab had occurred, for any man in his right mind to have made a statement of this kind. Can one imagine a serious writer appearing publicly in Atlanta, Georgia, today and shouting that General Sherman is advancing upon Atlanta!?
Barnes noted that this prophecy was given twenty-three years before the events foretold, the fulfillment coming, “Five years after the destruction of Jerusalem.”
The strong staff broken…
(Jer 48:17). The emblems of Moab’s rule and authority, ‘the scepter’ and ‘glorious staff’ will be broken, showing that their power and national glory will pass.
Prophetic Explanation Jer 48:11-17
Why is Moab to suffer so terribly? In answering this question Jeremiah utilizes the figure of wine and wine jars. Owing to its mountainous terrain and some-what isolated geographical position (shielded by the Dead Sea on the west and the desert on the east) Moab had remained comparatively undisturbed throughout history. The country had been invaded from time to time and periodically had been subject to tribute. But unlike surrounding nations which had faced the fierce wrath of the Assyrian and Chaldean conquerors, Moab had never seen her cities totally destroyed and her people carried away into captivity. Jeremiah compares the nation to wine which has settled on the lees (sediment). It was the custom to leave new wine for a time on its sediment in order to heighten its strength and flavor. In other words, due to its relatively undisturbed existence Moab had become a strong and proud nation with a culture and character unchanged by foreign influences. Many commentators take the figure settled on his lees in a somewhat more negative sense: Moab is compared to an inferior wine which has been left too long on the lees and hence had become sour and bitter. All that is about to change. God is about to send to Moab what the KJV renders as wanderers. The ASV gives a better translation, them that pour off, and the RSV a still better translation tilters. The reference is to those whose job it was to pour the wine out of the aging vessels into vessels of skins or earthenware. The tilters who will come to Moab will not perform their task in the careful manner which men of that profession normally used. They will in fact pour Moab on the ground and then smash his vessels (Jer 48:12). Moab is to experience a radical and abrupt change in fortunes. Her proud, ancient culture will be poured out like wine from the jar; her political existence smashed like an earthenware jar.
Two aspects of Moabite pride are doomed to horrible disappointment. First, their confidence in Chemosh will be shaken in that day when they discover that he is unable to save his people from calamity. Like the inhabitants of the fallen kingdom of Israel who had placed their trust in the fake religious system established by Jeroboam at Bethel, the Moabites would come to realize the folly of misplaced trust (Jer 48:13). Jeroboam I established a counterfeit form of worship for the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. Golden calves were erected at Bethel and Dan and later at Samaria. Israel was carried away into captivity in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians. They would come to realize that Chemosh was a nonentity. secondly, their pride in military might will prove unjustified. How sad it is, says Jeremiah, that you are saying, We are strong men, powerful men of war! (Jer 48:14). What sinful vainglory! Moab shall be spoiled, the walls of her cities scaled by the enemy, her chosen young men slaughtered in battle. The translation of the ASV they are gone up into his cities, is much to be preferred over the KJV which takes the phrase to be referring to the Moabites and translates and gone up out of her cities. This is the oracle which the King of all nations and the God of history, the Lord of Hosts, has spoken concerning Moab (Jer 48:15). The ruin of Moab was prophesied by Balaam eight hundred years before (Num 24:17) and foretold by Amos (Jer 2:1-3) and Isaiah (chaps. 15-16) is now rapidly approaching (Jer 48:16). All who are friends of Moab are sincerely urged by the prophet to bemoan the fate of that nation for the scepter of Moabite sovereignty and the rod of Moabite splendor is broken (Jer 48:17).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The Discipline of Change
Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed.Jer 48:11.
Jeremiah, in levelling this indictment against Moab, throws his accusation into figures of speech which every Moabite would understand, because they were drawn from the industry most closely related to the life of that country. The process was a simple one. The wine-juice was strained out into a great vessel, and there allowed to stand until the leesthe dregssettled at the bottom. Then it was emptied to another vessel, and other impurities were allowed to settle, and again it was strained off. This process was repeated many times until the wine-juice was perfectly pure and clear. The virtue of the wine depended entirely on this emptying from vessel to vessel. If the juice were allowed to stagnate, and remain settled on its lees, it would inevitably grow sour. Something of the contamination of the dregs would be communicated to the wine. The dregs would never be disposed of, and the purification would never be achieved. To the eye of the prophet, here is a picture of the life of the Moabites. It is a life of stagnation and consequent defilement. They have not hearkened to the truths uttered in their hearing through the processes of their principal manufacture. Ignoble and ignominious ease, with its consequent lethargy and indolence, has produced staleness. There is no virtue left in the life of Moab. He has become wholly selfish and averse to taking trouble or facing a sacrificial life. He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel. He has ceased even to be interesting. He has no gifts for the world; he has no satisfaction for his own people. His taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed.
Jeremiah applies to nations the dictum of Polonius
Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits,
and apparently suggests that ruin and captivity were necessary elements in the national discipline of Moab
Moab hath been undisturbed from his youth;
He hath settled on his lees;
He hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel;
He hath not gone into captivity:
Therefore his taste remaineth in him,
His scent is not changed.
Wherefore, behold, the days comeit is the utterance of Jehovah
That I will send men unto him that shall tilt him up;
They shall empty his vessels and break his bottles.
As the chapter, in its present form, concludes with a note
I will bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter daysit is the utterance of Jehovah
we gather that even this rough handling was disciplinary; at any-rate, the former lack of such vicissitudes had been to the serious detriment of Moab. It is strange that Jeremiah did not apply this principle to Judah. For, indeed, the religion of Israel and of mankind owes an incalculable debt to the captivity of Judah, a debt which later writers are not slow to recognize. Behold, says the prophet of the Exile
I have refined thee, but not as silver;
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.1 [Note: W. H. Bennett.]
I
Lifes Changes
The text depicts in vivid imagery an undisturbed and easy life, with the natural penalty that overtakes it.
1. The kingdom of Moab had long enjoyed tranquillity, though there were troublesome neighbours near, and though it was a state of no great power; it had pleased God to order it so. Moab had been at ease from his youth. Moab had not been subjected to captivity or to other changes and troubles which are to a nation what pouring from one vessel to another is to wine. He had not been tried with processes which might indeed have been painful, but in which he would have got rid of a good deal of the evil that was in him at the first. Moab had been secure in prosperity; and so he had remained the same as at the beginningall his bad qualities being only confirmed by time and use. If Jeremiah had put into modern phrase his indictment of Moab, he would not have said the Moabite was devoid of the military spirit; he would have judged him void of the civic spirit, which is just the religious spirit in activity. He would have called him low-spirited because he was not high-minded. He would have arraigned him at the bar of Time because he gave to the senses what he would not give to the soul. He would have called on us to behold the doom of self-indulgence and the culpable fate of luxury and ease.
Luxury was one of Bishop Frasers deepest aversions. He saw clearly the demoralization caused by luxury, and, both in word and act, he set his face steadfastly against luxury in every form. He delighted in bounty, in refinement, in elegance, but he simply hated all vulgarity of display. His estimation of things was fixed not by their market-value, but by their intrinsic worth. He preferred to take a dish of tea with a poor curate who was unselfishly struggling amid poverty to elevate his flock, than to dine off gold plate with a self-indulgent, extravagant millionaire. Upon one occasion he said:
I never visit the Peel Park at Manchester without thinking what an amount of wisdom there is in the few words inscribed on the statue of Mr. Joseph Brotherton, who had been member for SalfordMy wealth consisted not in the largeness of my means, but in the fewness of my wants. I am quite certain there is no system of life more likely to lead to disappointment than to surround ourselves with things which, to begin with, are luxuries, but soon get to be necessities. Many of us have been so long in the habit of surrounding ourselves with luxuries that if we were deprived of them we should think we were actually suffering a wrong, although perhaps twenty years ago they were luxuries beyond our reach, even in our wildest dreams.1 [Note: J. W. Diggle, The Lancashire Life of Bishop Fraser, 17.]
2. The life of Israel was a singular contrast to that of Moab. The Hebrews had never been allowed to remain long undisturbed. Their very exodus from Egypt only resulted at first in their wanderings through the wilderness; and even after they had received possession of the Land of Promise they had no immunity from unsettlement. Indeed their entire national history is almost a perpetual alternation between prosperity and disturbance. At one time they groaned under the yoke of some oppressor; at another they rejoiced in the deliverance which, by the instrumentality of some mighty man of valour, the Lord had wrought for them. Under one king they delighted in the blessings of peace; under another they endured all the agonies of war. In one age they passed through the crisis of a revolution which rent the kingdom in twain; in another they were subjected to all the discomfort and humiliation of exile. Thus they were emptied from vessel to vessel, and so we account for the fact that, in the main, they grew in all the qualities which give greatness to nations, and were at last completely purified from the lees of that idolatry which had so long tainted them in the sight of God.
Similar contrasts might be instanced among the states and nations of our own time; in China, for example, and England; one standing motionless for long ages, and becoming an effete civilization, absolutely hopeless as regards the promise of a regenerated future; the other emptied from vessel to vessel, four times conquered, three times deluged with civil war, converted, reformed and reformed in religion, and finally emerging, after more than one change of dynasty, into a state of law, liberty, intelligence, and genuinely Christian manhood, to be one of the foremost and mightiest nations of the world.1 [Note: H. Bushnell, The New Life (1860), 293.]
3. Discipline is essential, if we are to be effectually loosened from our own evils, and prepared to do the will and work of God, and indeed it seems to be a law in every sort of business or trade that nothing shall stand on its lees. The very scheme of life appears to be itself a grand decanting process, where change follows change, and all are emptied from vessel to vessel. Here and there a man, like Moab, stands upon his lees, and commonly with the same result. Fire, flood, famine, sickness in all forms and guises, wait upon us, seen or unseen, and we run the gauntlet through them, calling it life. And the design appears to be to turn us hither and thither, allowing us no chance to stagnate in any sort of benefit or security.
(1) Our chequered experiences have a wonderful power of cleansing our view and revealing us to ourselves. Too often we are ignorant of the plague of our own hearts until, under some such afflictive visitation, we are led to examine ourselves, and to say with Job, Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me. The evil may have been of long standing, and yet, because of its blunting influence on the conscience, we may have been unaware of its existence until the fiery trial brought it into view. Sudden emergency is a sure opener of a mans eyes to his own defects. He may contrive to get on, in seasons of prosperity and outward calm, without becoming conscious of the weak points of his character; but let him be thrown, all at once, upon his own resources by the coming upon him of some crushing calamity, and he will then find out whether he has that within him which can stand the strain that has been put upon him. It was a shrewd remark of Andrew Fuller that a man has only as much religion as he can command in the day of trial; and if he have no religion at all, his trouble will make that manifest to him.
Just as the strain of the storm tells where the ship is weakest, and stirs up the mariner to have it strengthened there, so the pressure of trial reveals the defects of character which still adhere to the Christian. One affliction may disclose an infirmity of temper; another may discover a weakness of faith; a third may make it evident that the power of some old habit is not yet entirely broken; and thus, from this constant revelation to him of the evils that still remain in him, he is led, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, to the attainment of a higher measure of holiness than otherwise he could have reached. Paradoxical as it may appear, the occurrence of a railway accident now and then has led to most of the improvements in railway travelling, because it has directed attention to the weak places and evoked immediate effort to prevent the recurrence of the evil. Now much in the same way our spiritual breaks-down under the unsettlements of Gods providence make manifest to us the deficiencies of our souls.1 [Note: W. M. Taylor, The Limitations of Life, 363.]
(2) A radical change in our circumstances is sometimes necessary to break down our self-will. Sin is but another name for self-direction. We cast off the will of God in it, and set up for a way and for objects of our own. We devise plans to serve ourselves, and we mean to carry them straight through to their result. Whatever crosses us, or turns us aside, or in any way forbids us to do or succeed just as we like, becomes our annoyance. And these kinds of annoyance are so many and subtle and various that the very world seems to be contrived to baffle us. In one view it is. It would not be good for us, having cast off the will of God, and set up our own will, to let us get on smoothly and never feel any friction or collision with the will cast off. Therefore God manages to turn us about, beat us back, empty us from vessel to vessel, and make us feel that our bad will is hedged about, after all, by His almighty purposes. Sometimes we seem to bend, sometimes to break. Be it one or the other, we lost a part of our stiffness. By and by, to avoid breaking, we consent to bend, and so at last become more flexible to God, falling into a habit of letting go, then of consent, then of contrition. The coarse and bitter flavour of our self-will is reduced in this manner, and gradually fined away. If we could stand on our lees, in continual peace and serenity, if success were made secure, subject to no change or surprise, what, on the other hand, should we do more certainly than stay by our evil mind, and take it as a matter of course that our will is to be done; the very thing above all others of which we most need to be cured?
As the wine standing on its dregs or lees contracts a taste from the lees, and must therefore be decanted or drawn off, so as to have no contact longer with their vile sedimentary matter, so we, in like manner, need to be separated from everything pertaining to the former life, to be broken up in our expectations, and loosened from the affinities of our former habit. In our conversion to God we pass a crisis that, like fermentation, clears our transparency and makes us apparently new; we are called new men in Christ Jesus; still the old man is not wholly removed. It settles like dregs at the bottom, so to speak, of our character, where it is, for the present, unseen. One might imagine, for the time, that it is wholly taken away; and yet it is there, and is only the more likely to infect us that it is not sufficiently mixed with our life to cloud our present transparency. Our sanctification is not to be completed save by separation from it. And therefore God, who is faithful to us, continues to sever us, as completely as possible, from all association with the old life and condition; breaks up our plans, compels a readjustment of our objects, empties us about from vessel to vessel, that our taste may not remain.1 [Note: H. Bushnell, The New Life, 298.]
(3) It is in the changes and surprises through which we are continually passing that we are prepared for the gracious and refining work of the Spirit in us. When we are allowed to stand still, and are agitated by no changes, we become incrusted, as it were, under our remaining faults or evils, and shut up in them as wine in the vat where it is kept. And the Spirit of God is shut away, in this manner, by the imperviousness of our settled habit. But when great changes or calamities come, our crust is broken up, and the freshening breath of the Spirit fans the open chamber of the soul, to purify it. Now the prayer, Cleanse thou me from secret faults, finds an answer which before was impossible. Providence, in this view, is an agitating Power to break the incrustations of evil, and let the gales of the Spirit blow where they list in us. Under some great calamity or sorrow, the loss of a child, the visitations of bodily pain, a failure in business, the slanders of an enemy, a persecution for the truth or for righteousness sake, how tender and open to God does the soul become! Search me, O God, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me, is now the ingenuous prayer, and the Spirit of God comes in to work the answer, finding everything ready for an effectual and thorough purgation. And so, by a double process, Providence and the Spirit both in unity (for God is always one with Himself), we are perfected in holiness and finished in the complete beauty of Christ.
Joy is a duty was her inspiring motto. And the following quotation admirably expresses what she had discovered, both for herself and others, of the blessing concealed in suffering:
Often when I am carving a block of marble, said a sculptor one day, and when I see the chips flying in all directions, I feel a kind of compassion for the stone, and I try to comfort it by saying, Yes, I am wounding and hurting you now, but my purpose is to fashion you into a thing of eternal beauty. There is One who is a greater Sculptor than I, greater than Michael Angelo, or PhidiasGod. Humanity is His marble pain is His chisel and when I pass through suffering, and see the way in which sorrow shatters my most lovely dreams, I softly murmur, God Himself is at work in my soul, and in His infinite mercy He is about to enrich and deepen my life far beyond my own imaginings! I thank Thee, my God! 1 [Note: A Living Witness: The Life of Adle Kamm (1914), 115.]
(4) These frequent unsettlements have a tendency to keep us from being wedded to the world, or from thinking of rooting ourselves permanently here. Johnson was not wrong when he said, Whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present exalts us in the dignity of thinking beings. That is precisely what frequent unsettlements in the present life, taken in connexion with his belief in the revelation of heavens blessedness, do tend to in the Christian. Therefore, they cannot but have a holy power on the character of the man who views them in that connexion. The more attractive heaven becomes to us the more shall we seek in the present to cultivate the heavenly spirit. To be weaned from earth is one of the means of making us seek our spiritual food from heaven; and the trials of earth, transplanting us from place to place and from plan to plan, tend to prepare us for the great transplanting which is to take us from this world altogether, and root us in the garden of the Lord above.
Some years ago, while I was rambling with a friend in the neighbourhood of the English Windermere, we came upon a house which was surrounded by the most beautiful shrubs I ever saw, and I was naturally led to make some inquiry concerning them. My companion, who lived in the locality, informed me that, by a judicious system of transplanting, constantly pursued, the proprietor was able to bring them to the highest perfection. I am not horticulturist enough to know whether that would produce such a result or not, but when I heard the statement I thought at once of the manner in which God, by continuous transplanting, keeps His people fresh and beautiful, and prevents them from becoming too closely attached to the world. Its possessions are taken from them. Its friends prove faithless to them. Its relationships are broken for them. Its joys give way in their experience to sorrows. And all this is to keep them from becoming wedded to the present life.2 [Note: W. M. Taylor, The Limitations of Life, 367.]
I would not ask Thee that my days
Should flow quite smoothly on and on:
Lest I should learn to love the world
Too well, ere all my time was done.
I would not ask Thee that my work
Should never bring me pain nor fear;
Lest I should learn to work alone,
And never wish Thy presence near.
I would not ask Thee that my friends
Should always kind and constant be;
Lest I should learn to lay my faith
In them alone and not in Thee.
But I would ask Thee still to give,
By night my sleepby day my bread,
And that the counsel of Thy Word,
Should shine and show the path to tread.
And I would ask a humble heart,
A changeless will to work and wake,
A firm faith in Thy Providence,
The resttis Thine to give or take.1 [Note: Alfred Norris.]
II
The Penalty of Stagnation
1. This sterile, stagnant Moab, the good wine of whose life is vitiated by inaction and indolence, is surely the text for a thousand sermons. There are sins to which God shows no mercy; and this is one. Other sins do seem for a while to succeed. This one is always obviously fatal. Is there anything more pitiable than a people of fine possibilities sunk in moral degeneracy and decay? Nothing can live on these terms. These are the peoples who sink and soak in vice, whose brain-power withers, whose physique suffers, whose liberties and rights decay, whose whole social organization is full of rottenness and disease.
The great Oriental empires, Assyria and Babylon and Persia, European empires like Rome and Spain, took their rightful place of ascendancy through toil and struggle; then rotted at the heart, smothered by success, and shrivelled at a touch of Gods east wind. Plutarch, in his life of Alexander the Great, describes how he and his Macedonian troops became lax and flaccid amid the wealth and riot made possible by their wonderful victories. Alexander himself, from the extreme temperance and control of his youth, became self-indulgent, was sometimes almost mad with wine, and died of a carousal. The once hardy soldiers became dissolute and riotous, and the huge fabric of his empire crumbled down into dust.1 [Note: Hugh Black, Comfort, 73.]
Hawthornes dream of a railroad to the Celestial City ended in disillusion. Mr. Smooth-the-way, the conductor, showed himself at the last in fiends form; and the engine-driver was none other than Apollyon, who would deceive you into the belief that you can escape the fatigues and perils of the pilgrimage. The immortal garland, says Milton, is to be won not without dust and heat. There is no experience to be gained otherwise, no real beauty of Christian faith and character. Your taste will remain in you, and your scent be not changed. But if God has His will and His way with us, He will do His work of progress, of purification, till at the last He who is at once the Vine and the Vintner shall present the fruit of His vineyardthe wine of our faith and loveto the lips of His Father in the Kingdom of the redeemed.2 [Note: C. Silvester Horne.]
2. But even for the stagnant nation Jeremiah has a message of hope. Moab cannot save himself by the sword. He settled on his lees. He purged himself of none of the evils that were in his midst. He grew lewd, drunken, boastful, mammon-serving, pleasure-hunting; and in his fall he uttered in the ear of the world the tragic cry of a victim to the softer vices of an enervated and demoralized generation. How, then, is Moab to recover his soul, his purity, his character, his tone and flavour as a people? He must be emptied from vessel to vessel. He must be visited by the Eternal Vintner, who will not spare him either the crushing of his grapes or the agitation by which his wine is to be clarified. The God over all is too wise to err, too good to be unkind, and the last unkindness would be to leave Moab to stagnate, settled upon his lees. Here is an interpreter who can reconcile cataclysms and upheavals and catastrophes with the process necessary to produce the higher order. To him the seeming cruelty of Moabs fate is actual kindness to Moabs soul. What people call the malice of events is the mercy of Providence. Moab in the hands of his enemy is Moab in the hands of God.
There are tears in this mans heart for Moab, and they drop upon his pages. Noble words are here, not of vindictive hatred, but of human-hearted compassion for even merited suffering. Even while he sees that it is pride that has done it, contempt of Gods will, which is the same for all nations, he pays his tribute of humanity. This broken people moves him to honourable sorrow. Their military pride is humbled to the dust. They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! Yet there is a possible way back out of captivity, for this breaking of the vessels and emptying of the wine is the one and only method of Moabs redemption. This visitation may even yet be the salvation of a people.
When I tell you that war is the foundation of all the arts, I mean also that it is the foundation of all the high virtues and faculties of men.
It is very strange to me to discover this; and very dreadfulbut I saw it to be quite an undeniable fact. The common notion that peace and the virtues of civil life flourished together, I found to be wholly untenable. Peace and the vices of civil life only flourish together. We talk of peace and learning, and of peace and plenty, and of peace and civilization, but I found that those were not the words which the Muse of History coupled together; that, on her lips, the words werepeace and sensualitypeace and selfishnesspeace and death. I found, in brief, that all great nations learned their truth of word, and strength of thought, in war; that they were nourished in war, and wasted by peace; taught by war, and deceived by peace; trained by war, and betrayed by peacein a word, that they were born in war, and expired in peace.
Yet now note carefully, in the second place, it is not all war of which this can be saidnor all dragons teeth, which, sown, will start up into men. It is not the rage of a barbarian wolf-flock, as under Genseric or Suwarrow; nor the habitual restlessness and rapine of mountaineers, as on the old borders of Scotland; nor the occasional struggle of a strong peaceful nation for its life, as in the wars of the Swiss with Austria; nor the contest of merely ambitious nations for extent of power, as in the wars of France under Napoleon, or the just terminated war in America. None of these forms of war build anything but tombs. But the creative, or foundational, war is that in which the natural restlessness and love of contest among men are disciplined, by consent, into modes of beautifulthough it may be fatalplay: in which the natural ambition and love of power of men are disciplined into the aggressive conquest of surrounding evil; and in which the natural instincts of self-defence are sanctified by the nobleness of the institutions, and purity of the households which they are appointed to defend. To such war as this all men are born; in such war as this any man may happily die; and out of such war as this have arisen, throughout the extent of past ages, all the highest sanctities and virtues of humanity.1 [Note: Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olive, 93 (Works, xviii. 464).]
3. That which is true of nations is true of men. There are other passages of Holy Scripture which help us to the spiritual meaning of all this statement concerning Moab. Says the Psalmist, Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. And in the book of the prophet Zephaniah we read, It shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. Now the great lesson from all this is, that there is spiritual danger in the quiet lot, and in the quiet heart; that it is not Gods purpose that those He loves should enjoy entire worldly tranquillity; that there is something good in care, unrest, disquiet, sorrow, bereavement, disappointment, perplexityin all that breaks up that perilous calm in which we grow too well satisfied with this world and feel ourselves too little dependent on our Saviour and our Comforter, and in which we come too much to feel as if things went on in their way forgetting that God directs them all, and fail to realize that the one thing needful is something quite different from worldly enjoyment or worldly gain.
Staying for a while in the valley of Aosta, in Northern Italy, we found the air to be heavy, close, and humid with pestilential exhalations. We were oppressed and feverishones life did not seem worth a pin. We could not breathe freely, our lungs had a sense of having a hundred atmospheres piled upon them. Presently, at midday, there came a thunder-clap, attended by big drops of rain, and a stiff gale of wind, which grew into a perfect tornado, tearing down the trees; then followed what the poet calls sonorous hail, and then again the lightning flash, and the thunder peal on peal echoing along the Alps. But how delightful was the effect, how we all went out upon the verandah to look at the lightning, and enjoy the music of the thunder! How cool the air and bracing! How delightful to walk out in the cool evening after the storm! Then you could breathe and feel a joy in life. Full often it is thus with the Christian after trouble. He has grown to be careless, lethargic, feverish, heavy, and ready to die, and just then he has been assailed by trouble, thundering threatenings have rolled from Gods mouth, flashes of lightning have darted from providence: the property vanished, the wife died, the children were buried, trouble followed trouble, and then the man has turned to God, and though his face was wet with tears of repentance, yet he has felt his spirit to be remarkably restored. When he goes up to the house of God it is far more sweet to hear the word than aforetime. He could not pray before, but now he leans his head on Jesus bosom and pours out his soul in fellowship.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
Light human nature is too lightly tost
And ruffled without cause,complaining on,
Restless with restuntil, being overthrown,
It learneth to lie quiet. Let a frost
Or a small wasp have crept to the innermost
Of our ripe peach, or let the wilful sun
Shine westward of our window,straight we run
A furlongs sigh, as if the world were lost.
But what time through the heart and through the brain
God hath transfixed us,we, so moved before,
Attain to a calm. Aye, shouldering weights of pain,
We anchor in deep waters, safe from shore,
And hear, submissive, oer the stormy main,
Gods chartered judgements walk for evermore.2 [Note: E. B. Browning, Sonnets.]
The Discipline of Change
Literature
Bennett (W. H.), The Book of Jeremiah (Expositors Bible), 239.
Boyd (A. K. H.), The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, ii. 18.
Bushnell (H.), The New Life, 292.
Christopherson (H.), Sermons, 135.
Matheson (G.), Thoughts for Lifes Journey, 185.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xiii. (1867),
Taylor (W. M.), The Limitations of Life, 358.
Wilson (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 304.
Christian World Pulpit, lxxxii. 312 (C. S. Horne)
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
hath been: Psa 55:19, Psa 73:4-8, Psa 123:4, Pro 1:32, *marg. Zec 1:15
he hath: Isa 25:6, Zep 1:12
emptied: Jer 51:34, Isa 24:3, Nah 2:2, Nah 2:10, thereof, Jer 48:29, Isa 16:6, Eze 16:49, Eze 16:50
remained: Heb. stood
Reciprocal: Job 10:17 – changes Psa 73:6 – Therefore Ecc 8:11 – sentence Isa 32:9 – ye women Jer 48:12 – empty Jer 49:31 – wealthy nation Dan 4:4 – was Amo 6:1 – to them
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 48:11. This verse is an interesting figurative description of the past state of the self-satisfied peace of Moab, The figure is drawn from the subject of wine and its various conditions. Lees are the settlings that fall to the bottom of a vessel In which the raw juice of the grape has been placed. After a time these settle and leave the pure wine undisturbed and clear on the top. To pour this wine from one vessel to another would disturb It which would represent the dis-turbed condition of the land of Moab when it is upset by the Babylonians. The land had not gone into captivity which means it had been left aione as a quantity of wine undisturbed with the lees at the bottom of the vessel. In such a condition the taste of the pure wine would remain in the vessel, not having been mixed with the dregs through being shaken up or poured out.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 48:11-12. Moab hath been at ease Or, hath been opulent, as the Chaldee renders , from his youth Moab was an ancient kingdom, and had enjoyed great tranquillity, though a small country and surrounded with potent neighbours. It had now been in a state of peace and prosperity since the time of Shalmaneser, having experienced no particular calamity since the judgment foretold by Isaiah, and inflicted by that prince; so that there were forty years between that affliction and this here spoken of. The comparison between the state of the Moabites and that of wine is elegant, and is kept up with great propriety. All wines, it is said, ought to be kept for some time upon their lees, in order to preserve their strength and flavour; on which account the lees are expressed by a word that signifies the preservers. Wine is apt to be damaged by being drawn off too soon into other vessels. By this allegory, therefore, Moab is represented as having enjoyed singular advantages from having constantly remained in his own country ever since he became a people. And the prophets words imply, that the Moabites had increased in pride and insolence in proportion to the duration of their national tranquillity and prosperity. Behold, saith the Lord, I will send unto him wanderers The Chaldean soldiers, that come out of a foreign country. These shall make a prey of him, and carry off as much of his wealth as they can, and spoil the rest. Blaney thinks the allegory begun in the preceding verse, is here continued and accordingly renders , tilters, observing, that the Chaldeans, who are here designed, should lower the vessels of Moab, namely, the cities, and empty them; and also break to pieces their bottles or pitchers, that is, destroy the lesser towns and villages, dependant on the cities; to which the bottles, or pitchers, answer, being filled with the redundancy of the larger vessels.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 48:11-19. Moab, hitherto undisturbed, is compared with wine left standing on its sediment (Isa 25:6), and retaining its flavour and scent (i.e. being self-centred and undisciplined; cf. the pride of Jer 48:29). But now she is roughly handled, and the jars (Jer 48:12 mg.2) broken. She shall be put to shame through (the helplessness of) Chemosh (so render in Jer 48:13), as Israel was through her false trust in the worship at Bethel (Amo 5:5). In spite of her warriors, she is soon to be ravaged, and a dirge (Jer 48:17-19; in the characteristic metre of lamentation) is sung over her. Dibon is bidden to come down from her lofty site, N. of the Arnon, between which and herself lies Aroer, in the way of fugitives (to the fords of the Arnon).
Jer 48:17. staff: for the figure, see Isa 14:5.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
48:11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been {i} emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
(i) Has not been removed as the Jews have, but have lived at ease, and as a wine that feeds itself on his lees.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The complacency of Moab 48:11-17
The emphasis in the next section of the oracle is on the end of Moab’s complacency.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord compared Moab to a spoiled child, and to wine that had not been poured from one container to another to remove its sediment. [Note: Dyer, "Jeremiah," p. 1195, wrote a concise description of the whole wine-making process. See also Keil, 2:217.] Moab was famous for its wine production (cf. Jer 48:32-33; Isa 16:8-11). Its peaceful history had made Moab complacent. It was so isolated geographically that it had not experienced the discipline of frequent invasions and captivity. God sometimes sends trouble to strengthen people.
"Readers of the missionary classic, Hudson Taylor in Early Years, may remember the apt heading, ’Emptied from Vessel to Vessel’, to a chapter describing an unsettled but ultimately fruitful few months in the missionary’s second year in China." [Note: Kidner, p. 142.]