Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 14:7
O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou [it] for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
7. for thy name’s sake ] either ( a) as the covenant God of Israel, as implied by the language of Jer 14:8-9; cp. Exo 34:6, or ( b) for Thy honour, that the heathen may behold Thy might and faithfulness. This latter is much the more usual sense of the phrase. See Psa 79:9; Psa 106:8; Isa 48:9; Eze 20:9; Eze 20:14; Eze 20:22; also Jos 7:7-9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
7 10. See summary at commencement of the section. Is the intercession ( a) the prophet’s own, or ( b) put by him into the mouth of the people? Co. supports ( b) as indicated by Jer 14:10, where the Lord’s reply is addressed to them. It is true that Jer 14:11 implies ( a), but see note there. Du. on the other hand supports ( a) but holds that the words are an ironical attack on the people’s obstinate confidence in Jehovah’s goodwill, while Erbt goes so far as to maintain that the prophet here bitterly parodies the words of the people assembled on a day of humiliation and prayer because of the drought. But the words are probably uttered in all seriousness, and ch. Jer 15:1 supports this view. Cp. for the earnest language of the confession Neh 1:5 ff.; Dan 9:4 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Do thou it – Rather, deal thou, act thou for Thy Names sake, i. e., not according to the strict measure of right and wrong, but as a God merciful and gracious.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 14:7-9
O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy names sake.
The prayer of contrite Israel
I. A mournful fact acknowledged.
1. Even in the case of Gods own people, sin does not pass away and die after it is committed, no, nor even after it is pardoned.
2. The sins of Gods people bear testimony against them, an open and public testimony.
(1) They witness against them before God.
(2) They witness against them to others. They proclaim them to the whole spiritual world to be vile, guilty creatures, undeserving of any one of the many blessings they are receiving; yea, deserving of nothing but Jehovahs utmost abhorrence and displeasure.
(3) And our sins, the prophet intimates, testify against us at times to ourselves also. And this appears to be the leading idea in the prophets words.
3. Our sins are peculiarly apt to bear this secret testimony against us, when we attempt to draw near to God. A sense of guilt, shame, and self-loathing, takes possession of us, and sometimes well-nigh breaks our hearts.
II. A petition offered.
1. Its humble boldness. Under other circumstances there would be nothing remarkable in this, but we have here a prayer offered up while sin is accusing and conscience smiting. When our iniquities testify loudly against us, when we feel sin brought home powerfully by the Holy Spirit to our consciences, There is an end to prayer, we are tempted to say: with all this guilt and pollution upon us, we must not attempt to go into Gods presence. Now one of the hardest lessons we have to learn in Christs school, is to overcome this tendency in sin to drive us from the Lord. God, as He is revealed to us in the Gospel, is the sinners God, and what the sinner has to learn in the Gospel is, that as a sinner he may draw near to Him, and find favour with Him, and be accepted by Him, and pardoned, and loved. If your iniquities are testifying against you, do not aim to silence their voice; let no one ever make you believe that God does not hear the witness they bear, and that you need not heed it; but aim at this–to believe all that your sins say against you, and yet in spite of it all to seek Gods mercy and trust in it.
2. The lowly submission it manifests. It stands in the original simply, Do Thou. There can be no doubt but that next to the pardon of her sin, deliverance from her troubles was the blessing the afflicted Church most desired at this time; but she does not ask for it. Her mouth seems suddenly stopped as she is about to ask for it. She feels as though in her situation, with her enormous sins crying out so loudly against her, she must not dare to choose for herself any blessing. All she says is, Do Thou. Do Thou something for us. Interfere for us. Give us not up. We will bless Thee for anything Thou doest, so that Thou wilt not abandon us. And in a manner like this does every soul pray, that is deeply contrite. It has boldness enough amidst all its guilt to come to Gods throne and to keep there, but beyond this it has sometimes no boldness at all. It leaves God to show mercy to it in His own way, and to deal with it after His own will. All it desires is to be treated as His child, and then come what may, it will bless Him for it.
III. The plea the prophet urges in support of his prayer. It is the name or glory of God; O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy names sake. This prayer then, you perceive, is more than a simple prayer for mercy. The publicans prayer in the temple was that. Any really contrite sinner may offer it; he will offer it and offer it often even to his dying hour. But the prayer before us implies a considerable degree of spiritual knowledge, as well as deep contrition. No man will offer it, till he is become well acquainted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; till he has discovered the wisdom and glory, as well as the grace, of it, and imbibed something of its spirit. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Mans iniquities testifying against him
I. What it is for a man to find his iniquities testify against him in his addresses to God.
1. Sin is not dead when it is committed. The act is transient, but the guilt is of a permanent nature.
2. When the man draws near to God in the exercise of His worship, sin meets him there; appears to him as a terrible ghost (Isa 59:11-13).
3. Sin testifies two things for God against the man.
(1) Their unworthiness of any favour from the Lord.
(2) Their liableness to punishment, yea, to a curse instead of a blessing, so that the soul is often made to fear some remarkable judgment.
4. This witness is convincing. So, in the text, we find the panel denies not the testimony, but pleads for mercy.
5. Upon this, the gracious soul is filled with holy shame and self-loathing.
6. He is damped, and his confidence before the Lord is marred as to any access to Him, or obtaining favour at His hand.
II. How comes it that sin is found thus testifying against men?
1. It flows from the nature of sin and guilt upon an enlightened conscience.
2. It is a punishment from the Lord for former backslidings and miscarriages.
3. God so orders it, that it may be a mean to humble them, and make them more watchful against sin for the time to come.
III. The plea. For Thy names sake.
1. We must plead with Him for His Christs sake; and when guilt stares us in the face, we must look to God through the veil of Christs flesh.
2. We must plead with Him for His glorys sake. Punishing of sin glorifies God much, but pardoning of sin glorifies Him more. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Sin should be fully confessed
I warrant thee thou shalt never go beyond the truth in stating thy sin, for that were quite impossible. A man lying on the field of battle wounded, when the surgeon comes round, or the soldiers with the ambulance, does not say, Oh, mine is a little wound, for he knows that then they would let him lie; but he cries out, I have been bleeding here for hours, and am nearly dead with a terrible wound, for he thinks that then he will gain speedier relief; and when he gets into the hospital he does not say to the nurse, Mine is a small affair; I shall soon get over it; but he tells the truth to the surgeon in the hope that he may set the hone at once, and that double care may be taken. Ah, sinner, do thou so with God. The right way to plead is to plead thy misery, thine impotence, thy danger, thy sin. Lay bare thy wounds before the Lord, and as Hezekiah spread Sennacheribs letter before the Lord, spread thy sins before Him with many a tear and many a cry, and say, Lord, save me from all these; save me from these black and foul things, for Thy infinite mercys sake. Confess thy sin; wisdom dictates that thou shouldest do so, since salvation is of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jeremiah a wrestler with the Lord in prayer
I. In what the Lord is strong against the prophet. The sin of the people.
II. In what the prophet is strong against the Lord. The name of the Lord.
1. In itself, Gods name compels Him to show He is not a desperate hero, a giant who cannot save.
2. In that His name is borne by Israel. (Heim.)
Prayer has within itself its own reward
I. Confession. This fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is against God Himself. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it,–takes off the power of accusation.
II. Petition. For Thy names sake. This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same, and has always the same force. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of. (T. Leighton.)
Pleas for mercy
How many there are who pray after a fashion in times of great distress. When they are brought to deaths door, then they say, Send for someone that will come and pray at our side. What a wretched position is this, that we should only be willing to think of God when we are in our direst need! At the same time, notice what a great mercy it is that God does hear real prayer even if it be presented to Him only because we are in distress. He giveth liberally, and upbraideth not.
I. I speak to the church of God at large wherever it has backslidden and to each believer in particular who may have departed from the living God in any measure. Note, there are here pleaders guilty. The pleaders seem to say, Guilty, ay, guilty, for there is no denying it. Our iniquities testify against us. I would that every child of God felt this whenever he has gone astray. In addition to there being no denying it there is no excusing it, for our backslidings are many. If we could have excused ourselves for our first faults, if possibly we might have offered some extenuation for the fickleness of our youth, yet what are we to say of the transgressions of our riper years? Not only is our guilt past denying and past excusing, but also it is past computation. We cannot measure how great have been our transgressions, and the next sentence may well imply it: We have sinned against Thee. Well, now, next to this plea of guilty, what do the culprits say? What plea do they make why they should obtain mercy? I observe, first, that they bring no plea whatever which has fallen from themselves in any degree. They do not plead before God, that if He will have mercy they will be better. But still, there is a plea. Oh, blessed plea l the master plea of all: Though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy names sake. Now, here is a prayer which will avail for us when the night is darkest and not a star is to be seen. The first name which the backsliding Church here gives to God has a blessing–O the hope of Israel. Next, observe the Church of God pleads His next merit: The Saviour thereof in time of trouble. God has saved His people, and the name of God is the Saviour in the time of trouble. Then, next, she does not mention the name that is implied in the words. She says, Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land?–one, that is, merely travelling through, who takes little notice of the trouble because He is not a citizen of the country; one that merely puts up for a night in the house, and therefore does not enter into the cares and trials of the family. She does as good as call Him the Master of the house, Lord of the house. But, then, she goes a little further than that, and the plea is this: that He was, whatever they might be, their God. Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name. The Church says, Lord, if Thou dost not help us now, the men of the world will say, God could not help them, they were brought into such a condition at last that their faith was of no use to them. Why shouldest Thou be as a mighty man that cannot help?
II. I want to speak to poor troubled hearts who do not know the Lord. I cannot take the whole of my text for them, but only a part, and say to them, I am right glad that you want to find peace with God; right glad that you are unhappy and distressed in soul. You say, I want peace. Well, take heed that you do not get a false peace. So begin by confessing your guilt. When you have done that, I charge you next, do not try to invent any kind of plea; do not sit down and try to make out that the case was not so bad, or that your bringings up might excuse you, or that your constitutional temperament might make some apology for you. No; have done with that and come with this one plea: Do it for Thy names sake. Lord, I cannot blot out my sins; I cannot change my nature; do Thou it. I have no reason why I should hope that Thou wilt do it; but for Thy names sake. This is the master key that unlocks every door. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Triumphant prayer
I. The mysterious contradiction between the ideal of Israel and the actual condition of things. The ancient charter of Israels existence was that God should dwell in their midst; but things are as if the perennial presence promised had been changed into visits, short and far between. Two ideas conveyed: the brief transitory visits, with long dreary stretches of absence between them; and the indifference of the visitant, as a man who pitches his tent for a night, caring little for the people among whom he tarries the while. More: instead of the perpetual energy of the Divine aid promised to Israel, it looks as if Thou art a mighty man astonied, etc.,–a Samson with locks shorn.
II. Our low and evil condition should lead to earnest inquiry as to its cause.
1. The reason is not in any variableness of that unalterable, uniform, ever-present, ever-full Divine gift of Gods Spirit to His Church.
2. Nor in the failure of adaptation in Gods Word and ordinances for the great work they had to do.
3. The fault lies here only: O Lord, our iniquities testify against us, etc. We have to prayerfully, patiently, and honestly search after this cause, and not to look to possible variations and improvements in order and machinery, etc.
III. This consciousness of our evil condition and knowledge of the cause lead on to lowly penitence and confession. We err in being more ready, when awakened to a sense of wrong, to originate new methods of work, to begin with new zeal to gather in the outcasts into the fold; instead of beginning with ourselves, deepening our own Christian character, purifying our own hearts, and getting more of the life of God into our own spirits. Begin with lowly abasement at His footstool.
IV. The triumphant confidence of believing prayer.
1. Look at the substance of His petition. He does not prescribe what should be done, nor ask that calamity be taken away, but simply for the continual Divine presence and power.
2. Look at these pleas with God as grounds of confidence for ourselves.
(1) The name: all the ancient manifestations of Thy character. Thy memorial with all generations.
(2) Israels hope: the confidence of the Church is fixed upon Thee; and Thou who hast given us Thy name hast become our hope.
(3) The perennial and essential relationship of God to His Church: we belong to Thee, and Thou hast not ceased Thy care for us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The sinners plea
I. The sinners acknowledgment.
1. The prophets confession is precisely such as befits the world at large.
2. With too great reason, also, may it be adopted, even by the best of men.
II. The sinners plea.
1. Open to all. Never urged in vain.
Application–
1. What should be the effect of sin upon the soul? Conviction of sin should not keep us from, but bring us to God. Sin is a just ground for humiliation, but not for discouragement.
2. What shall surely be effectual to remove it from the soul? Prayer: penitential weeping; humble and contrite, fervent and persevering; offered in dependence on Gods promised mercies in Christ. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The name of the Lord a plea for temporal blessings
I. We begin with temporal good things. None indeed are particularised by Jeremiah. All that he asks is comprised in these words, Do Thou. But anyone who observes the context may see what the prophet would have. He would have dew, and rain, and fruitful seasons, for the preservation of man and beast.
1. Temporal good things pertain to the present life. In heaven we shall neither hunger nor thirst, and since we look for a body without animal appetites, duty, interest, and honour call on us to keep these appetites of our present body under subjection.
2. In the present life temporal good things are necessary. Without a competent portion of these men cannot live. The body, which is the workmanship of God, must be fed and clothed; and how great is His goodness in providing for it things that are needful! Let heaven, and earth, and seas, praise the Lord.
3. Temporal good things are promised. Till the purpose of God be accomplished, the present frame of the world, in the riches of His goodness, and long-suffering, must be upheld; and promises of upholding, and of the means of upholding it, are made to Christ, for the sake of His body, the redeemed (Isa 49:8; Hos 2:22-23).
4. Temporal good things are produced by the power and goodness of God, operating in material and secondary causes. The heavens and the earth, the sun, the rain, the dew, and the air, have not the power of vegetation and fertility in themselves. They are merely instruments by which the power of God is exerted.
5. Temporal good things are turned away by our iniquities (Jer 3:2-3; Jer 5:24-26).
6. Temporal good things are benefits for which intercession and prayer should be made. In the prayer which our Lord taught the disciples a petition for these appears: Give us this day our daily bread.
II. The plea which appears in the text for temporal good things. It is, you observe, the name of the Lord: O Lord,–do Thou for Thy names sake.
1. An honourable plea, and worthy of God, before whom and concerning whom it is used. The glory of His name is the end, and the motive, and the reason of His works; and in doing for it the works like Himself, and independent of considerations of worth in creatures. In the name of the Lord our God every ray of essential and revealed glory meets, and shines forth; and to make this glory the supreme end of His operations and communications, is a perfection which He cannot deny nor give away. This supreme motive He avows, and holds up to the adoration of His people, and jealousy for it is His praise and His honour (Eze 36:22; Isa 48:9-11; Psa 115:1).
2. A prevailing plea. For His names sake great and marvellous works have been wrought (Eze 20:9; Eze 20:14; Eze 20:22; Eze 20:44). When the motive in the heart of the Sovereign is the plea in the mouth of the supplicant, confidence of being accepted and heard, confidence modest, humble, reverential, and submissive, imparts joy to the heart of the petitioner, raises in his soul the expectation of hope, and makes his face to shine as if it were anointed with fresh oil.
3. A continual plea, and good throughout all generations, under all dispensations, among all nations, and in all extremities (1Ch 17:21; Isa 63:11-16).
4. The supreme plea under which every other plea is subordinated. In the prayers and intercessions of holy men other considerations often appear. Poverty, reproach, affliction, persecution, necessity, and other things, have been pied at the throne of grace. But the name, or glory, of the Lord our God is the supreme and ruling consideration into which other pleas are to be resolved.
III. Our pleading the name of the Lord for temporal good things in the face of iniquity, or when it is testifying against us. In such discouraging circumstances Jeremiah pleaded. The whole body of national evil stood before him; and, with this monster appearing to his eye, and its voice roaring in his ear, he cried, Do Thou for Thy names sake.
1. A sense of sin strongly affects the heart and conscience before the Lord. Jeremiah is the mouth of the kingdom, and speaks like a man of feeling. He felt the weight of the public guilt, heard it crying for vengeance, and believed that the Lord was justly offended because the land was greatly defiled. This feeling is not common and natural to man. There were but few in Judah who were suitably affected with the national iniquities, and among ourselves the number of mourners is either diminished or else they are hid in corners and chambers, out of the sight of the public eye and the knowledge of one another.
2. The righteousness of the Lord, in turning away temporal good things because of iniquity, is believed and acknowledged. Of this Jeremiah was persuaded himself, and of this no mean was neglected to persuade the nation. In withering seasons, professions of the equity and justice of Providence are in every mouth; but in the lives of many who make these professions, fruit of the lips doth not appear. Fruit of this kind is found only on a few trees of righteousness, which are grafted in Christ, and raised and trained up by the spirit of holiness.
3. The iniquities which provoke the Most High to withhold, or turn away, temporal good things are acknowledged with humiliation and sorrow of heart. Concerning these Jeremiah is not silent. In his intercessory prayer confession holds a distinguished place. His exercise is exemplary, and in similar circumstances should be followed. Reigning and crying sins breaking out, whether in the higher or lower ranks of society, or in both, ought to be acknowledged to be what they are, provocations of wrath and causes of calamity. But to bring men to this reasonable duty is extremely difficult. Confession gives such a stab to self-righteousness, and such a blow to natural pride, that nothing can bring us effectually to submit to it, except the Spirit of God working by His Word in us mightily.
4. The covenant of grace is apprehended, truly and distinctly, in the light of the Word. To this covenant temporal good things are annexed, and in its administration, promises of these are performed. By the obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ, the condition is fulfilled; and in performing the promises and bestowing the blessings, both of the life which now is and of that which is to come, the justice and holiness of God glorify themselves in the highest.
5. Considerations of the obedience, blood, and intercession of Christ, are presented to the Lord, and opposed to prevailing iniquities.
6. Submission to the will and good pleasure of the Lord of all. Creatures, far less sinners, should never be peremptory in their supplications, nor prescribe to the Sovereign. Pleas for the removal of distress are furnished to us by the Word, and instructions given to use these with reverence and importunity. But beware of limiting the Sovereign, who, by calamity no less than by deliverance, can magnify Himself.
IV. Exhortation and instruction. Unto men of prayer we address ourselves in the hearing of all, and through the blessing of God and the working of His Spirit, all will be corrected and instructed.
1. In your exercise and practice let a true sense of sin appear. It is not calling sin names, or fixing upon it the epithets, bagful and abominable, but hating and abhorring it, which the Lord requires.
2. Acknowledge the righteousness of God in withholding some temporal good things, which in the ordinary course of His Providence we looked for at this season. Why doth the Sovereign send upon us hail for rain, and heaps of snow instead of clouds of dew? Why doth He draw out winter to an unusual length, and fill our ear with the howling of shepherds, instead of the singing of birds? Why do not applications to His goodness prevail? Hath He forgotten to be gracious? No. Doth His promise fail? No. Is His hand shortened, that it cannot save? No. Is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? No. But our iniquities, let it be preached in the valleys, proclaimed in the mountains, and sounded in the dwelling places of atheism and irreligion–Our iniquities have separated between us and our God, and our sins have hid His face from us, that He will not hear.
3. Confess unto the Lord these trespasses which are committed against Him in the midst of the land, which provoke Him to withhold good things, and which cause Him to send upon us evil things. Acknowledgment of sin, and supplication for pardon, are always mixed with the prayers and intercessions of His people for temporal good things.
4. In pleading, when iniquities testify against you, keep before you the covenant of peace, to which temporal good things are added. Unless your eye be kept upon this covenant, it will be impossible to understand how God, whose right hand is full of righteousness, glorifies Himself in accepting your persons, sustaining your pleas, fulfilling your petitions, and blessing you with good things. But if the covenant, with its condition, promises, and administration, be considered, and the place which temporal good things possess observed, every seemingly interfering interest, with respect to the perfections and glory of God, will appear to be adjusted and consolidated upon the clearest and firmest principles.
5. With the plea, and every form of the plea, for the benefits of the covenant, introduce the name and office of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having fulfilled the condition, in His obedience unto death, He is constituted, by wisdom and grace, heir, administrator, and dispenser of the blessings.
6. Be submissive and modest in pleading for temporal good things. Of the ways of the Lord we are incompetent judges; and, in all applications upon the name, should submit ourselves to His wisdom and righteousness, and leave to His good pleasure what is to be done. (A. Shanks.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us] We deeply acknowledge that we have sinned, and deserve nothing but death. Yet act for thy name’s sake-work in our behalf, that we perish not.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The prophet having described their misery, both in the cause of it, the drought for want of rain, and the effects of it, he applieth himself to that God who he knew was he who alone could give the former and the latter rain; confessing that their sins and backslidings were very many, and testified against them that they had deserved Gods severe scourge, and God was righteous in what of this nature he had done against them. But yet, saith he,
do thou it; that is, do thou what we desire, and what we stand in need of; give us rain; though not for our sake, we deserve no such kindness from thee, yet for
thy names sake, thy word, or promise; or rather, hear for thine honour and glory sake. Isa 43:25; 48:11, where God promiseth them to show them kindness for his names sake; so as Jeremiahs prayer is but a pleading of Gods promises, that he would fulfil his word.
For our backslidings are many; for here signifies though, and might have been better so interpreted.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. do thou itwhat we beg ofThee; interpose to remove the drought. Jeremiah pleads in the name ofhis nation (Ps 109:21). So”work for us,” absolutely used (1Sa14:6).
for thy name’s sake“forour backslidings are so many” that we cannot urge Theefor the sake of our doings, but for the glory of Thyname; lest, if Thou give us not aid, it should be said it was owingto Thy want of power (Jos 7:9;Psa 79:9; Psa 106:8;Isa 48:9; Eze 20:44).The same appeal to God’s mercy, “for His name’s sake,”as our only hope, since our sin precludes trust in ourselves,occurs in Ps 25:11.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us,…. That we deserve such judgments to be inflicted on us; and that God is righteous in bringing them; and we are altogether undeserving of the favour now about to be asked. These are the words of the prophet interceding for his people, and confessing their sins and his own:
do thou it for thy name’s sake; that is, give rain; which was the thing wanted, and which none but God could give, Jer 14:22 though we are not worthy to have it done for our sakes, do it for thine own sake; for the honour and glory of thy name, of thy goodness, power, and faithfulness:
for our backslidings are many; and so had many witnesses against them; and which shows how unworthy they were, and that they had no reason to expect the mercy on their own account; and especially as it follows:
we have sinned against thee; as all sin is against God, contrary to his nature and will, and a transgression of his law; and what aggravates it is, that it is against him as a God of goodness, grace, and mercy.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prayer. – Jer 14:7. “If our iniquities testify against us, O Jahveh, deal Thou for Thy name’s sake, for many are our backslidings; against Thee have we sinned. Jer 14:8. Thou hope of Israel, his Saviour in time of need, why wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land, like a wayfarer that hath put up to tarry for a night? Jer 14:9. Why wilt Thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot help, and yet Thou art in the midst of us, Jahveh, and Thy name is named upon us – O leave us not!” The prophet utters this prayer in the name of his people (cf. Jer 14:11). It begins with confession of sore transgression. Thus the chastisement which has befallen them they have deserved as a just punishment; but the Lord is besought to help for His name’s sake, i.e., not: “for the sake of Thy honour, with which it is not consistent that contempt of Thy will should go unpunished” (Hitz.). This interpretation suits neither the idea of the name of God nor the context. The name of God is the manifestation of God’s being. From Moses’ time on, God, as Jahveh, has revealed Himself as the Redeemer and Saviour of the children of Israel, whom He had adopted to be His people, and as God, who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and of great goodness and faithfulness (Exo 34:6). As such He is besought to reveal Himself now that they confess their backsliding and sin, and seek His grace. Not for the sake of His honour in the eyes of the world, lest the heathen believe He has no power to help, as Graf holds, for all reference to the heathen nations is foreign to this connection; but He is entreated to help, not to belie the hope of His people, because Israel sets its hope in Him as Saviour in time of need (Jer 14:9). If by withholding rain He makes His land and people to pine, then He does not reveal Himself as the lord and owner of Judah, not as the God that dwells amidst His people; but He seems a stranger passing through the land, who sets up His tent there only to spend the night, who “feels no share in the weal and woe of the dwellers therein” (Hitz.). This is the meaning of the question in Jer 14:8. The ancient expositors take elliptically, as in Gen 12:8: that stretches out His tent to pass the night. Hitz., again, objects that the wayfarer does not drag a tent about with him, and, like Ew., takes this verb in the sense of swerve from the direct route, cf. 2Sa 2:19, 2Sa 2:21, etc. But the reason alleged is not tenable; since travellers did often carry their tents with them, and , to turn oneself, is not used absolutely in the sig. to turn aside from the way, without the qualification: to the right or to the left. is in use for to turn aside to tarry, to turn in, Jer 15:5. We therefore abide by the old interpretation, since “swerve from the way” has here no suitable meaning.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Vs. 7-9: PROPHETIC SUPPLICATION
1. Jeremiah confesses the sinful crookedness of his people -whose backslidings are many, (vs. 7; comp. Isa 59:12).-
2. He admits that his people do not deserve God’s mercy, but God is their only Hope and Saviour in time of trouble, (VS. 8; comp. Jer 17:13; Act 28:20; Col 1:27).
3. Thus, he pleads for God to maintain the honor of His holy name, as the covenant-God of Israel, by manifesting His continuing mercy toward them – a plea that had often been made by others before him, (Exo 32:11-14; Psa 25:11; Psa 31:3; Psa 79:9).
4. Surely God cannot manifest such indifference as might be expected from a stranger who was merely passing through the land! (vs. 8b).
5. Why should He permit Himself to be regarded by the heathen as “bewildered”? or as a notable warrior whose courage failed when his people faced their greatest need? (vs. 9a; comp. Num 11:23; Isa 50:23; 50:1-2).
6. Since He dwells in the midst of this people, who are identified with Him in covenant-relationship, failure to act in their behalf will surely diminish His reputation among the heathen! (vs. 9b; Comp. Isa 63:19).
7. Though forbidden to do so, Jeremiah is so overcome with anguish for his rebellious brethren that he prays for them! His education is not yet complete.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The Prophet, no doubt, intended here to exhort the Jews by his own example to seek pardon; nor does he so assume the character of others, as though he was free himself from guilt; for he was not more righteous than Daniel, who, as we find, testified that he confessed before God, not only the sins of the people, but also his own sins. (Dan 9:4) And Jeremiah, though not one of God’s despisers, nor of the profane, who had provoked God’s wrath, was yet one of the people; and here he connects himself with them; and he did this in sincerity and not in dissimulation. But he might have prayed silently at home; why then did he make public his prayer? What was his purpose in consigning it to writing? It was that he might rouse the people, as I have already said, by his example, so that they might flee as suppliants to God’s mercy, and seek forgiveness for their sins. This then was the Prophet’s object. Thus we see that the prophecy concerning the scarcity and the famine was announced, that the people might through repentance escape the wrath of God; for we know that when God has even taken his sword he may possibly be pacified, as he is in his nature merciful: and besides, the design of all such predictions is, that men, conscious of their sins, may by faith and repentance escape the destruction that awaits them. We now then understand the design of the Prophet in this passage.
He says first, Even though our iniquities testify, etc. The verb ענה, one, properly means to answer; but it means also to testify, as in this place. O Jehovah, (109) he says, there is no reason now to contend with thee, or to expostulate, or to ask why thou denlest so severely with us; let all such excuses be dismissed, for our sins testify against us; that is, “Were there no angels nor men to accuse us, our own conscience is sufficient to condemn us.” But when do our iniquities testify against us? Even when we know that we are exposed to God’s judgment and are held guilty by him. As to the reprobate, their iniquities cry to heaven, as it is said of Sodom. (Gen 18:20) But the Prophet seems here to express something more, — that the Jews could not make evasions, but must confess that they were worthy of death.
For he says, For thy name’s sake deal with us. We see that the Prophet first condemns himself and the whole people; as though he had said, “If thou, Lord, summonest us to plead our own cause, we can expect nothing better than to be condemned by our own mouths, for our iniquities are sufficient to condemn us. What then remains for us?” The Prophet takes it as granted that there was but one remedy, — that God would save his people for his own name’s sake; as though he had said, “In ourselves we find nothing but reasons for condemnation; seek then in thyself a reason for forgiving us: for as long as thou regardest us, thou must necessarily hate us and be thus a rigid Judge; cease then to seek anything in us or to call us to an account, but seek from thyself a reason for sparing us.” He then adds, For multiplied have our defections, and against thee have we done wickedly (110) By these words the Prophet shews that he did not formally, like hypocrites, confess sins, but really acknowledged that the Jews would have been found in various ways guilty had God dealt with them according to justice.
As we now perceive the import of the words, let us learn from this passage, that there is no other way of being reconciled to God than by having him to be propitious to us for his name’s sake. And by this truth is refuted everything that has been invented by the Papists, not less foolishly than rashly, respecting their own satisfactions. They indeed know that they stand in need of God’s mercy; for no one is so blinded under the Papacy, who does not feel the secret misgivings of his own conscience: so the saintlings, who lay claim to angelic perfection, are yet self — convicted, and are by necessity urged to seek pardon; but in the mean time they obtrude on God their satisfactions and works of supererogation, by which they compensate for their sins, and thus deliver themselves from the hand of God. Now this is a remarkable passage to confute such a diabolical delirium, for the Prophet brings forward the name of God; as though he had said, “This is the only way by which we can return to God’s favor and obtain reconciliation with him, even by having him to deal with us for his name’s sake, so that he may seek the cause of his mercy in himself, for in us he can find none.” If Jeremiah said this of himself, and not feignedly, what madness is it for us to arrogate so much to ourselves, as to bring anything before God by which he may be induced to shew mercy? Let us then know that God forgives our sins, not from a regard to any compensation, but only on account of a sufficient reason within himself, that he may glorify his own name. Now follows a clearer explanation and a confirmation of this verse.
(109) All the versions connect “Jehovah” with the next words; and so do Veema, Gataker, and Blayney. The particle אם if, or though, is omitted by the Septuagint and the Arabic; but is retained by the Vulgate, Syriac, and the Targum. It may be rendered verily, or truly, —
Verily, our perversities, they have responded against us.
The word עון means perverse or headstrong wickedness. There is an allusion in responding to a trial. “They have stood against us,” is the Septuagint. See Job 15:6. — Ed.
(110) The latter part may be thus rendered, —
Jehovah! deal with us for thy name’s sake: For many have been our defections, Against thee have we sinned.
The Syriac renders fitly the first line, —
O Lord, spare us on account of thy name.
—
Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
B. The Prophets Intercession Rejected Jer. 14:7-12
TRANSLATION
(7) If our iniquities testified against us act, O LORD, for the sake of Your name; for our backsliding are many, against You we have sinned. (8) O Hope of Israel! His Savior in the time of distress! Why should You be like a stranger in the land and like a wayfaring man who has turned aside for lodging. (9) Why have You become like a man astounded, like a mighty man that cannot save? But You are in our midst, O LORD, and we are called by Your name; do not let us down. (10) Thus says the LORD to this people: Thus they love to wander! Their feet they have not refrained. Therefore the LORD takes no pleasure in them. Now He will remember their iniquity that He may punish their sins. (11) And the LORD said unto me, Do not pray for the good of this people. (12) When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer up burnt offerings and meal offerings I will not accept them; but with sword and famine and pestilence I am about to consume them.
COMMENTS
From his narration recounting the plight of the nation Jeremiah moves to formal intercession. He makes no excuses. He openly confesses the sin and guilt of his people. Yet he calls upon God to intervene on behalf of the drought-stricken nation for the sake of Your name (Jer. 14:7). He is asking God to act in His own self-interest. Should God allow His people to be done in by the drought the heathen would boast. In antiquity the esteem in which a deity was held by the world community was in direct proportion to the national well-being of the people who worshiped that deity. The thought may also be present that the Lords name pledges Him to be merciful toward His people even when they have sinned against Him.
The prophet still trusts in God in spite of the terrible drought. He addresses the Lord as the hope of Israel and as his (i.e., Israels) Savior in the time of distress. The concept of God as savior goes back to the period of the Judges when God would raise up saviors or deliverers for His people (Jdg. 3:9; Neh. 9:27). King Jehoahaz who was able to break the yoke of Aramaen oppression is also called a savior (2Ki. 13:5; 2Ki. 13:25). God is first called savior in 2Sa. 22:3, a psalm attributed to David. The name savior was one of the favorites of the prophet Isaiah who uses it at least eight times. God in the past has proved Himself to be a savior to Israel and Jeremiah is confident that God can and will so reveal Himself again in the present crisis.
While Jeremiah believes in Gods ability to save he is unable to comprehend why the Lord delays His intervention on behalf of Israel. Two questions are directed to God both of which are in reality appeals for divine aid. (1) Why have You, Lord, become to us like a stranger or wayfaring man? (Jer. 14:8). One who merely passes through a country takes no active interest in the affairs of that land. It seems to Jeremiah that as far as Israel was concerned God had become a disinterested bystander, unwilling to get involved. (2) Why have you become like a mighty warrior who is dumbfounded? Jeremiah knows that God has the power to intervene; but God seems to have become like a soldier who in battle becomes terrified to the point of paralysis. The Septuagint renders the phrase like a man in a deep sleep. The point is that God has not acted on behalf of His people and Jeremiah cannot understand it. He knows that God is still in the midst of the nation. He knows that Israel still wears the name of God as His national bride. Therefore he calls upon God, Do not let us down (Jer. 14:9).
Gods reply to the praying prophet is straightforward and blunt. He does not deny that He has in fact abandoned His people. But He has forsaken them because they first abandoned Him. They love to wander after other gods and neither the national leaders nor the people themselves have made any effort to curb that quest for idolatry. As a result God cannot accept or countenance such a people. The Lord reminds Jeremiah of the threat he had earlier spoken concerning Israel: NOW He will remember their iniquity that He may punish their sins (Jer. 14:10). In view of the fact the judgment has already been decreed it is useless for Jeremiah to continue to pray for his people (Jer. 14:11). Nor will God be influenced by the ritualistic cries for help which might accompany the burnt offerings and meal offerings. God is not ruling out the possibility of sincere repentance for later, in the eleventh hour of the final siege, Jeremiah still holds out to the people the possibility of survival if they will only submit to the Lord. The thrust here is that God knows the heart of a man and He will not accept outward forms in place of genuine repentance. Ritual will not work any longer. God is about to consume them with war and all of its accompanying calamities (Jer. 14:12).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(7) O Lord . . .From the picture of suffering the prophet turns to a prayer for pardon and a confession of sins. He is sure that the drought has not come without cause, and that it calls men to repentance.
Do thou it.Better, more generally, act thou, not according to the rigour of inexorable justice, but according to the Name which witnesses of mercy and long-suffering (Exo. 34:6).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE PROPHET’S PRAYER, Jer 14:7-9, Jer 14:19-22.
7. Thus far the historical background of the picture: now we have the prophet’s prayer in the people’s behalf. All petitions for mercy must, in fact if not in form, open with confession; and so does this.
Thy name’s sake Namely, Jehovah, which implies that he is the Friend and Saviour of his people. See Exo 34:6. This name is the one all-comprehending promise of good to his people. And so the prayer is, Do not belie thine own name and the hope of thy people, but interfere for our relief.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The People Cry To YHWH In Their Distress ( Jer 14:7-9 ).
Things had come to such a pass with the effects of the droughts that the people began to visit the Temple in droves and call on YHWH. Of course, it had not been so to begin with. They had initially engaged in their usual antics in the high places on the mountains and in the cities, offering incense and seeking to stimulate the gods with their sexual activities, being confident that they would receive a response. But year after year no answer had come. The drought had continued, and at length they were brought to realise that this must be YHWH’s doing. That was why they now turned to YHWH, and why He was so sickened by their approach. For He knew that they had come to Him, not because they wanted to seek His face, but because they had reached an impasses where there was nowhere else for them to turn. He was simply the last resort.
Jer 14:7
‘Though our iniquities testify against us,
Do you work for your name’s sake, O YHWH,
For our backslidings are many,
We have sinned against you.’
It is regularly at times of national emergency that men and women seek God, for then there is nowhere else to look. It was so then. It is so now. And then when the emergency is past they conveniently forget Him again. But God was not deceived, even though they gave every appearance of genuineness. They admitted that their sins testified against them, and confessed their sinfulness. They even admitted to the many times that they had backslidden in the past (while making no promises for the future). And they asked YHWH to work ‘for His Name’s sake’, in other words, in order to demonstrate that He was still their covenant God Whom they could turn to when all else failed. Sadly they saw Him as the God of last resort.
Jer 14:8
‘O you hope of Israel,
Its Saviour in the time of trouble,
Why should you be as a sojourner in the land,
And as a traveller who turns aside to stay for a night?
They acknowledged now that they recognised Him as ‘the hope of Israel’ (something that had been slipping their mind for years) and as their ‘Saviour in time of trouble’ (when all else failed and everyone else to whom they had been giving glory let them down). Both thoughts would, of course, have been true if they had been faithful to Him. But addressed to One Whom they had forgotten for years it had a hollow ring to it. Then they asked Him why He should act like a passing traveller, or a resident alien, when surely Jerusalem was His dwellingplace. It was language designed to flatter or to persuade YHWH of what was His duty because He was the God of Israel. There was no genuine repentance or submission in it. They wanted Him while it was convenient and there was a drought to get rid of.
Jer 14:9
‘Why should you be as a frightened (or bewildered) man,
As a mighty man who cannot save?
Yet you, O YHWH, are in the midst of us,
And we are called by your name. Do not desert us.’
They then called on Him to reveal His true worth in positive action, and to demonstrate that He was not inadequate. Let Him stand up and be counted. Let Him act and prove Himself. Surely He was not like a coward who held back from acting, or like a mighty man who was in no position to save because of his own insufficiency? Surely He was not that inadequate?
Then they pointed out that it was He Who dwelt among them and that they were called by His Name. Were they not said to be YHWH’s people? Surely then it was His responsibility to save them, and prove Himself at the same time. And it was on that basis they called on Him not to desert them. But as will be noted, while there was a lot of attempt at persuasion, and at putting YHWH under an obligation, they said nothing about their obligations, or their returning to the covenant and beginning to walk in obedience to Him. Their prayers were mainly flannel as a last desperate hope. They were playing Him like a musician plays his stringed instrument.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 14:7. Do thou it for thy name’s sake Do thou act with a regard to thine own name. That is, deal not with us according to our deserving, but so as not to give occasion to strangers to speak evil of thy name, to question thy power, wisdom, or goodness. So God says, Eze 22:31 that amidst the various provocations he had received, he had still acted uniformly upon this principle.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1051
GODS NAME THE SINNERS PLEA
Jer 14:7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy names sake.
PRAYER is both our duty and our privilege: and God often suffers trials to come upon his people, in order to stir them up to prayer, and to manifest himself to them in a more conspicuous manner as a God that heareth prayer. On some occasions, indeed, he has forbidden his people to intercede with him; as when he said to Moses, Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against these idolaters, and that I may consume them. But, in such cases, the prohibition has not been considered as absolute, but rather in a qualified sense; as intimating only, that any petitions offered under those particular circumstances could scarcely be expected to prevail; yet as implying a permission to the person to make the attempt. Certainly Moses understood it thus; for he, notwithstanding the prohibition, besought the Lord for Israel, and enforced his petitions with the most powerful pleas; and never ceased from urging his requests, till he obtained an answer of peace [Note: Exo 32:10-14.]. The Prophet Jeremiah, in like manner, was repeatedly forbidden to intercede for Judah and Jerusalem: Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee [Note: Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14.]. Yet the prophet could not forbear; but urged his pleas with all imaginable tenderness and compassion [Note: ver. 79.]. He acknowledged, that the sins which had provoked God to anger were great and undeniable: but though he could find no excuse for Israel, he could find a plea in the very character of God: and therefore he entreated him to do, for his own sake, what he could not venture to ask for theirs.
In respect of outward circumstances, we at this day do not resemble the Jews; yet, as sinners, we need to make the same acknowledgments, and to offer the same pleas, as are recorded in our text.
Let us then, with a more immediate application of the passage to our own case, consider,
I.
The sinners acknowledgment
The prophets confession is precisely such as befits the world at large
[Verily, their iniquities do testify against them, even to their face [Note: Hos 7:10.]. Their whole lives shew that they have not the fear of God before their eyes. It is impossible to see their conduct, and not feel the force of this melancholy truth [Note: Psa 36:1.]. If it be said, that they cannot serve the Lord; I reply, They will not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord [Note: Hos 5:4-5.]. There is much which they might do, and yet will not do. They might abstain from many things which they wilfully commit; and might perform many duties which they wilfully neglect. They might put themselves into the way of receiving good to their souls, by reading the Scriptures, and other religious books, in private; by a more diligent attendance on public ordinances; and by conversation with persons capable of instructing them in the things of God. But their contempt of all religious advantages, and the determined preference given by them to the things of time and sense, clearly prove the language of their hearts to be, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.]
With too great reason, also, may it be adopted, even by the best of men
[There is doubtless an immense difference between the godly and the world at large: for whilst the world are willing slaves of sin and Satan, the godly resist to the uttermost their spiritual enemies, and maintain, on the whole, a successful warfare against them. But though the Spirit in them lusts against the flesh, the flesh still lusts and fights against the Spirit; so that they neither do, nor can do, the things that they would [Note: Gal 5:17.] I would ask of all, Whether their consciences do not bear testimony, that yet there is much amiss within them; and that they have yet much to deplore, in respect of commission, and especially in sins of omission and defect? Who amongst us have not reason to confess, that, on some occasions, through impatience or inadvertence, they have been betrayed into tempers which were unbecoming their holy profession? And who, through weakness and infirmity, have not given way to sloth and negligence in the secret exercises of the closet? And who, if they compare their very best duties with the holy requirements of the Law, and the boundless obligations of the Gospel, have not reason to blush and he confounded before God? Verily, the very best amongst us may well say with the prophet, Our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and, as for our iniquities we know them [Note: Isa 59:12.].]
But are we, therefore, without hope? By no means: for, together with these acknowledgments, we are free to offer,
II.
The sinners plea
The particular request which the prophet offered is not specified: but, in accordance with the subsequent part of his address, we may suppose it to have been for the restoration of Gods favour. For this we also may ask, not indeed on that is in us, but solely for the sake of Gods honour, and for the glory of his name.
This plea is open for all
[Gods honour is deeply involved in his dealings with us. His justice and his holiness require him to manifest his abhorrence of sin, and his indignation against it: but his mercy inclines him to receive the mourning penitent, and to pardon his transgressions, however greatly they may have been multiplied against him: and if he were to spurn from his footstool a repentant sinner, he would consider himself as acting in a way that was unbecoming his divine character. He esteems the exercise of mercy as his highest glory, and his chief delight. And, when he can find nothing in his creatures to call forth, or even to justify, his kindness towards them, he takes the motive from within his own bosom, and shews mercy towards them for his own names sake. It was from this motive only that he brought his people out of Egypt, and conducted them in safety to the Promised Land. Not for any righteousness of theirs did he display his mercy towards them [Note: Deu 9:5.] but, as he repeatedly tells them, he wrought for his names sake [Note: Eze 20:9; Eze 20:14; Eze 20:22.]. Seeing, then, that he has shewn such a regard for his own honour, it cannot be, but that he should be pleased when he sees a similar concern in us, and hears us urging it with him as our only plea. But that we may not found this on mere conjecture, let me refer you to an instance wherein this plea was urged exactly in the way that was most pleasing to God. On an occasion wherein God had appeared to have forsaken his people, Joshua addressed him in these memorable words: O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites, and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name [Note: Jos 7:8-9.]? Here then we see, that, however much we may have provoked God to anger, and whatever reason we may have to fear that he is become our enemy, we may still approach him with this plea, and entertain a good hope that we shall find acceptance with him.]
This plea shall never be urged in vain
[In the instance just mentioned, it was attended with good success. The Lord immediately answered Joshua, Get thee up: wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Israel hath Sinned [Note: Jos 7:10-11.]; and on the putting away of their sin, I will return in mercy towards them. A yet more striking instance we have in the intercession of Moses for Israel, when God had determined to consume them on account of their worshipping of the golden calf. Moses pleaded with him the oath by which he had bound himself to Abraham and his seed; and immediately the Lord repented of the evil which he had thought to do unto them [Note: Exo 32:9-14.]. Will not, then, the same plea be efficacious still; or rather, I should say, be, if possible, far more efficacious, now that we can plead the name of Jesus? Hear what Jesus himself has said: Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it [Note: Joh 14:13-14.]. Here is no limitation, no exception: nay more, the very glory of God is pledged for the fulfilment of this promise, and shall be advanced in its accomplishment.]
The passage, thus opened, affords me a peculiarly fit occasion to declare,
1.
What should be the effect of sin upon the soul
[That it should humble us, will be universally acknowledged. But to many it appears as if it were a proper ground for dejection and despondency; and more especially when it has been committed by one who has been numbered with the Israel of God. But I would wish the terms of my text to be very particularly noticed; for in them the plea is urged in the very face of all the iniquities that had been committed: Though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy names sake. Here you will see that conviction of sin is, not to keep us from God, but to bring us to him. We must on no account give way to discouragement, as though our sins were too great to be forgiven, or as though it were presumptuous in such sinners to draw nigh to God. Presumptuous it would be, if we were to seek any plea from ourselves: but it cannot be so when our plea is derived from God alone. One or two passages of Scripture will place this matter in a clear and beautiful light. David prays, For thy names sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity: for it is great [Note: Psa 25:11.]. And again, Iniquities prevail against me: but as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away [Note: Psa 65:3.]. Here he makes the greatness of his sins a reason for his more earnest application to God, and for his more entire affiance in him. Let us then learn a truth but little known, and a truth on which our spiritual welfare most essentially depends; namely, That sin is a just ground for humiliation, but not for discouragement. In our first conversion to God, we must come as the chief of sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in him as both able and willing to save us to the uttermost. And is there any other way for us to come to God at a subsequent period? I know of none. Whether our sins be many or few, we may come as sinners, and we must come as sinners; founding all our hopes, not on any righteousness of our own, but on the multitude of his tender mercies [Note: Psa 51:1.]. The mercy of God is our only hope, from first to last: and though we may have changed, He changeth not: nor is the way of access to him through the Son of his love closed against us. Let me not be misunderstood, as if I meant by these observations to speak lightly of sin; for sin, indulged and unrepented of, will infallibly destroy the soul: but we must be aware of a legal spirit; and guard against the idea, that the possession of any personal worthiness entitles us to Gods favour, or that the want of it is a barrier to our acceptance with him. From first to last our hope is in Christ alone; and his name, as it is our only plea, so shall it be effectual, if it be urged in humility and faith. Let this, then, be remembered by every mourning soul, that sin is a ground of humiliation, but not of discouragement. It is not possible for us to be too deeply humbled: but, on the other hand, it is not possible to hold fast too strongly our hope and confidence in God.]
2.
What shall surely be effectual to remove it from the soul
[Prayer, fervent and believing prayer, shall infallibly succeed at last. Where do we find an instance of a weeping penitent spurned from the footstool of the Lord? Never, never did a repenting sinner pour out his cries in vain. Only we must remember the requisites of acceptable prayer. It must be humble and contrite. We must acknowledge our iniquity, and our desert of Gods judgments on account of it [Note: Jer 3:12-13; Jer 3:25.]. It must be fervent and persevering, like that of Daniel: O my God, incline thine ear, and hear! for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken, and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God [Note: Dan 9:18-19.]! It must be offered solely in dependence on Gods promised mercies in Christ Jesus: We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy names sake; do not disgrace the. throne of thy glory, remember, break not thy covenant with us [Note: ver. 20, 21.]. The truth is, that God has solemnly engaged that he will not cast out one who comes to him in his Sons name [Note: Joh 6:37.]; and sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, than one jot or tittle of his word shall fail.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
DISCOURSE: 1052
A PATTERN FOR NATIONAL HUMILIATION [Note: For a Fast-DayDrought, &c.]
Jer 14:7-9. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy names sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee; O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save! Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not.
NATIONAL humiliation is the only mean of averting national judgments: it is that which God himself has prescribed; and to which he has often given the most signal success. The repentance, and consequent deliverance of Nineveh, a heathen nation, stands as an encouragement to all the kingdoms of the earth. The instances of Gods regard to the united supplications of his people are so numerous, that it has ever been judged expedient to appoint days for general fasting and prayer, in seasons of great calamity. Surely such an appointment was never more necessary than now! To assist you in improving this solemn occasion, we shall propose to your imitation the Jews, who, in a season of grievous drought and famine, humbled themselves before God. In the words before us, we see,
I.
Their humble acknowledgments
Conscious of having merited the Divine judgments, they confessed their guilt
And may not we justly adopt their language as our own?
[We have sinned against God as much as any people upon earth: our backslidings have been very many, and our iniquities do indeed testify against us, Look through the land; see what profaneness everywhere abounds! We have indeed professed on many solemn fast-days to repent, and turn unto the Lord; but our humiliation has not survived the day appointed for it, nor has any national reformation been visible amongst us If we enter, every one of us, into our own hearts, we may see an epitome of all that is passing in the world: we may say with the Psalmist, My heart sheweth mo the wickedness of the ungodly [Note: Psa 36:1. Prayer-Book Translation.] What ingratitude for mercies, what impenitence under sin, what unmindfulness of Gods presence, what disregard of his word, what evil dispositions, corrupt affections, and vile propensities, may be laid to our charge! Let any one say, Whether these and innumerable other sins, do not testify against him We would hope that there are but few amongst us who have not resolved, and for a time endeavoured, to repent: but has not our goodness been as the morning-cloud, or the early dew that passeth away? Have not our backslidings been multiplied? And could we have thought, some years ago, that we should have made so small a progress in the Divine life, or, perhaps, that we should at this day have been as far from God as ever? Let us then make these acknowledgments to God with most unfeigned contrition, and lie before him in dust and ashes.]
With equal propriety also we may imitate,
II.
Their mournful expostulations
Nothing indeed can be more offensive to God than arrogant expostulations [Note: Isa 58:3.]; but nothing more acceptable than such as are presented with unfeigned humility
Such were those with which the Jewish penitents addressed the Lord
[The titles, by which they address the Deity, are expressive of the deepest reverence: God is indeed the hope, the only hope of his people: and he is their willing and all-sufficient Saviour in the time of trouble. Nor did they intend to question either his inclination or ability to save them; but only to say, Wilt thou be like a stranger that cares not for us; or like one, who, though mighty in himself, is yet, through perturbation of his mind, or the insuperable difficulty of the case, unable to afford succour? Similar expostulations were frequently used by David [Note: Psa 44:23-26.]; and however they may at first sight appear expressive of too great familiarity, are indeed the genuine effusions of a contrite soul]
Let us approach our God in terms of like import
[To whom can we look as our Hope, but Jehovah? and who but he has been our Sariour in times of trouble? But, alas! He is at present but as a stranger in the land, or as a mighty man that cannot save. We have cried to him, and we are not delivered; though he has graciously interposed on some occasions, yet still we are left in deep affliction; nor can we at all divine what shall be the issue of our troubles. The greater part of us too, we fear, are no less in doubt respecting the issue of their spiritual conflicts: If they June ever cried to God, their enemies yet prevail; and it is uncertain whether they shall not finally be overwhelmed by sin and Satan. With what earnestness, then, should they look to Christ, as to the hope set before them, and plead with him as their Saviour in this hour of need!]
But to their expostulations let us not forget to add,
III.
Their fervent petitions
The penitents before us seemed conscious as well of their unworthiness as of their impotency
Hence, both in their petitions and their pleas, they expressed their entire reliance upon Gods grace and mercy
[Sensible, that if God forsook them, or refused his aid, they must perish, they cried, Leave us not! Do thou it which we desire: and having no goodness or worthiness of their own to plead, they entreated him for his names sake, and because of his presence with them, and his relation to them; Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not!]
A more excellent pattern for our imitation we cannot find
[What can we do as a nation, if God forsake us, or withhold his powerful interposition? In vain will our fleets and armies go forth to meet the enemy, if God be not with them, to succeed their efforts. But can we plead the superior piety of our nation? Is there any thing in the land so excellent, that we can urge it with God as a ground whereon we may expect his favour? Alas! the superior light of which we boast, and the distinguished blessings which we enjoy, have greatly aggravated our national guilt: we can therefore ask nothing but mercy, for mercys sake. It is true, God is still (bleased be his name!) in the midst of us; and while our enemies have professedly cast off their allegiance to him [Note: The time of the French Revolution.], we glory in being called by his name. In this view we may plead his presence with us, and his relation to us; yet not in a spirit of proud boasting, but of humble and thankful acknowledgment. And the more God is honoured in the midst of us, the more may we expect a continuance of his favour towards us.
It is almost needless to observe, that, with respect to our personal necessities, we must have no other plea than that before mentioned. He must be ignorant indeed who will presume to ground his hopes upon any merit of his own; though certainly, if we belong to God, we may plead his past mercies as a ground on which we hope for the continuance and increase of them. In this manner therefore let us approach our God; and we may rest assured that our supplications shall not go forth in vain.]
Application
[Let this day be truly set apart for the humbling of your souls before God And let the pattern now set before you be not only approved, but imitated in all its parts. There is a day coming when we shall either look back upon our present humiliation with unspeakable comfort, or regret bitterly that we trifled with God and our own souls. Defer not then this necessary work. The nation, of which you are members, demands it of you. Whatever be your judgment with respect to politics, there can be no doubt but that you have contributed to augment the guilt of the nation, and are therefore bound to deprecate the judgments that are hanging over it. The salvation of your own souls too depends on your unfeigned repentance; and the sooner you turn to God in his appointed way, the sooner will you obtain a sense of his favour, and the brighter will be your prospects in the heavenly world. Let us all then turn to Christ, as the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof: and however unable or unwilling to save we may have foolishly supposed him, we shall find him both able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Nothing can be more beautiful and expressive, than this prayer of the Prophet. First, he confesses sin: Lev 26 . Secondly, he takes hold of the best and only argument for forgiveness; God’s covenant promises in his name; that is, in Christ. Psa 106:8 ; Isa 43:25 . Thirdly, he pleads the merits of the Saviour. Isa 45:21-22 . And lastly, he observes the union the Lord had with, and interest in, his people. Joshua, ages before, had pleaded the same, and found success, Jos 7:8-9 . Reader! do not overlook these pleas, for they are unanswerable; in the hour of distress Jehovah’s name’s sake, is the one glorious cause, of all our rich mercies, in Christ; Eze 36:32 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou [it] for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
Ver. 7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us. ] Though our guilty consciences bring in large rolls of indictment written against us within and without, and spread before thee.
Do it for thy name’s sake.] Heb., Do. A short but pithy petition. So Jer 14:9 , “Leave us not.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah
TRIUMPHANT PRAYER
Jer 14:7 – Jer 14:9
My purpose now carries me very far away from the immediate occasion of these words; yet I cannot refrain from a passing reference to the wonderful pathos and picturesque power with which the long-forgotten calamity that evoked them is portrayed in the context. A terrible drought has fallen upon the land, and the prophet’s picture of it is, if one might say so, like some of Dante’s in its realism, in its tenderness, and in its terror. In the presence of a common calamity all distinctions of class have vanished, and the nobles send their little ones to the well, and they come back with empty vessels and drooping heads instead of with the gladness that used to be heard in the place of drawing of water. The ploughmen are standing among the cracked furrows, gazing with despair on the brown chapped earth, and in the field the very dumb creatures are sharing in the common sorrow, and the imperious law of self-preservation overpowers and crushes the maternal instincts. ‘Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.’ And on every little hilltop where cooler air might be found, the once untamable wild asses are standing with open nostrils panting for the breeze, their filmy eyes failing them, gazing for the rain that will not come. And then, from contemplating all that sorrow, the prophet turns to God with a wondrous burst of strangely blended confidence and abasement, penitence and trust, and fuses together the acknowledgment of sin and reliance upon the established and perpetual relation between Israel and God, pleading with Him about His judgments, presenting before Him the mysterious contradiction that such a calamity should fall on those with whom God dwelt, and casting himself lowly before the throne, and pleading the ancient name: ‘Do Thou it! Leave us not.’
It is to the wonderful fulness and richness of this prayer that I ask your attention in these few remarks. Expositors have differed as to whether the drought that forms its basis was a literal one, or is the prophet’s way of putting the sore calamities that had fallen on Israel. Be that as it may, I need not remind you how often in Scripture that metaphor of the ‘rain that cometh down from heaven and watereth the earth’ is the symbol for God’s divine gift of His Spirit, and how, on the other hand, the picture of the ‘dry and thirsty land where no water is’ is the appropriate figure for the condition of the soul or of the Church void of the divine presence. And I think I shall not mistake if I say that though we have much to make us thankful, yet you and I, dear brethren, and all our Churches and congregations, are suffering under this drought, and the merciful ‘rain, wherewith Thou dost confirm Thine inheritance when it is weary’ has not yet come as we would have it. May we find in these words some gospel for the day that may help us to come to the temper of mind into which there shall descend the showers to ‘make soft the earth and bless the springing thereof!’
Glancing over these clauses, then, and trying to put them into something like order for our purpose, there are four things that I would have you note. The first is the mysterious contradiction between the ideal Israel and the actual state of things; the second is the earnest inquiry as to the cause; the third the penitent confession of our sinfulness; and the last, the triumphant confidence of believing prayer.
I. First of all, then, look at the illustration given to us by these words of the mysterious contradiction between the ideal of Israel and the actual condition of things.
Now, I suppose there are two ideas intended to be conveyed-the brief, transitory, interrupted visits, with long, dreary stretches of absence between them; and the indifference of the visitant, as a man who pitches his tent in some little village to-night cares very little about the people that he never saw before this afternoon’s march, and will never see after to-morrow morning. And not only is it so, but, instead of the perpetual energy of this divine aid that had been promised to Israel, as things are now, it looks as if He was a mighty man astonied, a hero that cannot save-some warrior stricken by panic fear into a paralysis of all his strength-a Samson with his locks shorn. The ideal had been so great-perpetual gifts, perpetual presence, perpetual energy; the reality is chapped ground and parched places, occasional visitations, like vanishing gleams of sunshine in a winter’s day, and a paralysis, as it would appear, of all the ancient might.
Dear Christian friends, am I exaggerating, or dealing only with one set of phenomena, and forgetting the counterpoising ones on the other side, when I say, Change the name, and the story is told about us? God be thanked we have much that shows us that He has not left us, but yet, when we think of what we are, and of what God has promised that we should be, surely we must confess that there is the most sad, and, but for one reason, the most mysterious contradiction between the divine ideal and the actual facts of the case. Need we go further to learn what God meant His Church to be, than the last words that Jesus Christ said to us-’Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world’? Need we go further than those metaphors which come from His lips as precepts, and, like all His precepts, are a commandment upon the surface, but a promise in the sweet kernel-’Ye are the salt of the earth,’ ‘ye are the light of the world’-or than the prophet’s vision of an Israel which ‘shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord’? Is that the description of what you and I are? Have not we to say, ‘We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen’? ‘Salt of the earth,’ and we can hardly keep our own souls from going putrid with the corruption that is round about us. ‘Light of the world,’ and our poor candles burnt low down into the socket, and sending up rather stench and smoke than anything like a clear flame. The words sound like irony rather than promises, like the very opposite of what we are rather than the ideals towards which our lives strive. In our lips they are presumption, and in the lips of the world, as we only too well know, they are a not undeserved scoff, to be said with curved lip, ‘The salt of the earth,’ and ‘the light of the world’!
And look at what we are doing: scarcely holding our own numerically. Here and there a man comes and declares what God has done for his soul. But what is the Church, what are the Christian men of England, with all their multifarious activities, performing? Are we leavening the national mind? Are we breathing a higher godliness into trade, a more wholesome, simple style of living into society? And as for expansion, why, the Church at home does not keep up with the actual increase of the population; and we are conquering heathendom as we might hope to drain the ocean by taking out thimblefuls at a time. Is that what the Lord meant us to do? Our Father with us; yes, but oh! as a ‘mighty man, astonied,’ as He might well be, ‘that cannot save’ for the old, old reason, ‘He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.’ No wonder that on the other side men are saying-and it is not such a very presumptuous thing to say, if you have regard only to the facts that appear on the surface-men are saying, ‘wait a little while, and all these organisations will come to nothing; these Christian churches, as they are called,’ and everything that you and I regard as distinctive of Christianity, ‘will be gone and be forgotten.’ We believe ourselves to be in possession of an eternal light; the world looks at us and sees that it is like a flickering flame in a dying lamp. Dear brethren, if I think of the lowness of our own religious characters, the small extent to which we influence the society in which we live, of the slow rate at which the Gospel progresses in our land, I can only ask the question, and pray you to lay it to heart, which the old prophet asked long ago: ‘O Thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not my words do good to them that walk uprightly?’ ‘Why shouldest Thou be as a mighty man that cannot save?’
II. Let me ask you to look at the second thought that I think may fairly be gathered from these words, namely, that this consciousness of our low and evil condition ought to lead to very earnest and serious inquiry as to its cause.
‘Why shouldest Thou leave us?’ Now, I need not spend time by taking into consideration answers that other people might give. I suppose that none of us will say that the reason is in any variableness of that unalterable, uniform, ever present, ever full, divine gift of God’s Spirit to His children. We do not believe in any arbitrary sovereignty that withdraws that gift; we do not believe that that gift rises and falls in its fulness and its abundance. We believe that the great reservoir is always full, and that, if ever our small tanks be empty, it is because there is something choking the pipe, not because there is anything less in the centre storehouse. We believe, if I may take another illustration, that it is with the seasons and the rotation of day and night in the religious experience as it is with them in the natural world. Summer and winter come and go, not because of any variableness in the centre orb, but because of the variation in the inclination of the circling satellite; day and night come not by reason of any ‘shadow cast by turning’ from the sun that revolves not at all- but by reason of the side that is turned to his life-giving and quickening beams. We believe that all the clouds and mist that come between us and God are like the clouds and mist of the sky, not dropped upon us from the blue empyrean above, but sucked up from the undrained swamps and poisonous fens of the lower earth. That is to say, if there be any change in the fulness of our possession of the divine Spirit, the fault lies wholly within the region of the mutable and of the human, and not at all in the region of the perennial and divine.
Nor do we believe, I suppose, any of us, that we are to look for any part of the reason in failure of the adaptation of God’s work and God’s ordinances to the great work which they have to do. Other people may tell us, if they like-it will not shake our confidence-that the fire that was kindled at Pentecost has all died down to grey ashes, and that it is of no use trying to cower over the burnt-out embers any more in order to get heat out of them. They may, and do, tell us that the ‘rushing, mighty wind that filled the house’ obeys the law of cycles as the wind of the natural universe, and will calm into stillness after a while, and then set in and blow from the opposite quarter. They may tell us, and they do tell us, that the ‘river of the water of life that flows from the Throne of God and of the Lamb’ is lost in the sands of time, like the streams in the great Mongolian plateau. We do not believe that. Everything stands exactly as it always has been in regard to the perennial possession of Christ’s Spirit as the strength and resource of His Church; and the fault, dear friends, lies only here: ‘O Lord, our iniquities testify against us; our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee.’
Oh, let me urge upon you, and upon myself, that the first thing which we have to do is prayerfully and patiently and honestly to search after this cause, and not look to superficial trifles such as possible variations and improvements in order and machinery, and polity or creed, or anything else, as the means of changing and bettering the condition of things, but to recognise this as being the one sole cause that hinders-the slackness of our own hold on Christ’s hand, and the feebleness and imperfection of our own spiritual life. Dear brethren, there is no worse sign of the condition of churches than the calm indifference and complacency in the present condition of things which visits very many of us; it is like a deadly malaria wherever it is to be found, and there is no more certain precursor of a blessed change than a widespread dissatisfaction with what we are, and an honest, earnest search after the cause. The sleeper that is restless, and tosses and turns, is near awakening; and the ice that cracks, and crumbles, and groans, and heaves, is on the point of breaking up. When Christian men and women are aroused to this, the startled recognition of how far beneath the ideal-no, I should not say how far beneath, but rather how absolutely opposed to, the ideal-so much of our Christian life and work is, and when further they push the inquiry for the cause, so as to find that it lies in their own sin, then we shall be near the time, yea, the ‘set time, to favour Zion.’
III. And so let me point you, in the next place-and but a word or two on that matter-to the consideration that the consciousness of the evil condition and knowledge of its cause leads on to lowly penitence and confession.
IV. And so, finally, look at the wonderful way in which in this text of ours the prophet fuses together into one indistinguishable and yet not confused whole, confession, and pleading remonstrance and also the confidence of triumphant prayer.
Then, look at what the text suggests as pleas with God, and grounds of confidence for ourselves. ‘Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake, the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble. Thou art in the midst of us, we are called by Thy name.’ There are three grounds upon which we may base our firm confidence. The one is the name-all the ancient manifestations of Thy character, which have been from of old, and remain for our perpetual strength. ‘As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts.’ ‘That which is Thy memorial unto all generations pledges Thee to the constant reiteration and reproduction, hour by hour, according to our necessity, of all the might, and the miracles, and the mercies of the past. Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake.’
And then Jeremiah turns to the throne of God with another plea-’the hope of Israel’-and thereby fills his mouth with the argument drawn from the fact that the confidence of the Church is fixed upon Him, and that it cannot be that He will disappoint it. ‘Because Thou hast given us Thy name, and because Thy name, by Thy grace, has become, through our faith, our hope, Thou art doubly bound-bound by what Thou art, bound by what we expect-to be with us, our strength and our confidence.’
And the final plea is the appeal to the perennial and essential relationship of God to His Church. ‘We are called by Thy name’-’we belong to Thee. It were Thy concern and ours that Thy Gospel should spread in the world, and the honour of our Lord should be advanced. Thou hast not surely lost Thy hold of Thine own, or Thy care for Thine own property.’ The psalmist said, ‘Thou wilt not suffer him that is devoted to Thee to see corruption.’ And what his faith felt to be impossible in regard to the bodily life is still more unthinkable in regard to the spiritual. It cannot be that that which belongs to Him should pass and perish. ‘We are called by Thy name, and Thou, Lord, art in the midst of us’-not a Samson shorn of his locks; not a wayfaring man turning aside to delay for a night; but the abiding Presence which makes the Church glad.
Dear brethren, calm and confident expectation should be our attitude, and lowly repentance should rise to triumphant believing hope, because God is moving round about us in this day. Thanks be to His name, there is spread through us all an expectation of great things. That expectation brings its own fulfilment, and is always God’s way of preparing the path for His own large gifts, like the strange, indefinable attitude of expectation which we know filled the civilised world before the birth of Jesus Christ-like the breath of the morning that springs up before the sun rises, and says, ‘The dawn; the dawn,’ and dies away. The expectation is the precursor of the gift, and the prayer is the guarantee of the acceptance. Take an illustration. Those great lakes in Central Africa that are said to feed the Nile are filled with melting snows weeks and weeks before the water rises away down in Egypt, and brings fertility across the desert that it makes to glisten with greenness, and to rejoice and blossom as the rose. And so in silence, high up upon the mountains of God, fed by communion with Himself, the expectation rises to a flood-tide ere it flows down through all the channels of Christian organisation and activity, and blesses the valleys below. It is not for us to hurry the work of God, nor spasmodically to manufacture revivals. It is not for us, under the pretence of waiting for Him, to be cold and callous; but it is for us to question ourselves wherefore these things have come upon us, with lowly, penitent confession to turn to God, and ask Him to bless us. Oh, if we were to do this, we should not ask in vain! Let us take the prayer of our context, and say, ‘We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against Thee. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not Thou He, O Lord, our God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee.’ Be sure that the old merciful answer will come to us, ‘I will pour rivers of water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; and I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
testify: or, answer. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia.
sinned. Hebrew. chata.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 14:7-9
Jer 14:7-9
JEREMIAH’S PRAYER FOR ISRAEL
Though our iniquities testify against us, work thou for thy name’s sake, O Jehovah; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee. O thou hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man affrighted, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
Some have wondered if the people of Israel themselves or Jeremiah prayed this prayer; but it appears that Jeremiah here prayed on behalf of the people, using some of the phraseology that the people were using.
Work thou for thy name’s sake…
(Jer 14:7). Note that the prayer is not based upon any merit of Israel, but solely upon the character of God Himself. It was the Jewish conception, first enunciated by Moses, that if God did not bless Israel, it would cause the pagan nations to declare that God was not able to bless them. It would appear that the presumption of Israel in this matter was almost incredible.
As a sojourner. as a wayfaring man …..
(Jer 14:8). There is apparently in this the echo of a complaint by the people to the effect that God, instead of dwelling with Israel all the time, was like a traveling man who merely spent a night in their midst now and then. Israel expected God to bless them continually no matter what they did. After all, were not they called God’s Chosen People? Was not he enthroned among them in that magnificent temple? Oh, don’t forsake us now, Lord; we are in trouble, and we need you!
Coupled with God’s negative answer to this prayer (Jer 14:10 f), we have the fact that Israel admitted their sins and backsliding, all right; but they went right on sinning. Why did they call God the hope of Israel and go right on with their wickedness? They never stopped sinning for a minute. “Instead they lay the source of their troubles on God; they call him the hope of Israel, but at the same time charge him with indifference to their needs, and with impotence to help them … Then they brazenly declare: ‘We are called by your name. Save us and thus redeem your reputation!’ ” F12
Jer 14:10-12
GOD REFUSES TO HEAR THEM
Thus saith Jehovah unto this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Jehovah doth not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. And Jehovah said unto me, Pray not for this people for [their] good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Clarke summarized God’s reply to the prayer as follows: “The measure of Israel’s iniquity being now full, they must be punished. The nation is ripe for destruction; intercede not for them.”
They have loved to wander…
(Jer 14:10) There is nothing innocent about this wandering. Cheyne rendered it, roving lawlessly about.
Pray not for this people…
(Jer 14:11). Twice previously, God gave Jeremiah this same instruction (Jer 7:15; Jer 11:14); but Jeremiah had been unable to stop praying. No mother ever quit praying for a wayward son, no matter how hopeless his wickedness became. It could be that God was not really forbidding Jeremiah to pray but that he was merely pointing out the uselessness of any further prayers on behalf of apostate Israel.
Jehovah doth not accept them…
(Jer 14:10). Keil’s comment on the reason why God would not then hear Israel is thus:
The reason was that they turned to God only in their need, but while their hearts still clung to their idols. Their prayers were only lip-service, and their sacrifices a soulless formality.
While it is certainly true that Keil’s excellent comment here applied to the vast majority of the condemned people, we must also agree with Payne Smith who wrote: “It is not necessary to say with Keil that Israel’s fasts and sacrifices were ‘heartless formalities.’ There would have been those whom the chastisement had brought to repentance (also, those of the “righteous remnant” J.B.C.); and for these the lesson was a sterner one. There is a time when the most genuine repentance avails nothing to avert the temporal consequences of sin.”
Sword… famine. pestilence …..
(Jer 14:12) This dreadful trio throughout the ages has been the perpetual destroyers of human life. They are frequently mentioned in scripture, as here and in Jer 5:12; Jer 14:15; Jer 27:8; Jer 29:18; 2Sa 24:13; Isa 51:19, etc.
The Prophets Intercession Rejected Jer 14:7-12
From his narration recounting the plight of the nation Jeremiah moves to formal intercession. He makes no excuses. He openly confesses the sin and guilt of his people. Yet he calls upon God to intervene on behalf of the drought-stricken nation for the sake of Your name (Jer 14:7). He is asking God to act in His own self-interest. Should God allow His people to be done in by the drought the heathen would boast. In antiquity the esteem in which a deity was held by the world community was in direct proportion to the national well-being of the people who worshiped that deity. The thought may also be present that the Lords name pledges Him to be merciful toward His people even when they have sinned against Him.
The prophet still trusts in God in spite of the terrible drought. He addresses the Lord as the hope of Israel and as his (i.e., Israels) Savior in the time of distress. The concept of God as savior goes back to the period of the Judges when God would raise up saviors or deliverers for His people (Jdg 3:9; Neh 9:27). King Jehoahaz who was able to break the yoke of Aramaen oppression is also called a savior (2Ki 13:5; 2Ki 13:25). God is first called savior in 2Sa 22:3, a psalm attributed to David. The name savior was one of the favorites of the prophet Isaiah who uses it at least eight times. God in the past has proved Himself to be a savior to Israel and Jeremiah is confident that God can and will so reveal Himself again in the present crisis.
While Jeremiah believes in Gods ability to save he is unable to comprehend why the Lord delays His intervention on behalf of Israel. Two questions are directed to God both of which are in reality appeals for divine aid. (1) Why have You, Lord, become to us like a stranger or wayfaring man? (Jer 14:8). One who merely passes through a country takes no active interest in the affairs of that land. It seems to Jeremiah that as far as Israel was concerned God had become a disinterested bystander, unwilling to get involved. (2) Why have you become like a mighty warrior who is dumbfounded? Jeremiah knows that God has the power to intervene; but God seems to have become like a soldier who in battle becomes terrified to the point of paralysis. The Septuagint renders the phrase like a man in a deep sleep. The point is that God has not acted on behalf of His people and Jeremiah cannot understand it. He knows that God is still in the midst of the nation. He knows that Israel still wears the name of God as His national bride. Therefore he calls upon God, Do not let us down (Jer 14:9).
Gods reply to the praying prophet is straightforward and blunt. He does not deny that He has in fact abandoned His people. But He has forsaken them because they first abandoned Him. They love to wander after other gods and neither the national leaders nor the people themselves have made any effort to curb that quest for idolatry. As a result God cannot accept or countenance such a people. The Lord reminds Jeremiah of the threat he had earlier spoken concerning Israel: NOW He will remember their iniquity that He may punish their sins (Jer 14:10). In view of the fact the judgment has already been decreed it is useless for Jeremiah to continue to pray for his people (Jer 14:11). Nor will God be influenced by the ritualistic cries for help which might accompany the burnt offerings and meal offerings. God is not ruling out the possibility of sincere repentance for later, in the eleventh hour of the final siege, Jeremiah still holds out to the people the possibility of survival if they will only submit to the Lord. The thrust here is that God knows the heart of a man and He will not accept outward forms in place of genuine repentance. Ritual will not work any longer. God is about to consume them with war and all of its accompanying calamities (Jer 14:12).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
though: Isa 59:12, Hos 5:5, Hos 7:10
do: Jer 14:20, Jer 14:21, Deu 32:27, Jos 7:9, Psa 25:11, Psa 115:1, Eze 20:9, Eze 20:14, Eze 20:22, Dan 9:9, Dan 9:18, Dan 9:19, Eph 1:6, Eph 1:12
for our: Jer 2:19, Jer 3:6, Jer 5:6, Ezr 9:6, Ezr 9:7, Ezr 9:15, Neh 9:33, Neh 9:34, Dan 9:5-16
Reciprocal: Gen 18:20 – the cry Deu 9:28 – Because Jdg 20:47 – six hundred 1Sa 12:22 – for his great 1Ki 20:28 – therefore will Job 23:3 – Oh that Psa 31:3 – for thy Psa 79:9 – for thy Psa 106:8 – he saved Isa 48:9 – my name’s Jer 18:20 – Remember Jer 31:22 – backsliding Hos 4:16 – slideth Hos 11:7 – are bent Hos 14:4 – heal Amo 7:2 – O Lord Luk 13:8 – let Joh 17:11 – thine 1Jo 2:12 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 14:7. The awful condition was to bring the people to a sense of shame and acknowledgement of their guilt. Do thou it is the prayer of the people for the Lord to do something for them. Not that the punishment was not just tor they admitted their guilt. But they appealed to God that he would have mercy for his name’s sake.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 14:7. O Lord, &c. The prophet, having described their misery both in its cause, the drought, and the effects produced thereby, here applies himself to God, who alone could remove it, confessing that their many and great sins and backslidings had well deserved to be thus severely scourged. Though our iniquities testify against us That thou art righteous in what thou hast done, and make it evident that we have merited the most dreadful judgments thy wrath can inflict; yet do thou it Do thou what we stand in need of; give us rain, though not for our sake, we deserve no such kindness from thee, yet for thy names sake; for the sake of thy word and promise, by which thou engagest to hear the prayers of thy people in their distress, Psa 50:15, and for thine honour and glory.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14:7 {f} O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou [it] for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
(f) He shows the only way to remedy God’s plagues, which is by true confession of our sins, and returning to him by repentance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jeremiah voiced a prayer for his people. He admitted that their iniquities, apostasies, and sins had been great. These terms for sin are all words that indicate breach of covenant. But he pled for Yahweh to do something for the people for His own reputation’s sake, as a God of mercy, if not for theirs. Yet God is a God of justice as well as mercy.