Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 15:1
Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, [yet] my mind [could] not [be] toward this people: cast [them] out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Jer 15:1 . Though Moses and Samuel stood before me ] No advocate, however powerful his intercession, could now prevail with Me. For Moses see Exo 33:11-14; Num 14:13-20; Deu 9:18-20; Deu 9:25-29, and for Samuel 1Sa 7:9 ; 1Sa 12:23; cp. these two united in a similar connexion of thought in Psa 99:6.
stood before ] For the phrase in this sense of intercession cp. Jer 18:20, Gen 18:22; Gen 19:27. For a different sense see on Jer 15:19.
my mind could not be toward ] I could not incline with favour towards.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Cast them out of my sight – Rather, send them out of My presence, and let them go away. The prophet is to dismiss them, because their mediators, Moses and Samuel, whose intercession had been accepted in old times (marginal references), would intercede now in vain.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 15:1
Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be towards this people.
Righteousness, the strength of nations
It is of great importance that we distinguish between communities, and the individuals of which communities are composed. When the whole human race shall be gathered before the tribunal of Christ, every man will receive the recompense due to his actions whilst on earth. But nations cannot be judged or punished as nations; so if God is to mark His sense of the evil wrought by communities in their collective capacity, it must be by present retribution. Accordingly we have full testimony given from Scripture and from experience, that although, in the ordinary course of Divine judgment, individuals are not in this life dealt with according to their actions, yet communities may expect to prosper or decline according as they resist or submit to the revealed will of God. The national character must be determined by the character of the majority; and when this character is so debased that the national punishment can no longer be delayed, there may be numbers influenced by a holy and unaffected piety, and warm love of God. And can these faithful ones be instruments in averting or mitigating wrath? Or if they cannot prevail for the deliverance of others, will they not at least be saved from all share in the coming disaster? These are interesting questions; and the best answer can be drawn from the words of our text. Moses and Samuel are supposed to stand forth as pleaders for the land; they are too late–pleading is in vain. Still it is evidently implied that at a less advanced stage in national guilt the intercession would have been of avail. Then, moreover, a distinction is evidently drawn between a guilty people and such advocates as Moses and Samuel. The people are to be cast out; but we are left to infer that such as Moses and Samuel would not share to the full extent in the national disaster. Let us look more closely into these points. Call to mind that remarkable portion of Holy Writ in which Abraham is represented as pleading for Sodom. If the city would have been spared had these ten righteous lived within its walls, there is incontrovertible proof that godly men are the salt of the earth, and may often be instrumental in preserving communities from utter desolation. It was not without a very emphatic meaning that Christ styled His disciples the salt of the earth. By their mere presence in the midst of ungodly men, and yet more, by their prayers and intercessions, may the righteous often arrest vengeance and prevent the utter ruin of a country. The wicked know nothing of their obligations to the righteous. In general, they despise or hate the righteous–either accounting them fools, or galled by the reproof conveyed by their example. If they had what they wish, they would remove the righteous from amongst them, reckoning that they should then have greater freedom in pursuing their schemes, or enjoying their pleasures. And little do they think that these very objects of their scorn and dislike may be all the while their best guardians and benefactors; turning aside from them evils by which they might be otherwise rapidly overtaken, and procuring for them a lengthened portion of Divine patience and forbearance. Little do they think that the worst thing possible for their country and themselves is when there is a rapid diminution in the number of the righteous; every good man who dies and leaves no successor being as a practical withdrawal from that leaven which alone stays the progress of the universal decomposition. Now we have reached the point at which piety ceases to have power in averting evil from others. What does it, then, do for the pious themselves? Intercession time has gone–the judgment time has come; and every man must be dealt with according to his own character. But if righteousness then lose its power to avail with God for others, besides its possessors; and if on this account the righteous may well shrink from such seasons, yet it appears certain that righteousness is as acceptable as ever to God, and that therefore the righteous have nothing to fear individually for themselves. Come plague! come depopulation! if thou art indeed a devoted, consistent servant of God, they shall not touch thee till the time has come which has been fixed by thy merciful Father! A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. The funeral procession may wend often from their doors, bearing away (it is melancholy to think) those for whose salvation they have long prayed, and for whom they have daily sought a further day of grace; but they themselves shall be unassailed till the day which, in any case, God had fixed for their entry into rest; and thus shall the pestilence, whose ravages in their households did but fit them for higher glory, do only the part of common sickness in freeing them from a corruptible body. And, therefore, may those in whose hearts is the fear of the Lord, hear without trepidation what God says about bringing His sore judgments on a land. There are two very important considerations suggested by the subject we have thus endeavoured to discuss.
1. We wish you to observe that he who serves God, serves his country best.
2. We ask you to observe that whatever the advantages which a man derives from having pious relatives, there is a point at which those relatives can afford him no help. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Intercessory prayer
I. Intercessory prayer is an exercise of great value.
1. As developing our love to man. Interesting ourselves in his trials, seeking to save him from his sins.
2. As carrying out the Divine precepts. In the spirit of Christ, in the fellowship of life.
3. As following after noble examples.
4. As obtaining great blessings for others.
II. Intercessory prayer can be offered only by good men.
1. He must not be under the sin against which he prays.
2. He should know by experience the value of the blessing he craves for another.
3. He must be willing to join effort with prayer.
III. Intercessory prayer has some limitations even when offered by the best of men. This is evident–
1. From Scripture.
2. From observation.
IV. Intercessory prayer is a grand distinction and provision of the Gospel. We have–
1. The best of intercessors (Heb 7:25). In office, sympathy, work, influence.
2. Praying for the best of blessings. Salvation, preservation, comfort, glory.
3. Taking up the ease of every soul that trusts Him.
4. Always successful. (W. Whale.)
Intercession rejected
The Hebrews had justly a very high opinion of Moses. How proudly they boasted, We are the disciples of Moses! As the late Dr. R.W. Dale has pointed out, More than Luther is to Germany, more than Napoleon is to France, more than Alfred, or Elizabeth, or Cromwell, or William
III. is to England, Moses was to the Jewish people–prophet, patriot, warrior, lawgiver, all in one. Yet even so great a servant of God as Moses together with the famous seer Samuel, would avail nothing in intercession for the Jews at this time. My mind, saith the Lord, could not be toward this people.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XV
God declares to Jeremiah that not even Moses and Samuel, whose
prayers had been so prevalent, could divert him from his
purpose of punishing so wicked a people, 1.
Accordingly their captivity is again announced in a variety of
images so full of terror, 2-9,
that the prophet complains of his own hard fate in being
obliged to deliver such unwelcome messages, 10;
for which too he is reproved, 11-14.
Immediately he appeals to God for his sincerity, and
supplicates pardon, 15-18;
and God tempers his reproof with promising again to protect
him in the faithful discharge of his duty, 19-21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XV
Verse 1. Though Moses and Samuel] Moses had often supplicated for the people; and in consequence they were spared. See Ex 32:11 and following verses, Nu 14:13. Samuel also had prayed for the people, and God heard him, 1Sa 7:9; but if these or the most holy men were now to supplicate for this people, he would not spare them.
Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.] Do not bring them into my presence by your prayers; let them go forth into captivity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We are (though in another chapter) yet in the same prophecy, or discourse betwixt God and this prophet. Jeremiah having been once denied, solicited God again, as we had it in the four last verses of the former chapter. God here replieth to that prayer; and the sum of what he saith is, that he was inexorable in their case. Though Moses, who could obtain so much of God upon their sinning, in the case of the golden calf, Exo 32:11,14, and in the case of the peoples murmuring, Num 14:19,20; and Samuel, who was so prevalent with God, 1Sa 7:9; though these two, formerly so potent and prevalent mediators for a people with me, stood before me, waited (that is) upon me, and solicited me on the behalf of this people, yet I could not favour this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth: q.d. I am not able to abide the sight of them, and therefore let them go forth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Moses . . . Samueleminentin intercessions (Exo 32:11;Exo 32:12; 1Sa 7:9;Psa 99:6).
be towardcould not befavorably inclined toward them.
out of my sightGodspeaks as if the people were present before Him, along with Jeremiah.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then said the Lord unto me,…. In answer to his expostulations and entreaties, Jer 14:19,
though Moses and Samuel stood before me; to pray before me, as the Targum; to make intercession for the people. Standing is a prayer gesture. The Jews say there is no standing but prayer, or that is meant when it is mentioned; [See comments on Mt 6:5]. Moses and Samuel were named, because they were eminent for prayer, and had success in it, for the people of Israel. Of Moses, see Ex 32:11 and of Samuel, see 1Sa 7:9 and of both, Ps 99:6. The Arabic version reads “Moses and Aaron”, but wrongly. The Palmists make use of this text to prove the intercession of saints in heaven for those on earth; but the words are only a supposition, and not a fact. The meaning is, that supposing that Moses and Samuel were alive, and made intercession for the people, their prayers would not be regarded; and such a supposition, as it suggests that they were not alive, so that they did not stand before him, and make intercession for Judah; wherefore this is against, and not for, the intercession of saints in heaven:
yet my mind could not be towards this people; God could have no good will to them, no delight in them; could not be reconciled to them, or agree to it, that the favours asked for should be granted them, or that they should be continued in their own land; and therefore it was in vain for the prophet to solicit on their account; but, on the other hand, it is ordered as follows:
cast them out of my sight; or presence; as persons loathsome and abominable, not to be borne; I cannot look upon them, or have anything to say to them, in a favourable way:
and let them go forth; from my presence, from the temple, the city, and out of their own land; that is, declare that so it shall be.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“And Jahveh said unto me: If Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet would not my soul incline to this people. Drive them from my face, that they go forth. Jer 15:2 . And if they say to thee: Whither shall we go forth? then say to them: Thus hath Jahveh said – Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. Jer 15:3 . And I appoint over them four kinds, saith Jahveh: the sword to slay and the dogs to tear, the fowls of the heaven and the cattle of the earth, to devour and destroy. Jer 15:4 . And I give them up to be abused to all kingdoms of the earth, for Manasseh’s sake, the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. Jer 15:5 . For who shall have pity upon thee, Jerusalem? and who shall bemoan thee? and who shall go aside to ask after thy welfare? Jer 15:6 . Thou hast rejected me, saith Jahveh; thou goest backwards, and so I stretch forth mine hand against thee and destroy thee; I am weary of repenting. Jer 15:7 . And I fan them with a fain into the gates of the land: bereave, ruin my people; from their ways they turned not. Jer 15:8 . More in number are his widows become unto me than the sand of the sea; I bring to them, against the mother of the young man, a spoiler at noon-day; I cause to fall upon her suddenly anguish and terrors. Jer 15:9 . She that hath borne seven languisheth, she breatheth out her soul, her sun goeth down while yet it is day, she is put to shame and confounded; and their residue I give to the sword before their enemies, saith Jahveh.”
The Lord had indeed distinctly refused the favour sought for Judah; yet the command to disclose to the people the sorrow of his own soul at their calamity (Jer 15:17 and Jer 15:18) gave the prophet courage to renew his supplication, and to ask of the Lord if He had in very truth cast off Judah and Zion (Jer 15:19), and to set forth the reasons which made this seem impossible (Jer 15:20 -22). In the question, Jer 15:19, the emphasis lies on the , strengthened as it is by the inf. abs.: hast Thou utterly or really rejected? The form of the question is the same as that in Jer 2:14; first the double question, dealing with a state of affairs which the questioner is unable to regard as being actually the case, and then a further question, conveying wonder at what has happened. , loathe, cast from one, is synonymous with . The second clause agrees verbally with Jer 8:15. The reasons why the Lord cannot have wholly rejected Judah are: 1. That they acknowledge their wickedness. Confession of sin is the beginning of return to God; and in case of such return, the Lord, by His compassion, has vouchsafed to His people forgiveness and the renewal of covenant blessings; cf. Lev 26:41., Deu 30:2. Along with their own evil doing, the transgression of their fathers is mentioned, cf. Jer 2:5., Jer 7:25., that full confession may be made of the entire weight of wickedness for which Israel has made itself answerable. So that, on its own account, Judah has no claim upon the help of its God. But the Lord may be moved thereto by regard for His name and the covenant relation. On this is founded the prayer of Jer 15:21: Abhor not, sc. thy people, for Thy name’s sake, lest Thou appear powerless to help in the eyes of the nations; see on Jer 15:7 and on Num 14:16. , lit., to treat as fools, see on Deu 32:15, here: make contemptible. The throne of the glory of God is the temple, where Jahveh sits enthroned over the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies, Exo 25:22, etc. The destruction of Jerusalem would, by the sack of the temple, dishonour the throne of the Lord. The object to “remember,” viz., “Thy covenant,” comes after “break not.” The remembering or rememberedness of the covenant is shown in the not breaking maintenance of the same; cf. Lev 26:44. Lastly, we have in v. 22 the final motive for supplication: that the Lord alone can put an end to trouble. Neither the vain gods of the heathen ( , see Jer 8:19) can procure rain, nor can the heaven, as one of the powers of nature, without power from God. , Thou art ( is the copula between subject and predicate). Thou hast made all these. Not: the heaven and the earth, as Hitz. and Gr. would make it, after Isa 37:16; still less is it, with Calv.: the punishment inflicted on us; but, as demands, the things mentioned immediately before: caelum, pluvias et quidquid est in omni rerum natura , Ros. Only when thus taken, does the clause contain any motive for: we wait upon Thee, i.e., expect from Thee help out of our trouble. It further clearly appears from this verse that the supplication was called forth by the calamity depicted in Jer 15:2-5.
Jer 15:1-4 Decisive refusal of the petition. – Jer 15:1. Even Moses and Samuel, who stood so far in God’s favour that by their supplications they repeatedly rescued their people from overwhelming ruin (cf. Exo 17:11; Exo 32:11., Num 14:13., and 1Sa 7:9., Jer 12:17., Psa 99:6), if they were to come now before the Lord, would not incline His love towards this people. indicates the direction of the soul towards any one; in this connection: the inclination of it towards the people. He has cast off this people and will no longer let them come before His face. In Jer 15:2-9 this is set forth with terrible earnestness. We must supply the object, “this people,” to “drive” from the preceding clause. “From my face” implies the people’s standing before the Lord in the temple, where they had appeared bringing sacrifices, and by prayer invoking His help (Jer 14:12). To go forth from the temple = to go forth from God’s face. Jer 15:2. But in case they ask where they are to go to, Jeremiah is to give them the sarcastic direction: Each to the destruction allotted to him. He that is appointed to death, shall go forth to death, etc. The clauses: such as are for death, etc., are to be filled up after the analogy of 2Sa 15:20; 2Ki 8:1, so that before the second “death,” “sword,” etc., we supply the verb “shall go.” There are mentioned four kinds of punishments that are to befall the people. The “death” mentioned over and above the sword is death by disease, for which we have in Jer 14:12 , pestilence, disease; cf. Jer 43:11, where death, captivity, and sword are mentioned together, with Eze 14:21, sword, famine, wild beasts, and disease ( ), and Eze 33:27, sword, wild beasts, and disease. This doom is made more terrible in Jer 15:3. The Lord will appoint over them ( as in Jer 13:21) four kinds, i.e., four different destructive powers which shall prepare a miserable end for them. One is the sword already mentioned in Jer 15:2, which slays them; the three others are to execute judgment on the dead: the dogs which shall tear, mutilate, and partly devour the dead bodies (cf. 2Ki 9:35, 2Ki 9:37), and birds and beasts of prey, vultures, jackals, and others, which shall make an end of such portions as are left by the dogs. In Jer 15:4 the whole is summed up in the threatening of Deu 28:25, that the people shall be delivered over to be abused to all the kingdoms of the earth, and the cause of this terrible judgment is mentioned. The Chet. is not to be read , but , and is the contracted form from , see on Deu 28:25, from the rad. , lit., tossing hither and thither, hence for maltreatment. For the sake of King Manasseh, who by his godless courses had filled up the measure of the people’s sins, so that the Lord must cast Judah away from His face, and give it up to the heathen to be chastised; cf. 2Ki 23:26; 2Ki 24:3, with the exposition of these passages; and as to what Manasseh did, see 2 Kings 21:1-16.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Sentence against Judah Confirmed; Destruction of Judah. | B. C. 606. |
1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. 2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. 3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. 4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. 5 For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? 6 Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. 7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways. 8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city. 9 She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
We scarcely find any where more pathetic expressions of divine wrath against a provoking people than we have here in these verses. The prophet had prayed earnestly for them, and found some among them to join with him; and yet not so much as a reprieve was gained, nor the least mitigation of the judgment; but this answer is given to the prophet’s prayers, that the decree had gone forth, was irreversible, and would shortly be executed. Observe here,
I. What the sin was upon which this severe sentence was grounded. 1. It is in remembrance of a former iniquity; it is because of Manasseh, for that which he did in Jerusalem, v. 4. What that was we are told, and that it was for it that Jerusalem was destroyed, 2Ki 24:3; 2Ki 24:4. It was for his idolatry, and the innocent blood which he shed, which the Lord would not pardon. He is called the son of Hezekiah because his relation to so good a father was a great aggravation of his sin, so far was it from being an excuse of it. The greatest part of a generation was worn off since Manasseh’s time, yet his sin is brought into the account; as in Jerusalem’s last ruin God brought upon it all the righteous blood shed on the earth, to show how heavy the guilt of blood will light and lie somewhere, sooner or later, and that reprieves are not pardons. 2. It is in consideration of their present impenitence. See how their sin is described (v. 6): “Thou hast forsaken me, my service and thy duty to me; thou hast gone backward into the ways of contradiction, art become the reverse of what thou shouldst have been and of what God by his law would have led thee forward to.” See how the impenitence is described (v. 7): They return not from their ways, the ways of their own hearts, into the ways of God’s commandments again. There is mercy for those who have turned aside if they will return; but what favour can those expect that persist in their apostasy?
II. What the sentence is. It is such as denotes no less than an utter ruin.
1. God himself abandons and abhors them: My mind cannot be towards them. How can it be thought that the holy God should have any remaining complacency in those that have such a rooted antipathy to him? It is not in a passion, but with a just and holy indignation, that he says, “Cast them out of my sight, as that which is in the highest degree odious and offensive, and let them go forth, for I will be troubled with them no more.”
2. He will not admit any intercession to be made for them (v. 1): “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, by prayer or sacrifice to reconcile me to them, yet I could not be prevailed with to admit them into favour.” Moses and Samuel were two as great favourites of Heaven as ever were the blessings of this earth, and were particularly famed for the success of their mediation between God and his offending people; many a time they would have been destroyed if Moses had not stood before him in the breach; and to Samuel’s prayers they owed their lives (1 Sam. xii. 19); yet even their intercessions should not prevail, no, not though they were now in a state of perfection, much less Jeremiah’s who was now a man subject to like passions as others. The putting of this as a case, Though they should stand before me, supposes that they do not, and is an intimation that saints in heaven are not intercessors for saints on earth. It is the prerogative of the Eternal Word to be the only Mediator in the other world, whatever Moses, and Samuel, and others were in this.
3. He condemns them all to one destroying judgment or other. When God casts them out of his presence, whither shall they go forth? v. 2. Certainly nowhere to be safe or easy, but to be met by one judgment while they are pursued by another, till they find themselves surrounded with mischiefs on all hands, so that they cannot escape; Such as are for death to death. By death here is meant the pestilence (Rev. vi. 8), for it is death without visible means. Such as are for death to death, or for the sword to the sword; every man shall perish in that way that God has appointed: the law that appoints the malefactor’s death determines what death he shall die. Or, He that is by his own choice for this judgment, let him take it, or for that, let him take it, but by the one or the other they shall all fall and none shall escape. It is a choice like that which David was put to, and was thereby put into a great strait, 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. Captivity is mentioned last, some think, because the sorest judgment of all, it being both a complication and continuance of miseries. That of the sword is again repeated (v. 3), and is made the first of another four frightful set of destroyers, which God will appoint over them, as officers over the soldiers, to do what they please with them. As those that escape the sword shall be cut off by pestilence, famine, or captivity, so those that fall by the sword shall be cut off by divine vengeance, which pursues sinners on the other side death; there shall be dogs to tear in the field to devour. And, if there be any that think to outrun justice, they shall be made the most public monuments of it: They shall be removed into all kingdoms of the earth (v. 4), like Cain, who, that he might be made a spectacle of horror to all, became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth.
4. They shall fall without being relieved. Who can do any thing to help them? for (1.) God, even their own God (so he had been) appears against them: I will stretch out my hand against thee, which denotes a deliberate determined stroke, which will reach far and wound deeply. I am weary with repenting (v. 6); it is a strange expression; they had behaved so provokingly, especially by their treacherous professions of repentance, that they had put even infinite patience itself to the stretch. God had often turned away his wrath when it was ready to break forth against them; but now he will grant no more reprieves. Miserable is the case of those who have sinned so long against God’s mercy that at length they have sinned it away. (2.) Their own country expels them, and is ready to spue them out, as it had done the Canaanites that were before them; for so it was threatened (Lev. xviii. 28): I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land, in their own gates, through which they shall be scattered, or into the gates of the earth, into the cities of all the nations about them, v. 7. (3.) Their own children, that should assist them when they speak with the enemy in the gate, shall be cut off from them: I will bereave them of children, so that they shall have little hopes that the next generation will retrieve their affairs, for I will destroy my people; and, when the inhabitants are slain, the land will soon be desolate. This melancholy article is enlarged upon, Jer 15:8; Jer 15:9, where we have, [1.] The destroyer brought upon them. When God has bloody work to do he will find out bloody instruments to do it with. Nebuchadnezzar is here called a spoiler at noon-day, not a thief in the night, that is afraid of being discovered, but one that without fear shall break through and destroy all the fences of rights and properties, and this in the face of the sun and in defiance of its light: I have brought against the mother a young man, a spoiler (so some read it); for Nebuchadnezzar, when he first invaded Judah, was but a young man, in the first year of his reign. We read it, I have brought upon them, even against the mother of the young men, a spoiler, that is, against Jerusalem, a mother city, that had a very numerous family of young men: or that invasion was in a particular manner terrible to those mothers who had many sons fit for war, who must now hazard their lives in the high places of the field, and, being an unequal match for the enemy, would be likely to fall there, to the inexpressible grief of their poor mothers, who had nursed them up with a great deal of tenderness. The same God that brought the spoiler upon them caused him to fall upon it, that is, upon the spoil delivered to him, suddenly and by surprise; and then terrors came upon the city. the original is very abrupt–the city and terrors. O the city! what a consternation will it then be in! O the terrors that shall then seize it! Then the city and terrors shall be brought together, that seemed at a distance from each other. I will cause to fall suddenly upon her (upon Jerusalem) a watcher and terrors; so Mr. Gataker reads it, for the word is used for a watcher (Dan 4:13; Dan 4:23), and the Chaldean soldiers were called watchers, ch. iv. 16. [2.] The destruction made by this destroyer. A dreadful slaughter is here described. First, The wives are deprived of their husbands: Their widows are increased above the sand of the seas, so numerous have they now grown. It was promised that the men of Israel (for those only were numbered) should be as the sand of the sea for multitude; but now they shall be all cut off, and their widows shall be so. But observe, God says, They are increased to me. Though the husbands were cut off by the sword of his justice, their poor widows were gathered in the arms of his mercy, who has taken it among the titles of his honour to be the God of the widows. Widows are said to be taken into the number, the number of those whom God has a particular compassion and concern for. Secondly, The parents are deprived of their children: She that has borne seven sons, whom she expected to be the support and joy of her age, now languishes, when she has seen them all cut off by the sword in one day, who had been many years her burden and care. She that had many children has waxed feeble, 1 Sam. ii. 5. See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not. When the children are slain the mother gives up the ghost, for her life was bound up in theirs: Her sun has gone down while it was yet day; she is bereaved of all her comforts just when she thought herself in the midst of the enjoyment of them. She is now ashamed and confounded to think how proud she was of her sons, how fond of them, and how much she promised herself from them. Some understand, by this languishing mother, Jerusalem lamenting the death of her inhabitants as passionately as ever poor mother bewailed her children. Many are cut off already, and the residue of them, who have yet escaped, and, as was hoped, were reserved to be the seed of another generation, even these will I deliver to the sword before their enemies (as the condemned malefactor is delivered to the sheriff to be executed), saith the Lord, the Judge of heaven and earth, who, we are sure, herein judges according to truth, though the judgment seem severe.
5. They shall fall without being pitied (v. 5): “For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? When thy God has cast thee out of his sight, and his compassions fail and are shut up from thee, neither thy enemies nor thy friends shall have any compassion for thee. They shall have no sympathy with thee; they shall not bemoan thee nor be sorry for thee; they shall have no concern for thee, shall not go a step out of their way to ask how thou dost.” For, (1.) Their friends, who were expected to do these friendly offices, were all involved with them in the calamities, and had enough to do to bemoan themselves. (2.) It was plain to all their neighbours that they had brought all this misery upon themselves by their obstinacy in sin, and that they might easily have prevented it by repentance and reformation, which they were often in vain called to; and therefore who can pity them? O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself. Those will perish for ever unpitied that might have been saved upon such easy terms and would not. (3.) God will thus complete their misery. He will set their acquaintance, as he did Job’s at a distance from them; and his hand, his righteous hand, is to be acknowledged in all the unkindnesses of our friends, as well as in all the injuries done us by our foes.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 15
THE PROPHET WRESTLES WITH GOD
A crisis is reached in this chapter. Jeremiah has endeavored to be true to God, while his heart yearned for the spiritual recovery of his people. Rebuked for his prayer in their behalf, and commissioned to tell them that they are divinely abandoned to death, sword, starvation and captivity, his heart is crushed! Persecuted, mocked, ostracized by his brethren and powerless with his God, Jeremiah considers himself an utter failure – attempting to resign his prophetic office. But God recommissions him, and assures the ultimate vindication of his faith.
Vs. 1-4: THE LORD REPLIES TO JEREMIAH’S APPEAL
1. Moses and Samuel were the only prophets whose fervency of intercession in behalf of the covenant people had approached that of Jeremiah; God had frequently been moved by their appeals, (comp. Exo 32:11-14; Exo 32:30; Num 14:13-19; 1Sa 7:8; 1Sa 12:19-23).
a. But His response to Jeremiah is a firm, unyielding, “NO!”
b. Even if his plea were seconded by Moses and Samuel, God could not be induced to suspend judgment against this unrepentant people any longer!
c. Jeremiah is to send them forth from the Lord’s presence, and to LET them go!
2. If they ask Jeremiah WHERE they are to go, he must tell them that they will go to the divinely-appointed destiny: to death (pestilence), the sword, starvation or captivity, (vs. 2; Jer 14:12; Jer 24:10; Jer 43:11; Eze 5:1; Eze 5:12).
3. God is, further, appointing four destroyers to deal with them: the sword to slay; dogs to tear; the fowls of heaven and beasts of the field to devour and destroy, (vs. 3; Lev 26:16; Lev 26:22; Lev 26:25).
4. The seed from which their ruin has come was sown by Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, and what He did in Jerusalem, (vs. 4; 2Ki 21:1-18; 2Ki 23:26-27).
a. This man was the worst king ever to sit on the throne in Jerusalem, (2Ki 21:9; 2Ki 21:11).
b. His sin was such as could never be forgiven – because its spread assured the ruin of the nation, (2Ki 24:3-4).
c. He encouraged the worship of Baal, built altars for astral deities in the very temple of God, offered his own son on the altar of Molech and practiced witchcraft and divination, (2Ki 21:1-18).
d. But Judah was not suffering solely for the sins of Manasseh; they were still practicing what he set in motion; every soul is personally responsible to God! (Jer 31:29-30; Eze 18:2-4).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
God again repeats what we have before observed, — that as the impieties and sins of the people had arrived at the highest pitch, there was no more room for pardon or for mercy: and though God seems to have rejected altogether the prayer of his servant, we are not yet to think that it was without any benefit. Jeremiah wished indeed to deliver the whole people from destruction; but he did not thus pray inconsiderately and uselessly; for he distinguished between the titular church, as they say, and the chosen seed, for he knew that many were become the degenerated children of Abraham: nor was he unacquainted with what is said in the Psalms,
“
Who shall dwell in thy tabernacle, and who shall stand on the mount of thy holiness? He who is innocent as to his hands, and is of a pure heart.” (Psa 15:1)
The Prophet there distinctly shews that hypocrites glory in vain, because they had a free entrance into the Temple, and sacrificed together with the faithful; for a clean heart and pure hands are required. Jeremiah no doubt fully understood this.
Though then he extended his solicitude to the whole body of the people, he yet knew that there was a chosen seed. So at this day, when we pray, we ought, according to the rule of charity, to include all, for we cannot fix on those whom God has chosen or whom he has rejected; and thus we ought, as far as we can, to promote the salvation of all; and yet we know, as a general truth, that many are reprobate for whom our prayers will avail nothing; we know this, and yet we cannot point out any one as by the finger. So then the prayer of Jeremiah was not useless; but in its very form, as they say, it was not heard, for he wished the whole people to be saved; but as God had resolved to destroy the ungodly, such as were beyond the reach of hope on account of their untamable obstinacy, Jeremiah obtained only in part what he prayed for, — that God would preserve his Church, which then was in a manner hidden.
But it is now said, If stand before me did Moses and Samuel, (126) my soul would not be towards this people The meaning is, that though all intercessors came forth in their behalf, they could do nothing, for God had rejected them. Moses and Samuel are here mentioned, but in another place Job and Daniel are named, and for the same reason. (Eze 14:14) Moses is mentioned here, because we find that he offered himself, and wished to be, an anathema for his people.
“
Blot me out of the book of life, or spare this people.” (Exo 32:32)
As then God’s wrath had been so often pacified by Moses, he is here mentioned; for when it was all over with the people, he delivered them as it were from eternal death, and this was well and commonly known to the Jews. As to Samuel, we know how celebrated he was, and that God had been often pacified by him for the preservation of the whole people; but at length, when he prayed for Saul, God did indeed restrain his immoderate zeal, and forbade him to pray any more, (1Sa 16:1) and yet he ceased not to pray. As then there was so great a fervor in Samuel, that he in a manner struggled with God, he is here joined with Moses: “If, then, stand before me did these two, my soul, or my heart, would be alienated from this people, for I shall be no more pacified towards them.”
But he speaks of the perverse multitude, which had so often wilfully sought their own destruction; for, as it has appeared elsewhere, the people had never been rejected; and yet we must distinguish between the chaff and the wheat. Judea was, as it were, the threshing — floor of God, on which there was a great heap of chaff, for the multitude had departed from true religion; and there were a few grains found hid in the rubbish. Hence the heart of God was not towards the people, that is, towards the degenerated children of Abraham, who were proud only of their name, while they were covenant — breakers; for they had long ago forsaken the true worship of God and all integrity. Therefore the heart of God was not towards them. At the same time he preserved, in a wonderful and in a hidden manner, a remnant.
Now this passage teaches us what James also mentions, that the prayer of the righteous avails much with God; and he brings forward the example of Elijah, who closed heaven by his prayer, so that it rained not for a long time; and who afterwards opened heaven by his prayer, so as to obtain rain from God. (Jas 5:16) He hence infers that the prayers of the righteous avail much, not only when they pray for themselves, but also when they pray for others; for Elijah had no particular regard for himself, but his object was to gain relief for the whole people. It is indeed certain that the intercession of the saints is highly appreciated by God; and hence it is that we are bidden winingly and freely to make known to one another our necessities, so that we may mutually help and pray for one another. But we must at the same time observe, that they who think themselves to be commended to God by others in their prayers, ought not on that account to become more secure; for it is certain, that as the prayers of the faithful avail the members of Christ, so they do no good to the ungodly and the hypocrites. Nor does God indeed bid us to acquiesce in the confidence, that others pray for us, but bids every one to pray, and also to join their prayers with those of all the members of the ChurJeremiah Whosoever then desires to profit by the prayers of the saints must also pray himself.
It is true, I allow, that the prayers of the saints sometimes benefit even the ungodly and aliens; for it was not in vain that Christ prayed,
“
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” (Luk 23:34)
nor did Stephen pray in vain when he offered up a similar prayer, (Act 7:60) and I am disposed to agree with what Augustine says, that Paul, among others, was the effect of Stephen’s prayer. (Serm. 1, de Sanctis) But I am speaking now of what we must do when we find that we are helped by the prayers of the saints, that is, that we are strenuously to perform our part, and strive to shew for our brethren the same solicitude and care as we expect from them. It is then certain beyond a doubt, that each is not only heard when he prays for himself, but that the prayers of the saints avail in behalf of others.
But extremely ridiculous are the Papists, who apply this passage to dead saints: Moses and Samuel, they say, were dead, when God declared what is here said; it is then true that they prayed. The inference is worthy of such teachers, which is as good as the braying of an ass. There is here a supposition made, as though God did say, “If Moses and Samuel were now alive and interceded for them, I would yet remain implacable.” But Ezekiel mentions Daniel, who was then living, and he names also Job. We hence see that he makes no distinction between the dead and the living. Therefore the Papists are extremely foolish and stupid when they thus idly prate that the dead pray for the living, on the ground of what is here said of Moses and Samuel. It is not then worthwhile to refute this ignorant assertion, as it vanishes almost of itself: a brief warning, lest ally one should be deluded by such a cavil, is sufficient. (127)
He afterwards bids the Prophet to east away the people; cast them away, or banish them, he says, from my presence He doubtless speaks here in a strong manner, “Let them be gone from me.” But yet God shews what he had commanded his Prophet; as though he had said, “Fulfil thou thine office, remember what burden I have laid on thee.” Jeremiah had been ordered to denounce exile on the people? he was the herald of divine vengeance. As then he sustained this office, it was his duty to execute the commission which God had given him. We now then apprehend what these words mean, cast them away (128)
But we must again notice here what we have before seen, — that God commends the efficacy of prophetic doctrine, according to what has been said,
“
I set thee over nations and kingdoms, to plant and to root up, to build and to destroy,” (Jer 1:10)
Then God intimates, that so great a power would be in the mouth of his servant, that though the Jews mocked at his predictions, as if they were vain threatenings to frighten children, they would yet be like thunderbolts; so that Jeremiah would drive away the people, as though he was furnished with a large army and great forces, according to what Paul declares, — that he had power given him to cast down every height that exalted itself against Christ. (2Co 10:5) As then God claims so great an authority for his prophetic doctrine, when threatening the unbelieving with punishment, let us know that the same extends to all the promises of salvation. Therefore, whenever God offers grace to us by the gospel, and testifies that he will be propitious to us, let us know that heaven is in a manner open to us; and let us not seek any other ground of assurance than his own testimony: and why? because as to the prophets was given the power of binding and loosing, so now the same power is given to the Church, that is, to invite all to be saved who are as yet healable, and to denounce eternal ruin on the reprobate and the obstinate in their wickedness, according to what is said by Christ,
“
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mat 16:19)
For he gave his Apostles the power not only of binding, but also of loosing. And Paul, after having spoken in high terms of the former power, adds,
“
When your obedience shall be accomplished,” (2Co 10:6)
as though he had said, that the gospel was not preached only for this end, to pronounce death on the reprobate, but that it was also a pledge of salvation to all the elect, to them who embraced by true faith the promises offered to them.
(126) Noticed here may be an identity of idiom in Hebrew and Welsh: The verb “stand” is in the singular number, though followed by two nominative cases. So it is in Welsh: and were the nominative cases before it, the verb would be in the plural number.
(lang. cy) Pe savai Moses a Samuel o’m blaen.
This is the Hebrew, word for word. Both the Septuagint and the Vulgate retain the singular number of the verb; but they are not grammatically correct. — Ed.
(127) Venema, referring to this notion of the Papists, says, “The words are not that they stood, but that if they stood; he speaks not of them as dead, but as living, intimating, that if they were alive and interceded for the people, they would not succeed in delivering them.” We shall add an observation of Scott —
“
This passage fully proves that departed saints do not intercede for us; for it evidently implies that Moses and Samuel did not then stand before the Lord in behalf of Israel or of any in Israel.”
—
Ed.
(128) The verb means more properly to send; he was to send them from God’s presence by his doctrine, intimating that God disowned and rejected them: and they were to go forth or to go out, that is, from his presence. The allusion is to the sending away a divorced woman, —
Send them from my presence, and let them go forth:
2. And it shall be, when they say to thee, “Where shall we go forth?” that thou shalt say to them — Thus saith Jehova, — “Those for death, to death; And those for the sword, to the sword; And those for the famine, to the famine; And those for captivity, to captivity.”
It is observed by Venema and Blaney, that “death” was that by pestilence. See Jer 14:12, Jer 18:21. Some were destined for death by pestilence, to this they were to go forth: and so as to the other evils.
The Rabbis say that there are gradations in the evils mentioned here: death by pestilence is the less grievous than the sword; the sword than the famine; the famine than captivity; the last being more grievous than all the other evils. See 2Sa 24:13; Lam 4:9; and Lev 26:39. The “sword” being the principal weapon, is put here for any violent death inflicted by enemies. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE DEADLY DROUGHT
Jer 14:22 to Jer 15:21
IN the portion of Jeremiah hitherto presented, we have dealt largely in detached texts, selecting and treating the same with a definite objective. Today we undertake, rather, the study of two chaptersthe weeping Prophets message on the drought.
Jeremiah is the Prophet of parables. In the thirteenth chapter his parable is the linen girdle. In the fourteenth and fifteenth it is the parable of drought; in the eighteenth and nineteenth the parable of the potters house; in the twenty-fourth the parable of the two baskets of figs, etc.
This is only another way of saying that Jeremiah was a graphic preacher, and doubtless as dramatic in delivery as vivid in description.
Whether this days study deals with a drought and consequent famine already existing at the time of the Prophets complaint, or whether it is another of those instances of forecasting, with a view to warning, we may not surely determine. The probabilities are that the description is prophetic. God seldom strikes until He has spoken once, twice, thrice. Such is His patience!
For 120 years the flood was prophetically impending; but such was Gods compassion toward sinful man that the flood could not fall until his impenitence was proven to be permanent.
Among the famines recorded in the Old Testament that took the form of Divine judgment, that of these chapters occupies prominent place. It was not a mere freak of nature, nor yet the product of undirected natural law. If the text has any meaning, it was Divinely sent and represented just judgment.
The perusal of the two chapters will seem the more significant if we will permit our thoughts to circulate about The Deadly Drought; The Divine Wrath; and The Personal Redemption.
THE DEADLY DROUGHT
It was such as to anguish the souls of men. The Scripture says,
The Word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Possibly, of all the afflictions that befall man, none is to be so much dreaded as drought and famine. In war, men are mangled and suffer in consequence, but a flesh wound is only painful for a few hours, when either the healing processes of nature calms it, or natures disintegration deadens it altogether.
The pestilence sometimes sweeps the earth, but as a rule, a few days of sickness from such source and the patient is either on the way to recovery or is unconscious, or dead.
An earthquake adds to physical injuries, shattered nerves; but a few minutes and the quake is over, and even its victims, if living, begin to grow calm and entertain hope.
The flood is the outstanding instance of Divine judgment upon a race so far as its extent is concerned; and yet, the flood was comparatively merciful. The nerve-racking of rising waters must have been great and terrible, but drowning itself is scientifically conceded to be almost the easiest of all conceivable deaths.
Famine, however, is far and awaythe slowest, the most anguishing, and by far the most physically painful of all enemies to mind and body. Its work is not done in a day; but days lengthen to weeks and weeks to months before the end comes. It does not affect the mind only, as the average earthquake; nor yet the body, as the average pestilence; but it involves both mind and body in an unthinkable agony. How meaning-full the phrase, Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
When the late war began, famine was the thing most feared by the combatants, and against its possible occurrence they made the most careful provision.
The mercy of God doubtless expressed itself in separating the continents and leaving the seas united. It is because the prospered people of the earth, such as dwell in the greater portions of Europe, the English Isles, and in North America, are separated by long distances from the sight of the starving, dying thousands of East Indians, Africans and Chinese, that we can retain our complacency and indulge our pleasures.
Even the newspaper report of these things, without any vision of them, or any real comprehension of their dreadful nature and dire extent, disturbs us no little.
Famine is the scourge of all scourges! v It reaches even to the souls of men.
This famine involved alike the bodies of men and of beasts. The text says,
Their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass (Jer 14:3-6).
What a graphic and agonizing picture! Drought is no respecter of persons. When it comes the nobles and their children are not exempt. We can have economic reversals such as exist now, and while the poor and the unemployed suffer, the nobles of the landthose who hold its offices and handle its wealth, are untouched; in fact, any well-informed man knows that this present panic has put, and will again put, millions on millions into the pockets of the prospered.
The stocks that some of you bought two and three years ago at enormously inflated prices, these prospered ones sold to you and took their profit; and now that the bottom is gone from the stock market, they are buying them back for a song, to shortly start them on another rise for the new crop of speculators.
The land, at the present moment, is pauperized in the midst of plenty. Gods rains have not failed! The brooks are running; the springs are active; the pits hold water; the land is enormously fruitful.
If there ever was a judgment upon the nations that was self-inflicted and for which God had no responsibility whatever, the present is an instance. Greed, and not God, is back of the worlds economic debaclegreed that brought on war, costing the nations billions on billions,greed, that voiced itself in needless luxuries in which men indulged for more than a decade,greed that conceived false inflations and found sufficient suckers to keep those inflations afloat for awhile,greed, that led the Florida agent to ask $10,000 for a lot that was worth less than one, and secure it for a time, only to find that when the false bottom fell out, the promoter himself commonly perished.
The Atheistic Association last autumn implored President Hoover not to declare a Day of Thanksgiving, assigning, as their reason, the unemployment, poverty, grasshoppers and drought scourges that were on our land. How contemptible their basis! There never was a land that flowed with milk and honey as America has done! Its grain-fields are so great that the hunger of the world cant consume their surplus; its potato patches so fruitful that thousands of bushels are left to rot, there being no market for them; its citrus fruits so enormous that one, who cared to do it, could drive his empty wagon into the orchards of California or Florida and the owners would say, Fill, the same with the falling fruits, and there is no charge! Our sheep and our cattle are so reproductive that 2 per pound is the price of mutton on foot and 4 to 8 of steak.
Our banks, while they are closing out farmers on what they call frozen assets, and are calling upon every patron to either pay up or provide collateral, far in excess of the endangered credit, are yet the depositories of millions in gold.
If there ever was an occasion of thanksgiving to God for His goodness to man, the average American has it; and if there ever existed occasion for suspicion of his fellows who seek advantage of their kind, that suspicion exists now!
Could a greater contrast be conceived than that of life in America at this moment, and that described as existing in Judea in the days of the drought.
Our nobles do not send their little ones for water; it is brought to them by a servant on a silver platter. The ground with us is not chapt; it is teeming with fruitfulness instead. The deer of this land is not driven to the unnatural act of leaving its fawn behind because she has no food for the same, but grazes on green pastures instead; and whereas the wild asses of Judah sought the mountain top, snuffed up the wind, hoping to get moisture out of the same since there was neither water nor grass upon which to feed, the wild and domestic animals of America fill themselves daily with both.
Yes, there will be occasion for President Hoover to do two things this Autumn. First, to argue with his prospered fellows against their godless greed; and second, to appoint a Day of Thanksgiving to the Almighty God who hath remembered our land in such unstinted measure.
This famine forced a full confession of sin and shame. The Prophet voiced it for the people:
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.
Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins (Jer 14:7-10).
There are some striking sentences in this confession. They reveal the Prophets keen sense of the basic trouble, and at the same time they show very clearly the spiritual deadness and utter indifference of the people in general.
Jeremiah is unable to ask Gods mercy on the ground of the peoples penitence. He knows that it does not exist. Our iniquities testify against us was a true confession, but the people did not join with the Prophet in making it. Our backslidings are many, We have sinned against Thee were both true sentences, but when Jeremiah utters them, there is no Amen from the Israel gallery, nor even from the front rows in Judah!
Have you not noted that on that account Jeremiah does not plead the merit of the people, or even their claim for mercy. He rests his whole prayer in the character and custom of God. Do Thou it for Thy Names sake.
O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble. But, even while he is about pleading Gods character and trusting that, in spite of his peoples sins, God will show His compassion, he practically confesses that they put God wholly out of their lives by adding, Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
How significant those words! God, a stranger in the midst of His own people; God, a wayfarer in His own land! Why? There can be but one answer; because the people have forgotten God and become estranged from Him. Why? as a wayfaring man, because they have not made Him welcome in their homes. They have ceased to have family devotions; they have ceased to engage in private prayer; they have not acknowledged Him at the table as they sat down to consume what He Himself had provided. They have turned Him out of His own house.
The Prophet cried, O Lord, * * we are called by Thy Name; leave us not, as if God, like an indifferent father was walking off from His family in their day of trouble and of darkness, instead of the actual casethe family having flung the Father out, having practically told Him to his face, We will not have You to rule over us, nor will we entertain You under our roofs. That is why God answered, They loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Men are daily speculating on what the future holds for America. One writer says that the darkness will deepen; the depression will increase, the unemployment will grow; the poor will suffer increasingly, the prospect is black! Another one says, the day brightens; tomorrow will bring us back to the high financial tide of yesterday, and the day after will reveal a world in abundance beyond that any century has ever seen, and the public reads the two opinions and wonders which will prove to be the prophetPessimist as they call him, or the Optimist as they name him!
Hear me! The future is not with the prophet; still less with the philosopher.
H. G. Wells has no more ground of promise for the days that are ahead than he had for his unwarranted and false history of the past. The future is with God, and if the people repent of their sins and God returns, prosperity will be their portion, and if they continue to plunge more deeply into the mire of lawlessness, sensual excesses, blind-pigging, racketeering, banditry, kidnapping and multiplied murders, then the future will see the days turned into nights, plenty into poverty, and peace into war; and the very earth that is robed in autumnal beauty this morning will come to wear the black veil of mourning, and the widow-weeds of a deserted world, for the world is increasingly rejecting God. Is it any wonder that it is set for the experience of
THE DIVINE WRATH
Turn again to the text, Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
That is a strange statement, and yet, upon further study it will prove to be a very significant statement. Mercy is not always for the good of people. Sometimes judgment and judgment alone can bring them to blessing, and God so loves man that He will do the thing that is for mans good rather than the thing that even His Prophet pleads.
Crucifixion even was the Salvation of Barabbas! Minnesota does not provide for capital punishment, and many a criminal is cursed by that soft sentimentality. How much better it would have been for the two yeggmen, killed in their endeavor to rob the Menominie, Wis. bank last week, if they had been shown no such mercy as escape from both prison and gallows. Their innocent victims would then have lived and they themselves had time and occasion to repent ere death came. Mans good is not always accomplished by mercy. If it were prisons would be dispensed with and the gallows ended. There are times when justice is for the good of the judged. That is the whole basis upon which law enforcement rests. We are anxious to do more than protect society against criminals; we are anxious to protect the criminal against himself! Hence the Reformatory, the prison house, and if need be, the electric chair.
This judgment then, was not to be turned away by intercessory prayer.
Pray not for this people for their good.
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Mark you, this is not a passage that opposes, at any point, Gods promises of compassion to the penitent! These people were not penitent; they were in no sense sensible of their sins; they had seared their consciences; they had filled their ears with cotton; they had hardened their hearts; they had deliberately rejected God and made permanent choice of sins highway.
Intercessory prayer is a mighty power. God has made many promises to it; and again and again He has marvelously fulfilled the same. But there are times and conditions under which God does not wish to hear the intercessory prayer voiced: because He grieves alike to reject the plea of a true man, and, yet, knows the folly of forgiving and further favoring the impenitent.
With the growth of crime in this country, involving as it does hundreds and thousands, yea even tens of thousands of boys, the text is finding multiplied illustrations. The parents and friends of these boys always feel that their sins ought to be forgiven and that the State ought to show compassion; that the prison term ought to be cut short; that the criminal ought to be given another chance, and given it straight away.
They forget that oftentimes that course would not be good for the criminal himself. If the boy who snatched the purse from the hand of some woman as she walked by the mouth of the black alley last month was caught, convicted of his crime and put behind the bars, was pardoned out the next month, he would naturally reason, Well, if I get in again I will get out. A few months off duty, with fair board, is not so bad. Next time Ill engage in a holdup and get a bigger amount, so that if I escape entirely I will profit more; if I am apprehended I will trust the friends on the outside to intercede again in my behalf.
In my office as pastor, there are scores of mothers that have come to me from time to time asking that my influence be used to secure the release of a convicted child. My heart is touched to pity for them. I know full well how deep is their sorrow, how great their chagrin. But a proper judgment for sin is, in the end, a panacea for the same. Criminality in Minnesota increases because there is no proper judgment for the vilest, bloodiest murderer; no gallows, no electric chair faces him no matter how infamous, brutal or inhuman his murderous crime.
Shallow thinking has so far pushed the act of compassion that if those brutes, in the form of men who during the past week robbed a neighboring bank of $130,000, shot through the shoulder one of the bankers sons because he could not meet their demands, and murdered in cold blood his younger brother as a reprisal against those who attempted to thwart their escape, had done their dastardly deed in Minnesota, the utmost justice that could be meted out to them would be a temporary residence in a walled enclosure with fair board for the rest of life.
There are people who think that God ought to be either a compassionate, motherly woman, or a dear old daddy who would look with complacency upon anything that spoiled children might care to accomplish. As for me, I prefer that God that speaks to Jeremiah; that God who believes that certain sins ought to come to judgment; and who, when crime demands it, will not hesitate to end the same by sword or famine or pestilence.
This wrath was not to be escaped, either, through lying prophets. Pleading the cause of his people, Jeremiah said:
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in My Name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in My Name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sward; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them (Jer 14:13-16).
If God forgave all the people that follow false prophets the world would be nothing but a holocaust of crime. A man is not excused from sin because he has believed the lying speech of a sanctimonious pretender, or a polished philosopher. A few years ago false prophets said:
This war is one of the worlds growing pains, and in the law of evolution, such is to be expected. It will result in making the world safe for democracy. While it is on, prices will be better and when it is over, more valuable lessons will have been learned; human life will have been lifted to a higher plane and the law of evolution will have a fresh demonstration in an improved species of man.
There were plenty of foolish people who believed that philosophy and today they are seeing the fruits of their folly. The growing pains do not pass; but deepen rather. Evolution did not take place; but devolution instead. The improvement promised did not come; but a moral pandemonium.
Now we have a new crop of prophets and the very same fellows who saw in war the worlds forward step are pleading for peace as the promise of all possible good, the precursor of the prophetic millennium.
Again they are calling their crowd; and there are hundreds of people, yea thousands and millions of them, who imagine that the World Court, and the Hague Council, or the International League will prove the panacea for international ills.
What nonsense! The prophetic Word of God stands fast and the prophet of world-improvement by war or peace was not sent of God; neither has He commanded them; neither spake He unto them.
They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their hearts and God answers, By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them. False prophets, who cry Peace! Peace! when there is no peace; false prophets who call evil good and good evil; false prophets who oppose the Divine plan of redemption for the individual and set us a chimerical claim of civilizing a world and saving a race!
Dr. Henry Ostrom, speaking before the Northwestern Bible School one morning, said: The cry of the false prophet has now ceased from the simple endeavor of individual redemption; quit the petty business of trying to snatch the sinning man; Save the ship they say!
And then Dr. Ostrom asked, Who will save the ship, and how?
That is a pertinent question. In 1911 they built an unsinkable ship, and in order to voice its sure strength they called it The Titanic. Their boast was that no force of nature could send it to the bottom of the sea; and to demonstrate they forced it through the ice-berg-infested waters of the north at a speed hitherto never attempted. They would defy natures forces; they would prove mans triumph over the same; they would demonstrate that even the Deity could not now endanger the climax of mans invention.
But the history of that endeavor is written in a thousand burials at sea. When the S.O.S. cry rang out from that sinking ship and the San Francisco either failed to catch it, or went about her business believing the danger to be small, and the Carpathia, on the faraway waves, turned her prow to assist, and at the end of hours came along side, did she strive to save the ship? No! Saving that ship was impossible! That ship had defied God and all the forces at His command and the sides had been driven in and if every ocean liner on the sea had been within call their combined endeavors could not have saved the Titanic, she was doomed.
The Carpathia did save several hundred drowning men and women and brought them safely to shore; but the ship itself was wounded unto death. He was a false prophet who thought to staunch her wounds and set her afloat again.
In this day at least, the servant of God has an adequate task to which he is clearly committed, namely, to stretch out a hand to the drowning and, if possible, lift him into the life boat; and as those who clung to the Titanic went down with her, so those who cling to the world and wait for its redemption, are forever doomed; all the false prophets of the earth can bring them no help.
In fact, these false prophets are themselves losing hope, and like the over-confident officers of the Titanic, are compelled, whether they will or not, to turn their eyes to those rescuers who have come along side, or sink!
Three years ago Harry Emerson Fosdick, the most famed of the new school, gave expression to exactly what I am saying. His observation compelled his admission. Writing of the liberal preachersthe false prophets of this day, he said:
An increasing number of preachers, too modern to use the old, textual method, do not on that account light on a better one. They turn to what is called topical preaching. They search contemporary life in general and the newspapers in particular for subjects. They find that such subjects as divorce, Bolshevism, or the latest book have such attractive vividness that they enjoy their own preaching better and more people come to hear it.
The nemesis of such a method, however, is not far off. Watch the records of any considerable number of those who try it and see how many of them peter out and leave the ministry altogether.
The tears even of the true prophet will not avail.
Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow (Jer 14:17).
Beyond all doubt the plea of the true prophet has availed often with God. Beyond all question, his tears are bottled up and his prayer is heard. But there are occasions where no tears are sufficient to effect salvation. How many men have wept over their godless children; how many devoted fathers have bent the knees daily and begged for compassion upon prodigals, and yet the prodigals themselves refused to turn from sin and see the Saviour.
We used to have a song that we often sang. It was doubtless intended to teach the true way of salvation, namely, the way of faith vs. works, of penitence vs. penance. It ran like this:
Weeping will not save me,Though my face were bathed in tears That could not allay my fears Could not wash the sins of years Weeping will not save me!
Sobbing cannot save a sinful son, a wilful daughter. Think of David as an illustration of this fact.
If ever a father loved a boy, he loved Absalom. And if ever a father prayed for a son he prayed for that lad. But Absalom would not listen to either a fathers counsel or the admonitions of God, and judgment came when his beautiful body, topped by those raven locks, hung between earth and heaven, a corpse,the victim of his own crime. The report of that judgment sent David to his chamber over the gate, weeping out his soul as he went, saying, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
But when a Saviours death will not suffice, though a father offer himself willingly in the sons behalf, it would prove insufficient.
However, lest we conclude that God can reach the point where He shuts up entirely the bowels of His compassion, let us continue our studies in this fifteenth chapter and see that this is not so; for the concluding verses of the fifteenth chapter (Jer 14:19-21), present
THE BLESSED REDEMPTION
It was promised to the true and penitent Prophet!
Thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before Me: * * return not thou unto them (Jer 15:19).
There are times when to be saved one must separate himself from his own. That is what is meantIf thou return, We are so bound to friends by the ties of kinship and by the affections cultivated through the years, that we are tempted to take their way and to say, as Moses said, if they cannot be saved, Blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy Book which Thou hast written.
Let it not be so! Come yourself; stand in person before Him. Separate from those who will not cease their companionship of the evil, even though you stand alone.
How often men reach that very point. Well do I remember the morning when I reached that point myself. The best loved companion I had in the world was in the audience. I knew full well that to go to God was to break from him and others who, though less dear, were precious. But I knew that either that break had to come, or my soul perish. There is a Divine voice that says: Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2Co 6:17-18).
After all, salvation is a personal decision. It can never be else. It is a decision that cannot be made by crowds, but by an individual only. He who goes through the straight and narrow gate must, at the moment of his passing, walk alone, just exactly as he who passes the portals that connect time with eternity can take no one with him. That journey for a few seconds at least, until the face of the Saviour on the further side is seen, must be taken alone!
However, in redemptions plan, the Prophets penitent friends are included.
If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth.
That meant if some will come with you, let them return unto thee if they will, in other words, Let them come with thee but return not unto them.
Here again there is a great principle involved, namely, no mam, liveth unto himself. Few men ever decide for Christ and stand alone. In the act of decision they are alone, but in the instantaneous result they are likely to be accompanied. I had to quit my friend Thomas in order to reach my Christ, but what was my joy, as I felt some one coming to kneel by my side, to turn my weeping eyes and look to see that Howard, my closest neighbor boy and perhaps second in my affections, had determined to go with me. He is today a banker, a deacon in his church, a great and Godly man!
We may decide alone, but we will not walk alone; there will be others who will join us and take the trail of light that leads to the Eternal Home.
Finally, the text voices alike the power and the compassion of God.
I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible (Jer 15:20-21).
I will deliver thee. I, with whom is all power. I will deliver. I will redeem. Oh, what comfort! He who speaks, in this precious promise, has the power; and His compassion is such as to assure the promise.
It is great to have the promise of God. The promise of His pardon, His peace! The promise of His keeping is contentment! The promise of a final place with Him is a foretaste of Heaven!
Dear Jonathan Edwards was taken very ill at New Haven in 1725. He started for his home at Windsor, but reaching North Village, could go no further; and there he hung between life and death for three months.
He says: I observed that those who were watching at my side would often be looking out of the window and they seemed to be watching very anxiously for the break of day. It reminded me of the words of the Psalmist: My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. And he continued, It was even so, more than they that watched for the morning, so when the light of the morning came into the window to refresh me it seemed to be some image of Gods glory.
Redemption then, is not only a deliverance from the hand of the wicked and out of the hand of the terrible, but eventually deliverance into the everlasting arms.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTESFor Chronology of the Chapter and Historical Facts, see on chap. Jer. 10:5 in loc.
1. Personal Allusions. Jer. 15:1. Moses and Samuel, here mentioned as having been preeminent and prevailing intercessors on behalf of their people. Comp. Exo. 32:11-14; Num. 14:13-20, as to Moses; and 1Sa. 7:9; 1Sa. 12:23, as to Samuel: confer also Psalms 99 as to both. Jer. 15:4. Manasseh, son of Hezekiah: Hezekiah was a most devout and religious king, whose piety throws into more heinous contrast the unrestrained guiltiness of his impious son, Manassehthe thirteenth king of Judah; reigned longer than any other monarch of the Davidic line; born (probably) cir. B.C. 710; his mother, Hephzibah, daughter of a citizen or prince of Jerusalem (2 Kings 21). He succeeded to the throne at the age of twelve; the event was the signal for complete moral and spiritual debasement of the whole nation; every form of foreign idolatry was introducedloathsome, sensuous, barbariceven to the Moloch fires (2Ki. 16:3; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 7:31), while the worship of Jehovah was repudiated, the holiness of the very sanctuary defiled (2Ch. 33:4), Gods prophets ruthlessly persecuted and slain (2Ki. 21:16), and the Theocracy openly repudiated and contemned. In the twenty-second year of his reign (according to a Jewish tradition), Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, invaded Israel, and carried Manasseh into Babylonian captivity, from which he was released (probably, for Scripture is strangely silent respecting his career) at the death of this Assyrian monarch. He then returned to his land, and attempted a reformation of his apostate and degraded nation and the restoration of Jehovahs worship (2Ch. 33:15-16), but the impurity and impiety of the people were beyond recal. His name, notwithstanding this repentance, was long held in abhorrence among the Jews.
2. Natural History. Jer. 15:3. Dogs to tear fowls of the heaven and beasts of the earth to devour, &c. Troops of hungry and semi-wild dogs wander about the fields and streets of the cities, devouring dead bodies and other offal (Dr. W. Smith). These dogs would tear, mutilate, and partly devour the dead bodies (cf. 2Ki. 9:35; 2Ki. 9:37), and birds and beasts of prey, vultures, jackals, and others, would make an end of such portions as the dogs left (Keil). Jer. 15:9. Her sun is gone down while it is yet day: Dr. Payne Smith suggests that many consider the reference here to the battle of Megiddo, depicting the consternation of Jerusalem at that event. If so, in the sun going down while it was yet day, there will be a reference to the eclipse on Sept. 30, B.C. 610. Thus Hitzig remarks that the prophet refers to the battle of Megiddo, the more probably (2Ki. 23:29) as the figure of the sun setting in bright daylight might then be founded on the eclipse which took place in that valley Sept. 30, B.C. 610.
3. Manners and Customs. Jer. 15:3. I will appoint over them four kinds: (appoint, same word as in Jer. 13:21 ): just as God had set over Israel kings, priests, prophets, and judges for the nations well-being, so now He placed the people under the jurisdiction of these four destructive agencies (cf. Eze. 14:21). Jer. 15:7. I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land: allusion to the winnowing process by which the chaff is driven out of the windows of the threshing-floor; in such manner would this people (mere chaff) be driven out of the openings and exits, the gates of the land. Jer. 15:10. Lent on usury: the Mosaic law interdicted interest on loans to the poor (Exo. 22:25), and later on discriminated between foreigners and Hebrews, permitting usury upon loans to foreigners, but repudiating it with their brethren (Deu. 23:19-20). From this verse it appears that discredit was attached to any who lent on usury even so late as in Jeremiahs days. Yet there were departures from this law, and they caused bitter strife and contention between money-lender and debtor. Jer. 15:17. Sat not in the assembly of the mockers: convivial gatherings; meetings where, amid hilarity and festivity, God was ignored and sacred things ridiculed. See notes on chap. Jer. 6:11. I sat alone because of Thy hand: either because the prophetic power so possessed his soul as to draw him apart from ordinary society and compel him to an isolated life (so Keil, Clarius, Vatablus, &c.), or because of the faithful communication of his inspired messages he had been expelled from society, and been made the object of their fierce indignation (Henderson).
4. Literary Criticisms. Jer. 15:1. Cast them out of My sight: send them, or drive them, from My presence; lit., from before My face, ; the form implies (supposititiously) that the people were assembled before Jehovah within the Templethey were to go forth, leave the sacred precincts; God would not be interceded for them. Jer. 15:3. four kinds: , lit. families; agencies of destruction. Jer. 15:4. Cause them to be removed: , from the root , tossing, violent motion, maltreatment, quaking, terror. These various shades of meaning supply different interpretations of the text: I will cause them to be tossed violently hither and thither, abused, maltreated (Keil): I will give them up to agitation; they should have no rest, but be driven from place to place (Henderson): I will make them a shuddering unto all kingdoms (Hitzig, Graf): cause them to be a terror (Payne Smith): a horror (Lange). Jer. 15:5. Pity bemoan go aside, &c.: , to feel sympathy; , to lament and deplore; , to turn out of the wayto ask how thou doest. , to salam, salute, inquire as to ones health. No one will cherish the people with sympathy, indeed no one will trouble themselves to inquire as to their good. Jer. 15:6. Thou hast forsaken Ms, saith the Lord. ; the word forsaken is a feeble rendering of , thou hast cast Me out, abandoned Me. And this emphatic repudiation of Jehovah on their part justifies Gods refusal to be interceded for them. Jer. 15:7. Gates of the land: . Ewald and Graf render it earth, and understand it that God would winnow them through the extremities of the earth, remotest regions; but Keil, Lange, Henderson, retain land: God would drive them through the gates of their own land into exile. Jer. 15:8. I have brought upon them against the mother, &c.: Henderson: The words have been very differently construed. The LXX. . Some (Syriac, Arabic, C. B. Michaelis, and Ewald) compare the phrase , the mother with her children, but the position of the preposition before and not after renders such construction untenable. Others (Chaldean, Kimchi, J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, Graf, and Naegelsbach) take to be in the construct state: the mother of the young man, or, regarding the nouns as collectives, the mothers of the young men. Jarchi, Capellus, Castalio, Dr. Dieu. Dderlein, Eichorn, and Dahler (and Reshi) consider , mother, to mean, the metropolis (as 2Sa. 20:19). Favouring this latter rendering, Henderson reads the words thus: I have brought to themagainst the mother (city)a young spoiler (Nebuchadnezzar). But with Jerome and Kimchi, &c., both Keil and the Speakers Comm. coincide, and translates: I have brought upon them, even upon the mother and the young man, a spoiler, &c.i.e., no age or sex will escape the spoiler. I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly; rather, caused pangs and terrors to fall upon her suddenly. Jer. 15:10. Every one doth curse me: The Hebrew words have been wrongly divided, and should be The form (1st pers.) is unusual, yet is found in 2Sa. 23:6. Jer. 15:11. Verily it shall be well with thy remnant: a various reading appears here: a different pointing wholly changing the sense: may be pointed thus, , (the infinitive Kal from to oppress), or (from , to loose). The latter is preferable, and agrees with the rendering given to the only other appearance of the verb in the Heb. Scriptures (Job. 37:3; setteth the lightning loose). The reading of the words then is, Verily thy loosing shall be for good; or, Verily I have loosed thee for good. Thy remnant: these words of course disappear from the text, being included and lost in the above translation of the sentence. Cause the enemy to entreat thee well: (from , to meet, make peace, cause to supplicate): hence, I will cause the enemy to supplicate thee in the time of evil.
Jer. 15:12. Shall iron break: can iron (ordinary iron) break northern iron and brass? not steel; or, can one break iron, i.e., northern iron and brass? Jer. 15:14. I will make thee to pass with thine enemies: for the form , Henderson and Dr. Payne Smith give , I will cause thee to serve thine enemies: they make this change of the letter ( instead of ) on the ground of numerous MSS., also from the authority of the parallel passage, chap. Jer. 17:4. Jer. 15:15. Suffered rebuke: reproaJer_15:18. Pain incurable: very sick. , malignant (comp. chap. Jer. 30:12; Mic. 1:9; Isa. 17:11). Wilt Thou be? = Art Thou become. A liar: , as a deceitful (brook or stream). And as waters that fail: as precarious water; the opposite of the perennial stream of Amo. 5:24. Jer. 15:19. Bring thee again, &c., rather, I will cause thee again to stand before my face (see Lit. Crit. on ver., 1, supra). This was an assurance to Jeremiah, that if he returned to his unquestioning trust in Gods wisdom and ways, God would confirm him in his prophetic and vicegeral relation to Himself. It was a gentle reproof of his impatient questionings, and a pledge of the renewal of his sacred trust. Thou shalt stand before me, Luther renders, Thou shalt remain my preacher.
HOMILETIO OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 15
Section
Jer. 15:1-9.
Gods decisive refusal of the prophets petitions.
Section
Jer. 15:10-14.
The consequent outcry of woe answered with Divine expostulations.
Section
Jer. 15:15-21.
Fretting lamentations silenced with promises.
Jer. 15:1-9. GODS DECISIVE REFUSAL OF THE PROPHETS PETITION
I. There may be a criminality for which no intercession can be adequate.
1. Intercessors had prevailed even in cases of appalling guilt. When Moses and Samuel interceded effectually, the condition of Israel was most iniquitous and provocative of Divine wrath; yet they prevailed in prayer. Such effectual fervent prayers of righteous men avail much. It would almost seem that nothing could transcend the reach of mediatorial pleadings.
2. Yet there is a bound to the prevalency of intercession. Even Moses and Samuel would now find their mediation fail. For (1) God could not be reconciled to such a people. His mind was irremediably averted from them. (2) He had irrevocably determined their banishment; could not endure or permit their remaining within His sight. Persistent and defiant criminality can effectually alienate God. There is a sin which is unto death; I do not say that he shall pray for it.
3. Nevertheless, in these times of grace, through Christ, it appears impossible to exceed Divine clemency. What Moses and Samuel and Jeremiah could not do, Jesus can! What the law (of Moses) could not do, &c. (Rom. 8:3). Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, &c. (Heb. 7:25).
II. Destructive agencies are in readiness for sinners abandoned to judgment.
1. A discriminating consignment to various forms of doom. All will not experience similar and equal judgment. A different form of punishment is allotted to each. Yet this going forth is not merely to banishment, but to execution. These shall go away to everlasting destruction.
2. Ruthless agencies of execution await their opportunity to destroy. So long as God shielded this people and retained them before His face, they were secure. So long as we are shielded by His mercy, ruin cannot reach us, however we may merit the ruin. But instantly God sent them out of His sight, away from His befriending, lo! death, the sword, famine, and captivity, all rushed upon them. Cast away from Gods presence, we shall find executioners vigilant.
3. Abandoned spiritual apostasy is the unpardonable offence with God. (See Personal Allusions on Jer. 15:4, Manasseh.) The horrifying indulgences, sacriligeous debasements, foul practices, defiance and defilement of Gods holiness and holy place: these were the peoples crimes under Manasseh. He did but let loose their cherished apostasy. Himself vile, the nation rushed into and revelled in vileness and villany. This is the sin unto death.
III. Flagrant wickedness ultimately alienates all commiseration or compassion.
1. Human pity is estranged (Jer. 15:5). No one will sympathise with their misery, lament their ruin, or inquire for their condition.
2. Divine relenting is exhausted (Jer. 15:6). God was weary with repenting, and would now inexorably punish.
3. Justice effectually avenges impenitence. They return not from their ways (Jer. 15:7). That justifies their final and severe doom. (1) From their land driven forth (Jer. 15:7). (2) Their holy city desolated (Jer. 15:8). (3) Death and doom overtaking all, irrespective of sex or age (Jer. 15:9, see Lit. Crit. on verse).
NOTE: Pity is slow to die, even from the human heart; it survives, and asserts itself even when all affection is dead. Far more slowly does Gods pity die. Yet heinous, determined, ostentatious, and persistent guilt will eventually destroy all pity for the wicked. Then only terrible and implacable miseries can ensue.
Jer. 15:10-14. THE OUTCRY OF WOE ANSWERED WITH EXPOSTULATIONS
Seeing that he availed nothing by prayer, the prophet raised his lament. Into his cry enter both personal disappointment and patriotic dismay.
I. He bemoans his troubled prophetic career, since it accomplished no national good.
He repines over: 1. His personal hardships. 2. His prophetic calling and commission, for these had been fruitful of grief, suffering, and calumny. And 3. The hostility he encounters: Every one doth curse me; his experiences are as distressing as if he had himself been a man of strife and contention, and as if his occupation had been that of the hated usurer! Observe how he gives prominence to the comfortless aspects of his career,how he thrusts his own troubles forward, almost ignoring the wisdom and benignity of the Divine purpose in commissioning him to prophetic duties. What were his sufferings and discomforts as compared with the opportunities and persuasives to salvation God had sent to the nation through him? He betrays:
i. Grief for apparent failure in his work and prayers. He felt angry that he effected less than he wished (Calvin). All ministers could alike complain.
ii. Regret for the hardships his ministry had entailed. Sinners are apt to judge and slander faithful preachers as contentious disturbers of their peace.
iii. Trouble for the irrevocable ruin of his nation. The hearts of his people were unmoved, unchanged. And, his preachings and prayers notwithstanding, Judah was doomed!
II. With mingled promises and threatenings God answers the prophets complaint. Jehovah meets the outcry thus:
1. He assures him of ameliorating mercies amid the coming distress (Jer. 15:11). He should be exempt from the national woe, and be treated with forbearance.
2. Explains the prophets impotency in intercession. His prayers are but as iron, stout and determined indeed; yet Gods purpose to send Judah into exile is inflexible as northern iron and steel, or, the Assyrian invasion cannot be repelled now by your prayers (Jer. 15:12).
3. Justifies the severe judgments He had determined upon Judah. Her prevalent sins (Jer. 15:13) necessitated punishment.
4. Avows Himself moved to a fiery anger which should consume the hardened nation. God was wroth, justly and resolutely angry; and such righteous anger could not be restrained, as if it were fitful, by even His prophets cries. Personal feeling must bow to Divine equity.
Jer. 15:15-21. FRETTING LAMENTATIONS SILENCED WITH PROMISES
In the strophe (Jer. 15:15-18), the prophet, though recognising that the fall of Judah is inevitable, as shown in Jer. 15:12-14, and that he cannot escape the hard lot of having to predict the ruin of his country as a purpose absolutely determined, yet offers unto God a last expostulation, and that in a tone of reproach, as if the promises made in chap. Jer. 1:18 had not been fulfilled.
His words are full of meaning:
I. He appeals to God the all-knowing (who was acquainted, therefore, with the manner of his call, the promises made him, the hopes with which he had accepted his office, his disappointment, his dangers, the opposition he had met with, and his perseverance when in despair) to show that He remembered him by visiting him, i.e., by interfering in some marked manner in his behalf and punishing his persecutors.
To the prophet Gods long-suffering towards the wicked seemed to be the abandonment of himself to death, and justice itself required that one who was suffering contumely for Gods sake should be delivered.
II. He contrasts the joy with which he had accepted his office (Jer. 15:16), when he received Gods words and did eat them, with
III. The present revulsion of his feelings (Jer. 15:17): the intense indignation with which he regarded the sins of the people, which were heinous in themselves, grievous offences against God, and involved the ruin of His Church. Then
IV. Prays for more evident help (Jer. 15:19). It is the prayer of a man in bitter grief, whose human nature cannot at present submit to the Divine will.
V. Laments that the delivery of Gods message availed nothing. His labours were in vain. This made his pain perpetual, &c. Nothing he did had in aught changed the miserable state of things around him. Jeremiah had expected that, called to so high an office, there would be perpetual interference of Providence in his behalf, instead whereof, things seemed to take only their natural course God seemed as a deceitful stream to him.
To all this God made a reply full of forbearance and graciousness, although comfort is blended with rebuke.
I. Solemn conditions are specified. These were imperative to the prophets reinstatement in official dignity and service (Jer. 15:19).
1. Personal return. Jeremiah had, as in chap. 12, questioned Gods righteousness; he is told he must return, must repent him of his doubts, and think only of his duty.
2. Separation in himself of what was divine and holy from the dross of human passion (Maurer): let the precious metal be distinct from the vile.
II. Gracious assurances are given.
1. The restoration of Jeremiah to the prophetic office: I will cause thee again to stand before me (see Lit. Crit. on verse). To stand before a person means to be his chief officer or viceregent, and is said of Elijah (1Ki. 17:1), and Elisha (2Ki. 3:14), as Gods prophets; of David as Sauls minister (1Sa. 16:21-22), of Nebuzar-adan as commander-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzars arms (Jer. 52:12, margin).
2. He should be again the organ by which God would speak: Thou shalt be as My mouth. Here is supplied a principle for regulating the prophets conduct:Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them: concede not to the peoplea flattering prophet perishes with the people whom his soft speeches have confirmed in their sin; but the truthful speaking of Gods Word saves both.
3. The original promises and covenant with Jeremiah are confirmed (Jer. 15:20-21). This repeats Gods pledge given at Jeremiahs original call (see chap. Jer. 1:18-19), adding the promise of deliverance from men of open violencethe terrible.Arranged from Speakers Com.
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 15
Jer. 15:1. Theme: THE LOATHSOME SOUL OUTCAST FROM GOD. My mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of My sight.
Such is Jehovahs answer to the kneeling, weeping, pleading prophet. Jeremiah, in his prayer, had asked, as if it could never really be so, Hath Thy soul loathed Zion? (Jer. 14:19). Now God affirms that the people had become irrevocably loathsome to Him.
I. Loathing would seem impossible to a God of beneficent love.
1. Sin, though repulsive, did not alienate Gods love from the world. For God commended His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
2. However defiled and worthless the sinner, there dwells abounding grace in Christ. None can exceed the virtue of His atonement or the compass of His pity, or the fulness of His Gospel calls.
3. It is the crowning glory of God that He is merciful to our unrighteousness. He proclaims Himself to be, and would be known as, The Lord merciful and gracious, &c.
4. Love delights to assert itself towards those in the lowest depths of alienation. It seeks and saves the lost.
5. Extreme cases in the Gospel records encourage hope for vilest sinners. The crucified malefactor, who cast revilings in Christs teeth; Mary Magdalene, out of whom was cast seven devils; Saul, who breathed out threatenings and slaughter, &c.
II. Loathing can only ensue where love has been relentlessly outraged. This was Judahs case; her conduct had exhausted and exceeded all the resources of Divine love.
1. Love may not neutralise the law and action of rightness. It may interpose and mitigate justice, but not frustrate it. And where love effects no change in the sinner, right must be allowed to pursue its course and requite the guilty conduct.
2. Wilful contempt of patient and pitying love courts Divine aversion. Such treatment of Gods gentleness and patience arouses indignation. Last of all, He sent His Son, and Him they slew!
3. The superlative crime of the sinner is to outrage and alienate love. To break law is evil enough, but when love interposes to shield the wrong-doer, for him then to abuse love is to culminate iniquity.
III. Loathing, when once incurred, closes all hope of reconciliation. My mind cannot be towards this people.
1. The very thoughts of God, as well as His affections, turn irrevocably away from such heinous transgressors.
2. No intercession can effect a recal of the Divine complacency. He cannot look upon such sin.
3. While the horrible heartlessness of men remains there can be no basis of reconciliation. Intercession is powerful, and is not without fruit, when he who prays and they for whom he prays are of like spirit (Cramer). But, with relentless hostility in the human heart, God can never turn compassionately towards the sinner.
IV. Loathing having been righteously merited, the doom of banishment follows. Cast them out of My sight.
1. No place in the Divine mind entails no place in the Divine presence. Having forfeited Gods favour, the soul must quit His abode.
2. No place in the Divine presence entails irrevocable banishment. An outcast,a castaway. These shall go away. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood these things, that they would consider their latter end.
Theme: INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
Prayer is both a duty and a privilege. Scripture commands that those who pray should not limit prayer to self: Pray one for another. Intercessions are to be made for all men (1Ti. 2:1-2). Jeremiah had prayed very earnestly for his people. He was not only unsuccessful, but was even forbidden to pray for them (14 Jer. 15:11). Moreover, he is informed that though Moses and Samuel should both stand before God, even they could not prevail. This suggests to us that there are limits to the duty and to the power of intercessory prayer. Consider, then,
I. That intercessory prayer is an exercise of great value.
1. As developing our love to man. Interesting ourselves in his trials, seeking to save him from his sins. This love may be shown first to our nearest friends, but it will, if true, take in man as man. We are to pray even for them that despitefully use us.
2. As carrying out the Divine precepts. In the spirit of Christ, in the fellowship of life. When ye pray say, Our Father. The model prayer is in the plural, our, us, we; not I, my, me.
3. As following after noble examples. Abraham, Moses, Samuel (1Sa. 7:9), Elijah, Jeremiah, Jesus, and all good men who love the souls of their fellows.
4. As obtaining great blessings for others. Lot appears to have been saved by Abrahams prayer. Israel often spared because Moses or Samuel prayed (Exo. 32:11-14; Num. 14:17-20; 1Sa. 7:9). The prayer of faith was to save the sick, to obtain even salvation (Jas. 5:15; 1Jn. 5:16), &c.
II. That intercessory prayer can be offered only by good men. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
1. He must not be under the sin against which he prays. If it be a prayer of sympathy for one in trouble, this rule has no force. It is essential that, as the priest of old time went in first for himself then for the people, so it should be also with intercessory prayer.
2. Should know by experience the value of the blessing he craves for another. Else how can he pray with the heart and understanding.
3. He must be willing to join effort with prayer. Otherwise his sympathy and desire will be a mere pretence, a thing of words, a mere worthless sentiment. God will not hear the prayers of those who will do nothing but pray, if they are able to do other things besides to gain the object of their prayers.
III. That intercessory prayer has some limitations even when offered by the best of men. Such as Jeremiah, Moses, Samuel.
1. This is evident from Scripture. Abraham could not prevail to save Sodom. Peter would not pray for Simon Magus; he must pray for himself. John in his First Epistle says, There is a sin unto death; I do not say that he shall pray for it. (See other texts.)
2. This is evident from observation. We have all known many prayers offered for others which have been apparently unanswered. Sometimes the faults are in ourselves (see under II.), but sometimes we fail to find explanation.
3. Reason would lead to the same conclusion. The best of men are but men. They may at times be more influenced by sorrowful sights than by sinful acts. Personal feeling controls them as it does others. Prayer is powerful, but not all-powerful. God will grant their requests if in so doing He can be just and true to allHis character and all His people.
IV. That intercessory prayer is a grand distinction and provision of the Gospel. We have
1. The best of intercessors (Heb. 7:25). In office, in sympathy, in work, in influence.
2. Praying for the best of blessings. Salvation, preservation, comfort, glory (Joh. 17:24).
3. Taking up the case of every soul that trusts Him. All that come unto God by Him (Heb. 7:25).
4. Always successful in His intercession. He will not take up any case which would or could fail. He always does those things which please the Father. He is always heard (Joh. 11:42). His plea is irresistible,it satisfies law, it magnifies grace, it humbles the sinner, it glorifies the Father, it consecrates life to good deeds.
Let the failure of others teach us to fly for refuge to the only One whose intercessions are unfailing. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous (His prayer for Peter Luk. 22:31-32).W. Whale.
Jer. 15:2. Theme: INCREDULITY AT GOD MESSAGE OF DOOM. If they shall say unto theeas they are likely to do in a jeer and with scoffing incredulityWhither shall we go forth?
I. The seeming incredibility of the doom pronounced.
1. Sinners cannot think their ruin really imminent. They dream on demented, revel in sin, blinded to its enormity and their own peril.
2. Messages of doom seem to them empty menaces. It was so when Noah prophesied the Flood; so when the angel threatened Sodoms overthrow; so with the terrible predictions of our Lord concerning Jerusalems destruction; and is so still when the end of all things and the fiery judgment are announced.
3. Dreadful calamities start in the mind a revulsion which produces incredulity. A kind of blank bewilderment results from the attempt to entertain a terrifying announcementWhither shall we go forth? It is simply incredible, impossible. So now, in our own times, sinners answer the announcement of the woes awaiting the impenitent with a light indifference, a jeering unbelief. It is not credible that God will doom us, will dismiss us for ever from salvation!
II. The ready incredulity of those under doom.
Condemned souls would prefer not to realise the sentence true; so find evasive questions, endeavour to explain away the menace as meaningless, and then jeer contemptuously at the messenger who prophesies evil against them. The same process is rife to-day; for cavillers answer the preacher thusThere is no doom to the unsaved: whither will the ungodly be banished? Doom will not be very distressing: it is impossible that a soul should be for ever lost.
1. Man meets Gods threatenings with incredulity.
2. God meets mans incredulity with specific affirmations. Such as are for death, &c. There is a dreadful precision in Gods dire messages: they cannot well be explained away as parabolic images, as oriental and pictorial figures, merely setting off in bold colours a trifling occurrence. Such things as are here arrayed in order to bring incredulity to its sober sensesdeath, the sword, famine, captivityare more than imaginary forms of speech; they are terrific facts, appallingly literal.
Note: Sinners would be wise to believe God means exactly what He threatens. What madness to risk the future on an evasive interpretation of His menaces!
See Addenda: SCORNFUL INCREDULITY.
Theme: SCOFFING ANSWERED BY SARCASM. The words may be so interpreted
I. Derisive questionings: Whither shall we go forth? Perhaps you will tell us a little more explicitly what our doom is to be! Inform us, if you can, where and to what we are to be driven.
II. Sarcastic directions. Would you know more precisely to what God will send you forth? Then hear: Each to his allotted doom: one shall go forth to death, and he shall certainly meet it; another to the sword, &c. The way will be made quite plain to you, so plain that you will not be likely to miss your appointed doom. These evils you jeer at will be found waiting for you in their appointed place. Do not think there will be any probability of your missing them. All is carefully and conveniently arranged for you. (Comp. Jer. 15:3-4.)
Jer. 15:4. Comments
I WILL CAUSE THEM TO BE REMOVED.
Blayney rightly observes that the word rendered to be removed, in our version, has no such meaning. The verb means to move, agitate, disquiet, but not to move from one place to another. The noun as found here is rendered vexation in Isa. 28:19, and trouble in 2Ch. 29:8. The idea of removing is not given in any of the versions, nor in the Targum. It is used in two places by Jeremiah, chap. Jer. 24:9; Jer. 29:18. In both places vexation, trouble, or disquietude would be the best rendering. The sentence may be thus translated: And I will render them a vexation to all the kingdoms of the earth. Literally it is, I will give them for a vexation, &c. And so they became; they were a trouble and a disquietude wherever they were; and hence they became, as it is said in chap. Jer. 29:18, a curse, a hissing, and a reproach among all nations.
Venema gives this rendering: And I will give them for a shaking to all the kingdoms of the earth. Which he understands to mean, that they would be given to be shaken, agitated and disquieted.Ed. of Calvin.
The Jews were to have no rest, but were to be driven from place to place at the pleasure of their enemies. Ewald: Spiel des Windes.Hend.
Rather: I will cause them to be a terror. So the Syriac and Rashi render, Every one who hears of the calamity that has befallen them will tremble. The words are quoted from Deu. 28:25.Speakers Com.
BECAUSE OF MANASSEH THE SON OF HEZEKIAH. The sin upon which this severe sentence is grounded
i. It is in remembrance of a former iniquity. It is because of Manasseh. What he did in Jerusalem we are told (1Ki. 21:3-4). This is brought into the account with the present generation, to show that the guilt of blood will light and lie somewhere sooner or later, and that reprieves are not pardons.
ii. It is in consideration of their present impenitency. Their own sin is described in Jer. 15:6-7. There is mercy for those who have turned aside, if they will return; but what favour can they expect who persist in their apostasy?Henry.
THE SON OF HEZEKIAH. But altogether degenerate. He was therefore the worse, because he should have been better; and the worse again, because he was author public corruptel, a ringleader of rebellion to others, as was Jeroboam.Trapp.
God keeps an exact protocol (register) of sins, and visits them to the third and fourth generation.Cramer.
See what uncertain comforts children are, and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not.Henry.
Qualis rex talis grex.Frster.
Theme: AN ANOMALY IN THE LAW OF TRANSMISSION. Because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah.
Notice that, 1. Grace was NOT transmitted from Hezekiah to Manasseh: parental virtues do not necessarily reappear in the children. 2. Guilt WAS transmitted from Manasseh to that generation: evil travels down, reappears through successive years.
Explanation: The human heart is not naturally enamoured of godliness, does not instinctively appreciate and reciprocate good example; but men love darkness, are quick to respond to the sway and charm of a bad example.
I. Eminent piety in the father does not ensure godliness in the son. Social life cannot guarantee what a childs future will be. Only Gods grace can implant holiness.
1. Godliness is not hereditary. Parents cannot produce it in their children. Neither is it transmitted involuntarily.
2. To see godliness at home does not necessarily awaken others to love and emulate it. The example of holiness is not omnipotent, neither is it sure to charm others. The heart is not prone to it.
II. Criminality is deepened when a holy parental example is repudiated.
1. It was Manassehs duty, personally and publicly, to follow Hezekiahs example. For the reforms Hezekiah had effected were manifestly right in themselves, and beneficial to the nation, as well as due to God, who had befriended Judah.
2. It was an aggravation of his guilt that he reversed all his father had done. He owed it to his father to respect the work he had so laboriously wrought; and to his fathers God to preserve the worship and sacred institutions he had so zealously restored.
[Notes:
The name of the pious father intensifies the horror at the wickedness of the son (2Ki. 21:3).Speakers Com.
We learn that they are worthy of a heavier punishment, who have been religiously brought up from their childhood, and have afterwards degenerated; who, having had pious and godly parents, afterwards abandon themselves to every wickedness. Hence a heavier judgment awaits those who depart from the examples of godly fathers.Calvin.
His relation to so good a father was a great aggravation to his sin, so far was it from being an excuse for it.Henry.]
III. Rueful consequences will overtake a people who elect and follow a guilty leader. Why does God threaten vengeance on this generation for Manassehs sins?
1. His example did not justify them in doing the same. They could not shelter themselves under the plea of Manassehs leading.
2. Their continuance in guilt was wilful and determined. They reproduced Manassehs crimes, but it was not because some force urged them on involuntarily; they did evil of their own accord.
3. The people had a choice of examples before them. Hezekiah had shown them the way of godliness; Manasseh, the way of sin. But they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. There was in them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
4. To follow evil leading will lead to evil issues. I will cause them to be removedto be a horroramong the nations, because of Manasseh. Both fall into the ditch.
See Addenda: PARENTAGE.
Jer. 15:5. Comments
Who will take pity to wish thee well? From Jer. 15:1-4, it follows with absolute certainty that Jehovah will no longer help, and that therefore Israel is inevitably lost. No longer any escape! If the Lord will not, who else will have pity on the people? (Isa. 51:19; Nah. 3:7.) Who, indeed, will even ask how they are? The thought seems to be implied, that still less will any one do aught for the welfare of the people, or any longer intercede for them as the prophet has done (Jer. 16:7 seq.)Naeg.
When God abandons us, we are abandoned also by the holy angels and all creatures. For as at court, when two eyes are turned away the whole court turns away; so when the Lord turns away, all His hosts turn away also.Cramer.
The sinful people will be given up to all the kingdoms of the earth to be ill used, for no one will or can have compassion on Jerusalem, since its rejection by God is a just punishment for its rejection of the Lord (Jer. 15:6). Have pity and bemoan denote loving sympathy with the fall of the unfortunate.Keil.
Theme: LOST EVEN TO PITY. Who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem?
It is usual to pity the ignorant, the unfortunate, the weak; but the wilfully evil, those who sin against the light of knowledge and the manifestations of love, must be blamed and, unless they repent, condemned. In her sorrows Jerusalem seemed an object of pity, but there were none to show favour unto her. The gods which she had worshipped could render no help, and the people at whose evil desire she had compromised her honour now taunted and derided her (Lam. 2:15). Who shall pity thee?
I. Thou hast had the oracles of God. Thy case is not as the heathen who have no knowledge, but as of those who love darkness rather than light.
II. Thou hast had great religious advantages. The priesthood, sacrifices, and mercy-seats. The Sabbaths, sacred feasts, and gracious promises.
III. Thou hast had a history of Divine mercies. In Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By Moses and Aaron, Joshua and the Judges, Samuel, David, and Solomon. At the Red Sea, at Marah, at Elim, at Rephidim, at Horeb, at Jordan, &c.
IV. Thou hast insulted and forsaken thy best Friend. Thy choice has been fatal to thee, for thou hast gone away after the weak, worthless, and wicked.
V. He who pities thee most is compelled to punish thee. For His holiness sake, and as a warning to others (Mat. 23:37; Mat. 23:39).
VI. All other pity is useless to thee. It cannot deliver thee. It cannot take away thy sin. Oh that thou wouldest truly repent and turn unto the Lord, then would He not only pity, but pardon and prosper thee.W. Whale.
See Addenda: LOST TO PITY.
Jer. 15:6. Theme: JEHOVAH WEARY WITH REPENTING.
These words do not accord with our ideas of the Divine Being. We are accustomed to the words, He fainteth not, neither is weary, and He is not man that He should repent. The word repent evidently is not to be taken in its ordinary sense as applied to men. So far from the word repent indicating change in God, it is the outworking of His immutability. He ever regards sin with abhorrence, and contrite hearts with pity and grace; if, therefore, the people are hardened in sin, He sends a message like that by Jonah to Nineveh, but if, during the day of grace, the people truly repent and cry for mercy, then, by the same law of His being, He refrains from carrying out His threatenings. There is a real change in the people, which alters the relationship in which they stand towards God, but there is only an apparent change in the Divine dealing. To the impenitent, God is unchangeably just. To the penitent, He is unchangeably merciful. The fact that God is weary of repenting, shows
I. That God had often turned from His threatenings, and dealt in mercy with the people.
II. That the Divine mercy had been frequently abused, and the people had gone back again to their sins.
III. That not a change in His being, but only a change of relationship, is expressed by the word repent (Jon. 3:10).
IV. That judgment is alien to Gods heart, whereas mercy is His delight. If He can, without weakening the force of justice and encouraging sin, He will magnify grace and save men.
V. That when God is met with persistent ingratitude, and men relapse continually to sin, He must eventually punish them. He is weary with repenting, and will deal in judgment with them.
VI. That the operations of the Divine mind can only be expressed in human language with difficulty and limitation.
VII. That we should be careful in not trifling with or abusing the patient longsuffering of God. My Spirit shall not always strive with man.W. Whale
WEARY WITH REPENTING. The punishment due has been delayed into weariness, and this seeming failure of justice has made Judah withdraw farther from God.Dr. Payne Smith.
This determination of the Lord will not change, for He is weary of repenting.Keil.
God is represented as a man whose patience is at last quite tired out, it being to no purpose to withdraw His hand any longer from striking.Lowth.
Comments
Jer. 15:7. The gates of the land mean the places by which men enter or leave it. As God winnows them, they are driven out of the land through all its outlets in every direction.Payne Smith.
The gates of the land mean the extreme points at which an entrance or an exit was effected. Jehovah threatens to carry them thither, to be thence scattered among the nations. (Comp. Nah. 3:13.)Henderson.
Jer. 15:8. Against the mother of the young men, &c. (See Lit. Crit. on ver. p. 315.) Most of the old commentators regarded this as a reference to the mother-city, Jerusalem. Archbishop Secker suggested that the nation in general is called the mother of each Jewin particular, citing Isa. 50:1 and Hos. 2:2-5. But exact criticism brings out the senseagainst the mother of the young man, the word rendered young man meaning a picked warrior; and suggesting that even the vigorous woman who had borne a valorous warrior would fall before the spoiler. Neither strength nor valour could deliver from him. Others suggest, that both mother and son would fall, neither age nor sex being respected.
Jer. 15:8. Theme: SUDDEN SPOLIATIONS.
A spoiler at noonday: Hendersons reading (see Lit. Crit.), a young spoiler, leads him to adopt into his comments a historic statement which Josephus cites from Berosus, the Chaldean historian, which reads thus: That Nabopollassar, king of Babylon, hearing that the provinces of Egypt, Cle-Syria, and Phenice had revolted, and being himself infirm from age, sent a part of his forces under his son Nebuchadnezzar (i.e., Nebuchadnezzar II.), then in the prime of youth, by whom these provinces were again reduced. After defeating Pharaoh-Necho at Charchemish, he marched forward against Jerusalem and captured it. The noonday attack, at an hour when military operations were usually suspended, indicated the restlessness of the spoilerhe could not wait; and the unexpectedness of the attackat an hour when none anticipated. So that these facts stand out:
I. The Divinity which rules in calamities. I have brought upon them: I have caused, &c. (1.) God works always. (2.) Disasters have a meaning and a mission. (3.) The law is being Divinely enforced that sin brings misery.
II. The resources of Jehovah for chastisement. God would have the young spoiler ready when the hour of judgment arrived. (1) He foreknows history, (2) anticipates the careers of nations, (3) provides for contingencies, and (4) prepares His emissaries for the work to be done.
III. The startling aspects of misfortune.
1. At an unlikely hour: noonday.
2. By an impatient agent: eager, restless, could not wait for the sultry noon to pass.
3. With an impetuous force: suddenly, like a lightning stroke; and fall upon, as a crushing avalanche, irresistible, overbearing all. Even the young warriors fell before the spoiler, and the mother too.
(a.) Thus affliction comes, and health, loved lives, are stricken.
(b.) Thus reverses befall, and home, fortune, are shattered.
(c.) Thus conscience terrifies, and the soul is filled with anguish for its guilt.
(d.) Thus death seizes its victims, and we lie cold; or widows multiply, or young men fall, or mothers weep for the slain.
(e.) Thus the last day will come, and the archangels cry will suddenly appal the world.
Theme: LIFES NOONTIDE. The spoiler at noonday.
Sermon to the Young.
I. In the noontide of life we suspect no nearing ills. The foe would not be anticipated at noonday. The young expect no perils.
II. In the noontide of life spoilers conspire for our fall. The schemes of the enemy are founded on our not expecting him. He takes advantage.
III. In the noontide of life the young have been destroyed. Think of Byron. Yes, even the young warrior. The young men do utterly fall.
IV. In the noontide of life death seizes its prey. No age is spared. The spoiler respects none. Youth may die.
V. In the noontide of life, Gods redeeming care is urgently needed. Only as He befriends us are we safe when the spoiler comes. Religion is not merely for old age. Youth needs God. Hid with Christ in Him, nought can harm. I fear no evil, for Thou art with me.
See Addenda: LIFES NOONTIDE.
Jer. 15:6-9. Theme: GOD FORSAKING AND GOD FORSAKEN.
When the Spirit of the Lord came upon Azariah, the son of Oded (2Ch. 15:1-2), he was moved to say unto Judah and Benjamin, The Lord is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him He will be found of you, but if ye forsake Him He will forsake you. These verses remarkably verify that inspired utterance. Here we meet
I. A God forsaking people. They are convicted by God Himself of a great folly and sin: Thou hast forsaken Me. In chap. Jer. 2:13 the charge is more complete. Creation is called upon to express surprise at a folly so conspicuous as that of forsaking the fount of all good, and taking up with helpless vanities.
Thou,who oughtest to have been unto Me a loyal and loving people, testifying of My power and grace, and proving by separation from the nations your preference for the living and true God.
Hast forsaken,not simply forgotten, or disobeyed, but of deliberate choice hast taken other gods, and disregarded Jehovah.
Me,who called Abraham and made a covenant of lasting privileges with him and his descendants, who brought you out of Egypt, who led you, fed you, protected you, and gave to you the land in which you dwell; and assured you, by wondrous promises which yet await fulfilment, of future good and greatness to you, if you could but be faithful to Jehovah.
II. A God-forsaken people. This is the effect, mans conduct the cause. If ye forsake Him, He will forsake you. When a people are forsaken of God, they are
1. Always retrograde. Thou art gone backward, spiritually gone back into Egypt. All who forsake God go backward, always backward, and downward. Unless they repent and obey God, there is no way forward and upward. Forward and upward is the desire and movement of a true soul.
2. Always in danger of destruction. Therefore will I destroy you. Therefore (i.e.), because you have gone backward. It is the penalty of a backward movement. It must come upon all who forsake God. If we forsake the mercy, we inherit the misery.
3. Always exposed to terrors and disasters. Suggested by such words as, bereave,widows,spoiler,terrors. All caused by the God they have forsaken.
4. Always drifting into languor, premature decline, shame, and death (Jer. 15:9). Such is the end of those who are forsaken of God. No strength, no courage, no progress, no real true life; but decline, captivity, and darkness. Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?W. Whale.
Comments
Jer. 15:9. She that hath borne seven languisheth. Seven, being the perfect number, signifies fulness: Jerusalem, the mother-city, was once fully populated, now she is deserted! Formerly she prided herself in her offspring (comp. 1Sa. 2:5), but now she is ashamed and confounded (Lam. 1:1).
She hath given up the ghost: lit., She hath breathed out her life, as if in laboured sighs: expiring in heavy heart breaths of grief. (Comp. Job. 31:39.)
Her sun is gone down while it was yet day. The sun of her life sets before the evening has been reached. (Comp. Amo. 8:9.)Keil.
The sun of her life, and the happiness (comp. Mal. 4:2, Psa. 84:12) which she had in her sons, is gone down.Naeg.
Connecting these verses with the illfated battle of Megiddo, and accepting these words as descriptive, most commentators regard them as depicting the consternation of Jerusalem at that disastrous event. If so, the going down of the sun while it was yet day holds an apt reference to the eclipse which occurred on Sept. 30, B.C. 610.
Theme: LIFE PREMATURELY CLOSED. Text: Her sun is gone down while it was yet day. Specially applicable to a useful Christian life cut off by death in the midst of its years.
I. A lustrous life. She was our sun. In the horizon of our home, or our church, or our friendships, she glowed, and with her radiant character and gleaming ministries gladdened all.
1. A conspicuous life: of worth, of usefulness, of eminence.
2. A beneficent life: giving out good and gladness to others.
3. An illuminated life. For God gave the sun its glory. All our excellences, all our power of usefulness, are His gifts. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Yes: and we are His workmanship. The Lord gives grace and glory.
II. A lustrous life prematurely darkened. While yet day.
1. The course of human life is not of uniform duration.
2. The most benignant and beautiful life may suddenly end. Though we be robed with grace and living for Christ, that does not assure to us length of days.
3. When a beautiful life ends, preternatural gloom ensues. Some deaths cause no bewailing. It is a tribute to the worth of a life that it is so missed and so lamented. Devout men made lamentation over him.
III. A lustrous life prematurely set will again rise and shine. All lives are not lustrous, yet all lives must set in the grave. Death comes to all sooner or later. Our lives differ in degree of grace and glory. Our deaths therefore differ. All will rise again, but not all to shine. Then shall the righteous shine forth, &c.
1. Comfort in this thought. The sun will again rise and shine. So will the cherished life we mourn as having gone down.
2. Inspiration in this thought. Radiant careers on earth will glow with splendour hereafter. Therefore, Let your light shine before men. Live beneficent lives.
3. Satisfaction in this thought. Life is not a blunder; death is not a catastrophe. Sudden death is sudden blessedness. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. The soul whom Jesus robes with beauty, and is thus beloved and beneficent while on earth, does not cease its ministry. All the grace of Christ is not bestowed in vain. Death spoils nothing. The life is hid from our vision by the darkness into which it has gone down; but it shall rise again, and shine in the light of God.
4. Warning in this thought. We cannot calculate upon years. This night thy soul may be required of thee.
See Addenda: EARLY DEATH.
Jer. 15:15-19. Theme: BEAUTIFUL BUT BRIEF. Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.
The text is part of a gloomy description of Israels decline. We take it from the context and use it topically, as an appropriate description of the end of a brief but beautiful life. Of our friend it may be said that
I. Her life was like the sun in its shining.
1. It was gloriously bright with faith and joy.
2. It was blessedly useful in diffusing light.
3. It was constantly comforting, by its warmth of love, and hope.
4. It was Christianly generous, always giving.
5. It was a centre of attraction, in the house, in the class, in the social circle, and in the church.
II. Her death was like the sun in its setting.
1. Gradual. 2. Beautiful.
3. Peaceful. 4. To rise again.
III. Her sunset was early in the day of life.
1. In the prime and beauty of being.
2. In the midst of work.
3. It seems unnatural, and suggests questions.
4. It is an interposition of God in His Providence, doubtless wise and loving.
5. It leads us from the creature to the Creator.
6. It suggests that we be all ready, always ready, at such an hour as ye think not.W. Whale.
Jer. 15:15-19. Theme: PREMATURE SUNSET.
An expressive metaphor. Not true to nature, because the history so described was not natural. Both heaven and earth were called upon to express surprise (Isa. 1:2-3). Unnatural conduct leads to an unnatural end, the wicked shall not live out half their days. Sunset is one of the most beautiful sights in nature, but a sudden, stormy hiding of the sun at midday is calculated to fill the beholder with distress. Such is the metaphor. Let us contemplate it
I. In nature.
1. It would be unnatural.
2. It would be injurious to all life.
3. It would make us less confident, as to the unerring regularity of natures law.
II. In history. We see many cases in which nations have fallen, not with the decrepitude of age, but through early and self-wrought ruin. The Old World, Sodom, Nineveh, Babylon, &c., &c. The case of Jerusalem conspicuous (Mat. 23:37-39).
III. In individual life. The youngthe immoralthe unprincipled in character generally. Obedience to God gives a long day and beautiful sunset.
The text may be used topically for a funeral sermon, in the case of a young woman.W. Whale.
Theme: THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. She hath given up the ghost, her sun is gone down while it was yet day.
1. Death is a solemn event; it is the end of our probationary state, and the beginning of a new and unchanging state of beingand it is of frequent occurrence.
2. No class can escape from the state of death. The aged cannot live long, and the young may be cut down in the noonday of life.
I. Death dissolves our connection with the world.
1. Dissolves all natural relationship.
2. Ends dangers and perils.
3. Takes away the means of grace.
4. Closes our probationary state.
5. Discloses our eternal needs.
II. Death is the departure of the soul to another state.
1. It does not sink into insensibility as does the body. The soul lives.
2. Should death come now, how would it find us?
III. The change at death is very great.
1. The mode of its occurrence is, to us now, very mysterious.
2. It is an awful event to the ungodly and impenitent.
IV. Though the event is certain, the time is uncertain.
V. The solemnity of the event is realised by all who think seriously upon it.
VI. Death will leave us in this separate state until the last judgment. Means of grace must be improved; salvation of the soul must be secured before the welfare of the body. Preparation for death is necessary for all, for all must die. Prepare to meet thy God.Old MS.
Jer. 15:11-14 considered together:
The sense seems to be this
i. The Lord does not vouchsafe to give a direct answer to the prophets complaints and murmurings concerning his own condition and calling. By this silence He administers a tacit rebuke to Jeremiah for speaking in a spirit of sullenness and discontent.
ii. He turns aside to Jerusalem, and explains His dispensations towards her, and thus by implication He replies to Jeremiah. He says to her (Jer. 15:11) I will afflict thee for good, and will make thine enemies to entreat thee.
This was fulfilled in the kind treatment that the Hebrew captives received from their conquerors, even Nebuchadnezzar in the case of Daniel and the three children; and of Belshazzar, and of Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes in succession, after the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Even the captive king of Judah, Jehoiachin, was treated kindly at Babylon by Evil-Merodach.
iii. The prophet answers, Can this be true? Can iron break the northern iron and steel? Can the Hebrew nation have any power against the mighty power of the northern realm of Chaldea?
iv. No, answers the Lord, this will be done by their own power. The iron of Jerusalem will not break the iron and steel of Babylon. On the contrary, turning to Jerusalem, He says, I will give thy substance to the spoil for thy sins, and will make thee to pass into the land which thou knowest not. But yet, I who scatter thee for thy sins in My wrath, will chasten thee for thy good (Jer. 15:11). Thus God always tempered judgment with mercy in His dealings with His people.Wordsworth.
[See also Sectional treatment, p. 316.]
Jer. 15:10. Theme: A TROUBLOUS PREACHER TROUBLED. Alas! a man of strife.
Even those who are not quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one side of the bargain, and therefore can but as much as in us lies live peaceably.Henry.
Jeremiahs case suggests
I. Distraction over the results of a faithful ministry. I am for peace, but they are for war. It was not that he strove with them, but they with him and his work for God. Yet no one can rebuke sinners without stirring antagonism. Art thou he that troubleth Israel? These men which turn the earth upside down are come hither also! Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
1. A fearful witness for God cannot win popular favour.
2. Hostility to his work is sure to pain the true preachers heart.
II. Innocence of blame for the antagonism aroused. Had Jeremiah been a bad debtor, or disobeying creditor, they could not have acted more virulently towards him.
1. Hostility to a faithful preacher is unreasonable and unjust. Why, what evil hath He done? asked Pilate of the incensed crowd.
2. History repeats itself in the harsh usage borne by Gods ministers. Which of the prophets have ye not persecuted? So with Rutherford, Wesley, Bunyan, &c. The natural man, at enmity with God, will not be at peace with the man of God who convinces him of his sin. Fashion still scorns the faithful and evangelical preacher. Public bodies are at strife with religious societies and Christian alliances which resist measures for the desecration of the Lords day, &c.
See Addenda: A TROUBLED MINISTRY.
III. Despondent misapprehension of a Divine mission. Jeremiah in a doleful mood only saw the strife he had aroused. Moments when our best work shows only ill results. All workers for Christ go forth weeping. Good work is often done with pain. We cannot see all the blessed effects of godly service. But woe is unto us, if we preach not. Courage and grace can alone prevent us from fainting in the day of adversity, and enable us to continue faithful unto death.
See Noticeable Topics: MEN OF PROGRESS, MEN OF STRIFE.
Comments
Jer. 15:11. The Lord said, Verily, &c. Henderson renders the verse thus: Jehovah saith, Have I not set thee free for good? Have I not made the enemy take thy part in the time of calamity and in the time of distress? Dr. Gotch (in Eyre & Spottiswoodes Revised English Bible) translates: Verily, I set thee free for thy good; verily, I will cause the enemy to make supplication to thee, in the time of evil, and in the time of affliction.
The rendering of the A. V., thy remnant, gives an untrue sense. It would mean all the rest of Jeremiahs days, which were by no means days of happiness. Nor had he even at last a period of tranquillity. But thy loosing means thy being set free, thy deliverance, and this sense is satisfactory.Payne Smith.
Entreat thee well: rather, supplicate thee; fulfilled in chaps. Jer. 21:1-2; Jer. 37:3; Jer. 42:2.
i. Gods despised prophet will be found useful. In the time of evil, and in the time of affliction.
ii. Maledictions will give place to supplications. Affliction wonderfully changes the tone and temper of those who once hated and resisted the messenger of Heaven. The day of pride will soon close.
iii. Divine protection overshadows His faithful witnesses. Surrounded with strife, yet Jehovah both guards and ultimately vindicates His servants.
Jer. 15:12. Theme: THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL. Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
The Jews treated Jeremiah so harshly and unjustly, that he feared they would break his heart; they smote him as with an iron rod, and he felt like one crushed beneath their unkindness.
God never did, and never will, place a man in a trying position and then leave him. If the rebellious seed of Israel were iron, the Lord declared that His prophet should be hardened by sustaining grace into northern iron and steel. If they beat upon him like hammers on an anvil, he should be made of such strong, enduring texture, that he should be able to resist all their blows. Iron in the olden times amongst the Israelites was very coarsely manufactured, but the best was the iron from the north. So bad was their iron generally, that an admixture of brass, which amongst us would be thought rather to deteriorate the hardness, was regarded as an improvement; so the Lord puts it, Shall ironthe common ironbreak the most firm and best-prepared iron?
This is a proverbial expression, applicable to many other matters besides that of the prophet and the Jews; it is clearly meant to show that
IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE A PURPOSE THERE MUST BE SUFFICIENT FORCE. The weaker cannot overcome the stronger. In a general clash the firmest will win. You cannot cut granite with a pen-knife, nor drill a hole in a rock with an auger of silk. We shall apply this proverb
I. To the people of God individually. Shall any power be able to destroy the saints? Weak as they are, they will tread down the strength of their foes. There is a force about them which cannot be put down.
1. Many Christians are subjected to great temptations and persecutions; mocked, ridiculed, called by evil names. Persecuted one, will you deny the faith? If so, you are not made of the same stuff as the true disciple of Jesus Christ; for when the grace of God is in them, if the world be iron, they are northern iron and steel. Will you shrink in the day of trial? Do you mean to play the coward? Shall the iron break the northern iron and steel? Be strong. Quit you like men; and, in the energy of the Holy Ghost, endure as seeing Him who is iuvisible.
2. We are frequently called to serve God amid great difficulties. Some of you who go to the lodging-houses to speak, who visit the alleys, &c., find much annoyance and disappointment. Will you say, there is no converting these dark and obdurate souls? Is the iron to break the northern iron and steel? Are we to give way under difficulties? Look at Mont Cenis Tunnel, made through one of the hardest rocks; with a sharp tool, edged with diamond, they have pierced the Alps. As St. Bernard says: Is thy work hard? set a harder resolution against it; for there is nothing so hard that cannot be cut with something harder still.
3. To labour with non-success, and to wait, is hard work. It is a grand thing for a Christian to continue patiently in well-doing. He is a man who under long-continued disappointment will not
Bate a jot
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
The well-annealed steel within him ere long breaks in shivers the common iron which strikes him so severely. To him to overcome by grace is glory indeed.
See Addenda: BE NOT DISCOURAGED.
II. Applicable to the cause of God in the worldto the Church. What power, however like to iron, shall suffice to break the kingdom of Jesus, which is comparable to steel?
1. We hear it said that Romanism will again vanquish England; that the Gospel light, which Latimer helped to kindle, will be extinguished. Atrocious nonsense, if not partial blasphemy. If this thing were of men, it would come to nought; but if it be of God, who shall overthrow it? As surely as the Lord liveth the end of Romish Antichrist will come, and the long-expected cry shall be heard, Babylon the great is fallen.
2. Others foretell the triumph of infidelity. Consider what these gloomy forebodings mean? That the gates of hell are to prevail against the Church; that the pleasure of the Lord is not to prosper in His hand. Who but a lying spirit would thus lay low the faith and confidence of Gods people? Infidelity and Socinianism have ready tongues, but every tongue that rises against the Church in judgment He will condemn. The Church can bear the blows of Ritualism and Infidelity, and survive them all, and be better for them too. The iron will never break the northern iron and steel.
See Addenda: EVIL SHALL NOT PREVAIL.
III. Apply the principle to the self-righteous efforts which men make for their own salvation. The iron will never break the northern iron and steel.
1. The bonds of guilt are not to be snapped by a merely human power. Habits of sin yield not to the raspings of unregenerate resolves. All your efforts apart from Jesus are utterly useless. He must bring libertyyou cannot emancipate yourselves.
2. Yet that were an easy task compared with a man renewing his own heart.
3. Do you think you can force your way to heaven by ceremony? There is no potency in baptism, confirmation, outward ceremonies of mans devising or of Gods instituting, to deliver you from the bonds which hold you. Come, sinner, with thy fetters; lay thy wrist at the cross-foot, where Christ can break the iron at once.
IV. Applicable to all persons who are making self-reliant efforts for the good of others. How are we driven to the conclusion that it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God. Mans heart is very hard; it is like the northern iron and steel.
1. Our preachingwe try to make it forciblehow powerless it is of itself! We plead, reason, seek goodly words, &c., but the northern iron and steel remain immovable. The cries and tears of a Whitfield would not avail. Though all the Apostles reasoned with them, they would turn a deaf ear.
2. The best-adapted means cannot succeed. A mothers tears, as she spoke to you of Jesus; the pleadings of a grey-headed father over youno power to change your heart! The Gospel, though put to you very tenderly by those you love best, leaves you unsaved still! You have been sick, near death, within an inch of doom; yet even the judgments of God have not aroused you. But it is not Ezekiels duty to make the dry bones live: whether they live or not, it is his duty to prophesy to them. Go on with your work, but let a sense of your personal inability make you fall back upon your God. Let it keep you from self-reliant prayer or work, much more from one self-confident sermon or address. God will have us feel that the iron cannot break the northern iron and steel.
V. This text has a very solemn application to all those who are rebels against God. Fight against God, would you? Measure your Adversary, I charge you. The wax is about to wrestle with the flame, the tow to contend with the fire. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Cast down your weapons. Come now, and ask for reconciliation; but oh, resist no longer, for the iron cannot break the northern iron and steel.Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 993.
Comments
Jer. 15:12. Shall iron break? &c. This simile is variously interpreted Thus:By the iron is meant Jeremiahs intercession; but this cannot alter the Divine purpose to send Judah into exile, which is firm as steel and brass.Payne Smith.
Can trouble and affliction, though hard as iron, break one who, like Jeremiah, is firm as steel and brass?Rashi and Umbreit.
Not even iron, much less the Jews, could resist the northern Colossus of the Chaldean empire.Ewald and Henderson.
Others, by northern iron,i.e., the steel made by the Chalybes on the Pontus,understand the obduracy of the Jews, which not even iron could break.
Can I, Jeremiah, even if I be iron, break the obduracy of the people hard as steel or brass?Graf.
The Targum regards the iron as Pharaoh-Necho, and the steel and brass as Nebuchadnezzar.
Though there be great hardness in you (Jews), can it yet break that which is in the Assyrians? but ye are not equal to them. The prophets design was to divest the Jews of the false confidence in which they boasted.Calvin.
God had made him (Jeremiah) an iron pillar and a wall of brass, and He asks, now, was it possible for his enemies to destroy him whom God had thus made?John Owen.
[Vide next verse.]
Jer. 15:13. For all thy sins, even in all thy borders. These words at once show that it is not the prophet who is addressed in the verse preceding, but the Jewish people.
To the spoil without price, i.e., not making thee any compensation, but inflicting these losses upon thee as a punishment for thy sins.Dr. Blayney.
As God sells His people for nought, i.e., gives them up to their enemies (comp. Isa. 52:3, Psa. 44:13), so here He threatens to deliver their treasures to the enemy as a booty, and for nought.Keil.
Three things are said:
i. That God would give Judahs treasures away for nothing. It is an act of contempt, implying that He did not value them.
ii. The cause of this contempt is Judahs sins.
iii. This is justified by the extent of those sins. Judah had committed them everywhere, throughout her whole land.Dr. Payne Smith.
Jer. 15:15. Theme: THE DESIRE TO BE REMEMBERED. O Lord, Thou knowest; remember me and visit me.
Jeremiah desires many things; but the thing he asks first, as including all the rest, is that God would not let him drop out of sight and thought.
I. The perpetually recurring phrase, God knows, expresses a mood of thought common to rational creatures.
A craving everywhere to be remembered. From the lips of the dying, from friends of whom we are taking our farewell, fall the words, Remember me. Those ambitious minds, not content that their memorial should be kept in a few hearts, labour that their names may be remembered by multitudes. Oblivion appals us.
The moralist can easily show the vanity of this desire, and the emptiness of the end. What good will it do you, he asks, to be remembered when you are out amid Australian wilds, or on the parched plains of India? what harm would it do you to be forgot?
Enough for us that He who made us so made us that, by the make of our being, we desire to be kindly remembered.
II. This desire, then, is in our nature; and the prophet shows us the right direction in which to train it.
Pointing us to the heaven above us, he bids us seek to be remembered there! The thought that such a prayer may be offered to God, teaches us a great deal of His kindliness, condescension, and thoughtful care. You feel that you are speaking to a Real Person in offering a prayer like thisnot to some vague, undefined Great First Cause least understood, but to a merciful Father in heaven, who looks down upon His child, and, like as a father pitieth his children, pitieth them that fear Him.
It was while looking upon the kindly human face OF CHRIST that the whole hearts wish of the poor penitent thief went out in the Lord, remember me!
It was in special clearness of revelation of Gods love that the Psalmist was emboldened to say, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.
III. Consider the encouraging view of the Hearer of Prayer implied in the words of the prophets petition.
The petition was an acceptable one, and it was right that he offered it Remember me, said he, in his day of sorrow, to God.
1. He was not staggered, as he drew near in prayer, by intruding doubt whether the Almighty would listen to his poor words or consider his hearts desires. David, psalmist and king, knew this dread: When I consider Thy heavens, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or visit him? Jeremiah almost repeats these ideas: Remember and visit me. What a steady faith in God is in this prayer! Coming like a little child to the great Father, the little voice pleads, Do not forget me!
2. It is not presumption, but faith, that speaks here. Be sure that when your prayer is earnest and sincere, and offered in simple faith in Christ the Mediator, you never spoke words to your nearest neighbour that he heard more distinctly than the Almighty hears that prayer. And you may press upon Him all your small requests, and tell out to Him all that concerns you, saying, O Lord, remember me and visit me.
3. Ponder for your comfort that God thinketh upon you; that He knoweth your frame, and remembereth that you are dust.
IV. In such individuality of prayer there is no selfishness. It is not the wish to be distinguished and favoured above other children of the family. It is but the wish to be remembered even as the others. It is but that when Christ, the Great Intercessor, speaks to Almighty God for Himself and His brethren of mankind, saying, in the name of all, Our Father, the poor sinner should not be left out. So he puts forth a trembling hand, lifts a feeble voice, and cries, Bless me also; Lord, remember me, &c.
V. Mark what simple trust in Gods wisdom and kindness is implied in the offering of such a petition.
1. Everything is asked in that. It was enough just to put ones-self under Gods eye, just to get God to think of one at all. If God world but remember us. He would see all our wants, and be willing to give us all. The thief on the cross felt that. Only remember me, and all will be right.
2. Further it is assumed, that if God remembers us it will be in love. Remember how Joseph, in the dungeon, asked the chief butler to think of him; and said how he desired to be thought of, and show kindness unto me, &c. But there is no need to specify how we wish God would remember us.
3. Further. Gods remembrance is practical. He comes to our help. The want remembered will be relieved.
4. Doubtless there is a season in the history of the unconverted man in which he can have no real desire that God should remember him: he rather desires to keep out of Gods sight and remembrance. To be sure that every word and deed is going down in the book of Gods remembrance is the very last thing the utterly ungodly man would wish.
5. Yet the prayer expresses the first reaching after God of the awakened soul. Remember me! cried prophet, psalmist, penitent thief.
If we make it our desire and prayer to be remembered by our Saviour and God, we need not fear that we shall pass from His recollection. Others we loved may forget us. But amid all the care of this universe, He will stoop down to think of usnever forgotten by Him! In our dark days and weak faith we may be ready to think we have passed from His thoughts. There is no such experience but believers have passed through before us. Thousands of years since our doubts and fears were felt, and God supplied the perfect answer. Listen to the ancient words of doubt, and Gods blessed answer: But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me.
Can a woman forget hersucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.A. K. H. B., condensed from Counsels and Comfort, &c.
See Addenda: ON BEING REMEMBERED.
Jer. 15:15. Theme: PRAYER. O Lord, Thou knowest; remember me and visit me, and revenge me, &c.
Jeremiah had prayed earnestly for the people and without success. In offering supplication for himself he found favour with God. In his prayer the pain and troubles of his life were laid before God, and the questionings of his heart were not kept back. Observe
I. Divine knowledge is no hindrance to prayer. Thou knowest: 1. My character; 2. My condition; 3. My need. Yet, though Thou knowest, yea, because Thou knowest, I will pray to Thee.
II. Divine condescension an encouragement to prayer.
1. Remember me.
2. Visit me.
3. Vindicate me. Revenge means only vindication.
III. Human need a stimulus to prayer. He was poor, persecuted, and in peril.
Where could he go for help?
He is driven to God by trouble, and drawn by lovingkindness.
IV. The vicissitudes of life suggest topics for prayer. Poverty, weakness, want, affliction, persecution, temptation,the sins and sorrows of others. The needs of the world, &c.
V. Conscious sincerity gives freedom in prayer. I have suffered for thy sake.
VI. The mediation of Christ gives efficacy to our prayer. I have not joined in their sins (Jer. 15:10).W. Whale.
Jer. 15:16. Theme: ENJOYING GODS WORD. Thy words were found, and I did eat them rejoicing.
The people of God have always a relief in prayer, in the worst circumstances. Jonah cried out of the belly of hell, Yet will I look again. David encouraged himself. Jesus, being in an agony, prayed. Jeremiah, borne down by the storms of the world, prayed, O Lord, thou knowest, remember, visit me. The disciples took up the body of John, and went and told Jesus.
Remember, the best thing you can do with your trouble is to take it to Him. Sanctioned by highest authority: Is any afflicted, let him pray. Attested by experience: of all the millions that tried it, not one but will say, It is good for me to draw nigh to God. Creatures cannot help when they would; will not when they can, but God both can and will be a present help.
Jeremiah found it so. And he backs his prayer by an important PLEA. He avouches the serenity of his character, Thy words were found; the reality of his experience, I did eat them; his past joys in religion, they were the rejoicing; the particular relationship he bore to the God of grace, I am called by Thy name.
Need not confine it to Jeremiah; apply it to self. Take it as a test by which to try the reality of your religion.
THE VIEWS IT AFFORDS OF PERSONAL RELIGION. It implies
I. A high valuation for this word. It is prized as Gods word, and SOUGHT under that character.
Love to the word of God is a sure sign of a gracious heart. A neglected Bible is a sign of a graceless heart. How many read the books and writings of men who never read the Book of God! When God Himself turns author, some will not give His works a reading; but Christians prize the word, and prove it by searching into it (David, Psalms 19.)
Thy word. It partakes of the divinity of its Author. As Phidias, a self-evidencing power.
It is adapted to the nature of its subject; suited to man. A key fitted to unlock such a heart.
It has produced most astonishing effects. Infancy and age. If the slightest agency draws from the truth, the slightest agency recovers. If Peter fell by a look, he rose by a look.
1. Have you found this word?
2. Has this word found you?
A poor sailor was cast awaylost his all. The first half-crown he obtained, he inquired where to make a purchase, of what?that neglected book, a BIBLE.
I have many books, says Mr. Newton, that I cannot sit down to read; they are indeed good and sound, but, like halfpence, there goes a great quantity to a little amount. There are silver books and a very few golden books, but I have one worth more than all, called the Bible, and that is a book of banknotes. Apply this test:
II. A personal experience of its power. I did eat it.
This is different from speculation. David does not say, Listen and hear, but, Taste and see. Apply to him for yourself instead of relying on the authority of others. As in a case of disputed relish, you determine not by testimony, but by taste. In other words, it means experience. Experience is knowledge derived from experiment, in contradiction from theory.
We are apt to confound familiarity with knowledge. Many are familiar with all the truths and doctrines, but have not the experience of the power of one. Like Bunyans Talkative. Like Balaam, who saw the visions of God and was proud of what he sawbut no experience. Like Judas, who preached and wrought miracles, but died despairing. How worthless this knowledge! To know the way, but never walk in it. To know there is an ark, but never enter it. To know Christ is a crucified and almighty Saviour, but, like the dying thief, never to apply to Him.
The knowledge of which you boast will aggravate your doom. Like Uriah with his fatal letter, place you in the forefront of battle.
But religion is not only something to be known, but something to be experienced. Religion is the life of the soul as the soul is the life of the body. Truth is the sustenance of the moral man. Divine truth must be incorporated with the elements of the intellectual nature or we perish. Except ye eat the flesh. Put test of experience. A sign of spiritual decay, and the loss of spiritual health, when this word is undervalued, when men can spend days and weeks without reading it.
When you come to the word, remember that Divine influence can alone make it effectual. As you say grace before meat, let your reading be preceded by prayer. I will be as dew. How sweet the fragrance after the dew!
III. A conscious participation of the happiness it produces. It was the rejoicing of my heart. How does it promote joy?
i. By the light it imparts to the understanding. Truly, light is sweet. It preserves us from dark uncertainty; from the dubiety of suspense; from the vacillation of doubt; from the fluctuation of undetermined choice. It gives decision to the judgment. It fully occupies the mind upon the noblest subject. It engages faculties and powers in Gods service.
ii. By the relief it gives to the conscience. In the hope of pardon and acceptance. Sprinkled from an evil conscience.
iii. By the exercise it affords to the best affections of the heart. Love to God is a source of happiness; love to man, a source of happiness. The pleasures of benevolence are genuine pleasures; allied to the happiness of God Himself. He is the BLESSED God, the HAPPY God. HAPPY in the diffusion of happiness; BLESSED in the impartation of blessedness. I will bless thee. How? By making thee a blessing. And taste the joy of God. Misery of malevolent affections; happiness of kind ones. As delight springs from the play of good feelings, so misery springs from the play and interchange of bad ones. There are virtues sweet to the taste of inner man; vices bitter and corroding to the heart. Scowl of malice, the malignity of revenge. Gall of bitterness.
iv. By the consolations and hopes under sorrow. The paper is yet extant on which martyr Smith recorded his experience. They gave him pen and ink to sign a draft on the treasurer; he did so, and in the corner put down these figures, 1 Cor. Jer. 4:8-9.
IV. A sense of consecration. I am called by Thy name.
Improvement:
1. It reproves those who never seek.
2. Those who are content with knowledge without experience.
3. Those who are strangers to religious peace and joy. If you eat, it will be joy.
4. Those who neither own Gods name, nor are owned of Him.Samuel Thodey, 1837.
See Addenda: ENJOYING GODS WORD.
Theme: FOUND, EATEN, AND ENJOYED.
These words appear to be part of the prophets prayer, and were given to account for the fact that he had suffered rebuke, &c., from the people. It is the only verse containing any pleasant reference to Jeremiahs experience, and then it is in connection with Gods word, and not with mans dealings. It is as if he said, In the midst of my sufferings and sorrows, I came upon the promises of Gods word; I seized upon them with avidity; so great was my need of comfort. I devoured them; and indeed my soul was comforted. They led me to meditate upon my fellowship with Jehovah, and to see that even my sufferings were for His names sake. The word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. Here we observe
I. That an important discovery was made. Thy words were found.
1. Words are the representatives of thought. They are of value for this reason. Words have great power to move mens minds. How much have they affected the destiny of nations, and the development of great enterprises? Demosthenes, Cicero, Luther, Knox, Whitfield, Brougham, &c.
2. Words derive much of their power from the mind which utters them. Truth is truth come whence it may, but truth may be spoken by most men without having much power to do others good. The stroke of a royal pen may mean liberty or slavery, peace or war to millions. Gods words are a hammer, a fire, a sword, a balm, a saving, sanctifying power to men who receive and obey them.
3. That which is found must previously have existed. Gods words were found. A grand discovery, not an invention. Treasure is not made by man, but the discoverer has much fame, and confers upon the race great benefits. Gods word exists whether men find it or not. He who finds it is wise, rich, and happy. It is the living word. Seek Him. Seek, and ye shall find.
II. That a peculiar method of appropriation was adopted. I did eat them.
1. It implies soul hunger. Caused by stress of duty, and pressure of persecution, and multiplied sorrows.
2. It affirms that Gods words are soul food. The soul may be starved, or may feed on husks; but if the appetite be right and rightly directed, only God and His word will satisfy. (Eze. 3:1-3, Rev. 10:9, Psa. 119:103.) Gods word is wholesome, nourishing, savoury, saving.
III. That a delightful experience was realised. It was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. Joy and rejoicing
1. In what the word revealed of God.
2. In the way that revelation met his utmost need. In work, in trouble, in danger.
3. In the knowledge of salvation there unfolded.
4. In the prospects to which the attention of Gods servants was directed.
Note
1. Jeremiahs religion was a religion of the word.
2. Jeremiahs religion was a religion of the heart.
3. Jeremiahs religion was a religion of rejoicing.
IV. That an emphatic public testimony was given. I am called by thy name, &c.
1. Gods name was called upon him. (See Margin.) As the saving power, and source of hope and joy, the name of Christ has been called upon us.
2. He was called by Gods name. As a professor, a prophet, a servant, &c. We are called by Christs name.
3. He was strengthened by God in all his works. Jehovah was to him The Lord of hosts, inspiring with courage, leading to battle, giving the victory, distributing rewards.
APPLICATION
1. The word discovereda treasure.
2. The word in the hearta joy.
3. The word on the lipsa message.
4. The word in the handa weapon.W. Whale.
Theme: GODS WORD THE JOT OF THE GODLY.
Bread is sweet to the hungry. Man, when quickened by God, does not live by bread alone, but by every word, &c. One of Gods children could say, I have esteemed the words of Thy mouth more than my necessary food. (Also Psa. 119:72; Psa. 19:10.)
i. BIBLE HISTORY, in its development of THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE GOVERNMENT, is to a man of God deeply instructive: the joy and rejoicing of his heart.
ii. PROPHECY, teaching us that THE FUTURE IS KNOWN TO THE LORD, the future of the Church, the world, and of every child of man; and that nothing unseen by us can arise to thwart His designs, becomes a very fountain of delight to every good man: the joy and rejoicing of his heart.
iii. The words of the Lord as EMBODIED IN LAW, prohibiting nothing but what the enlightened conscience condemns, and commanding nothing but what that conscience approves, constrain the righteous man to say, Oh, how I love Thy law! Conformity to the law is his earnest solicitude, and when love is perfected this desire will be realised, for love is the fulfilling of the law.
iv. But if the words of the Lord in history, prophecy, and law are sweet, sweeter still are His words as they sound forth in the GOSPEL OF HIS SON. They are no cunningly-devised fables to the soul that has seen the adaptation of the great doctrines of the Gospel to its moral and spiritual needs.
Faith is a living upon the truths of the Gospel: Eating them. Faith makes both the truth, and Christ the substance of the truth, precious. Unto you which believe He is precious.Rev. D. Pledge, Walks with the Prophet Jeremiah.
Theme: THE PROPHET ON HIS WATCHTOWER.
I. The discovery. Gods words.
1. Sometimes hidden.
2. Yet expected.
3. And sought.
II. The treasure used. Did eat them.
Made them his own. The taste both bitter and sweet.
III. The result. The joy and rejoicing of mine heart.
Joy (1) in knowing Gods will.
Joy (2) in seeing the working out of Gods goodness.S. Farren.
Theme: HIDDEN MANNA.
I. A memorable discovery. Thy words were found.
Many have heard Gods word for years, yet have never found it. Eyes have they, but they see not; ears, but hear not. Oh that they had found the treasure hid in the field!
What is meant by finding Gods words?
1. A thing found has usually to be sought for. Happy is he who reads or hears the Scriptures, searching all the while for the hidden spiritual sense. (See Pro. 2:4-5.)
2. To find Gods word means that we have been made to understand them (1Co. 3:14). The Bible is a dull book till illuminated; a tantalising riddle till you get the key; but, the clue once found, it absorbs our attention, delights our intellect, and enriches our heart.
3. Means to appropriate it as belonging to yourself. Reading a will is not interesting till you find you have a part in it.
See Addenda: APPROPRIATING GODS WORD.
II. An eager reception. I did eat them.
Not I did hear them. Herod heard John gladly, yet became his murderer. Not I did learn them by heart. Hundreds have committed chapters to memory, yet were wearied rather than benefited. Not I did repeat them, as a parrot repeats language it is taught. I did EAT them. What is meant by eating them?
1. An eager study. Greedy for the truth. Some professors grow squeamish and proudly delicate. My soul hungered even to ravenousness to be fed upon the bread of heaven.
2. Cheerful reception. My soul was in love with the word.
3. An intense belief. Not questioning it, but living upon it. The language means, besides, both the diligent treasuring up of the truth, and the inward digestion of the same. It is not the hasty swallowing of the word which is blessed to us, but a deliberate eating of it. It then becomes dissolved and absorbeda part of the eaters very existence.
III. The happy consequences. Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
1. Hold the truth in its entirety and harmony, and then it will be joy to your heart.
Jeremiah first speaks of Gods words, then he changes the number and speaks of Gods word. We are not only to receive parts of the Gospel, but the whole of it. That mans heart is right with God who can honestly say that all the testimonies of God are dear to him. There are threatenings, and precious promises; testimonies of Jesus. Receive the whole of Gods word.
2. The word of God would have given no joy had he not been obedient to it.
3. Yet there are certain choice truths in Gods word, especially joy-giving: the doctrine of election, to know that you are called and predestinated; and of the immutability of divine love.
IV. A distinguishing title. I am called by Thy name, &c.
1. The name of the Lord of hosts was reviled in Jeremiahs day, yet he felt it an honour to be associated with the Lord in this contempt. Oh ye who love the Lord Jesus, never shun the scandal of the cross!
2. Some do not count it a fair thing to bear the name of the Most High. It is a disgrace to any man that his Lord should die for his soul on Calvary and yet he be afraid to wear His livery. To confess Christ is so easy a burden; it involves so temporary a loss, and so real a gain. Bow your willing back to His cross, and go with Him without the camp.C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 980.
See Addenda: ENJOYING GODS WORD.
Jer. 15:17. Theme: THE ISOLATION RESULTING FROM CONSECRATION.
This describes the effects following upon his appropriating Gods words and becoming His prophet.
I. Separation from the frivolities of life.
1. Deserting the company of triflers. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, or laughers. Formerly he had joined their merry meetings; he now renounced them.
2. Restrained the levity of his own nature. Nor rejoiced; i.e., did not make merry. Even innocent mirth was laid aside, and a gravity came upon him according with his renewed state and solemn mission. Just so. Paul had great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart (Rom. 9:2).
II. Isolation under sense of a Divine trust. I sat alone because of Thy hand; i.e., because of the impulse of the prophetic spirit in him. (Comp. 1Ki. 18:46, Eze. 1:3.)
1. Responsible duty leads us into inevitable isolation. We cannot share it with others. We are thereby separated to a life of practical and conscious loneliness, having a charge to keep, in which none can participate.
2. Consecration to Gods work singles out and separates us; e.g., one who is devoted to the ministry must live a life separated from the common pursuits and habits of youth. He is devoted to God.
3. Expulsion from hilarious society follows avowal of religion. The laughers did not want him amongst them.
III. Oppression of spirit amid prevailing impiety. Thou hast filled us with indignation. Calvin thus comments on the word indignation: He had not been slightly moved, but had been inflamed with zeal for God; for we cannot really execute the commission given us unless we be filled with indignation; that is, unless zeal for God burns inwardly, for the prophetic office requires such a fervour.
1. Taught of God, the prophet sees the great sinfulness of the people.
2. Recognises the offensiveness to Jehovah, and awful heinousness of their sins.
3. Perceives the ruin thereby entailed upon his nation and Gods Church.
A seer may well be stirred to indignation: impetuous energy of thought and feeling, grief over sin, impatience to check the wrong which prevails, and rescue souls from impending doom. All Gods prophets and preachers have had this vision of iniquity around them, and, like Paul at Athens, their spirit has been stirred in them as they beheld the rampant impiety which called them to their earnest ministry for Christ and souls.
Jer. 15:18. Theme: GOD APPEARS TO BE A VAIN HOPE. Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
I. Distressing experiences distort our views of God. Jeremiahs condition and feelings were peculiarly painful.
1. Great anguish: pain, wound. Such words indicate severe suffering, less physical than mental. Physical pain will throw its dark cloud over the mind. Melancholy is the result: melan– (black) cholic. In times of heavy anguish the mental state grows despondent, and its power of discernment becomes warped.
2. Unalleviated distress: perpetual, refuseth to be healed. This unmitigated trouble of mind and heart is indeed bitter to endure. Very rare. Yet many of Gods children go through years of disconsolate experiences. Wave upon wave rolls over them. Ill health, disasters, bereavements. Or spiritual strugglesdoubts, temptations, loss of faith, &c. A spirit thus bowed and sorely tested cannot easily think bright thoughts of God. The disciples, in consequence of the tempest and toils of one wild night, thought Jesus only a ghost, and cried out for fear.
3. Hopeless dejection. My wound incurable, refuseth to be healed. He sees no prospect of better things, and abandons himself to despair. His labours will all be in vain, his delivery of Gods messages will effect no good, and his ministry will only bring more calumny and abuse upon himself. A hard lot; a black outlook. All the windows are darkened. How can he, then, think cheerfully of God?
II. Distorted views of God render religion a grave disappointment. What comfort is left to a godly man if God become to him as a liar?
1. All his sufficiency and safety were to be drawn from God. So Jeremiah felt. He was on a difficult and perilous mission; if God failed him, he was forlorn indeed. He had expected that, called to so high an office, there would be a perpetual interference of Providence in his behalf, instead whereof things seemed to take their natural course (Payne Smith). God had in a manner deserted him for a time, had left him to struggle with difficulties unforeseen and unexpected (Dr. Waterland). What guarantee is left us if Jesus fail? Every Christian would share Jeremiahs sense of desolation.
If ever a position occurred in which we missed the succour of our Lord, we should feel forlorn. We have no self-sufficiencyChrist is all to us; no power of self-protectionHe is our Saviour and shield. Let it once be possible to say, Thou hast failed us, and assurance would wholly desert us; we should be of all men most miserable.
2. All his happiness and hopes rested in God. He had left all to be His prophet (Jer. 15:19). He looked for solace, befriending, serenity amid agitations, gladness when mocked and abused; for all light and promise amid his hazardous workfrom the God he served. Even so has the Christian disciple to take up his cross daily and follow Jesus. But he is not unwilling. Has not Christ said, In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye have peace; I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you; Ye shall see Me again, and your joy shall no man take from you? Can He break His word of promisebecome as a liar? Then all happiness and hope is dead within the believers heart.
Note the figure: As a liar, as waters that fail. Calvin renders the words thus: Thou wilt be to me as a deception of inconstant waters; or, of unfaithful waters, i.e., of such as flow not continually; adding, for faithful or constant waters are those which never fail; as the Latins call a fountain inexhaustible whose spring never dries, so the Hebrews call a fountain faithful or constant which never fails either in summer or in drought. On the contrary, they call waters unfaithful which become dry; as when a well which has no perennial veins is made dry by great heat. Wordsworth comments: The stream of Gods favour, which had flowed in a full current of love towards him, seemed suddenly to have been dried up, and he was left to perish with thirst.
The language suggests the deceptive mirage: which mocks thirst with illusory pictures of refreshing waters.
III. Disappointment in God can never have a just warrant. Wilt Thou be unto me as a liar?
1. Despondency is a faithless interpreter. It is as false as a crooked mirrorit reflects beauty in hideous forms.
2. Impatience spoils our childhood sweetness. It is a sad failing to be hastening conclusions about God and His dealings. He that believeth should not make haste.
3. Fidelity is an essential characteristic of God. Immutability is impressed on Creation. I change not is a truth evident in the perennial action of majestic laws in nature; and therefore the universe endures, and all things continue as they were from the creation of the world. In His love and relationships to us, with Him is neither variableness nor shadow of turning. In His words and promises, not one good thing He hath spoken shall fail to come to pass. Hopes cast upon Him shall not make ashamed. And to every soul which cleaves to and trusts in Jesusas Redeemer, Friend, and King, for life here and in eternityHe is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.
Jer. 15:19. Theme: A MINISTRY OF DISCRIMINATION. If thou take forth the precious from the vile.
God, in the freeness of His grace, apportions the reward that He promises to Jeremiah to the sense which He entertains of the greatness and difficulty of the work to which He had called him. Thou shalt be as My mouthMy representative, My acknowledged and accredited servanthere is the greatest honour that could be conferred on any man. Thou shalt take forth the precious from the vile, and be to the people as a fenced brazen wallhere is one of the most difficult and arduous duties that mortality can possibly sustain. The talents of an angel, the zeal of a seraph, if accompanied with the infirmities of humanity, must sink under the task, unless supported by Divine strength and blessing. Well then may we exclaim, Who it sufficient?
The difficulty of such a course as this, that of making full proof of our ministry, can only be understood by him who has tried it, and it certainly has not diminished since Jeremiahs time. For though we have less outward persecution, it is equally difficult in all ages to combat with the prejudices and enmity of the carnal mind; difficult to penetrate the thick disguise of characterdifficult to maintain the sternest faithfulness accompanied with the purest loveto pursue the Proteus forms of ungodliness into their secret retreats, and so effectually to separate between the precious and the vile, as that we may commend ourselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God. Our Lord Himself who tried the experiment knew its difficulty, and His last promise was a promise to ministers: Lo, I am with you; and He has enabled us to form an estimate of the greatness of the work from the greatness of the reward, for addressing the minister, the Angel of Ephesus, He says, Be thou faithful and I will give, &c.
I.
What is supposed?
II.
What is required?
III.
What is promised?
I. What is supposed?
1. The vast importance and responsibility of the work assigned to ministers with a view to the welfare of their people. If thou separate between the precious and the vile. It is no common office, no slight responsibility. The Gospel dispensation is often spoken of as the ministry of reconciliation; but it is here presented under a new character, the ministry of discrimination. Christ is represented commonly as a Saviour, but He is to be regarded as a witness and a judgefor judgment am I come into the world. Ministers are usually considered as heralds of mercy, sons of consolation, but they are also to be considered as messengers of heavy tidings. Ours is an office of edification, but it is an office of separation too, a ministry of discrimination. We have to distinguish between truth and truth, between character and character, between holiness and sin; and to advocate the rightful claims and high supremacy of heaven against the usurped dominion of sin and hell. Ministers are to take the precious from the vile; to separate the wheat from the weeds; to distinguish the dross from the gold; to guide their hands wittingly, as Jacob did when he bestowed the blessing upon the sons of Joseph; they are sometimes to blow the silver trumpet of Jubilee, and not unfrequently to sound the trumpet of Alarm. A faithful ambassador is health, says Solomon. As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.
2. It is further supposed that there are some essential distinctions between right and wrong, between good and evil, between truth and error, between the base and the honourable of character, between the precious and the vile. These distinctions are real, not nominal; essential, not arbitrary; they are regarded so by God Himself. These distinctions were originally imprinted on the mind when man was created in Gods own image; and the capacity of making them still remains, as you see from the clearness with which any man can judge upon a subject of right and wrong where his own conscience is not concerned, and the zeal with which men reprobate that which is villanous and dishonourable.
3. A standard of truth is supposed. God has given us the rule of judgment. We have a more sure word of prophecy, and as the office of a judge is not to make the law but to declare it, so the office of a minister is not to burden the ears of people with his own doubtful speculations, but to declare the whole counsel of God. To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this rule they have no light. This is the glass we hold up to show you the true features of your character; this is the lamp we exhibit to guide your footsteps,And as many as walk by this rule, peace be on them and on the Israel of God.
4. It is further supposed in the text that these characters are closely intermingled, and that there is a great disinclination in mankind to have the truth fully told them, and to be brought to the decisive test, the final decision. The tares and the wheat strangely grow togetherthe sheep and the goats both are found in the same pasturethe precious and the vile have some points in common. Cain and Abel both bring their offering to the Lord; Jacob and Esau both kneel for the blessing; Elijah and the priests of Baal openly build their altars on Mount Carmel; the five foolish virgins as well as the five wise ones go forth to meet the bridegroom; Judas and John both receive the passover in the supper-chamber. And we know that men halt between two opinionsthey dwell on the borders of the Land of Promisethey love to know that an ark is provided, and even love to watch the progress of the building, but they obey not the summons, Come thou with all thy house into the ark.
5. One thing more is plainly supposed, that it is of the utmost consequence to both parties, that the separation should be madetake forth the precious from the vile, and the most advantageous results will immediately accrue to each. Is it not desirable to the children of God to know that they are sothat they are heirs according to the promisethat they are precious in His sight and honourable? Would it not strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees, and give them the oil of joy for mourning, could we say to them beyond contradiction, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works?
If the distinction be valuable to the precious, it would be scarcely less advantageous to the vile themselves. To be robbed of the cloak of a false profession would be no loss, for we know it does them no honour and brings them no peace. If they stood out in their true colours to their own conscience they could not suffer more, but they might be more safe. You had better meet the case at once, at its worst, and say, Behold I am vile.
II. What is demanded of ministers with a view to this solemn discrimination?
The text plainly demands that every effort should be used on their part to remove the willing delusions of mankind, to disabuse their blinded understandings in reference to the great things of God and Eternity and their souls health. What, then, is necessary so far as we are concerned in separating
1. A plain and decisive exhibition of the truth at it is in Jesus. We are to contend earnestly for the faith. We are, as we have opportunity, to vindicate it from the blasphemies of the infidel, the perversions of the worldling, the mistakes of the Pharisee, and the corruptions of the Antinomian. Whether men will hear or whether they will forbear, we must speak to them of the evil of sin, of the danger of continuance in it, and of the only way of escape from it. We must show them the insufficiency of the forms of godliness, the worthlessness of their own self-righteousness, the necessity of a vital union to Christ, and their positive obligations to that holiness without which no man can see the Lord.
2. A fearless application of Scripture truth is necessary. To the careless and thoughtless, the young man void of understanding, trained in the ways of religion, but a living plague to the circle in which he moves, hardening in sin and fast hardening against the reach of conviction: Know that your judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and your damnation slumbereth not. To the apostate from a religious profession: See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. To the self-satisfied formalist: Strive to enter. To the young: Remember now, &c. To the aged: Escape for thy life. To the precious: Say ye to the righteous, It shall be well with him. To the vile: Woe to the wicked, for it shall be ill with him.
3. To point ourselves and our hearers to the only Agent who can make the word effectual.
III. What is promised? Thou shalt be as My mouth. The accredited and approved servantto speak in accordance with His willbe the organ of His clemencyall his authenticated messages crowned with success. None of his words to fall to the ground.
Mighty and blessed such a ministry. Surely the people among whom such a Divinely effectual ministry is carried on, would be drawn to the Saviours feet, and souls would find grace and salvation as on the Pentecostal morning.
Faithful ministers, says Henry, are Gods mouth to us, and we are to hear God speaking to us by them.Samuel Thodey, A.D. 1823.
Comments
Jer. 15:19. If thou return, then will I bring thee again, &c. There is in Gods answer a mingling of comfort and rebuke. If thou returnrepent thee of thy doubts and think only of thy duty, then will I bring, &c. I will cause thee again to stand before Me. To stand before a person means to be his chief officer or vicegerent, and is said of Elijah (1Ki. 17:1) and Elisha (2Ki. 3:4) as Gods prophets, of David as Sauls minister (1Sa. 16:21-22), of Solomons counsellors (1Ki. 12:6), and of Nebuzar-adan as commander-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzars army (Jer. 52:12, marg.)Dr. Payne Smith.
If thou take forth the precious from the vile. Jeremiah was to separate in himself what was divine and holy from the dross of human passion: So many commentators. Discriminate between good and bad men, or between the good and bad in men: Other authorities favour this rendering.
Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them. Rather, They shall return unto thee, but thou shalt not, &c. A flattering prophet perishes with the people whom his soft speeches have confirmed in their sin; but the truthful speaking of Gods word saves both.Speakers Com.
Not surrender unpopular truths to popular fallacies.Wordsworth.
Not concede to the vices of men nor cherish their fancies, but constrain them to undertake the yoke of God. The truth of God ought not to bend to the will of men; for God changes not, neither does His word.Calvin.
Jer. 15:19-20. Theme: THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD.
We have here Gods answer to the prophets prayer. Jeremiah is not allowed to retire from the work, either because of its offensiveness to the people, or because it grieved him to be a man of strife among them. He is promised divine assistance and protection in those great undertakings to which he is appointed. Concerning the ministry of the word, we are here reminded that it is
I. A ministry of divine authority. Thou shalt stand before Me.
II. A ministry of divine revelations. Thou shalt be as My mouth.
III. A ministry of wise discrimination. If thou take forth the precious from the vile.
IV. A ministry often opposed by those to whom it is sent. And they shall fight against thee.
V. A ministry requiring much courage. I will make thee a fenced and brazen wall.
VI. A ministry which will be divinely vindicated. I am with thee, to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
VII. A ministry which lifts up Christ as the Saviour of men. As Moses lifted up, &c. I, if I be lifted up, &c. We preach Christ crucified, &c.W. Whale.
Jer. 15:20. Theme: IMPREGNABLE SECURITY IN JEHOVAHS SERVICE.
I will make thee a fenced brazen wall, &c. This is a repetition of the promise made by Jehovah to Jeremiah at the outset of his prophetic career (Jer. 1:18-19). Jeremiah may confidently rely on protection from on high, and God-given fortitude, if he will maintain fidelity in his messages and witness for righteousness among a depraved and hostile people.
Gods address of encouragement meets the faltering prophet with definite promises and hopeful statements, and affirms the four facts:
I. Invincible courage supernaturally supplied.
1. Its source. I will make thee. No self-reliance, therefore; nor self-despair.
2. Its scope. Unto this people. It must be shown, and shown in scenes definitely indicated.
3. Its stability. A fenced brazen wall Proof against all assaults; inflexible, immovable.
Hic murus aheneus esto,
Nil conscire sibi, nulla, pallescere culpa.
Horat. 1 Epis. i. 60.
II. Determined hostility from the wicked. They shall fight against thee.
Not passive unconcern; not airy incredulity; not frank and friendly remonstrance; but defiant antagonism, and angry abuse.
1. Resistance of his messages.
2. Resentment against him personally.
3. Rebellion against the God he served.
Jeremiah must, therefore, lay himself out for vigorous and valorous warfare; get rid of sentimental fears, and quit himself like a stalwart warrior for Gods cause and glory!
III. Supremacy guaranteed over antagonists. They shall not prevail against thee.
1. There would be actual encounter. A struggle man to man. This is the true idea of a faithful ministry.
2. There would be need of self-defence. Assailants would intend to prevail against the prophet; to defeat him in argument; to destroy his faith in God; and to silence his messages amid derision. Jeremiah would need to look to himself and defend his own fidelity.
3. There would be a triumphant issue. Jeremiah should prevail. Whom God makes invincible He also makes victorious. Not only successful defence against attack, but supremacy over assailants.
IV. Personally guarded by Jehovah Himself.
1. Gods personal protection. It is a precious promise that He will give His angels charge, &c., also that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, &c., also that as thy day is so shall thy strength be. But better far thisI will be with thee.
2. Gods sure protection. To save theepreservation from his enemies; to deliver theerescue from the wiles and assaults.
The idea of rescue, should the prophet become entangled by their sophistries or captured by force, is more fully expressed in Jer. 15:21 : I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked (malignant), and I will redeem thee out of the hand (from the grasp) of the terrible. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Jer. 15:20. Theme: GODS AMBASSADOR FORTIFIED. I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall, &c.
I. Gods qualification of an overseer of His Church.
The metaphor of a call implies:
1. Courage.
2. Integrity (innocence, therefore).
3. Authority.
II. The opposition a church overseer will meet with.
They shall fight against thee:
1. By seditious preaching and praying.
2. By railing and libels.
3. By (possibly) open force.
III. The issue and success of such opposition.
They shall not prevail.South.
Jer. 15:21. Theme: GODS PERFECT SALVATION. And I will deliver and redeem thee.
The prophets loneliness and the opposition of the people burdened his spirit. Jehovahs assurances must have afforded precious consolations and confidence to him. The promised presence and interposing power of God.
I. Alarming perils. The band of the wicked; the hand of the terrible.
Implying the moral quality which distinguishes our spiritual foes, and the fierce malignity with which there plot our ruin.
Perils to character, to peace, to security in God, to the soul itself.
II. A mighty Saviour. I will deliver; I will redeem.
Greater than our foes. Equal to all exigencies. No one else can save; it is His work. Employed in His service, He will undertake our defence and deliverance. Saved by Him. Safe in Him.
III. Complete redemption. To deliver; to redeem.
Salvation has various forms: from perils of this world, from taint of sin, from spiritual foes, from personal fears and faults, from terror of death, &c.
Redemption by price; deliverance by power.
IV. Unfailing certainty. I will; I will.
Expresses determination, earnestness, love, certainty.
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 15
Topic: PRAYER FOR A PEOPLE UNAVAILING. (Jer. 15:1).
Moses and Samuel held responsible offices, and were faithful to their trusts. With their piety as men, and fidelity as servants, God was well pleased. If any two men could have prevailed with God on behalf of a rebellious people, these could. But the conduct of the people had alienated His mind from them. Thus
i. There may be complete alienation of God from sinful men. My mind could not be towards this people.
ii. There is a limit to the Divine forbearance towards defiant souls. He will not always chide, though He chides again and again; neither will He keep back His anger for ever. Cast them out of My sight. Then no prayers, even from the best of men and the most eminent servants of God, can arrest the judgment.
I. Manifestly the prayers of good men do avail much. Instances prove that it is an established law for prayers, by the Moses and Samuels who stand before the Lord, to prevail.
II. While the power of prayer is obvious, there is no merit in prayer nor in him who offers it.
1. Prayer supposes the absence of all claim, for what a man can claim he need not pray for.
2. Prayer can only make its appeal to mercy, and mercy, being purely sovereign, can heed or refuse the appeal according to its pleasure. Had mercy refused every prayer, justice would have received no violation.
III. Gods right to refuse to answer prayers is beyond all challenge.
1. His declaration: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, &c., asserts His right to withhold or bestow grace according to His sovereign will.
2. This right involves the right to hear or not to hear the prayers of suppliants, be those suppliants Moses and Samuels, or publicans and sinners.
3. If God were under obligation to hear prayer and bestow mercy, mercy would be no longer mercy, and grace would be no longer grace. Obligation is justice, and not mercy; duty, and not grace.
IV. All our appeals for mercy and grace must be based on the Atoning Sacrifice.
1. Every act of mercy flows to us through the righteousness of Christ, the only channel of mercy from God to man.
2. Even when our appeals are based on the sacrifice of Christ, they must be left to the sovereignty of Divine mercy to answer or not to answer.
3. If we rightly recognised this sovereignty of Divine mercy, our prayers would be more humbly presented and answers would kindle a loftier praise, exclaiming, Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer nor His mercy from me!
V. Prayer is music in the ears of God. The sounds of earnest prayer enter into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, and delight Him more than ten thousand harpers harping with their harps. The prayer of the penitent gives joy to all the hosts of heaven, and the prayers of saints, our Moses and Samuels, give pleasure to the gracious God even whenfor wise and judicial reasonsHe cannot grant their requests. Whether answered or unanswered, the prayer of the upright is His delight.Arranged from Morning and Evening Walks with the Prophet Jeremiah.
Topic: MEN OF PROGRESS, MEN OF STRIFE. (Jer. 15:10).
Jeremiah called of God to an essential but unpopular work. He is judged to be a fault-finding, quarrelsome person, whereas he is really a sympathetic friend. They hear his outspoken denunciations against sin, and the utterance by him of divine threatenings; but they do not hear his prayers for them, or know the groanings of his spirit. He is misjudged. He is lonely. He would rather have been born to a quiet life, and wishes God would have chosen some one else to the prophetic work.
Jeremiah is typical of public men who have been the reformers of society, the leaders of thought, and often the martyrs of some great movement. We may note some reasons why such persons appear to be men of strife:
I. Because of noncompliance with popular sins. Jeremiah asserted his freedom from prevailing evils. Always some interested in doing wrong, and maintaining evils among the people. Those who will not conform, especially such as speak and labour against sin, are considered men of strifeMicaiah, Elijah, John Baptist, Jesus, and many others.
II. Because they are in advance of the age. They look at all matters from a more elevated standpoint, and seek to bring the people up to their level. Paul was in advance of the craftsmen of Ephesus. Luther was in advance of the church of Rome, as Wicliffe before him had been. Copernicus and Galileo, Huss and Wesley, not to mention others in all departments, were pioneers of progress, and were in advance of their fellows.
III. Because they were earnest and energetic men. Some can be indifferent; true souls cannot be. Cannot agree to leave things alone, and let every one go his own way. Must bear testimony for God and truth. Many now would call Noah, Elijah, Daniel, Jesus, Paul, visionaries, enthusiasts, madmen, as indeed they often speak of those who have their spirit.
IV. Because all good work causes strife. Evil has to be conquered, the devil has to be cast out. No curse will peaceably give place to a blessing. In the heart, and in the world, it must be conflict. Christ came to give peace to the trustful heart, but not to bring peace immediately on earth. In Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in Capernaum, in Jerusalem, He made conflict Every great work has its stage of martyrdom, its age of chivalry, before its triumph;its Egypt and wilderness before its Canaan,its manger, baptism, wilderness trial, Gethsemane, and cross, before it sits on the throne waiting till its foes be made its footstool.
V. Because the field of battle is the path of glory. We must fight if we would reign. The promise is to him that overcometh. Salvation is finally for him that endureth to the end. The exhortation is not only to repent and believe, but to fight the good fight of faith. The provision is for the warrior; he who would be a saint, must be a soldier. The martyrs of one age are the heroes of the next. Prophets, apostles, martyrs, missionaries, and reformers have all been men of war. We honour them for the battles they fought and the victories they won. The record of their lives appeals to us
Hark! tis a marshal sound,
To arms, ye saints, to arms,
Your foes are gathering round,
And peace has lost its charms.
Prepare the helmet, sword, and shield,
The trumpet calls you to the field.
W. Whale.
Topic: THE POWER OF REBUKE. (Jer. 15:19-20.)
If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth; and I will make thee unto the people a fenced brazen wall.
It is by the gracious word of Divine mercy that the hearts of men are to be subdued.
The human mind is found to be influenced far more by hope and tenderness, than by terror and rebuke.
I. The Christian ministry includes also an office of commination. If the messengers of heaven, when among the outcasts of mankind, who, in ignorance of God, have gone astray from virtue, speak much more of virtue than of wrath; when they stand among those who, being well informed in matters of religion, use the grace of the Gospel to palliate their vices, the messages of wrath must be most upon their lips.
II. The tendency of the Christian ministry is to move down from its remedial functions to become an office of delectation.
1. Furnishing intellectual entertainment; uttering, as matters of gorgeous eloquence, the appalling verities of eternal justice. Nature forbids such an incongruity, and the renovating Spirit refuses to yield the energy of His power to the sway of a mere minister of public recreation.
2. Affording spiritual entertainment; by exhibiting the conceits and ingenuities of mystic exposition; by painting in high colours the honours and privileges of the believer, and allowing professors of all sorts to appropriate the fulsome description; or by pealing out thunders of wrath against distant adversaries, rather than at the impure, unjust, rapacious, and malicious who fill the pews around him. This latter direct method might turn the whole tide of his popularity!
III. It behoves preachers to beware of the indurating effect of accustomed phrases and forms of words. Such conventional phrases conceal from the mind the ideas they should convey; hence preachers should continually endeavour to break up the mental incrustations which are always spreading themselves over the sensitive surface of the soul. This is most especially necessary in reference to matters wherein the drowsy formalities of language tend directly to augment the stupefying influence that belongs to all vicious indulgences. A mind, already rendered callous by sensuality, receives every week a new, and again a new insensibility from the heavy monotonies of the pulpit.
IV. It is a pressing duty of the minister of religion to maintain, in vigour, the spirit he needs as the reprover of sin and the guardian of virtue. It is easy to teach the articles of belief, to illustrate the branches of Christian ethics, to proclaim the Divine mercy, to meet and assuage the fears of the feeble and sorrows of the afflicted. But to keep in full activity the power of rebuke, demands rare qualities. It is fruitless to search aside for substitutes for these qualities. The preacher may avail himself of abstract demonstration respecting the unalterable rigour of the Divine government, to prove that the Supreme Ruler of the moral system can never pass over transgression, but must needs exact the appointed penalty from either the transgressor or his substitute. The erudite argument, for any substantial effect it will produce, might as well have related to the planets.
Or he may adopt the devices of eloquence; turning descriptive, pathetic, indignant. Yet while the walls ring with these sounds of alarm, the covetous man continues counting his gold, the eye of the vain and prurient is darting from object to object of illicit attraction, &c.
But to speak efficaciously of the holiness and justice of the Almighty God, and of its future consequences; to speak in modesty, tenderness, and power, of the approaching doom of the impenitent, must be left to those whose spirits have had much communion with the dread Majesty on high. On these topics ordinary preachers are most at fault; they are not themselves in spiritual fitness and equipment for their duty of rebuke and testimony of judgment.
V. There are three indispensable qualifications for the vigorous exercise of the Christian minister for this power of rebuke.
1. Such a conviction of the truth of Christianity as shall render him proof against assaults from within and from without. The quarrel of the world with Christianity comes to its issue upon the doctrine of future retribution. Meditating upon the scenes of joy which the Gospel spreads before us, we are not perplexed by discordant doubts; for joy and hope are emotions indigenous to the human mind. But the same law which makes joy and hope spontaneous, unsuspectingly impels us to doubt when we set our foot upon the region which sin has replenished with terrors. Fatal to his influence as a refuter of sin must be a lurking scepticism in the preachers breast. The infection of his own doubts will pass into the heart of the hearer, and will serve to harden each transgressor in his impenitence.
2. A resolute loyalty to the divine administration will be equally needful. It rests itself upon the assurance, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? It takes its force from genuine piety and affection to truth. It is the same spirit that led the royal poet to utter his persuasion, I know, O Lord, that all Thy judgments are right; and moved Paul with a similar force of healthy piety to exclaim, Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar. Such loyalty will break through the mazes of much sophistry, will support the servant of God when assailed by more fallacies than he can at the moment refute, and enable him to cleave under all obloquies and embarrassments to what he inwardly and firmly knows must in the end prove itself the better cause.
3. Not less necessary to the minister of truth is an unaffected and sensitive compassion towards his fellow-men, and a compassion of that efficient kind which nothing has ever produced but the Gospel. The servant of Heaven can effect his commission only as he gains access to the human heart; and there is no other path of access but that of love. Men, rather than angels, are sent to preach repentance, that the promulgation of mercy may always be heard in tones of tenderness and humiliation. The end of all reproof is mercy. If there were no redemption at hand, it were idle or cruel to talk of judgment.Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening, xv.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 15: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer. 15:1. INTERCESSORY PRAYER. I ought to study Christ as an intercessor. He prayed most for Peter, who was most to be tempted.MCheyne.
Sandalphon stands listening breathless
To sounds that ascend from below;
From the spirits on earth that adore,
From the souls that entreat and implore
In the fervour and passion of prayer;
From the hearts that are broken with losses,
And weary with dragging the crosses
Too heavy for mortals to bear.
And he gathers the prayers as he stands,
And they change into flowers in his hands,
Into garlands of purple and red;
And beneath the great arch of the portal,
Through the streets of the city immortal,
Is wafted the fragrance they shed.
Legend of the Angel of Prayer.
Longfellow.
LIMITS TO PRAYER.
If by prayer
Incessant I could hope to change the will
Of Him who all things can, I would not cease
To weary Him with my assiduous cries.
But prayer against His absolute decree
No more avails than breath against the wind,
Blows stifling back on him i hat breathes it forth:
Therefore to His great bidding I submit.
Miltons Paradise Lost.
What is the limit of our prayer? This: Not my will but Thine be done! Is that a limit? Why, that is glorious liberty! Not my will but Thine,not a little will but a great will,not my thought but Thine,not my love but Thine Is it a limit? It is the lark rising from its field-nest with the boundless liberty of the firmament. Truly we do not limit ourselves when we exchange the creature for the Creator.Joseph Parker, D.D.
Jer. 15:2. SCORNFUL INCREDULITY. Rest thee well assured, O scorner! that thy laughs cannot alter truth, thy jests cannot avert thine inevitable doom. Though in thy hardihood thou shouldst make a league with death, and sign a covenant with hell, yet swift justice shall overtake thee, and strong vengeance strike thee low. In vain dost thou jeer and mock, for eternal verities are mightier than thy sophistries; nor can thy smart sayings alter the divine truth of a single word of this volume of Revelation. Oh! why dost thou quarrel with thy best friend, and ill-treat thy only refuge?Spurgeon.
Jer. 15:4. PARENTAGE. The account that begins to be incurred when parents rejoice because a child is born to them, is the most solemn account that ever is incurred aside of ones own individual duty towards God. I do not mean that all the misconduct and evil-endings of the child are to come back upon the parent, and that there is to be in the child no free will, so that no individual account can belong to him. For if a parent has cleansed his skirts of his children, the guilt of their sins will rest on their heads, and not on his. But unless the parent can show that the childs misconduct and wreck of eternity are not attributable to any fault of his, the weight of the childs condemnation will be divided.H. W. Beecher.
The last thing forgotten in all the recklessness of dissolute profligacy is the prayer or hymn taught by a mothers lips or uttered at a fathers knee; and where there seems to have been any pains bestowed even by one parent to train up a child aright, there is generally more than ordinary ground for hope.The Experience of a Prison Chaplain.
Jer. 15:5. LOST TO PITY.
None pities him thats in the snare,
And, warned before, would not beware.
Herick.
Jer. 15:8. LIFES NOONTIDE.
O life, how pleasant is thy morning,
Young Fancys rays the hills adorning!
Cold, pausing Cautions lessons scorning,
We frisk away,
Like schoolboys at the expected warning,
To joy and play.
Burns.
For ah! my heart, how very soon
The glittering dreams of youth are past;
And long before it reach its noon,
The sun of life is overcast.
Moore.
What is youth? A dancing billow,
Winds behind, and rocks before!
Wordsworth.
Live, that thy young and glowing breast
Can think of death without a sigh,
And be assured that life is best
Which finds us least afraid to die.
Eliza Cook.
Jer. 15:9. EARLY DEATH. What is this voice to us? says Bonar of the early death of MCheyne. Only this much we can clearly see, that nothing was more fitted to leave his character and example impressed on our remembrance for ever than his early death. There might be envy while he lived; there is none now. There might have been some of the youthful attractiveness of his graces lost had he lived many years; this cannot be impaired now. It seems as if the Lord had struck the flower from the stem ere any of the colours had lost their bright hues or any leaf its fragrance.
It is remarkable yet mysterious how many of Gods choicest servants have been removed so early. Look over this list:H. Kirke White (at 21), Andrew Gray (21), John Janeway (23), Patrick Hamilton (24), R. M. MCheyne (29), Captain Hedley Vicars (29), David Brainerd (30), H. W. Fox (30), Felix Neff (31), J. H. Forsyth (32), H. Martyn (32), Toplady (35), W. Archer Butler (35).
Jer. 15:10. A TROUBLED MINISTRY. Exposed to criticisms and interferences of the vulgarest and coarsest kind. One man will ask how it is that so few additions are made to the Church? Another will inquire how it is that the collections have fallen off? A third will profess to lament that the seats were better let in former years. A fourth will intimate that we must have preaching which is abreast of the times. The minister often listens to these things with a justly angry spirit, oftener still with a heavy or aching heart; but what can he do? Shall he answer a fool according to his folly? This is exactly what the fool would like above everything. Shall he restrain himself and swallow his grief? He does so; but such discipline often brings with it discouragement and sadness,sometimes almost despair.Parker.
Jer. 15:12. BE NOT DISCOURAGED. Some of the greatest works that were ever performed by Christian people were not immediate in their results. You know the story of the removal of old St. Pauls by Sir Christopher Wren. A very massive piece of masonry had to be broken down, and the task, by pick and shovel, would have been a very tedious one, so the great architect prepared a battering-ram for its removal, and a large number of workmen were directed to strike with force against the wall with the ram. After several hours of labour, the wall, to all appearances, stood fast and firm. Their many strokes had been apparently lost, but the architect knew that they were gradually communicating motion to the wall, creating an agitation throughout the whole of it, and that, by and by, when they had continued long enough, the entire mass would come down beneath a single stroke. The workmen, no doubt, attributed the result to the one crowning concussion, but their master knew that their previous strokes had only culminated in that one tremendous blow, and that all the non-resultant work had been necessary to prepare for the stroke which achieved the purpose.C. H. Spurgeon.
EVIL SHALL NOT PREVAIL.In the dark ages the enemy thought he had destroyed the Church, but life came into the monk in his cell, and Luther shook the world. The Church in England fell into a deadly slumber in the days of Whitfield and Wesley; but she was not dead, and therefore a time of awakening came. The flame burned low, but the heavenly fire still lingered among the ashes, and only needed the Holy Spirit to blow upon it, and cause a hallowed conflagration. Six young men in Oxford were found guilty of meeting to pray: their offence was contagious, and soon there sprang up hundreds glorying in the same blessed crime. Earnest servants of the living God were forthcoming, and no man knew whence they came; like the buds and blossoms which come forth at the bidding of spring, a people made willing in the day of Gods power came forward at once. Seeing that there is life in the Church of God, you can never calculate what will happen within its bounds to-morrow; for life is an unaccountable thing, and scorns the laws which bind the formal and inanimate. The statues in St. Pauls Cathedral stand fixed on their pedestals, and the renowned dead in Westminster Abbey never raise a riot; but who can tell what the living may next conceive or attempt? They burnt the Gospel out in Spain, did they not? And in the Low Countries they erased the memory thereof. How is it now? Has not Spain achieved her liberty at a blow? Is not also Belgium free to the preacher of the Word? Not even Italy or Rome itself is safe against the obnoxious heretic. Everywhere the Gospel penetrates. Even the earth helps the woman, and swallows up the flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth to drown the man-child: political rulers restrain the violence of those who otherwise would slay the saints in one general massacre.C. H. Spurgeon.
Jer. 15:15. ON BEING REMEMBERED. See Bonars hymn, The Everlasting Memorial.
I need not be missed if my life has been bearing
(As its summer and autumn moved silently on)
Its flower and its fruit: I shall still be remembered
Yes, but remembered by what I have done.
Jer. 15:16. ENJOYING GODS WORD. What do I not owe to the Lord, writes Henry Martyn, for permitting me to take part in the translation of His Word? Never did I see such wonders, and wisdom, and love in the blessed Book, as since I have been obliged to study every expression: and it is a delightful reflection, that death cannot deprive us of the pleasure of studying its mysteries.
Shortly before his death, Dr. Buchannan, giving to a friend some details of his laborious revisions of his Syriac Testament, suddenly stopped and burst into tears. On recovering himself, he said, I am not ill, but I was completely overcome with the recollection of the delight which I have enjoyed in this exercise. At first I was disposed to shrink from the task as irksome, and apprehended that I should find even the Scriptures pall by the frequency of this critical examination. But, so far from it, every fresh perusal seemed to throw fresh light on the Word of God, and to convey additional joy and consolation to my mind.
APPROPRIATING GODS WORD. Have you an ear to hear Gospel truth as the voice of the Infinite God addressed to your own soul? The Dutch farmers at the Cape, at no very distant period, considered the Hottentots around them to be little better than beasts, quite incapable of anything beyond mere eating, drinking, stealing, and lying. After our missionaries had laboured among the natives for a time, one of them was found reading the Bible by the roadside. The Dutchman inquired of him, What book are you reading? The Bible. The Bible! Why, that book was never intended for you. Indeed it was, said the black man, for I see my name here. Your name! where? cried the farmer. Show it to me. There, said the Hottentot, putting his finger on the word sinners. Thats my name; I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came to save me. It were well, indeed, if men would but read the Bible, saying, In this volume the great God condescends to speak to me.Spurgeon.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
E. The Final Rejection of Prophetic Intercession
Jer. 15:1-9
TRANSLATION
(1) And the LORD said unto me: If Moses and Samuel were standing before Me, I would have no affection for this people. Cast them away from My presence and let them go out. (2) And it shall come to pass if they say unto you, Where shall we go? Then you shall say unto them: Thus says the LORD: Those for death to death; those for the sword to the sword; those for famine to famine; and those for exile to the exile. (3) I have appointed against them four types of punishment (oracle of the LORD): the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field to devour and to destroy. (4) And I will make them a sight that will horrify all the kingdoms of the earth on account of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah for that which he did in Jerusalem. (5) For who shall have mercy upon you, O Jerusalem? And who shall mourn for you? Who shall turn aside to ask concerning your welfare? (6) You have abandoned Me (oracle of the LORD); backward you go. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary with having compassion. (7) And I will winnow them with a winnowing in the gates of the land; I will deprive them of children, I will destroy My people since they have not turned aside from their ways. (8) Their widows have become to me more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring against them, against the mother of the young men, a destroyer at high noon; I will cause to fall upon her suddenly distress and terrors. (9) The one who has borne seven has grown feeble, her soul gasps. Her sun has gone down while it is yet day; she is ashamed and confused. I will give their remnant to the sword before their enemies (oracle of the LORD).
COMMENTS
It is useless for Jeremiah to continue to intercede for the people of Judah. Not even Moses and Samuel, the two greatest intercessors the nation had ever known, would be able to move God to show any affection or pity to the present sinful generation. God had hearkened to Moses and Samuel and extended His mercy to previous generations but only after Israel had manifested repentance. Jeremiahs generation was so steeped in sin that repentance seemed impossible and consequently intercessory prayer was useless. Jeremiah was to quit praying and go back to preaching the message of judgment which God had commissioned him to preach. In and through his preaching he is to cast away the inhabitants of Judah from the presence of the Lord that they might go out from before Him (Jer. 15:1). If the people ask him to explain this cryptic statement go out the prophet is to have a ready answer. Every man will go out to the punishment which has been decreed for him. Some will suffer death by pestilence, others will die in battle, others will perish with hunger, still others will be taken into foreign captivity (Jer. 15:2). All will suffer; none will escape. Four types, families or modes of punishment have been decreed for many of the inhabitants of Judah. They will be first slain by the sword of Babylon and then their unburied bodies will be ripped, torn and eaten by dogs, birds and beasts of the field (Jer. 15:3). The nations of the world would witness the terrible things which happen to Israel and will fear for their own safety. All of this must befall Judah because of the sins of Manasseh, the most wicked king who ever sat on the throne of Judah (Jer. 15:4).
From speaking about the people God turns and speaks directly to the people in Jer. 15:5. By means of three rhetorical questions He drives home the point that no one in the world will really care when Judah falls. No one will show any sympathy or pity, no one will mourn, no one will even ask about the condition of the city (Jer. 15:5). Many times in the past Israel had forsaken God and thereby had incurred the threat of divine wrath. But in the past God had always withheld the threat and had taken His people back. Now it is too late. He cannot forgive them any more. Using anthropomorphic language, He is weary with this business of making threats and then withholding the stroke at the last possible instance (Jer. 15:6). Judgment will be executed. As the winnowing process separates the chaff from the grain, so God will cause the parents of Judah to be separated from their children. The children who served as soldiers would be slain as they attempted to defend the gates of their cities from the invading enemy. This terrible judgment is necessary because the inhabitants of Judah have not turned from their sinful ways (Jer. 15:7). Wives will be deprived of their husbands and hence the land will be left defenseless. Against the mother of the young men, i.e., Jerusalem, God will bring a destroyer at the most unexpected timeat high noon when normally military operations temporarily ceased. Distress and terror will fall upon the mother when she realizes the danger which she faces (Jer. 15:8). The woman with numerous children,[205] usually the most proud and joyous inhabitant of the city, will be filled with consternation. With the loss of her children her sun has gone down while it is yet day. In the prime of life all has become dark and dreary for her. All of her hopes, dreams, aspirations are dashed to pieces when the enemy slays her sons. The shame of childlessness[206] comes upon her in full force when the remnant of the nation is given over to the sword of the enemy (Jer. 15:9).
[205] She that has borne seven is a proverbial expression meaning one who bears numerous children. See 1Sa. 2:5 and Rth. 4:15.
[206] The shame of childlessness is repeatedly mentioned in the Old Testament. See Jer. 50:12; Isa. 54:4; Gen. 16:4; Gen. 30:1; Gen. 30:23.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XV.
(1) Then said the Lord unto me.With a bold and terrible anthropomorphism, the prophet again speaks as if he heard the voice of Jehovah rejecting all intercession for the apostate people. The passage reminds us of the mention of Noah, Daniel, and Job, in Eze. 14:14, as able to deliver their own souls only by their righteousness. Here Moses (Exo. 32:11; Num. 14:13-20) and Samuel (1Sa. 7:9; 1Sa. 12:23) are named as having been conspicuous examples of the power of the prayer of intercession.
Cast them out of my sight.i.e., from my presence, from the courts of the Temple which they profane. That would be the answer of Jehovah, even if Moses and Samuel stood before Him (the phrase, as in Jer. 35:19, has a distinctly liturgical meaning), ministering in the Courts of the Temple.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
JEREMIAH’S PRAYER REFUSED, Jer 15:1-9.
Here again we have an example of unfortunate chapter division. The connexion between the last verses of the preceding chapter and the opening portion of the present chapter is most intimate. To break it by one of the great chapter divisions is misleading. In the concluding portion of the preceding chapter the prophet’s prayer is urgent and importunate; here we have a still more emphatic refusal.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. Though Moses and Samuel By their intercessions they had repeatedly saved the people from impending danger, (Exo 32:11-14; Exo 17:11; Num 14:13, etc.; 1Sa 7:9; 1Sa 12:17; Psa 99:4,) but now even such holy men as these would not succeed.
Cast them out of my sight As if they had come along with their representative, the prophet, and were waiting without while he had gone into the holy place to plead for them.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
YHWH’s Response To Jeremiah’s Plea Is Of The Absolute Certainty And Awfulness Of The Coming Judgment ( Jer 15:1-9 ).
In the face of Jeremiah’s plea YHWH now makes clear that nothing can now stop His judgment from coming. Even though those two great intercessors Moses and Samuel were to pray for them it would be of no avail. (Compare for this Exo 32:11-13; Num 14:13-20; 1Sa 7:8-9; 1Sa 12:23). Whatever is their allotted end must now come upon them, with the result that Judah will be ‘tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth’ as though they were a ball being tossed around in training. And all this was because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. It must not, however be thought that it was all because of one man. The point is rather that the nation had responded to Manasseh gladly, following his lead assiduously. It was what resulted from the people as a result of what Manasseh did that was the root cause of the problem. Had Manasseh been alone in his sin the situation would not have arisen. That is why Jeremiah then makes clear that it is the people as a whole who have rejected YHWH, and because of whom this judgment is necessary. For as YHWH explains, although He had made every effort to bring them back to Himself by various methods, all had failed. Whatever He had done to them they had not returned from their ways. That is why wholesale death and captivity was the only possible answer.
Jer 15:1
‘Then YHWH said to me,
“Though Moses and Samuel stood before me,
Yet my mind would not be toward this people,
Cast them out of my sight,
And let them go forth.”
YHWH has twice told Jeremiah not to pray for good for Judah any more (Jer 7:16; Jer 14:11). Now He explains that even if Moses and Samuel were to intercede for them in His very Dwellingplace (to stand before God’ was to approach Him in His Dwelling place, either the Tabernacle or the Temple) His mind would not turn favourably towards His people. Jeremiah was thus, as it were, to cast them out of His sight (out of the Temple where they were no longer welcome), and to cause them to go forth from the land.
Moses and Samuel were seen as the two great intercessors who had prevailed in prayer for God’s people when they had least deserved it (see Psa 99:6):
Moses at the time of the worship of the golden calf when YHWH had proposed destroying the people and beginning again (Exo 32:11-13) and then when the people had rejected the advice of the two scouts, Joshua and Caleb, about obeying YHWH and going ahead with the invasion of Canaan, when His proposal had been the same.
Samuel in the face of the invasion by the Philistines (1Sa 7:8-9), and then when the people had rejected YHWH as their King because they wanted a human being to fight their battles for them (1 Samuel 12, especiallyJer 15:19-21).
But even these great intercessors could not have helped Judah in their present predicament. Their corporate sin was a sin too far. YHWH’s mind had thus turned away from them and He wanted them cast out, both from the Temple and from the land, as He had warned would be the case in Num 18:25; Num 18:28.
Jer 15:2
“And it will come about that, when they say to you, ‘Where shall we go forth?’, then you will tell them,”
“Thus says YHWH,
Such as are for death, to death,
And such as are for the sword, to the sword,
And such as are for the famine, to the famine,
And such as are for captivity, to captivity.”
Nor was their casting out to be a pleasant experience, for it was intended to teach them a salutary lesson. Thus when they asked, ‘where will we go forth’ the reply was not in respect of their geographical destination, but in terms of the fates that awaited them. Those destined for a quick death through some means, would die. Probably pestilence was mainly in mind for pestilence, sword and famine are regularly mentioned together (Jer 14:12; Jer 21:6-7; Jer 21:9; Jer 24:10; and often. See also Job 27:15). Those who were destined to die by the sword would die by the sword. Those who were destined to waste away in the famine, would waste away in the famine. And those who were destined for captivity would go into captivity.
Jer 15:3
“And I will appoint over them four kinds, the word of YHWH,
The sword to slay, and the dogs to tear,
And the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth,
To devour and to destroy.”
Furthermore YHWH had appointed four kinds of executioners, the sword to slay, the dogs to tear at the carcasses (as they had that of Jezebel – 2Ki 9:35-36), the scavenger birds to peck at the remains, and the beastly scavengers to finish off what was left. Nothing was seen as worse by people of that time than to have one’s body a prey to scavengers after death (see 2Sa 21:10; Eze 39:17-20; compare 1Sa 31:12), but that was to be the fate of Judah.
Jer 15:4
“And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”
Those who survived would also find themselves in trouble. They would be ‘tossed to and fro’ among the kingdoms of the earth. No one would want them (compare Deu 28:25 where they were to be ‘a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth’). And it would be because of the wholesale idolatry that Manasseh had introduced in Jerusalem. But the thought is not that they were being punished for the sins of Manasseh, but that they were being punished because they had connived with Manasseh in his sins. Hezekiah had sought to purify Jerusalem and Judah, but the people had been only too glad when Manasseh had led them back into the old ways. They had cooperated fully.
Jer 15:5
“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your welfare?”
In consequence no one will have pity on Jerusalem Their future isolation is emphasised threefold. None will have pity on Jerusalem and its people. None will be sad because of their fate. None would be concerned about their welfare. They would be ‘on their own’ with no one caring for them.
Jer 15:6
“You have rejected me, the word of YHWH, you are gone backwards, therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you. I am weary with repenting.”
And this was because of what they had done. They had rejected YHWH, that was ‘the verdict of YHWH’. And they had gone backwards, deserting His covenant. That was why He was stretching out His hand against them, and would destroy them. he was tired of changing His mind about judging them, only for them to re-sin again and again.
Jer 15:7
“And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land, I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people, they did not return from their ways.”
It was not that He had made no attempt to get them to alter their ways. He had sought to remove their chaff (winnowed them with a winnowing fork, tossing them as it were as grain into the air for the wind to remove the chaff) either by seeking to ensure justice in the gates of the land (where the local courts of justice would meet), or possibly by enemies attacking their cities where the gates would be the prime target. He had allowed their children (whether young or old) to die in differing ways, hoping that this would wake them up to their sins. (Nothing brings men closer to considering God than a death in the family). He had brought destruction on them hoping that when His judgments were in the land the people would learn righteousness (Isa 26:9). But it had all been in vain. They had not returned from their ways. They had not sought to renew the covenant.
Jer 15:8
“Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas, I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday, I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.”
Such is to be the slaughter that the number of widows in the land will multiply ‘above the sands of the sea’, a reversal of the promise made by God to Abraham that He would multiply his seed as the sand of the sea (Gen 22:17). Mothers will see their sons of whom they were so proud destroyed by the destroyer ‘at noonday’ (thus so remorseless that they come at the most unexpected time, in the heat of the sun), and will recognise that it is also coming on themselves. They will be filled with anguish and terror. And all this will happen suddenly and unexpectedly. (Alternately the ‘mother of the young men’ may be Judah itself).
Jer 15:9
“She who has borne seven languishes, she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame and confounded, and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, the word of YHWH.”
The woman who had borne seven sons (a full complement) should have been able to have confidence that at least some would survive, but even she will mourn and languish, because all her sons will have been taken. Her giving up of the spirit probably signifies hopelessness or fainting. She will have given up any hope of their survival. Her sun going down while it was yet day signifies that all brightness will have been removed from her life because of the death of her whole family. Her sons would have gone forth to battle with such great hopes, and supported by the pride of their mother at the thought of their success, only for her to be ashamed and confounded at the terrible news of defeat and death. And any who did survive would only survive in order to become further battle fodder for the sword. It was death all round of the bravest and the best. This was the assured word of YHWH.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 1. An Overall Description Of Jeremiah’s Teaching Given In A Series Of Accumulated, Mainly Undated, Prophecies, Concluding With Jeremiah’s Own Summary Of His Ministry ( Jer 2:4 to Jer 25:38 ).
From this point onwards up to chapter 25 we have a new major section (a section in which MT and LXX are mainly similar) which records the overall teaching of Jeremiah, probably given mainly during the reigns of Josiah (Jer 3:6) and Jehoiakim, although leading up to the days of Zedekiah (Jer 21:1). While there are good reasons for not seeing these chapters as containing a series of specific discourses as some have suggested, nevertheless they can safely be seen as giving a general overall view of Jeremiah’s teaching over that period, and as having on the whole been put together earlier rather than later. The whole commences with the statement, ‘Hear you the word of YHWH O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel, thus says YHWH —.’ It is therefore directed to Israel as a whole, mainly as now contained in the land of Judah to which many northerners had fled for refuge. We may divide up the main subsections as follows, based partly on content, and partly on the opening introductory phrases:
1. ‘Hear you the word of YHWH, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel —’ (Jer 2:4). YHWH commences by presenting His complaint against Israel/Judah because they have failed to continue to respond to the love and faithfulness that He had demonstrated to them in the wilderness and in the years that followed, resulting by their fervent addiction to idolatry in their losing the water of life in exchange for empty cisterns. It ends with a plea for them to turn back to Him like an unfaithful wife returning to her husband. This would appear to be mainly his initial teaching in his earliest days, indicating even at that stage how far, in spite of Josiah’s reformation, the people as a whole were from truly obeying the covenant, but it also appears to contain teaching given in the days of Jehoiakim, for which see commentary (Jer 2:4 to Jer 3:5).
2. ‘Moreover YHWH said to me in the days of King Josiah –’ (Jer 3:6). This section follows up on section 1 with later teaching given in the days of Josiah, and some apparently in the days of Jehoiakim. He gives a solemn warning to Judah based on what had happened to the northern tribes (‘the ten tribes’) as a result of their behaviour towards YHWH, facing Judah up to the certainty of similar coming judgment if they do not amend their ways, a judgment that would come in the form of a ravaged land and exile for its people. This is, however, intermingled with a promise of final blessing and further pleas for them to return to YHWH, for that in the end is YHWH’s overall purpose. But the subsection at this time ends under a threat of soon coming judgment (Jer 3:6 to Jer 6:30).
3. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 7:1). In this subsection Jeremiah admonishes the people about the false confidence that they have in the inviolability of the Temple, and in their sacrificial ritual, and warned that like Shiloh they could be destroyed. He accompanies his words with warnings that if they continued in their present disobedience, Judah would be dispersed and the country would be despoiled (Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3). He therefore chides the people for their obstinacy in the face of all attempts at reformation (Jer 8:4 to Jer 9:21), and seeks to demonstrate to them what the path of true wisdom is, that they understand and know YHWH in His covenant love, justice and righteousness. In a fourfold comparison he then vividly brings out the folly of idolatry when contrasted with the greatness of YHWH. The section ends with the people knowing that they must be chastised, but hoping that YHWH’s full wrath will rather be poured out on their oppressors (Jer 9:22 to Jer 10:25).
4. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 11:1). He now deprecates their disloyalty to the covenant, and demonstrates from examples the total corruption of the people, revealing that as a consequence their doom is irrevocably determined (Jer 11:1 to Jer 12:17). The section closes with a symbolic action which reveals the certainty of their expulsion from the land (13).
5. ‘The word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah –’ (Jer 14:1). “The word concerning the drought,” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile. A promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is, however, once more incorporated (Jer 16:14-15) although only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:4). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced by observing the Sabbath (Jer 17:5-27).
6. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 18:1). Chapters 18-19 then contain two oracles from God illustrated in terms of the Potter and his handiwork, which bring out on the one hand God’s willingness to offer mercy, and on the other the judgment that is about to come on Judah because of their continuance in sin and their refusal to respond to that offer. The consequence of this for Jeremiah, in chapter 20, is severe persecution, including physical blows and harsh imprisonment. This results in him complaining to YHWH in his distress, and cursing the day of his birth.
7. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 21:1). This subsection, which is a kind of appendix to what has gone before, finally confirming the hopelessness of Jerusalem’s situation under Zedekiah. In response to an appeal from King Zedekiah concerning Judah’s hopes for the future Jeremiah warns that it is YHWH’s purpose that Judah be subject to Babylon (Jer 21:1-10). Meanwhile, having sent out a general call to the house of David to rule righteously and deal with oppression, he has stressed that no hope was to be nurtured of the restoration of either Shallum, the son of Josiah who had been carried off to Egypt, nor of Jehoiachin (Coniah), the son of Jehoiakim who had been carried off to Babylon. In fact no direct heir of Jehoiachin would sit upon the throne. And the reason that this was so was because all the current sons of David had refused to respond to his call to rule with justice and to stamp down on oppression. What had been required was to put right what was wrong in Judah, and reign in accordance with the requirements of the covenant. In this had lain any hope for the continuation of the Davidic monarchy. But because they had refused to do so only judgment could await them. Note in all this the emphasis on the monarchy as ‘sons of David’ (Jer 21:12; Jer 22:2-3). This is preparatory to the mention of the coming glorious son of David Who would one day come and reign in righteousness (Jer 23:3-8).
Jeremiah then heartily castigates the false shepherds of Judah who have brought Judah to the position that they are in and explains that for the present Judah’s sinful condition is such that all that they can expect is everlasting reproach and shame (Jer 23:9 ff). The subsection then closes (chapter 24) with the parable of the good and bad figs, the good representing the righteous remnant in exile who will one day return, the bad the people who have been left in Judah to await sword, pestilence, famine and exile.
8. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah –’ (Jer 25:1). This subsection contains Jeremiah’s own summary, given to the people in a sermon, describing what has gone before during the previous twenty three years of his ministry. It is also in preparation for what is to follow. He warns them that because they have not listened to YHWH’s voice the land must suffer for ‘seventy years’ in subjection to Babylon, and goes on to bring out that YHWH’s wrath will subsequently be visited on Babylon, and not only on them, but on ‘the whole world’. For YHWH will be dealing with the nations in judgment, something which will be expanded on in chapters 46-51. There is at this stage no mention of restoration, (except as hinted at in the seventy year limit to Babylon’s supremacy), and the chapter closes with a picture of the final desolation which is to come on Judah as a consequence of YHWH’s anger.
While the opening phrase ‘the word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah’ will appear again in Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1; Jer 40:1 it will only be after the sequence has been broken by other introductory phrases which link the word of YHWH with the activities of a particular king (e.g. Jer 25:1; Jer 26:1; Jer 27:1; Jer 28:1) where in each case the message that follows is limited in length. See also Jer 29:1 which introduces a letter from Jeremiah to the early exiles in Babylon. Looking at chapter 25 as the concluding chapter to the first part, this confirms a new approach from Jer 26:1 onwards, (apparent also in its content), while at the same time demonstrating that the prophecy must be seen as an overall unity.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Section 5. The Word Concerning The Droughts: The Certainty Of Exile For Judah ( Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:27 ).
The new section is again introduced by the words ‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah –’ (Jer 14:1) although in slightly altered form (literally ‘that which came, the word of YHWH, to Jeremiah’). “The word concerning the droughts” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile, although a promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is also incorporated (Jer 16:14-15), but this only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:4). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced in the observance of the Sabbath (Jer 17:5-27).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jeremiah Still Feels That He Must Make Some Plea On Behalf Of His People, But Is Firmly Informed That Even Though Moses And Samuel Were There To Plead The Cause Of The People They Would Not Prevail, Because Judgment On His Obstinate people Was Determined ( Jer 14:19 to Jer 15:9 ).
Jeremiah puts in a desperate plea for his people, unable to believe that YHWH has utterly rejected His people, and acknowledges their sin on their behalf, calling on YHWH not to forget His covenant. For he recognises that only YHWH can end the series of droughts. But he learns that for this generation YHWH’s rejection is indeed final, and that even the intercessions of men like Moses and Samuel would have made no difference. The only end that awaits is death through wild beasts, through the sword, through famine and through captivity, the latter resulting in their being scattered among the nations. And this is because of what Manasseh had done in Jerusalem in leading it astray after idols, a leading astray which they had avidly seized on to and participated in even after Manasseh’s repentance. For even though He had made every effort to win them back they had not returned from their ways. Thus inevitable judgment must come upon them. There is in this a warning for us all not to delay repentance, lest we become hardened and the opportunity slip away.
Jer 14:19
‘ Have you utterly rejected Judah?
Has your soul loathed Zion?
Why have you smitten us,
And there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace,
But no good came,
And for a time of healing,
And, behold, dismay!
The pattern of questions here should be compared with Jer 2:14 where a similar pattern is followed, two general questions followed by a request for an explanation. Here Jeremiah (or the people) just cannot intellectually accept that YHWH has rejected Judah, and views Zion with loathing, and seeks an explanation as to why they have been smitten with no remedy available. They had looked for such a remedy, but it had not come, and all that they had received in respect of the time of healing that they sought was dismay because it had not happened. (The questions will be answered in Jer 15:5-6).
Jer 14:20-21
‘We acknowledge, O YHWH, our wickedness,
And the iniquity of our fathers,
For we have sinned against you.
Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake,
Do not disgrace the throne of your glory,
Remember, do not break your covenant with us.
Jeremiah then confesses the people’s sins on their behalf, and calls on YHWH not to bring dishonour on Himself by not responding and by breaking His covenant. It was a similar basis to that on which Moses had previously prayed for the people centuries before when he had been concerned for YHWH’s honour and for His faithfulness to His promises made to Abraham, and then it had been effective (Exo 32:11-13). But that had been in the beginning when the nation was still young, not when it had become hardened by sin as it was now.
‘The throne of your glory’ probably refers to Jerusalem as containing the Dwellingplace of YHWH (compare Jer 3:17; Eze 43:7). His hope was still that YHWH would observe the covenant even in the face of the people’s disobedience. He still clung to the hope that it was not too late for God to show mercy. But he is to learn that it is now too late for that (Jer 15:1).
Jer 14:22
‘Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are not you he, O YHWH our God?
Therefore we will wait for you,
For you have made all these things.
The drought is still in mind as Jeremiah asserts on behalf of the people that he at least recognises the futility of appealing to false gods. He recognises that there are none among the gods of the nations who can bring showers when called on. They cannot cause it to rain. Nor can the heavens (the sun, moon and stars). It is only YHWH Who can do such things because He is the Creator. Because His is ‘HE’, the One Who is. That is why he and the people need to ‘wait for Him’ (pray in expectancy and hope), because He made the rain and ‘all these things’.
Outwardly the people would appear to ‘wait for Him’, but it would only be by using ritual in order to persuade Him to act differently. There would be no thought of obedient response to the covenant.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
Jer 15:18
Joh 7:37-38, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water .”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Lord Refuses help the Second Time
v. 1. Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel, v. 2. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shall tell them, v. 3. And I will appoint over them four kinds saith the Lord, v. 4. And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, v. 5. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem, or who shall bemoan thee? v. 6. Thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord, v. 7. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; v. 8. Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas, v. 9. She that hath borne seven,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jer 15:1-9
Second rejection of Jeremiah’s intercession; awfulness of the impending judgment.
Jer 15:1
Though Moses and Samuel, etc. It is a mere supposition which is here made; there is no allusion to any popular view of the intercession of saints (see my note on Isa 63:16). If even a Moses or a Samuel would intercede in vain, the ease of the Judahites must indeed be desperate. For these were the nearest of all the prophets to Jehovah, and repeatedly prayed their people out of grievous calamity (comp. Psa 99:6). Jeremiah had already sought to intercede for his people (see on Jer 7:16). Cast them out of my sight; rather, Dismiss them from my presence. The people are represented as praying or sacrificing in the fore courts of the temple.
Jer 15:2
Such as are for death, etc.; a sternly ironical answer. Death, sword, famine, captivity, lie in wait for them in every possible road. “Death” here means “pestilence” (comp. “the black death“ in the Middle Ages), as in Jer 18:21; Job 27:15. Similar combinations of evils occur in Jer 43:11; Eze 14:21; Eze 33:27.
Jer 15:3
Appoint; i.e. give full power to them as my vicegerents (Jer 1:10). Four kinds; literally, families; i.e. kinds of things. The first-mentioned has reference to the living; the remaining ones to the unburied corpses (Jer 14:16; Jer 19:7; Jer 34:20). To tear; rather, to drag along.
Jer 15:4
Cause them to be removed into; rather, make them a shuddering unto. So in the Deuteronomic curses for disobedience (Deu 28:25).
Jer 15:5
For who shall have pity? or, for who can have pity, etc.? (the imperfect in its potential sense). The horror which will seize upon the spectators will effectually preclude pity. Who shall go aside? As one turns aside to call at a house. So Gen 19:2 (literally, turn aside, not “turn in”).
Jer 15:6
Will I stretch; literally, I stretchedthe perfect of prophetic certitude (so in next verse). I am weary with repenting; i.e. with recalling my (conditional) sentence of punishment (see on Jer 18:1-10).
Jer 15:7
The gates of the land. The phrase might mean either the cities in general (comp. Mic 5:5; Isa 3:26) or the fortresses commanding the entrance into the land (comp. Nah 3:13). The context decides in favor of the latter view. Ewald’s explanation, “borders of the earth” (i.e. the most distant countries), seems less natural. I will bereave them, etc. The proper object of the verb is my people (personified as a mother). The population are to fall in war (comp. the same figure in Eze 5:17). The tense is the perfect of prophetic certitude; literally, I have bereaved, etc.
Jer 15:8
To me; i.e. at my bidding. It is the dative of cause. Against the mother of the young men; rather, upon young man. The widow has lost her husband, the mother her son, so that no human power can repel the barbarous foe. The word rendered “young man” is specially used for “young warriors,” e.g. Jer 18:21; Jer 49:26; Jer 51:3. Others following Rashi, take “mother” in the sense of “metropolis,” or “chief city”, in which case “young man” must be connected with the participle rendered “a spoiler;” but though the word has this sense in 2Sa 20:19, it is there coupled with “city,” so that no doubt can exist. Hero the prophet would certainly not have used the word in so unusual a sense without giving some guide to his meaning. The rendering adopted above has the support of Ewald, Hitzig, and Dr. Payne Smith. At noonday; at the most unlooked-for moment (see on Jer 6:4). I have caused him, etc.; rather, I have caused pangs and terrors to fall upon her suddenly.
Jer 15:9
That hath borne seven; a proverbial expression. Her sun is gone down, etc. The figure is that of an eclipse (comp. Amo 9:9). She hath been ashamed, etc.; rather, she ashamed, etc. Ewald supposes the sun, which is sometimes feminine in Hebrew, to be the subject (comp. Isa 24:23); but the view of the Authorized Version is more probable. The shame of childlessness is repeatedly referred to (comp. Jer 1:12; Isa 54:4; Gen 16:4; Gen 30:1, Gen 30:23).
Jer 15:10-21
These verses come in very unexpectedly, and are certainly not to be regarded as a continuation of the preceding discourse. They describe some deeply pathetic moment of the prophet’s inner life, and in all probability belong to a later period of the history of Judah. At any rate, the appreciation of the next chapter will be facilitated by reading it in close connection with Jer 15:9 of the present chapter. But the section before us is too impressive to be east adrift without an attempt to find a place for it in the life of the prophet. The attempt has been made with some plausibility by a Jewish scholar, Dr. Gratz, who considers the background of these verses to be the sojourn of Jeremiah at Ramah, referred to in Jer 40:1, and groups them, therefore, with another prophecy (Jer 31:15-17), in which Ramah is mentioned by name as the temporary abode of the Jewish captives. We are told in Jer 40:4, Jer 40:5, that Jeremiah had the choice given him of either going to Babylon with the exiles, or dwelling with the Jews who were allowed to remain under Gedaliah the governor. He chose, as the narrative in Jer 40:1-16. tells us, to stay with Gedaliah; but the narrative could not, in accordance with the reserve which characterizes the inspired writers, reveal the state of mind in which this difficult choice was made. This omission is supplied in the paragraph before us. Jeremiah, with that lyric tendency peculiar to him among the prophets, gives a vent to his emotion in these impassioned verses. He tells his friends that the resolution to go to Gedaliah may cost him a severe struggle. He longs for rest, and in Babylon he would have more chance of a quiet life than among the turbulent Jews at home. But he has looked up to God for guidance, and, however painful to the flesh, God’s will must be obeyed. He gives us the substance of the revelation which he received. The Divine counselor points out that he has already interposed in the most striking manner for Jeremiah, and declares that if he will devote himself to the Jews under Gedaliah, a new and fruitful field will be open to him, in which, moreover, by Divine appointment, no harm can happen to him. Whether this is really the background of the paragraph must remain uncertain. In a case of this kind, we are obliged to call in the help of the imagination, if the words of the prophet are to be realized with any degree of vividness. There are some great difficulties in the text, and apparently one interpolation.
Jer 15:10
Woe is me, my mother! This is one of those passages (comp. Introduction) which illustrate the sensitive and shrinking character of our prophet.
“If his meek spirit erred, opprest
That God denied repose,
What sin is ours, to whom Heaven’s rest
Is pledged to heal earth’s woes?”
(Cardinal Newman, in ‘Lyra Apostolica,’ 88.).
I have neither lent on usury, etc.; a speaking figure to men of the ancient world, to whom, as Dr. Payne Smith remarks, “the relations between the money-lender and the debtor were the most fruitful source of lawsuits and quarrellings.”
Jer 15:11
The Lord said. The prophets are usually so tenacious of the same formulae that even their slight deviations are noteworthy. “The Lord said,” for “Thus saith the Lord,” occurs only here and in Jer 46:25 (where, however, the phrase has possibly been detached by mistake from the preceding verse). It shall be well with thy remnant; rather, I have loosed thee for (thy) good, or, thy loosing (shall be) for (thy good), according as we adopt the reading of the Hebrew text or that of the margin, which differs in form as slightly as it is possible to do. If we accept the historical setting proposed by Gratz for this paragraph, the reference will be to the “loosing” of Jeremiah from his chains mentioned in Jer 40:4. The rendering given here is, however, only a probable one; it is in conformity with the Aramaic usage of the verb (the Targum uses it in this sense in Jer 40:4), and is supported by its suitability to the context and, philologically, by the fact of the growing influence of Aramaic upon Hebrew. Gesenius, in his anxiety to keep close to the native use of the root, produces a rendering which does not suit the context, viz. “I afflict thee for (thy) good.” Jeremiah does not complain of being afflicted by God, but that all the world is against him; Ewald, comparing a different Aramaic verb to that appealed to above, renders, “I strengthen thee,” etc; which is adopted by Keil, but does not accord with the second half of the verse so well as the rendering adopted. The Authorized Version follows the Targum, the Vulgate, Aquila, Symmachus, Rashi, and Kimchi, assuming that sherith is contracted from sh’erith (as in 1Ch 12:38), and that “remnant” is equivalent to “remnant of life.” But, though the sense is not unacceptable (comp. Verses 20, 21), the form of expression is unnatural; we should have expected akharith’ka, “thy latter end” (comp. Job 8:7). I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well. This expression is as difficult as the preceding, and our rendering of it will depend entirely on our view of the context. If “the enemy” means the Chaldeans, the Authorized Version will be substantially correct. Rashi has already mentioned the view that the phrase alludes to Nebnzar-adan’s respectful inquiry as to the wishes of Jeremiah in Jer 40:2-5. In this ease, the literal rendering is, I will cause the enemy to meet thee (as a friend); comp. Isa 47:3; Isa 64:4. But if “the enemy” means the Jews, then we must render, I grill cause the enemy to supplicate thee, and illustrate the phrase by the repeated applications of Zedekiah to the prophet (Jer 21:1, Jer 21:2; Jer 37:3; Jer 38:14), and the similar appeal of the “captains of the forces,” in Jer 42:1-3.
Jer 15:12
Shall iron break, etc.? Again an enigmatical saying. The rendering of the Authorized Version assumes that by the northern iron Jeremiah means the Babylonian empire. But the “breaking” of the Babylonian empire was not a subject which lay within the thoughts of the prophet. It was not the fate of Babylon, but his own troubled existence, and the possibility that his foes would ultimately succeed in crushing him, which disquieted this conscientious but timid spokesman of Jehovah. The Divine interlocutor has reminded him in the preceding verse of the mercy which has been already extended to him, and now recalls to his recollection the encouraging assurances given him in his inaugural vision (Jeremiah h 18, 19). Render, therefore, Can one break iron, northern iron, and bronze? The steel of the Authorized Version is evidently a slip. The Hebrew word is n’khosheth, which means sometimes (e.g. Jer 6:28; Deu 8:9; Deu 33:25; Job 28:2) copper, but more commonly bronze, since “copper unalloyed seems to have been but rarely used after its alloys with tin became known” (Professor Maskelyne). “Steel” would have been more fitly introduced as the second of the three names of metals. “Northern iron” at once suggests the Chalybes, famous in antiquity for their skill in hardening iron, and, according to classical authors (e.g. Stephanus the geographer), the neighbors of the Tibareni, in the country adjoining the Euxine Sea, the Tibareni being, of course, the people of Tubal, whom Ezekiel mentions (Eze 27:13) as trafficking in vessels of bronze. Any Jew, familiar with the wares of the bazaar, would at once appreciate the force of such a question as this. Even if iron could be broken, yet surely not steel nor bronze. Thus the verse simply reaffirms the original promises to Jeremiah, and prepares the way for verses 20, 21.
Jer 15:13, Jer 15:14
Thy substance, etc. These verses form an unlooked-for digression. The prophet has been in a state of profound melancholy, and the object of Jehovah is to rouse him from it. In Jer 15:11, Jer 15:12, the most encouraging assurances have been given him. Suddenly comes the overwhelming declaration contained in Jer 15:13, Jer 15:14. And when we look closely at these verses, two points strike us, which make it difficult to conceive that Jeremiah intended them to stand here. First, their contents are not at all adapted to Jeremiah, and clearly belong to the people of Judah; and next, they are repeated, with some variations, in Jer 17:3, Jer 17:4. It should also be observed that the Septuagint (which omits Jer 17:1-4) only gives them here, which seems to indicate an early opinion that the passage only ought to occur once in the Book of Jeremiah, though the Septuagint translator failed to choose the right position for it. Without price; literally, not for a price. In the parallel passage there is another reading, “thy high places,” which forms part of the next clause. Hitzig and Graf suppose this to be the original reading, the Hebrew letters having been partly effaced and then misread, after which “not” was prefixed to make sense. However this may be, the present reading is unintelligible, if we compare Isa 52:3, where Jehovah declares that his people were sold for nothing, i.e. were given up entirely to the enemy, without any compensating advantage to Jehovah. And that for all thy sins, even, etc.; literally, and in all thy sins and in all thy borders. The text is certainly difficult. Externally a parallelism exists between the two halves of the clause, and one is therefore tempted to render literally. As this will not make sense, however, we are forced either to render as the Authorized Version, or to suppose that the text is not accurately preserved. The parallel passage has a different but not a more intelligible reading. Ewald omits “and” in both halves of the clause, which slightly diminishes the awkwardness. And I will make thee to pass, etc. The natural rendering of the Hebrew is, “And I will make thine enemies to pass,” etc; which clearly cannot be the prophet’s meaning. The parallel passage (Jer 17:4) has, “And I will make thee to serve thine enemies,” etc.; and so the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Targum, and many manuscripts here. For a fire is kindled in mine anger; a reminiscence of Deu 32:22, suggesting that the judgment described in the Song of Moses is about to fall upon Judah.
Jer 15:15
O Lord, thou knowest, etc. The prophet renews his complaints. God’s omniscience is the thought which comforts him (comp. Jer 17:6; Jer 18:23; Psa 69:19). But he desires some visible proof of God’s continued care for his servant. Visit me, equivalent to “be attentive to my wants “-an anthropomorphic expression for the operation of Providence. Take me not away in thy long-suffering; i.e. “suffer not my persecutors to destroy me through the long-suffering which thou displayest towards them.” “Take away,” viz. my life (comp. Eze 33:4, “If the sword come and take him away”). Rebuke; rather, reproach; cutup. Psa 69:7 (Psa 69:1-36. is in the style of Jeremiah, and, as Delitzsch remarks, suits his circumstances better than those of David).
Jer 15:16
Thy words were found. Jeremiah here describes his first reception of a Divine revelation. Truth is like “treasure hid in a field;” he alone who seeks it with an unprejudiced mind can “find” it. But there are some things which no “searching” of the intellect can “find” (Job 11:7; Job 37:23; Ecc 3:11; Ecc 8:17); yet by a special revelation they may be “found” by God’s “spokesmen,” or prophets. This is the train of thought which underlies Jeremiah’s expression here. The “words,” or revelations, of Jehovah are regarded as having an objective existence in the ideal world of which God is the light, and as “descending” from thence (comp. Isa 9:8) into the consciousness of the prophet. So Eze 3:1, “Eat that thou findest.” I did eat them; I assimilated them, as it were (comp. Eze 2:8; Eze 3:3). I am called by thy name; literally, thy name hath been (or, had been) called upon me; i.e. I have (or, had) been specially dedicated to thy service. The phrase is often used of Israel (see on Jer 14:9), and, as here applied, intimates that a faithful prophet was, as it were, the embodied ideal of an Israelite.
Jer 15:17
In the assembly of the mockers; rather, of the laughers. The serious thoughts arising out of his sacred office restrained him from taking part in the festive meetings to which his youth would naturally incline him (cutup. on Jer 16:2). Because of thy hand. The Hand of Jehovah is a figurative expression for the self-revealing and irresistible power of Jehovah; it is, therefore, equivalent to the Arm of Jehovah (Isa 53:1), but is used in preference with regard to the divinely ordained actions and words of the prophets. Thus we are told, in the accounts of Elijah and Elisha, that “the hand of the Lord came upon” them (1Ki 18:46; 2Ki 3:15). Such a phrase was probably at first descriptive of a completely passive ecstatic state, and was retained when ecstasies had become rare, with a somewhat laxer meaning. Isaiah uses a similar expression but once (Isa 8:11); Ezekiel, however, who appears to have been unusually rifled with the overpowering thought of the supernatural world, is constantly mentioning “the hand of Jehovah” (see Eze 1:3; Eze 3:22; Eze 37:1; and especially Eze 3:14; Eze 8:3). We may infer from this variation in the practice of inspired writers that, though symbolical, anthropomorphic language is not always equally necessary in speaking of Divine things, yet it cannot be entirely dispensed with, even by the most gifted and spiritual teachers. Thou hast filled me with indignation; rather, thou hadst filled me. Jeremiah was too full of his Divine message to indulge in impracticable sentimentalities. There was no thought of self when Jeremiah received his mission, nor any bitterness towards those who up-posed him. His “indignation” was that of Jehovah, whose simple instrument he was (comp. Jer 6:11, “I am full of the fury of the Lord”).
Jer 15:18
Why is my pain perpetual? One who could honestly speak of himself in terms such as those of Jer 15:16, Jer 15:17, seemed to have a special claim on the Divine protection. But Jeremiah’s hopes have been disappointed. His vexation is perpetual, and his wounded spirit finds no comfort. As a liar; rather, as a deceitful stream. The word “stream” has to be understood as in Mic 1:14. Many of the water courses of Palestine are filled with a rushing torrent in the winter, but dry in summer. Hence the pathetic complaint of Job (Job 6:15). The opposite phrase to that used by Jeremiah is “a perennial stream” (Amo 5:24). The force of the passage is increased if we read it in the light of Dr. Gratz’s hypothesis.
Jer 15:19
If thou return, etc. Most commentators regard these words as containing a gentle rebuke to Jeremiah for his doubts respecting God’s care of him. It may be questioned, however, whether such passing doubts could be described as a turning away from Jehovah. If the word “return” is to be interpreted in a spiritual sense, we must surely conclude that the people is addressed (comp. Jer 3:12; Jer 4:1). But this does not agree with the context. Hence Gratz’s view seems very plausible, that the reference is to the proposal that Jeremiah should place himself under the protection of Gedaliah (comp. Jer 40:5, “Go back also to Gedaliah,” etc.). Then will I bring thee again; viz. into the right relation to me, so as to be my minister (Keil). But by altering one of the vowel-points (which form no part of the text), on the authority of the Septuagint, we get a more satisfactory sense, I will give thee a settled place. The verb must in any case be coupled with the following one. Jeremiah longs for a quiet home, only as supplying the conditions of prophetic activity. Thou shalt stand before me. The phrase is taken from the wont of slaves to stand in their masters’ presence, waiting for commands. It is also applied to courtiers (Pro 22:29) and royal councilors (1Ki 12:6), to angels (Luk 1:19) and to prophets (1Ki 17:1; 2Ki 3:14). Jeremiah was by God’s will to find a new and important mission to the Jews with Gedaliah. If thou take forth the precious from the vile, etc. The metaphor is derived from metallurgy (comp. Jer 6:27-30). The prophet is compared to a smelter. By the fervor of his inspired exhortations, he seeks to draw away from the mass of unbelievers all those who are spiritually capable of better things. The “vine-dressers and husbandmen,” whom Nebuzar-adan had left after the capture of Jerusalem, though outwardly “the poor of the laud,” might yet be ennobled by the word and example of Jeremiah. [Some explain “the precious” and “the vile” differently, taking the former to be the pure Word of God (comp. Psa 12:6; Pro 30:5), the latter the base, human elements which are apt to be mixed with the Divine message (comp. Jer 23:28). But was it not the very fidelity of Jeremiah which exposed him to the persecutions of which he has been complaining? Others suppose an inward purification of Jeremiah himself to be intended, “the vile” being those human infirmities of which he had just given evidence, as opposed to “the precious,” i.e. the spiritual impulses which come from above. But is not such an explanation too evangelical, too Pauline, for this context?] Thou shalt be as my mouth. For devoting himself to this possible “mustard seed” of a better and holier people, the prophet should be rewarded
(1) by close prophetic intercourse with his God, and
(2), as the next clause states, by a moral victory over his opponents.
“Mouth” for “prophet,” as Exo 4:16 (comp. Exo 7:1). Let them return unto thee, etc.; rather, they shall return unto thee, but thou shalt not return unto them. They shall come over to thy side, and thou shalt not need to make humiliating advances to them.
Jer 15:20
And I will make thee, etc.; a solemn confirmation of the promises in Jer 1:18, Jer 1:19.
Jer 15:21
Out of the hand of the wicked, etc. The “wicked” (literally, evil) and the “terrible” may be the banditti, composed of desperate patriots, who ultimately assassinated Gedaliah (Jer 41:1-3).
HOMILETICS
Jer 15:2
Various destinies of punishment.
I. PUNISHMENT WILL BE ASSIGNED AS A DEFINITE DESTINY. It is not casual. It cannot be evaded. It is decidedly appointed and inflexibly executed. The destiny it involves, though not original but a consequence of voluntary actions, is as certain as if it were in accordance with a primary law of nature (Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8).
II. PUNISHMENT WILL BE ASSIGNED IN A VARIETY OF DESTINIES. All the wicked will not suffer alike. There will be various forms of penalty and various degrees of suffering. Some are appointed to the painful death of the plague, some to the sudden death of the sword, some not to death at all but to exile. Punishment will be various,
(1) because men’s constitutions, capacities, and susceptibilities are various, so that the form of suffering which is suitable for one may not be suitable for another; and
(2) because guilt varies in degree (Luk 12:47, Luk 12:48).
III. PUNISHMENT WILL BE ASSIGNED TO ALL THE GUILTY WITHOUT EXCEPTION. They may be numerous, yet some penalty will be found for all. The variety of destinies might suggest that among them some would find a way of escape, but, alas! they are all penal. This variety will ever secure the punishment of all. They who escape one form of punishment will only fall into another. Some hope to elude justice because their case is very exceptional. But exceptional punishment is found for exceptional crime.
IV. PUNISHMENT WILL BE SEVERE IN ALL CASES. There is a choice of destinies, but the list is given with somewhat of irony. How terrible is the mildest fate! All future punishment must be inexpressibly awful (Heb 10:31). Therefore let us not delude ourselves with hoping that ours will be of the milder kind, but seek deliverance from the certain fearful doom of sin in the forgiving mercy of God in Christ.
Jer 15:6
God weary of repenting.
I. GOD OFTEN APPEARS TO REPENT. He seems to repent of his merciful intentions when the conduct of men has called forth his righteous indignationeven repenting that he had ever made men (Gen 6:6), and to repent of his wrathful intentions when his children repent of their sins (e.g. Exo 32:14). Absolutely it cannot be said that God repents (1Sa 15:29). He never does wrong, never errs, is never moved from reason by passion, knows the end from the beginning, and therefore never sees a new thing to modify his thoughts. Yet he acts as if he repented, i.e. he grieves for the sorrow he has righteously brought, and desires that it may cease as soon as possible; and he changes his action towards his children as they change their conduct towards him. This fact is not inconsistent with the essential Divine immutability. The sun does not vary in itself because, after developing a flower in moist weather, it withers it in drought. A government does not change its policy if it enters into amicable arrangements with a loyal dependency, though it was carrying out warlike measures so long as the province was in revolt. So God does not change in his own nature because his action is varied according to the varied requirements of his people. Such variation is rather a result of his essential changelessness. Righteousness, which requires the punishment of the guilty, approves of the forgiveness of the penitent; so that if the action of God did not change from wrath to mercy with the change of the guilty person to penitence, it would seem as though the nature of God had been turned aside from its essential righteousness. Because the sun is stationary it appears to rise and set as the earth revolves; if it did not so appear it must be moving too; and because God is eternally good it must seem to us, who are constantly giving occasion for differences of treatment from the hand of God, that he repents. We can only speak of God after the manner of men; therefore we say he repents.
II. GOD MAY BE WEARY OF REPENTING. Here is a second anthropomorphic expression, which corresponds to a great and terrible fact.
1. We may cease to repent of our sin; then God will cease to repent of his wrath.
2. We may sin so deeply and so persistently that he may no longer find it possible to withhold his threatened punishment. God is long-suffering; he waits for the return of his children. Though the recompense of evil-doing is due, it is deferred; God spares the guilty for the sake of the intercession of the righteous. But this cannot be forever. We may sin away the grace of God. Though God’s mercy endureth forever the enjoyment of it by the impenitent cannot be perpetual. Eternal mercy may have to give place to eternal justice.
CONCLUSION. Consider
(1) the wonderful love of God in repeatedly “repenting” of his wrathful intentions, showing that he does not desire the woe of his children, but does all that is possible to avert it;
(2) the great sin of persisting in impenitence after God has shown so wonderful a love; and
(3) the danger that God may be weary with repenting, and therefore the folly and presumption of relying upon our present immunity for future safety.
Jer 15:9
Sunset at noon.
A premature ending of any human affairs may be compared to sunset at noon.
I. THIS IS A COMMON OCCURRENCE. A nation suddenly collapses; a sovereign is overthrown in the height of his power; a life is cut off in middle age. How often do we see these things?
II. THIS IS AN UNNATURAL OCCURRENCE. No such event could occur in the physical world. Therefore it proves that the human world is deranged.
III. THIS IS A CALAMITOUS OCCURRENCE. National modifications may be both peaceful and profitable. Empires are slowly welded together, colonies gradually assume powers and rights of independence, internal reforms are quietly effacing the old order. To the individual natural death in old age is painless. It is the violent and premature end that causes disaster.
IV. THIS IS AN OCCURRENCE RESULTING FROM ERROR OR WRONGDOING. We cannot say that the cause is always to be traced immediately to the sufferers. With nations it may be generally so, but not with individuals. But still a law of morality, of social order of nature, has been broken, if not by the sufferers still by some agent.
V. THIS IS AN OCCURRENCE THAT MAY COME AS AN ACT OF DIVINE JUDGMENT. It is not universally so, particularly in regard to individuals. But it often is the case. Thus it was with the Jews, with Rome, in the dark ages, etc. Therefore let us beware of presuming on the apparent distance of the day of judgment.
Jer 15:15
The prayer of the persecuted.
I. THE GROUNDS OF HIS PLEA.
1. A confessor‘s fidelity. Jeremiah was suffering for God’s sake. This plea implies
(1) innocence;
(2) a special claim for God’s help.
He who can urge such a plea is the heir of one of the great beatitudes (Mat 5:10). It is important to note that the promise of Christ rests, not on the mere fact of persecution, nor even on unjust persecution, but on persecution for righteousness’ sake. The martyr is honored, not for his suffering, but for his fidelity.
2. The knowledge of God. “O Lord, thou knowest.” When men misjudge, God knows all. They who are cruelly maligned by men may take refuge in the fact that God knows their innocence. It is better to have his approval in face of a world’s scorn and hate, than the flattery of the world for false merits together with the anger of the all-seeing God. How happy to be in such a case that we can fearlessly appeal to God’s knowledge of our fidelity in suffering! Too often trouble is consciously deserved.
3. The long-suffering of God. The best man can but ask for God’s mercy. Often has that been sought in the past. Yet God is not weary of hearing his helpless children’s repeated cries. “His mercy endureth forever.”
II. THE OBJECTS OF HIS PRAYER.
1. To be remembered by God. It is something to know that God thinks of us. His sympathy is a great consolation. The traveler in the desert is not utterly alone when he calls to mind those dear ones at home, in whose memory he is constantly cherished, and who are therefore with him in spirit, while the unfortunate man who is buried in a crowded city, neglected and forgotten by his old friends, is essentially lonely and desolate. God’s remembrance of us is the prelude to his active help. He remembers” for good.” If Christ remembered the dying malefactor when he came into his kingdom, that fact carried with it the assurance that the poor man should be with Christ in paradise (Luk 23:42, Luk 23:43).
2. To be visited by God. Our consolation is not in a pitying though absent God, but in an abiding presence and a close communion. If God visits he will come in power to save.
3. To be avenged of his enemies. This was a natural desire, considering that
(1) the prophet was in the midst of his distresses,it is easy to judge coolly from the outside when we are not feeling the oppression of cruel persecution;
(2) he lived in Old Testament times; and
(3) he did not desire to execute vengeance himself but appealed only to the great Judge. For us Christians the right prayer is, not for harm to come upon our enemies, but for their forgiveness, as Christ and Stephen prayed. Still, we may rightly seek for the overthrow of wicked powers, the frustration of iniquitous schemes, and the just and necessary punishment of persistent evildoers.
4. For life to be spared. Jeremiah does not ask for triumph, for comfort and ease, for liberation from his arduous lifelong task, but simply for life. The love of life is natural. Men have work to do, a mission to fulfill, and it is right to desire to have time to complete this. Others were benefited by the life of Jeremiah. He was the prophet of his age, and a voice speaking for all ages. It is our duty to seek to escape persecution if we can do so honorably, that we may continue to serve God and work for the good of mankind (Mat 10:23). Courting a martyr’s death is practically equivalent to committing suicide out of personal vanity, and much the same thing as falling under the second of Christ’s temptations. Yet if martyrdom is unavoidable without unfaithfulness, we may honor God and benefit me-more by our death than by our life.
Jer 15:16
The words of God found and eaten.
I. THE WORDS OF GOD REQUIRE TO BE FOUND. They are not emblazoned on the face of the world that the most careless may fret miss them. They are hidden treasures to be dug for, pearls of great price to be sought after. Divine truth in nature is only discoverable after thoughtful observation and reflection. The prophets were especially commissioned to toil in deep mines of spiritual thought. Revelation was born in them with labor, fasting, watching, praying. But the words of God are not so hidden that they cannot be discovered by the earnest and prayerful seeker after truth. He that seeks shall find (Mat 7:8). Many honest, earnest men pass through a season of doubt, but few such remain hopeless skeptics all their lives. Of those who never find the light probably some are suffering from some moral or intellectual perversity which distorts their vision, and others are not content to trust to the measure of light that has been given to them, and remain restless and questioning because they desire satisfaction in a ‘direction wherein it cannot yet be afforded. But so long as all such men do not convert doubt into settled unbelief, and are not satisfied with doubt, we may be assured that ultimately the Father of lights will dispel the darkness that now troubles their souls.
II. THE WORDS OF GOD ARE FOOD. Truth is food for the soul. Christ, the “Word made flesh,” is the “Bread of life.” Truth is not simply revealed to amuse our curiosity; it is intended to feed our starving souls. The object of revelation is practical The result of rightly using revelation is seen in an increase of spiritual vitality, ‘in refreshment, heightened energy and growth in the inner life. If the words of God have not attained this end, they have failed of their object. They are food because they are not empty breath but the vehicles of vital truthsof spirit and life (Joh 6:63). God is in his own words. They are inspired words. With the spoken words we receive the life-giving Spirit.
III. THE WORDS OF GOD MUST BE EATEN TO PROFIT US. It is not enough that they are spoken, heard, understood, believed, remembered, admired; they must be eaten.
1. We must apply them to ourselves. The starving man gains nothing by looking at food through a shop-window. The external intellectual study of truth is profitless to the soul. We must bring it to bear upon our own circumstanceshear the voice of God speaking directly to us and in regard to our immediate conduct.
2. We must meditate over the words of God. Food must be masticated and digested. Truth must be analyzed, ideas separated and compared, “inwardly digested,” hidden in the soul and quietly thought over. Our common habit is to treat it too superficially and hastily.
3. We must abstract the vital ideas from the dry husk of words. Words are not profitable so long as they are regarded from the outside as mere language. We must break the shell and get at the kernel, casting aside the flesh that profiteth nothing and assimilating the spirit that quickeneth.
IV. THE WORDS OF GOD BRING JOY WHEN THEY ARE FOUND AND EATEN. To some they appear to be dull sayings, to some stern utterances of law, to some harsh messages of judgment. This is because they are not properly applied. They must first be truly found and eatenapplied, meditated on, spiritually assimilated. Then they lead to joy, for:
1. All truth is essentially noble, beautiful, and glorious.
2. Even the darker truth is wholesome as a warning, like nauseous medicine that cures pain and restores the serenity of health.
3. The highest truth is a revelation of the love of Goda gospel of good will to men.
V. THE SECRET OF THE JOY AND PROFIT OF GOD‘S WORDS IS IN THE RELATION OF THE SOUL TO GOD. Jeremiah is called by the Name of Jehovah, the God of hosts. If we are strangers to God, his words will seem distant and of little interest. We prize the words of those we love. God speaks helpful and comforting words to his own reconciled children.
Jer 15:17
The sadness and solitude of a prophet.
I. A PROPHET‘S COMMUNION WITH GOD DOES NOT PRECLUDE EARTHLY SADNESS AND SOLITUDE. Jeremiah was not plunged into grief through any unfaithfulness; he was under no shadow in regard to heavenly communications; yet he was sad and solitary.
1. Consider the sadness. While we am in this world we suffer with it and from its action upon us, even though we may be living very near to God. Christ was a man of sorrows; he sighed and wept and groaned in spirit. It is not sinful to grieve. It is not a proof of unbelief. Faith should engender patience, resignation, peace, and hope; but it cannot destroy natural sorrow. It would not be pious but simply unnatural for the Christian mother not to be wrung with grief at the death of her child.
2. Consider the solitude. A good man will not be wrapped up in himself, for out of the love of God springs naturally the love of man. Godliness rouses human sympathy, and this inclines to sociability. So Christ was remarkable for his social habits. Yet there may be an inevitable solitude, and a solitude which is good both for self and for others. The more a good man sympathizes for his brother men the less can he sympathize with them when their conduct is wicked.
II. A PROPHET‘S COMMUNION WITH GOD MAY LEAD TO EARTHLY SADNESS AND SOLITUDE. Jeremiah was sad and solitary because he was filled with Divine indignation. His was no atrabiliar moroseness, no theatrical Byronic self-pity. The prophet’s sorrow and solitude were reflections of the grief of God for his people’s sin and the aloofness of God produced by their wanderings from fidelity.
1. A prophet’s communion with God will induce sorrow for the world‘s sin and wretchedness. Jeremiah was a young man. The scenes of mirth which he shunned may have been pure, innocent, and naturally attractive; but his vision of the thought and heart of God made him look behind this superficial joy to the wretchedness it sought to cover, and then it Seemed but a mockery to him.
2. This will lead to a separation from the world. It will cause a perpetual separation from the spirit of the world as far as that is earthly and sensual, and at times a complete withdrawal to solitude. The Christian is to live in the world as its salt, its light, its leaven of righteousness, and not to flee to the wilderness, selfishly cultivating his own soul for heaven, while he leaves his task undone and his fellow-men in hopeless sin and ruin. But he will meet with occasions for solitude and scenes from which he must withdraw himself, and sometimes feel an inner sense of loneliness as he moves among the gay crowds, since he is a pilgrim and stranger, a citizen of another country, possessed by thoughts and swayed by motives quite outside those of worldly life. Thus Christ, in character and outward habit the most social of men, was in inner life and in secret thought the most lonely. The Christian has a life which is “hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).
Jer 15:19
A wide recognition of the good without compromise with the evil.
Jeremiah is bidden to return from his solitude to his mission among his people when he will owned and encouraged by God if he will see the goodness that still lingers among them- and yet not enter into any unrighteous compromise with the wicked ways of the multitude of them.
I. WE SHOULD EXERCISE A WIDE RECOGNITION OF THE GOOD IN ALL THINGStake out the precious from the vile. The gold-washer may find but a grain of gold in a ton of gavel; yet he will search diligently for it, and treasure it when he finds it. Carelessness and uncharitableness lead to an unjust, wholesale repudiation of what is no doubt largely corrupt. But it is not right to judge of things thus “in the lump.”
1. Apply the principle to persons. Because ninety-nine men out of a company of a hundred are guilty, it is grossly iniquitous to condemn the whole hundredthe one innocent man with the rest. Jeremiah was directed to look out for the pious remnant among the mass of the unfaithful people. We are too ready to ignore the existence of the seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Goodness should be recognized in bad society, in heathen nations, in corrupt Christian communities, in questionable avocations. We should beware of sweeping condemnations of a whole class; e.g. of actors, of publicans, etc.
2. Apply the principle to religious systems. Few are wholly good; but few are wholly bad. The dross and precious metal are mixed, though in varying degrees, in all of them. The various Church systems of Christendom partake of this mixed character. Most Churches have some peculiarly precious ideas to which it seems to be their mission each severally to testify. It is well if we have the insight to seize on these, and the charity to begrudge none of their value because of the error, the superstition, or the perversion with which they may be associated. Thus, not by an amorphous eclecticism which can minister to no deep, organic unity of life, but by a genuine assimilating power, we should learn to gather from all sources the good of spiritual thought. The same process should be observed in dealing with non-Christian religions. Beneath a vast heap of the vile a few glittering gems of precious merit may be found in the Talmud, and also in the Zeud-Avesta, in the Koran, in the religious writings of Greece, India, China, etc.
3. Apply the principle to life generally. Take the precious from the vile in literature, in conversation, in social usage, in recreation, in politics. Discriminate in all these things. Do not reject the whole of any of them, even if the larger part may be bad, but select the pure and good and reject the evil.
II. WE SHOULD MAINTAIN A STOUT REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE WITH THE EVIL IN ANYTHING. Jeremiah is not to sacrifice principle for the sake of any advantage. He is not to embrace the vile for the sake of the precious, but to separate the two. He is not to yield his position of truth and right for the sake of winning the friendship of his neighbors, but patiently to expect them to come over to him. It is the very love of truth that should make us welcome it in the most unlikely quarters; but if we go on to receive the error that is closely associated with it, we at once become unfaithful to the very motive of our search. The silver is useless so long as the dross is preserved with it. The largest charity cannot sanction any compromise with evil. Compromise belongs to the region of expediency, not to that of truth and righteousness. It is a mistake to conciliate our enemies by yielding up our fortress. If we abandon the essential mysteries of Christianity for the sake of winning over our opponents, we are really only giving them the victory. Should we come to terms, this is at best on their grounds, and the peace we ratify is no record of a victory for Christ. In the end the policy of compromise fails. It indicates weakness and leaves no decided position about which to rally. We must dare to be firm to our principles, and wait patiently till the world comes round to them. This was how Christ acted. If we eagerly recognize the good in everything and earnestly desire to take forth the precious from the vile, we shall find our uncompromising fidelity to principle resting on a firmer and safer basis than if we are narrowly jealous of all good outside our own little circle of notions and habits.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 15:1
Sins for which saintly intercession cannot avail.
Moses is spoken of as an intercessor in Exo 17:11; Exo 32:11; Num 14:13; Psa 106:23 : Samuel in 1Sa 7:1-17; 1Sa 8:1-22; 1Sa 8:6; 1Sa 12:16-23; 1Sa 15:11; Psa 99:6. Noah, Daniel, and Job are mentioned similarly (Eze 14:14). It is, then, in their special intercessory character that these fathers are referred to. At the time when their intercessions took place they were the leaders and representatives of Israel, and because of their saintliness they had favor with God. But the sins for which Judah and Jerusalem are now to be punished are by this reference declared of a more heinous description than any that took place in those days, It is a mere supposition which is made, evidently no description of the normal relation of glorified saints to Jehovah, but simply a hypothetical statement as to what they, in their earthly capacity, would have failed to do.
I. THE INTERCESSIONS OF RIGHTEOUS MEN AVAIL MUCH. Many a time in the wilderness had Moses stayed the impending wrath of God because of murmuring and disobedience; and this not simply because he was the civil leader of the people, but through his own saintly, high-priestly character. This is a principle of God’s dealings with men. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much;” and one of the chief occupations of the Church is represented as praying for the salvation of the world and the coming of the kingdom of God. It is because such men represent the future hope of the race, being a kind of firstfruits of them that shall be saved, that they have this power. In themselves too, because of what they are, they are pleasing to God, who delights in their prayers and praises. There is something very striking and touching in this spectacle of one standing for many, and we have to think of how great has been the blessing which has been thus secured to the world through its saints. But they all appear trifling compared with that which Christ has secured through the intercession of his prayers, obedience, and sacrifice. In his case (what could scarcely be said of any saint) his intercession has a solid objective worth because of what it is in itself, and avails as a consideration with God for the cleansing of all who identify themselves with him through faith.
II. BUT THERE ARE CONDITIONS WHICH DESTROY THE EFFICACY OF SUCH INTERCESSION. Their influence is but partial and imperfect, depending as it does upon their own inadequate fulfillment of the Law and will of God. If it were a question of strict account, they themselves would not be able to stand in his presence. It is of his grace that, even for a moment, they may be said to have influence for others. And it may be said that their intercession is but provisional, and, if not followed up By the obedience of those for whom they pray, it will be followed with the more condign punishment upon the transgressors. It is a great tribute to the vicarious power possible to saints that even the most eminent of them should be quoted in such a connection. But it shows how inadequate such a mediatorship would be for the general sin of man. We may do much, each of us, to avert just judgments, to secure opportunities of salvation, and to bring the grace of God to bear upon the hearts of others; but we cannot save them by any communication of our own acceptance with God to them. They must stand or fall according to their own relation to the will of God and the person of his Son. And there are degrees of guilt which far surpass any intercession of this kind. The sin of unbelief especially, if it be unrepented of, will prevent any benefit being received. The permanent position of our souls with respect to Divine grace will depend, therefore, upon their own action or belief. Even Christ cannot save if we do not believe in his Name and obey him.M.
Jer 15:10
The offense of faithful preaching.
That the preaching of the gospel should stir up the evil passions of men would at first appear strange. It is the declaration of good news to them that are perishing, and an effort to restore men to happiness and peace. But that it has been accompanied with such manifestations of ill will from the beginning is sufficiently well known. The preaching of the cross has in every age been resisted and resented by the world. It is “to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1Co 1:23).
1. WITH WHAT THE FAITHFUL PREACHER COMPARES HIMSELF. Jeremiah says that he might have been a brawler, a dishonest debtor, or a usurer to have stirred up the strife and hatred which he experienced. As has been said, lending and borrowing cause most lawsuits. “‘I have not lent nor borrowed.’ My dear Jeremiah! Thou mightest have done that; that is according to the custom of the country; there would be no such noise about that” (Zinzendorf). Elijah was reproached by Ahab, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?’ (1Ki 19:17). St. Paul was persecuted. Even Christ himself was accused of stirring up sedition, and the preaching of the Word has often been accompanied by demonstrations of violence.
II. To WHAT THIS MAY BE ATTRIBUTED. It is due chiefly to the dislike of men to the truth itself, in whatever shape presented. The natural heart is enmity against God and his Word. Care must be taken to distinguish between accidental and essential provocations of this spirit. The manner of the preacher should never be such as of itself to dispose men unfavorably towards his message. The greatest care ought to be taken to conciliate and to win. But the original hatred of men to truth must not be ignored. It exists, and will have to be reckoned with in one form or another. One man will object to it in toto; another to the degree of obedience which it exacts. With some the idea will be pleasing but the practice irksome. If men hated Christ, we need not suppose that they will be more amiable towards us if we are faithful.
III. CONSOLATIONS. These troubles need not afflict us if we remember, with respect to our hearers, that it is not theirs but them we desire. The worst enemies have been reconciled and the fiercest natures subdued by the power of the Word. It is well too in the midst of suffering to have the testimony of a good conscience. To him also who is faithful in the midst of opposition and hatred is that beatitude, Mat 5:11. But perhaps the strongest consolation of all is in the fellowship of him for whose sake the opposition is experienced.M.
Jer 15:15
Thou knowest it.
There is One to whom the true prophet and saint must stand or fall. He is anxious, therefore, for his approval. He labors ever as in the great Taskmasters eye. “Thou God seest me,” which is the terror of the sinner, is the chief reward and comfort of the saint. The prophet here consoles himself
I. BY AN APPEAL TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. In this connection it is as if conscience itself had been invoked. And yet, better still, if conscience should vacillate God would remain the same. In this way it is well for the best of men to test their motives by continual reference to God. There is no better way of self-examination.
II. BY A REFERENCE TO THE SYMPATHY OF GOD. The mere fact that the all-knowing One was constantly regarding his sufferings for his sake, that he had put his tears in his bottle, and that he was able to appreciate his motives, was a comfort to the prophet. If possible, this source of consolation is deepened and enlarged by the greater nearness of God in Christ. The fellow-feeling of our great High Priest and Elder Brother is real and can be depended upon from moment to moment. It is a well of salvation from which we can draw inexhaustible supplies.
III. BY COMMITTING IT TO THE DIVINE RESPONSIBILITY. it was in God’s hands because it was in God’s knowledge. It was not for the prophet to trouble himself as to means of retaliation. He could commit his cause to his Father. The wider issues of it, nay, even its mightiest results, were beyond his own power. What he had to do was to be faithful and trusting and diligent.M.
Jer 15:16
God’s words a heartfelt joy.
In the midst of the prophet’s sorrow this passage occurs as a relieving featurea memory of spiritual joy. At the same time it is recalled as a consideration that will weigh with him to whom he addresses himself. It defines his entire relation to God and to Israel, and describes his claim.
I. THE WORDS OF GOD TEST AND EXHIBIT THE INWARD LOYALTY OF THE SAINT. It is not merely that a certain feeling has been excited in the mind, but that a welcome has been given to God’s revelation. A profound difference is thereby instituted between the prophet and those who were opposed to him. As the psalmist cries, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, m proof of his earnestness and his love of truth, so the prophet would commend himself to God by the attitude he had assumed to the message when it was revealed to him. It is as if he had said, “I have never resisted thy Word, but ever held myself ready to utter and obey it.” The test which they apply to the spiritual nature is full of dread to the unworthy; but to those whose hearts are right with God it is a satisfaction and a source of confidence. “The thoughts and intents of the heart” thereby disclosed are seen to be right and good.
II. THEY REFRESH AND STRENGTHEN HIM FOR SUFFERING AND DUTY. It is as if the prophet were drawing comfort from recollection because his present circumstances are so troublous. But many a time the Word of God comes in a time of perplexity and darkness, bringing with it comforting light. It is greedily welcomed at such seasons and is devoured as by one who has long fasted. It penetrates thereby more deeply into the spiritual nature and more radically influences the springs and motives of conduct. It comes as a distinctly supernatural aid and makes men masters of what had previously overpowered them.
III. THEY BIND HIM MORE CLOSELY TO THE AUTHOR. The nature which has been so affected by the words of God cannot be nor regard itself as in the same position with others. Its whole character and destiny are altered. The life is leavened by that which supports and nourishes it. The indwelling Word is a consecrating influence and withdraws men from the pursuits and fellowship of the world. In this way the saint becomes identified with his Lord; a child of grace; a worker in the same great cause; a subject of like hatred and opposition, and an heir of the same kingdom. By producing the character of holiness they inscribe the Divine Name upon the heart, and link the life and destiny of the saint with the cause of God.M.
Jer 15:19-21
The preacher’s weakness and strength.
I. HUMAN MOTIVES OFTEN LEAD HIM ASIDE FROM THE PATH OF DUTY ETC. The prophet is a man like other men and subject to the same passions. It is difficult for him to maintain the attitude of continual spiritual loyalty. Flesh and blood will fail and he will fall into temptations peculiar to his office. Of these he must be especially jealous, and a stricter standard of holiness should govern his conduct. Unfaithfulness in such a position will produce an exaggerated effect upon those whom he influences. His influence itself will cease to be purely spiritual, his love less certain, and his conduct less irreproachable. Deflection like this should be at once corrected, and he who tries the reins is especially watchful over those who have to deliver his message and represent his cause. “If thou return.” How instant and yet how gentle the reproof!
II. REPENTANT FIDELITY WILL BE REWARDED WITH USEFULNESS AND STRENGTH.
1. Mediatorshipto “stand before me.”
2. Infallibility“As my mouth.”
3. Irresistible powera “brazen wall;” “but not prevail over thee.”
4. The presence and protection of God.M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 15:1-9
Fearful aspects of the Divine character.
These verses and this whole discourse reveal to us an implacable God. He will not turn away from his wrath nor be moved:
1. By the spectacle of misery presented (Jer 14:1-22.).
2. By the remembrance of former love (Jer 14:8).
3. By the earnest prayers of his faithful servant (Jer 15:1).
4. By the prospect of more terrible miseries yet to come (Je 14:1715:9). Therefore
I. INQUIRE. Why is God thus? The answer is, he will not change, because the sinner will not. “To the froward he will ever show himself froward.”
II. LEARN. That while God’s mercy is infinite to those who turn to him, for those who refuse there is no mercy at all.C.
Jer 15:1
The limits of intercessory prayer.
“Though Moses and Samuel,” etc.
1. This verse seems at first sight to be in contradiction to the many Scriptures which assure us that the “effectual fervent prayers of righteous men avail much.” The Bible teems with promises that God will hear when we call upon him. But here is a decided declaration that let even the holiest and the most eminent for their intercessions stand before God in prayer, they should not avail to secure what was denied.
2. And were there only this verse, the difficulty would not be so great. But experience is continually supplying us with fresh instances in which bleatings earnestly sought have yet beer denied.
3. And this also in regard to spiritual things. Were it only temporal blessings God refused to give although we asked him for them, we could readily understand that, though they seemed so good in our eyes, in his they might be seen to be hurtful. We know that in such things we do not know what is best. But the refusal of prayer is found in regard to things that we know are good and well pleasing to Godin regard to things spiritual and eternal, e.g. in the prayers of parents for the conversion of their children, of teachers and pastors for those committed to their charge.
4. Hence from this verse and from such experience of rejected prayer, the sad conclusion has been drawn that, in spite of the most earnest intercession, the souls we pray for may be lost, our intercession be of no avail. For does it not say even to Jeremiah, who himself was an eminent intercessor with God, that there were yet greater than hesuch as Moses and Samuelbut that if even they, etc. (cf. references for instances of their intercession).
5. And some have tried to escape the difficulty by drawing a sharp contrast between the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ and that of these men of God. They have said, had Jesus interceded, it would have been otherwise. But this is not true, for our Lord would not have interceded as Jeremiah did. He also foretold great calamities as overhanging Jerusalem and her people, but we have no record of his ever having prayed that they might not come. He sought unceasingly their eternal salvation, but he did not pray against the destruction of Jerusalem. It is not permissible, therefore, to account for the failure of such intercession as that of Jeremiah, on the ground that it is only human intercession and not that of the Son of God.
6. But before we certainly conclude that intercession for the eternal spiritual well-being of others may after all be in vain, though the intercession have been such as that of the great servants of God here spoken of, who touched the utmost limits of intercessory prayer, let us note
(1) That it was not for spiritual blessings that. Jeremiah was interceding. His piteous entreaties were “concerning the dearth” (Jer 14:1), that that might be removed. It was strictly a prayer for temporal mercies and deliverances. It is, therefore, unjust to conclude that intercession for things spiritual and eternal may fail because, as we well know, it may fail for things material and temporal. Note also
(2) That the utmost limits of intercession had been reached. The prophet himself had offered no scant or insincere petition, and the intercession of these great saints of God spoken of was, we know, of the mightiest order. Before, then, we conclude that such intercession in regard to spiritual things can be of no avail, let us be sure that such intercession has been tried. Is our own such? There may be customary and too often formal prayers offered by parents) pastors, teachers, for the spiritual good of those about them. But can we say that such prayers are mighty intercessions, like those of Moses and Samuel? If we know they have not been such, let us pause before we conclude that such intercession avails not. But in order to ascertain if our intercession has been real, let us note if we are in earnest about our own soul’s salvation. If we care not for our own acceptance before God, how can we be solicitous for that of others? And are our prayers followed up by practical effort in the direction of our prayers? Do the lead us to see what can be clone to secure the ends for which we pray? Or are they substitutes for such endeavor? Hence it may very often be that we ask and have not, because we ask amiss. We do not intercede in that real, believing, earnest way which alone has a right to expect the blessing it seeks. It is by no means intercession such as that of Moses and Samuel
7. But if intercession have been such as theirs, then, though answer may be delayed, we are to believe that it will yet come. Delay is not denial.
8. Neither this verse nor experience sets aside the many promises which encourage such intercession.
9. And experience proves its worth. The Church of today is in the main the product of the intercession of the Church that has passed into the heavens. Instead of the fathers have risen up the children.
10. Learn, therefore,
(1) if God refuse us temporal blessings, it is because he knows better than we do what is best;
(2) how best to deal with transgressors God alone knows, and what his wisdom determines none may set aside;
(3) that intercession for souls is well pleasing to God and full of hope, since the beloved of God have been ever distinguished for such intercession, and, above all, God’s well-beloved Son.C.
Jer 15:1
Great intercessors.
I. SUCH ARE MENTIONED HERE. Moses, Samuel, etc. (cf. Exo 17:11; Exo 32:11; Num 14:13; Psa 106:23; 1Sa 7:8; 1Sa 8:6; 1Sa 12:16-23; 1Sa 15:11; Psa 90:6; Ecclesiasticus 46:6). Noah, Daniel, and Job are mentioned in similar way (Eze 14:14), and Jeremiah himself (2 Macc. 15:14). And there have been such oftentimes granted to nations, Churches, families. And who has not known such intercessors in connection with Christian Churchesmen and women whose prayers were amongst the main supports of the life, joy, and strength of those for whom they were offered?
II. THEIR VALUE IS UNSPEAKABLE. Cf. Abraham praying for Sodom. Though the cities of the plain were destroyed, yet what an amount of sin God was ready to pardon in answer to his prayer, if but the conditions which should have been so easy to fulfill had been forthcoming! And “the few names even in Sardis” (Rev 2:1-29.), who can doubt that they, as all such do, warded off for long periods those visitations of God’s anger which otherwise would have come upon that Church? And it is not only the evils from which they defend a Church, but the positive good they confer. Such power with God is ever accompanied by a consistency and sanctity of character which is blessedly attractive, inspiring, contagious; and as a magnet they gather round them a band of kindred souls, like as our Lord gathered his disciples round himself. And thus a hallowed influence is sent throughout a whole community.
III. THEIR QUALIFICATIONS.
1. Sympathy with God. They must see sin as God sees itas utterly hateful and wrong. There must be no weak condoning of it or any failure to behold it in its true character. If we ask God to forgive sin, indeed, if we seek forgiveness for wrong done from a fellow-man, are we likely to be acceptable in our request if we regard him who has been wronged as not having much to complain of after all? No; he who would wish God to forgive sin must see it as God sees it, and consent to his judgment concerning it.
2. Deep love for those for whom he intercedes. And this cannot be created in a moment. It must be the result of much thought, labor, and pains spent upon them. When we have thus given ourselves to them, we are sure to love them. Places, persons, things, most unattractive to others are deeply loved by those who have devoted themselves to them. And all great intercessors have been such, and must be such as become so, not on the spur of the moment or from any mere movement of pity, but as the result of long and loving labor lavished for their good.
3. Freedom from the guilt of the transgression, the pardon of which is sought. Under the Old Testament the priest first offered atonement for himself and then for the sins of the people. Not until he was purged from sin himself could he intercede for others. The intercessor must be one untainted with the guilt he prays to be removed. The prayer of the wicked can never aid.
4. Experimental knowledge both of the blessings which he craves and of the sorrows and sufferings which he intercedes against. Of our Savior, the great Intercessor, it is said, “He himself took our infirmities, and hare our diseases.” He was made “in all points like unto his brethren.” The joy of God’s love and also, by holy sympathy, the bitterness of the dregs of that cup of which the wicked have to drinkwere alike known to him. Thus, though he knew no sin, he was made sin for us. It was to him as if all the sin of those he so loved were his own, so intensely did its shame, its misery, its guilt, fill up his soul. And with human intercessors there must be like experience.
5. Faith in God, which firmly holds to the belief that his love for the sinner is deeper than his hatred of the sin. Unless we believe this we can have no hope in interceding either for ourselves or for others. Faith in the infinitude of the love of God is essential.
IV. THEIR GREAT EXEMPLARthe Lord Jesus Christ. See how all the qualifications above named combine in him.
CONCLUSION.
1. To the sorrowful and sinful. You need a great intercessor. You have one in Christ. “Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead.”
2. To the believer in Christ. Seek to become as Moses and Samuel, and, above all, as our Lordmighty in intercession.C.
Jer 15:4
The sins of the fathers visited upon the children.
This verse contains an explicit declaration that such is God’s rule. The calamities about to fall on Judah and Jerusalem were “because of Manasseh the son of,” etc. No doubt the sins of Manasseh were flagrant in the extreme, and they were the more aggravated because he was the son of the godly Hezekiah. No doubt his reign was one of dark disgrace and disaster. The sacred writers dismiss it with a few short statements, hurrying over its long stretch of yearsit was the longest reign of all the kings of Judahas if they were (as they were) a period too melancholy and shameful to be dwelt upon. But why should we find that his guilt and sin were to fall upon those who were unborn at the time, and who therefore could have had no share therein?
I. SUCH VISITATION IS AN UNDOUBTED FACT. It is plainly declared to be a Divine rule, and that once and again (cf. Exo 20:1-26; etc.). And apart from the Biblein the manifest law of hereditythere is the dread fact patent to all. Workhouses, prisons, hospitals, asylums, all attest the visitation of God for the fathers’ sins.
II. IT IS A GREAT MYSTERY. It is one branch of that all-pervading mystery into which all other mysteries sooner or later run upthe mystery of evil. There is nothing to be done, so far as its present solution is concerned, but to “trust,” and so “not be afraid.”
III. BUT NOT WITHOUT ALLEVIATIONS; e.g.
1. If the sins of the fathers are visited on their descendants, yet more are God‘s mercies. The sins descend to “the third and fourth generation,” but the mercies to “thousands” of generationsfor this is meant.
2. The descent is not entire. The sins come down, it is true, upon the descendants, but in their fruits rather than in their roots. A father cannot force on his child his wickedness, though he may his diseases and tendencies.
3. The entail may be cut off in its worst part at any moment, and very often is. Coming to Christ may not deliver me from physical suffering, but it will from sin. Grafted into Christ a new life will begin, the whole tendency of which in me and in mine is to counteract and undo the results of the former evil life.
4. And the visitation of the fathers‘ sins is but rarely because of the fathers‘ sins only. The descendants of the age of Manasseh did their works, and what wonder that they should inherit their woes?
5. And it is a salutary law. Children are a means of grace to tens of thousands of parents. “Out of the mouth of babes,” etc. For, for their children’s sakes, parents will exercise a watchfulness and self-restraint, will seek after God and goodness as otherwise they would never have done. The remembrance of what they will inflict on their children by virtue of this law fills them with a holy fear, as God designed it should.
CONCLUSION.
1. Parents. What legacy are you leaving for your children? Shall they have to curse or bless you? O father, mother, “do not sin against” your “child.”
2. Children. What have you received? Is it a legacy of evil example, evil tendency, evil habit? God’s grace will help you to break the succession. Refuse it for yourselves, determine you will not hand it on to others. But is it a legacy of holy example, tendencies, and habits? Blessed be God if it be so. What responsibility this involves! What blessing it renders possible for you and those who come after you!C.
Jer 15:9
The darkened home.
“She that hath borne was yet day.” Perhaps in all the range of human sorrows there is none greater than that which befalls a home when the dearly beloved mother of many children, yet needing sorely her care, is early cut off. Such a piteous case is described here. The prophet, bewailing the coming calamities of his country, adopts the heartbroken language of a husband bitterly mourning the death of his wife and the mother of his many children. He seems to think of her who is gone, and all her sweetness and grace and goodness rise up before him. He thinks of their children and how they will need their mother’s care, terribly need it, though never more can they have it, and his heart dies down within him. He thinks of himself and how utterly lonely his lot must be. At such times heart and mind almost give way, and faith and love Godward receive a blow beneath which they reel and sometimes never recover themselves, But this verse is as a holy angel of God, and enters that darkened home; and
I. IT CALLS TO MEMORY WHAT THE LOST ONE WAS. Her life was as the shining of the sunbright, cheerful, generous, inspiriting, attracting, healthful, and joy-giving to all.
II. IT DENIES NOT THE FACT WHICH IS so BITTERLY MOURNED. Her premature death, her sun went down, etc. Nothing can alter that fact. And perhaps, as the very words indicate, circumstances of peculiar sorrow may have surrounded her death. Like her told of in this verse, “she may have breathed out her life as if in labored sighs, expiring in heavy heart-breaths of grief.” Not a calm, gradual, bright sunset, but the very reverse, the sun going down in dark clouds. The power to utter those blessed parting words of counsel and comfort taken from her, and in darkness and silence she had to wend her way to the unseen. But amid all this depth of gloom this verse
III. SUGGESTS MOST BLESSED TRUTH. The sun of her life has not perished but shines elsewhere. We know that when the sun sinks below our horizon it has gone to gladden and bless other shores. And so with the life of the blessed dead. They all live unto God. All that in them which was so pure, so sweet, so full of the grace of God, has not perished; it is shining elsewhere, it has risen on another shore, flue eternal and the blessed. And on us it shall rise again, as the sunrise follows in due time the sunset. That life is not lost but is hidden with Christ in God, and so “when he who is our life shall appear” then shall that now hidden life “appear with him in glory,”C.
Jer 15:12
A vain contest.
“Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?” So asks the Lord God of his, at this time not simply lamenting prophet, he was rarely anything but that, but also his complaining prophet. And as we read these verses with which the striking inquiry contained in this verse is connected, we cannot help feeling that his lamentations become him far more than his complaints. Still, who are we, to criticize a great hero of the faith such as Jeremiah undoubtedly was? These verses, from the tenth onwards, are no doubt on a lower, a less spiritual and less self-forgetful level than that which the common strain of his prophecies and prayers maintain. It will be seen that these verses come at the close of a long and most earnest appeal addressed by him to God on behalf of his countrymen. They were suffering fearfully from the dearth of which the opening of the fourteenth chapter tells. Now, all this was then present before the prophet’s mind, and these chapters record the expostulations, the pathetic appeals, and the almost agonized prayers which he pours forth on behalf of his suffering land and people. He makes full confession of their sins, but pleads the all-merciful Name of the Lord, and when that did not suffice, he urges the evil teaching that they had received from their prophets and that therefore they may be held guiltless or far less guilty, and when that plea also was rejected he returns to his confessions and earnest entreaties; but it is all of no avail. At the opening of this chapter God says, “Though Moses and Samuel”men who had once and again proved themselves mighty intercessors for the people, yet even if they”stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people.” The crimes of Manasseh, King of Judah, that king who reigned so long, so disgracefully, and with such disastrous results over Judah, had never been repented of, and never really forsaken. They were rampant still, and therefore the Lord declares this judgment which he had sent upon them must go onno prayers of his faithful servant could avail to stay its execution. Upon this the prophet pours out a piteous lamentation over the woes of his people, and then, turning to his own position, he complains bitterly of the hatred which was felt towards him by those whom he had sought to bless. “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!” He had been no usurer nor fraudulent debtor, “yet every one,” he cries, “curses me.” Then to him the Lord replies, promising him deliverance in the time of evil, and asks the question, “Shall iron break.; steel?” The ancients knew comparatively little of the manufactures of iron and steel. Amongst the Israelites it was very coarsely wrought, but the best iron was from the north. So bad was their own that an admixture of brass, which among us would be rather thought to lessen its value, was regarded as in improvement. But the iron and steel procured from the people who lived in the far north, on the shores of the Black Sea, was the most celebrated for its tenacity and hardness. Against it the common iron of every-day use could offer but little resistance, and when opposed to it could make little or no impression; it could not “break the northern iron and the steel.” And the question of this verse is a proverb denoting the impossibility of any force, though great in itself, overcoming one which by its very nature and by its effects had been proved to be greater still. Our Lord teaches the same truth when he speaks of the folly of that king who thought, with his army of ten thousand, to encounter and overcome another king who came against him with twenty thousand. But whilst the meaning of this verse is plain enough, its application is not so clear. If we connect it with the verses that immediately precede, as many do, then it is a question whose tone is bright, cheerful, and reassuring. But if we connect it with those that immediately follow, its tone is altered and is full of solemn admonition and serious warning. In the first case it refers to Jeremiah himself, and is for his comfort and confidence. It tells him that the enemies who are against him, however iron like they might be-cold, hard, fierce, strongand however much they may oppress and afflict him, yet assuredly they shall not prevail against him; for God will make him as the northern iron and the steel, against which all their might shall be in vain. God had promised at the very outset of the prophet’s ministry that he would thus strengthen him. Behold, he says, in the first chapter, “I have made thee this day a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.” And in the twentieth verse of this chapter the like promise is given over again. So that they have much reason on their side who regard these words as a heart-cheering assurance conveyed to the prophet under the form of a question, and assuring him that, let the power of those who hated him be what it mightas iron like as it wouldthe grace of God which would be given him would make him stronger still, would make him as the northern iron and the steel. Let us, then, view these words
I. AS A REASSURING PROMISE, and make two or three applications of them.
1. And first, to such as Jeremiah himself was at this timea faithful servant of God, but muck troubled and tried. What right have we to expect that all things will go smoothly with us in this world, or to be surprised when sore troubles come? Did not our Lord say, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep amongst wolves”? Well, it would be strange if the sheep were to find all things just as they wished amid such surroundings as that. But, as one has said, the sheep have beaten the wolves after all. There are today tens of thousands of sheep for every wolf prowling on the face of the earth. It did seem very likely, when the sheep were so few, that the wolves would most certainly have quickly made a clearance of them. But, though here and there one like Saul “made havoc of the Church,” the flock, the Lord’s fold, went on increasing and multiplying in a marvelous way. Spiritually as well as literally the sheep outnumber the wolves who would destroy them. And what is the explanation but this, that to those who have no might the Lord has increased strength? He has let the wolves be indeed like iron, but his sheep he has strengthened as the northern iron, etc. And this he will ever do. God can temper our souls to such degree of hardness and tenacity that they shall blunt and beat back every weapon that is formed against them. The arrows hurled against us shall fall pointless to the ground, and the armor of God wherein we stand engirt shall more than defend us from the adversary’s power. The shield of faith is made, not of our enemies’ untempered iron, but of the northern iron and steel told of here. Oh, then, child of God, how is it with thee? Is the world frowning upon thee? are circumstances adverse and involved, and thy way hedged with difficulties? Has death invaded thy home or is it about to do so, and is thy heart saddened thereby? Does disappointment dog thy steps and baffle all thy best-meant endeavors? Is anxiety creeping over thee and filling thee with foreboding fear? Hearken to this word of God, “Can iron,” etc.? Can these things, hard and terrible as they are, break down thy defense or break through thy shield? Oh, bring thy soul to Christ, tell him how weak, how defenseless, in thyself, thou art; come to him for the armor of proof thou needest; ask him to give thee good courage and to strengthen thine heart; and then, as thou comest off more than conqueror over all these things, thou shalt triumphantly ask this question for thyself.
2. And we may ask it again in reference to the opposition of the world against the Church of God. For that Church is girt with invincible power, and stands like a rock amid the raging of the sea. In vain the tempests hurl the mighty waves against it, in vain do they fiercely smite it as with force sufficient to make it stagger and fall; but whilst you look expecting to see it overthrown, lo, the huge seas that smote it are shivered into clouds of spray, and multitudes of foaming cataracts are seen rushing down its sides but leaving it unharmed and immovable still. Andto return to the metaphor of this versethe iron of its adversary’s weapon has broken against the steel of its impenetrable shield, and the Church of God is unconquered still. Heresy has sought with insidious power to turn it from the truth. Persecution with its fires and all manner of deadly cruelties has threatened every member of its communion, and slain thousands upon thousands of them. Superstition has come with its priestcraft and pretended supernatural powers and taught men to worship idols in the name of God. Infidelity, the sure offspring of Superstition, disgusted with the miserable shams and the mass of wretched fables which Superstition has taught men for truth, has thrown off all belief, and denied the very existence of God and the whole of the precious faith that the Church has received. The world, a more deadly foe still, with her soft blandishments and her mighty bribes, has done more to pervert the right ways of the Lord than perhaps all the other enemies of the Church altogether; just as on the mass of iron used in the construction of the great railway bridges which span so many of the valleys, straits, and rivers of our land, it is found that a warm morning’s sunshine does more to deflect them from their true horizontal line than is accomplished by the ponderous weight of the heaviest engines and trains rushing over them at their highest speed. The soft warmth does more than the heaviest weight. And again and again in the history of the Church of God it has been found that when the world is most smiling then is it most deadly to the best interests of the Church. And in our day, fresh forms of unbelief or disbelief are gathering round the Church, and like a mist enwrapping the minds and hearts of not a few, so that the blessed firmness of faith which once was the common characteristic of the Church is giving way to a general doubt, vagueness, and uncertainty, upon which no firm foothold can be had. But what is our confidence in view of all this? Is it not in the truth, made sure to us by the experience of all the ages, that the Church of God is his especial care, and that therefore his omnipotence is around it, and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it. Here the Church of God is today, in numbers, zeal, faith, charity, not one whit behind the former days. Here in this direction and that there may be loss, but if so, then in other directions we find gain. And the witness of all the history of the Church is this, that the forces that oppose her are but as untempered iron, whilst the power that defends her is as the northern, etc. And should there be any anxious heart who is in much doubt and fear as to his own personal salvation because of the multitude and magnitude of his sins, we would bid such a one take home to him the truth of our text. For although his sins be all he thinks them, and even moreof strength like ironyet the Savior’s will to save is as the northern iron and the steel. True, the retrospect over the past may be grievous, and since that was forgiven it may have been too often reproduced again. “Thy backslidings,” as God told Israel, “have been many;” but art thou hoping in God? dost thou grieve and mourn over sin and truly desire to be made whole? Then it shall be so with thee; thy salvation shall be accomplished, for thine accusers’ power is but as the iron, whilst thy Savior’s is as the northern, etc. Therefore yield not to doubt, still less to despair, but go to him who is mighty to save, and ask him to give thee of his strength that thou mayst now conquer thy sin; so shalt thou no more doubt of his grace or of thine interest therein. Such are some of the applications of this question which, taking it as an implied promise, we are justified in making. But as we said at the outset, if we connect our text with the verses that follow, it will rather supply lessons of serious warning and admonition. For thus understood, the iron tells of the power of Israel and “the northern.; steel” of the invincible power of the Chaldean armies that were so soon to come against them, and therefore this question is a declaration of the sure overthrow of Israel when the time of conflict came. The power of God was against Israel, and then what hope could there be? Their poor defense would be soon broken, and they would lie at the mercy of their foe. It is, therefore
II. A SAMPLE OF THE FATE THAT ATTENDS ALL RANGING OF MERE HUMAN POWERS AGAINST THE WILL OF GOD. Whenever any such unequal contest is contemplated or being carried on, this question may be fitly asked. And therefore we ask it:
1. Of all these, and they are very many, who think that they can, unarmed of God, successfully wage the war with sin. We would be unfeignedly thankful that there is felt the desire to wage this war at all, that there is no fatal apathy or content with sin, but that there is a real purpose to subdue it and keep it under and to live in all righteousness. Yes, wherever that purpose is, let thanks be given to God. But what all such need to remember, yet what they very often do not remember, is that the evil of their own hearts is as “the northern steel,” whilst all the strength of their own resolves is but as common “iron,” and when these two come in collision we know the result. Remember that first of all there is the guilt of sin to be provided for, and even supposing you were to contract no further sin, what is to be said of all the past? How can your own right resolves and correct future conductif it be indeed correctatone for that? But supposing it were true that in an amended life there is atonement for the past, as we overlook the sins of youth, if the mature life be what it should besupposing that were true, which it is not, even amongst men, if the past crimes have been of a serious kindbut supposing it were, and that if a man really turned over a new leaf all the records of the foregoing leaves should be destroyed, no matter what those records werehave you any guarantee that the future leaves will be altogether different from those that went before? The Word of God, and experience also, teach us that we have not. No doubt some sins may be given up, some evil actions forsaken, especially if they be such as bring upon us the reproach of man, but the true nature of the man remains unchangedhe is in himself what he was. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin,” etc.? “then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” So speaks the prophet of God; so, too, speaks the experience of life. Of course we do not affirm all this in regard to the coming up to the standard of society, or of maintaining an external decency of life, but we do affirm it in regard to the attainment of that renewed and alone morally excellent character to which God calls us and of which our Lord Jesus Christ set us the example. You cannot bore through rock with wooden tools; you cannot with soft iron cut or pierce the hardened steel. And so you cannot, by the power of your own resolves, break that heart of evil, hardened like very steel, which every man carries about in him until it is regenerated by the Spirit of God. The grace of God alone can help you. It is at the cross of Christ, where you gain forgiveness from all the guilt of the past, that you gain also strength for the better life of the future; and it is in daily coming to that cross, daily looking unto Jesus, that blessed Lord who is both your Redeemer and your perfect Pattern, that you become changed into the same image and made like him. Iron is striving to “break the steel,” whilst you are endeavoring of yourself to save yourself from the past results and the present power of sin. You cannot do it, and in view of the gracious help the Lord Jesus Christ offers you it is a sin and an insult to him to persist in the attempt.
2. Finally, I think of another hopeless contest in which also many are still engaged, in which the iron is thinking to “break steel.” It is the contest with God, the combat with the Most High. God has made us all for himself, Now, he himself so obeys the law of truth and righteousness and goodness that we say he is righteousness. “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works” “God is love.” Therefore he bids us surrender our hearts, our wills, to him, to obey, love, and serve him. It is not simply right, but most blessed for us as for all his creatures to do this, and the vast majority of them do, and are blessed in consequence. But man has the power of saying “Nay” to God’s “Yea,” and “Yea” to God’s “Nay,” and that power he has chosen to exercise. In other words, he has set up his will against the Divine will, and refuses obedience where the will of God and his own are opposed. This is the contest that is ever going onGod seeking to win man’s will, his heart to himself, and man persistently refusing. Man wants to have his own way, believing and insisting that it is the good way for him, whilst God knows well that it is a way of evil and of evil only. Therefore by all means God is seeking to draw us from that way to his own. By the voice of conscience and of his Spirit pleading within us, by his providences, his Word, his ordinances, and in other ways still, mostly gentle and gracious, others of them of a sterner kind, but by them all he is aiming at but one resultthis, of inducing us to yield to him, to acknowledge his authority, and confess him Lord. And remember this will of his is no passing wish, one which, when he finds he cannot have it, he will cease to care for. Oh no, but it is his steadfast purpose, that upon which his heart is set. “As I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with my glory.” “To Jesus every knee shall bow, and Father.” Can we think, then, that instead of this, God will be content with simply destroying man? That would be to confess failure on his part, and so would also the mere infliction of vengeance. Therefore we feel sure that the rebel will have to yield, and the stoutest heart to bow. The iron cannot “break steel” Shall the will of man forever defy God, and hold out against him? But ah! what of agony and woe will not the rebel will have to go through ere it will own itself wrong! All the awful words of Christ about the quenchless fire and the undying wormthose dreadful sayings of his at which the soul shuddersstill are his setting forth thereof. Oh, you whose hearts are still unsurrendered to him, will you provoke him to this? will you force him to hold you down to the consequences of your own doings until you come to see them as he sees them? Then not alone because of the sorrow that must attend the refusal to yield to him, but because such yielding is so right, so blessed, let us cease from the vain and sinful conflict; let the iron no more foolishly think to “break the northern iron and steel,” But “let us come and worship and bow down”not with the knee alone, but in heart “before the Lord our Maker” and our Redeemer.C.
Jer 15:16
How to study the Scriptures.
This verse declares
I. HOW WE SHOULD DEAL WITH GOD‘S WORDS.
1. We are to “find‘ them. We are not to be content with mere surface reading, but to “search the Scriptures.” It is certain that without this searching they will never be found. Now, it is this conviction which has led to the recent revision of the Scriptures. They who undertook that work were not ignorant of nor indifferent to the many objections which would be brought against their enterprise. They knew it would be said that such revision would disturb the faith of simple men and women, that it would provoke discord, that it would encourage restless spirits to be ever seeking change, that it would destroy old and sacred associations, that it was unnecessary because by means of commentaries and sermons the true meaning of any passage could be given; but they felt it to be their duty to set forth, as clearly as possible, the very words of Scripture, so that men may “find” them as before they could not do. They knew such work was needed, and they were encouraged by the history of former revisions, that of Jerome and that of our present Authorized Version, against which all the present objections were brought but were soon seen to be futile. Faith has not been disturbed; union and not discord has followed, the meaning of Scripture has been made more manifest, and what is and what is not of real authorityas the Apocryphahas been declared. And they were encouraged by the fact that the present was an especially favorable time for their work: the existence of so many capable scholars, not only to do the work, but to test it after it was done; the increased knowledge of the Greek language and literaturea knowledge that, in view of the growing disregard for the languages of antiquity, was not likely to be ever greater than at present; the deep-felt love for the English of our Bible, thus ensuring the preservation to a great extent of its present tone and style; the spirit of concord which the proposal has elicited between this country and America, and between all sections of the Christian Church. Hence for all these reasons it was felt to be a favorable time to set out afresh on the search for the very words of God, in order that men might be enabled to” find” them the more readily. And we may gratefully believe that to a large extent the ends proposed have been secured, and that by the labors of the revisionists God’s words in the New Testament Scriptures have been “found” as they have not been heretofore.
2. But this which others have done for us we must do for ourselves. We must “find” God’s Word. We must study it, diligently read it, exercise ourselves in the Scriptures by careful, frequent, continuous reading, resolved that we will not merely read over the words, but know their meaning. For the Word of God needs finding. It is hidden away beneath the sound of familiar words and phrases which, from frequent hearing or repetition, have lost their power either to arrest or arouse our thought. And prejudice, formality, indolence, indifference, and other besetments of the soul beside, all do their part to hide from us the true sense of God’s Word.
3. And, when found, God‘s Word should be spiritually “eaten,” i.e. we must take his words so into our soul’s life that, as our daily food ministers to our bodily life, these words of God shall minister to our soul’s life. By the strength derived from our daily food all the organs of our body, all its functions and forces, are sustained in health and in working powerbrain, heart, limbs, etc. And so, when God’s words are “eaten,” they sustain and strengthen the functions and forces of the soulits faith, courage, hope, joy, etc. Abraham so believed God’s word that he was able to offer up his son Isaac in obedience to what he believed was God’s command. Job, by the same means, bore in glorious patience his heavy trials. Our blessed Lord baffled and vanquished the tempter by his threefold thrust of the sword of the SpiritIt is written. And all the heroes of the faith have become heroes by reason of this same “eating” of God’s Word. Now, God’s Word is thus taken into and made the life of our souls, not by memory alone. Mere learning page after page by heart, as we say, will not feed the soul. Let Sunday school teachers remember this. Nor will meditation and reflection upon it be sufficient. There must be added fervent prayer that, by the Divine Spirit, God’s Word may be so inwrought in us that it shall be for us as a sacrament, a veritable eating of the flesh of Christ. Now, if the Word of God be thus found and eaten, see
II. HOW GOD‘S WORD WILL DEAL WITH US. It will become “the joy and rejoicing of our hearts.” True religion is ever a joyful thing. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and,” etc. What is that entire hundred and nineteenth psalm but one continuous affirmation of joy in God’s Word? We shall see in the histories which the Bible records the evidence of a Divine overruling, in its prophecies the proof that the future as well as the past is under the same control; in its precepts and its holy Law the righteousness of the Divine rule; and in the Gospels the love that is beneath, around, amidst, and above all. And to the man of God, what can all this be but “the joy and rejoicing of his heart”? God’s words have done much for us when they have brought us to repentance, more when we are led to trust in God, yet more when they enable us to live the life of obedience; but they have not done all they were designed and are able and willing to do, until they have become “the joy,” etc. But we cannot have the joy first; repentance, trust, obedience, must precede and accompany; let these be lacking, and joy cannot be.
III. THE GROUND OF THIS JOY AND REJOICING. “For I am called by thy Name,” etc. The prophet was known as the “man of God.” He was so identified with God, so notoriously consecrated to him, as to be called by his Name. It was the prophet’s joy and delight to be so called, and yet more to be so in reality. Therefore everything that was the Lord’s had interest for him, as an affectionate child rejoices in the letters of his parents, reads them over and over again, treasures them, obeys them. And he would joy in these words also because by them he had been led to the joy of his present favor with God, and by them he was sustained therein. Hence, he being so unreservedly and joyfully the Lord’s, all the Lord’s words could not but be what they were to him. And it is ever so, in proportion as we are the Lord’s by a living, loving consecration, will his words be “the joy and,” etc.C.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
Jer 15:1
Fruitless intercession.
These words are addressed to the prophet in his character of intercessor for the people. He had already been told to plead no longer for them (Jer 14:11), seeing that their case was hopeless, and the Divine sentence that had gone out against them was irrevocable. Observe
I. THE POWER THAT HUMAN INTERCESSION MAY HAVE WITH GOD. The fact that such intercession is declared in this case to be vain implies that, under other conditions, it might be effectual Moses and Samuel often stood before the Lord as mediators on behalf of the people whom they represented (Num 14:13-20; 1Sa 7:9; Psa 99:6). Not that they had officially any priestly function. They were not priests; their power with God lay in the elevation of their character and the intimacy of their fellowship with him. Every age has borne witness to the reality and efficacy of this power. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” on behalf of his fellow-men. Who can tell how much it is owing to such intercession that a guilty world has been saved from hopeless abandonment?
II. THE LIMIT MAN S OBDURACY PUTS TO THAT POWER. There are times when no human intervention is of any avail. Even the pleading of Moses and Samuel could not have averted the threatened judgments. “My mind could not be towards this people” Why? Simply because of the obstinacy of their unbelief and irreligion. It is not that God is not merciful and gracious and ready to forgive, or that the pleadings of good and holy men nave no power with him. It is that the inveterate obduracy of men nullifies all the persuasive influence alike of Divine and human love. God’s mind cannot be towards those who with obstinate impenitence refuse his grace. There is a limit beyond which even Divine patience cannot go. The very pleading love of the great Intercessor is defeated in the case of those who will not forsake their false and evil ways. It is not so much an irrevocable Divine decree, it is their own self-willed perversity that dooms them and leaves the stern, retributive laws of God to take their course.W.
Jer 15:16
The living Word.
The prophet, remonstrating with God on account of the hardness of his lot, here looks back regretfully to the time of his first call to the prophetic office. It is the language of one disappointed and disheartened by the apparent issue of his life, and the bitterness of whose grief is intensified by the remembrance of hopes unfulfilled, and a joy that has forever passed away. It is as if God were “altogether unto him as a liar, and as waters that fail.” Apart, however, from the peculiar experiences that called it forth, this passage is full of instruction. Note
I. THE METHOD OF GOD‘S REVELATION OF HIMSELF TO MEN. “Thy words were found.” The term “found,” in a case like this, is suggestive of that which comes to the soul, not so much as the result of its own seeking, but of a spontaneous Divine purpose. All those on whom the quickening light of Divine truth has shone feel more or less distinctly the reality of this. The inspiration has come to them in mysterious and unexpected ways. It has “pleased God to reveal his Son in them.” It is not so much that they “know God” as that they are “known of God” (Gal 1:15, Gal 1:16; Gal 3:9). The initiatory step in this gracious process is his, not ours. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” etc. (Joh 15:16).
II. THE VITAL RELATION TRUTH BEARS TO THE DIVINELY ENLIGHTENED SOUL. “I did eat it.” No physical image could be more suggestive of the intimacy of this spiritual relationship. It indicates:
1. The soul‘s reparation to welcome the truth. There is a divinely awakened appetite.
2. The active participation of the powers of the soul in the process. It is more than a mere passive reception.
3. The assimilation of the truth into the very being of the man. As food is transformed into the living fiber of the body, so that truth becomes a part of the very substance of his spiritual nature, the stay of his strength, the inspiration of his life. The word is translated into the form of holy character and Godlike deed.
III. THE GLADDENING EFFECT OF DISCOVERED TRUTH. “Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” There can be no purer, nobler joy than that which springs from conscious communion with the mind of God. His Word admits us to the realities of a world undarkened by the shadows and undisturbed by the storms that trouble this. Rising through it to the heights of Divine contemplation, the glory of the unseen and eternal surrounds us, and we drink of “the river of the pleasures of God.”
IV. THE SELF–CONSECRATION THAT IS THE RESULT OF THE REALIZED POWER OF DIVINE TRUTH OVER THE SOUL. “I am called by thy Name,” literally, “Thy Name is called over me.” This was the seal and symbol of his personal dedication to his prophetic work. The Word of the Lord dwelling richly in the soul is the unfailing spring of a consecrated and holy life. “Sanctify them in thy truth: thy Word is truth,” etc. (Joh 17:17, Joh 17:19).W.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 15:1
The uselessness of intercession once more emphatically stated.
I. A REMINDER OF GOD‘S LONG–SUFFERING IN THE PAST. MOSES and Samuel had stood interceding before him, and again and again he had glorified himself in mercy and pardon. The mention of these two great historic names suggests to Jeremiah that God can appeal to all the past, confident that no man can complain of him as wanting in long-suffering with the waywardness of his people. They had wandered far and often, and often needed mercy and restoration; but when God forgave them, they soon forgot the mercy and renewed favor. Thus we are enabled to feel how very bad their condition must have become in the time of the prophet. To have listened to the plea of any intercessor would have been to show a mercy which yet was no mercya mercy which, while doing no real good to Israel, would have done evil in confusing the boundaries of truth and falsehood. God’s mercy must ever be shown as part of his wisdom, and the time comes when severity to one or two generations may be the truest mercy to the whole world.
II. THE HONOR DONE TO THE MEMORY OF THE GOOD. As servants of Jehovah, Moses and Samuel were great in many ways, but in none greater than as urgent prevailing intercessors. With regard to Moses, see Exo 32:11-14, Exo 32:31, Exo 32:32; Num 14:13-19. With regard to Samuel, see 1Sa 7:9; 1Sa 12:23. The listenings of God to these men showed that his general will was that supplications should ever be made on behalf of all sinners. God delights in seeing his servants pitiful towards all the needs of men, especially those needs which arise from their forgetfulness of God himself. This reference was surely meant to teach Jeremiah, for one thing, that God not only permitted intercession but expected it. Further, the intercessions here referred to were those of righteous men. Moses and Samuel fully appreciated the evil-doings of those for whom they interceded. Doubtless they quite apprehended that evil-doing might on certain occasions reach such a height that intercession could not be expected to prove successful. Those who had had the opportunity of pondering God’s dealings in the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom would well understand that intercession had its limits.
III. JEREMIAH WAS THUS REMINDED OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF GOD‘S SERVANTS IN FORMER DAYS. Moses and Samuel were not only intercessors, they were intercessors for those who had made life largely a burden and a grief to them. It was not upon a scene where they were comparative strangers that they came in, did their interceding work, and then passed out to return no more. The success of their intercession meant the renewal of their struggles with a wayward and careless nation. If only Jeremiah considered the whole history of Moses and the whole history of Samuel, he would be led to say, “Who am I that I should complain?” These conspiracies, this bitter opposition, this feeling of solitude, were nothing new. We can only serve God in our own day and generation, and we must accept that generation with all its difficulties, only let this be remembered, that there is no servant of God, in any generation, but will need all his faith and meekness and endurance to encounter and vanquish these difficulties in a right spirit.
IV. HONOR WAS PUT UPON JEREMIAH HIMSELF. His influence with God as a faithful servant was shown every whir as clearly as if he had been successful in his intercession, That influence, indeed, the people might fail to recognize; but this was a small matter if only the prophet himself was made to feel that his God respected the spirit of his prayer. God’s way of honoring us is not by making us stand well with the fickle crowd, but by his own smile shining into our hearts and making gladness there. The mention of these two great historic names lifts Jeremiah in the esteem of God to something like a level with themY.
Jer 15:10
The man who felt he had been born to strife and contention.
These words of the prophet are not, of course, to be taken too literally. They are the language of excited feeling and of poetry, and would not be permissible as a prosaic statement to which the man who makes it may be expected deliberately to adhere. The proper way of regarding the words is to take them as vividly indicating a position which no words could sufficiently describe. Jeremiah sometimes felt himself so hated and so isolated that there seemed but one way of accounting for his experience, and that was that he had been born to it. We know, indeed, that the truth was far otherwise (see Jer 1:5). There we see how Jehovah himself reckoned Jeremiah to have come into this earthly existence, not for suffering, but for a career of noble and useful action, which, rightly considered, was a high privilege. But a man who is constantly suffering from the sin of his fellow-men in all its shapes and all its degrees, cannot be always looking at the bright side and speaking in harmony with such a view.
I. A SERVANT OF GOD MAY HAVE TO LIVE A LIFE OF INCESSANT CONFLICT. Jeremiah’s case appears to have been an extreme one, and yet the history of the Church shows that a company by no means few might be reckoned as companions in his peculiar tribulation. It is not for us to say how far our lives shall be marked by external conflict. We must not seek conflict; but we must be ready for it if it comes. God gives to every one who is willing to be his servant a way in which to walk, a way which does not infringe on a single real right of a single human being. From beginning to end that way may be trodden, not only without injury to others, but with positive benefit to them. At the same time, nothing is more possible than that treading in such a way may expose him who strives to walk in it to all the various forms which, according to circumstances or opportunity, opposition may take. And therefore, when we are beginning to feel our way to the carrying out of God’s will, we must lay our account with opposition. How much of it may come, how far it may go, how long it may last, we cannot tell; and as we must not provoke it through mere exuberance of energy, so neither must we avoid it for the sake of a temporary peace which is really no peace. If opposition comeseven intense oppositionto the truth faithfully proclaimed, this only shows that the truth has proved itself an arrow, striking home and making its wound, whatever the ultimate consequence of that wound may be.
II. THE MESSAGE OF GOD IS NOT THE ONLY CAUSE OF STRIFE AND CONTENTION. Jeremiah was reckoned as a troubler of Israel, and so in one sense he was; but Israel could only have been troubled by him because, first of all, it was in a condition which admitted of commotion. The wind troubles the waters and raises the waves into destructive fury; but this is just because they are in a condition easily acted on. The prophet, however, has another answer, an answer which served to show how much he marveled at the universality and intensity of the opposition with which he was met. He is far from being the only troubler of Israel. Suppose he becomes silent; strife and contention would not therefore cease. When he comes in with his reproofs, warnings, and threatenings, it is not upon a scene hitherto tranquil and harmonious that he enters. He finds abundance of quarrelling already, and one fertile source of the quarrelling lies in the relations between borrower and lender. They may cease their strife, and join their forces for a little while against the prophet who is their common enemy; but their mutual exasperation is not forgotten, their quarrel is by no means composed. They will return to it with as much bitterness as ever. The prophet, it will be noticed, speaks as if the hostility to him was a marvel. God has sent him to these men for their good; he has come to turn their steps from the way leading to destruction; and yet, because he tells them the truth, he has become their enemy. We see that his faith in human nature, as easily knowing its own best interests, is hard to shake. He does not at all wonder that the borrower should hate the rapacious lender and the lender hate the defaulting borrower; but there is a deep mystery when the man who comes to warn of danger is hated for his message, and hated all the more just as he becomes more earnest and persistent in the utterance of it.
III. WE SEE THE PROPHET‘S CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PURITY OF HIS OWN MOTIVES. He is sure that in him there is no reason for hostility. He had defrauded none; he had oppressed none. With all his complainings here, it was well that he had no cause for self-reproach. Difficulties we must ever expect from that action of others which we cannot control; but let them not be increased needlessly by our own selfishness, obstinacy, and arrogance.Y.
Jer 15:15-17
The prophet’s claim upon Jehovah, and the grounds of the claim.
That which urged the prophet thus to cry to God for succor is stated with great emphasis in Jer 15:18. He is suffering as from a perpetual pain and an incurable wound. It is by such a cry as this that we are able to estimate something of the continuous reproach which he must have had to endure. We know how, in later days, the Jews dogged the steps of Christ and afterwards of Paul; and these persecutors of Jeremiah were their ancestors. Against them Jeremiah could do nothing himself. So far as human sympathy was concerned, he was alone or nearly alone, not able to command even the forbearance of his own kindred, and therefore he had to turn all the more to God. It was well, indeed, that he was thus shut up to the one resort. In his approach to God, we find him stating three claims for God’s immediate attention to his position.
I. SUFFERING FOR JEHOVAH‘S SAKE. Every suffering man has a claim upon God, even when his suffering comes by his own transgression. God is very pitiful to the tortured conscience of the man who has been wakened up out of a selfish and disobedient life. It can be no pleasure to him to see a being of such sensibility as man suffering from any cause whatever; and when a man is suffering for truth, for righteousness, for the gospel and the kingdom of God, then we may be sure that there is a peculiar movement of the Divine nature to help and strengthen such a sufferer. God would help his servant in this very instance, by enabling him to look at his suffering in the right way. The suffering was an evidence of successful work; successful because it had been faithfully and courageously done. If only the prophet had softened some words the Lord had put into his mouth and omitted others, he might have escaped reproach. But reproach smiting on a good conscience is better than contempt falling deservedly on the coward who trims to stand well with everybody. Then the prophet would also be made to feel that it was a good thing to bear what God was bearing himself. His long-suffering towards his enemies requires that his friends should also be patient. It is better to be abused in bearing testimony for God than to share in the rancorous conflicts of selfish men. Prophet and apostle alike had this for their experience that they were compelled to suffer for the Lord’s sake; and he who bore the clearest, purest testimony of all, viz. Jesus himself, was the one who suffered the most. That good and true men, trying to serve God, should often become impatient under biting, bitter words is not wonderful. The true thing to be desired in such a state of mind is not to escape the reproaches, but to have the inward joy increased, so that it may be an effectual counterbalance to all that comes from outside. “If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye” (1Pe 4:14).
II. THE COMPLETE ASSOCIATION OF THE PROPHET WITH THE PROPHETIC WORD. He did not receive it into his mind reluctantly and listlessly, but as one who hungered and thirsted after righteousness. As the word fell on his inner ear it was devoured. It came to him as from the excellent glory; he recognized it as Divine. He was not as many, who will pamper and cram themselves with delicacies that are pleasant to the taste, and turn away with unconcealed aversion from food full of nutrition and health. Hence they became to him the joy and rejoicing of his inward life. All words of God, apprehended in their real meaning, give strength, peace, satisfaction, harmony in the nobler parts of human nature. Jeremiah is thinking of the parallel which may be drawn between food for the body and food for the spirit. The food which we take, just because it is pleasant for the taste, may be anything but a joy and rejoicing to the heart. We must eat what is really good for food, evidently intended for food, if we would be kept from ill consequences. It was because these words were readily accepted and fully received that they became a joy and rejoicing to the heart, and then in the strength, fortitude, zeal, thus communicated, the prophet went forth to his arduous work. Here surely is the secret of his steadfastness. God had put his words in his servant’s mouth (Jer 1:9); but that was all he could do. It was for the prophet himself so to treat the words that he should give them with all the added force of his own sanctified personality. Other men might have uttered the same words, yet so as to rob them of all force and sting. Notice in particular that if these words of God to the prophetwords mostly so stern, spoken nearly all from the judgment-seatwere nevertheless the joy and rejoicing of his heart, how much more may such an experience be expected from receiving the evident gospel words of the Lord Jesus! “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (Joh 6:63).
III. THE PROPHET‘S LIFE WAS CONSISTENT WITH HIS MESSAGE. According to his message, which was soon proved to be a word of truth, the whole land was advancing ever more swiftly into a season of the greatest suffering and sorrow. Yet the people would not believe the message, but went on, just as usual, assembling for their merry-makings. If now the prophet had joined in these merry, makings, the people would have had some plea for their neglect. As it was, they could find no excuse in any inconsistent conduct of his; as he spoke, so he acted. Probably some of them tried to draw him in, to get him away from what, in their shallowness and haste, they would reckon mere morbid fancies. Others would accuse him as being one who cared for no pleasure of life himself, unless it was the pleasure of souring the pleasure of others. And yet we see the prophet could be as thankful for joy and rejoicing of heart as any one. It is the greatest possible mistake to suppose that those who keep away from the world’s pleasures are filled with gloom. A service of God, filled with joy, may soon become a real experience. But if talking about it stands instead of the reality, then the pretence will soon be shown by the avidity of our turning towards worldly pleasures.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 15:1. Then said the Lord, &c. This is the answer of the Lord to the fervent prayers of Jeremiah in the last chapter: “If Moses and Samuel,” saith he, “could revive, and unite in their intercessions for this people, those two men, my faithful servants, heretofore so prevalent with me, could not change my resolution.” Jeremiah may be here considered as in the temple, at the head of an humble people, asking mercy for them. The Lord dismisses them with a severity whereof we have few examples in Scripture. See Eze 14:14; Eze 14:16. By death, in the next verse, is meant the mortality occasioned by the drought and dearth; and accordingly we may render it, Such as are for the mortality, to the mortality.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
CHAPTER 15
4. The Second Refusal
Jer 15:1-4
1And Jehovah said unto me:
If Moses and Samuel stood before me,
Yet my soul is not inclined towards this people:
Away with them from my presence! Out with them!
2And if they say to thee: Out whither shall we go?
Then say to them: Thus saith Jehovah:
He who is for death to death, he for the sword to the sword,
And he who is for famine to famine, and he for captivity to captivity.
3And I appoint over them four kinds, saith Jehovah:
The sword to kill and the dogs to tear,
The birds of heaven and the beasts of the field to devour and to destroy.
4And I make them a horror1 to all kingdoms of the earth,
On account of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah,
And on account of what he did at Jerusalem.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The second petition is refused with a decisiveness which allows of no repetition and the people are rejected from the presence of the Lord (Jer 15:1), but not to a definite place, for they are delivered up to destruction in the most various forms (Jer 15:2), and to destroyers of the most terrible kinds (Jer 15:3), so that their destruction will excite the horror of all nations; but all this will correspond to the seed of abomination which Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, scattered in Judah (Jer 15:4).
Jer 15:1. And Jehovah said out with them! Moses is an intercessor, Exo 17:11 sqq.; Jer 32:11 sqq.; Num 14:13; Psa 106:23.Samuel in 1Sa 7:8; 1Sa 8:6; 1Sa 12:16-23; 1Sa 15:11; Psa 99:6; Sir 46:16. Comp. Herzog, Real-Enc. XIII. S. 398.Noah, Daniel and Job are mentioned in a similar manner in Eze 14:14; and in later times Jeremiah himself in 2Ma 15:14.The object of away, according to the preceding context, and to whither shall we go? Jer 15:2, can be no other than the people.
Jer 15:2-3. And if they say to destroy. The question, whither shall we go? presupposes the thought of a mere banishment. It is declared in what follows that far worse than this is meant.He who is for death. A fearful destructive blow is to follow, which causes the people to be scattered and drives individuals, without selection or respect of persons, into the hands of the agents of death.Death, with sword, famine and captivity, is evidently the relatively spontaneous death by disease or pestilence (), wherefore the latter word is also used with the other in Jer 14:12; Eze 14:21; Eze 33:27; comp. Jer 43:11.
Jer 15:3 fortifies this judgment of destruction, by declaring it in a certain measure permanent. For and I appoint declares that Israel is to be placed as it were under the jurisdiction of these four destructive forces, as also in Eze 14:21 it is expressly said that the Lord will send His four sore judgmentsthe sword and the famine and the noisome beast and the pestilence, upon Jerusalem.Kinds, . Comp. , the four generations, Pro 30:11 sqq. Since the four instruments here mentioned correspond to the four kinds of destruction mentioned in Jer 15:2, it is evident that Jer 15:3 bears to Jer 15:2 not a logical but rhetorical relation. The sword moreover represents the judgment on the living, the three others the judgment on the dead. Comp. Jer 14:16; Deu 28:26.
Jer 15:4. And I make them at Jerusalem. Repetition of the first half of the verse Jer 24:9; Jer 29:18; Jer 34:17. The expression is taken from Deu 28:25. Concerning Manasseh comp. 2Ki 21:1-17; 2Ki 23:26; 2Ki 24:3. The biblical accounts dismiss the long reign of this king with remarkable brevity. We obtain the impression that this is the effect of a certain reluctance to recall this name, which represents the darkest portion of the history of Judah, an epoch which is to be regarded as the concentration and end of all ungodliness.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 15:4.Here and in Eze 23:46 is found without marginal reading, but in Isa 28:19 the older form . In the other places (besides those quoted in Jeremiah also 2Ch 29:8), where Ewald (comp. 53, b) would read (scarecrow, sport [of chance]) there is always the Keri . Except in Isa 28:19, the word occurs only as the designation of the terminus in quem after or before . The root has both in the Hebrew (it occurs in the Old Test. only in Ecc 12:3; Est 5:9; Hab 2:7) and in the dialects (comp. Dan 5:19; Dan 6:27) the meaning of violent motion, commotion. Hence is commotion, quaking, horror.
5. FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE SAD FATE IMPENDING OVER THE REJECTED NATION
Jer 15:5-9
5For who will have pity on thee, O Jerusalem?
Or who will have sympathy for thee?
Or who will turn aside to wish thee well?
6Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah, [and] wentest backwards.2
Then I stretched out my hand against thee and destroyed thee:
I was weary of repenting.
7And I winnowed them out with a fan
At the gates of the land;
I orphaned, I destroyed my people,
For they had not turned them from their ways.
8Their widows are become to me more than the sand of the sea.
I brought them over the mother of the chosen3 the spoiler at noon-day;
I caused to fall on her sudden anguish4 and terror.
9She who bore seven is exhausted;
She breathed out her soul [expired];
Her sun went down while it was yet day;
She was ashamed and confounded [put to shame];
But the residue I will give to the sword,
Before their enemies, saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
After the definite refusal in Jer 15:1-4, the prophet can declare only that there is no further prospect of pity or succor for Jerusalem (Jer 15:5). The people having rejected the Lord, He rejects them, and will not as before retract this determination (Jer 15:6). Winnowed out of the country, Israel is bereaved of his men and sons (Jer 15:7-9 a); and the enemy will come with the sword after the fugitive remnant (Jer 15:9 b).
Jer 15:5. For who will take pity to wish thee well. From Jer 15:1-4 it follows with absolute certainty that Jehovah will no longer help, and that therefore Israel is inevitably lost. , For, implies a reference to this thought. No longer any escape! If the Lord will not, who else will have pity on the people? (Isa 51:19; Nah 3:7). Who indeed will even ask how they are? ( properly = to ask after ones good health, to greet, Gen 43:27; Exo 18:7; Jdg 18:15, etc.) The thought seems to be thus implied, that still less will any one do aught for the welfare of the people, or any longer intercede for them as the prophet has done (Jer 14:7 sqq.; Jer 14:19 sqq.).Turn aside. is here, as frequently, to deviate from the direct, proposed way, in order to turn to some other object, with which, as here, the idea of taking trouble may be connected. Rth 4:1; 1Ki 20:39; Exo 3:3.
Jer 15:6. Thou hast rejected me of repenting. The reason for the declaration in Jer 15:5, that Israel is irretrievably lost, is stated in Jer 15:6, and more particularly in Jer 15:7 sqq. The reason first given, in Jer 15:6 a, is objective, it being declared what Israel has done to draw upon himself such a punishment. The words then I stretched to repenting express the subjective reason, i.e., they declare what facts on the part of the speaker (i. e., of God) are presented as caus efficientes of destruction. The prterite , etc., is not strange; as the apostasy is an already accomplished fact, so also is the hostile position which God assumes towards it. The stretched-out arm, which is so often mentioned as Israels saving arm (Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 26:8, etc.), signifies the hostile position of God towards the enemies of the people. Elsewhere the stretching out of the hand frequently designates the declaration of war, or the command to use force; 1Ki 13:4; Job 15:25; Isa 5:25; Isa 9:11; Isa 10:4; Jer 6:12; Jer 51:25; Eze 6:14; Eze 14:9; Eze 14:13, etc.Perhaps also the assonance of to is intended.Destroyed thee is a summary intimation of the import of the gesture I was weary, etc., a more particular definition, in so far as it declares that the destruction will no longer be deferred as heretofore by a gracious repenting. Comp. Jer 4:28; Jer 6:11; Isa 1:14.
Jer 15:7-9. And I winnowed them before their enemies. I do not think with Graf that is to denote the uttermost, lands of the earth. How then could be used? The preposition retains its proper meaning, if as in Nah 3:13 we understand the exits of the land. The Lord winnows so powerfully that as the chaff flies out over the threshing-floor, so Israel flies out through the exits of the land to a distance.Had not turned, etc., is a causal sentence.In Jer 15:8-9 the prophet uses similar colors to those in Jer 14:16-17 Comp. Jer 11:22; Jer 18:21.The words , variously interpreted by the commentators, are most easily explained by the antithesis to the subsequently mentioned . Even the strongest women, both those who have borne distinguished warriors, and those who have had numerous sons, shall perish. Without insisting on the singular in I believe that it includes the idea of quality, as does of quantity. (Comp. 1Sa 2:5).[Henderson:By the young spoiler [text destroyer] is meant Nebuchadnezzar II., who, when his father was old and infirm, had part of the Chaldean army committed to him, and after defeating Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish marched forward against Jerusalem and captured it. The attack being made at noon indicates the unexpectedness by which it was characterized, that being the time of day when, owing to intense heat, military operations are carried on with less vigor.Hitzig: The description in Jer 15:8 points to a lost battle; and on this hypothesis all the single features of the picture in Jer 15:7-9 may be brought into one point of view, so as to present one event. The author then refers to the battle of Megiddo, the more probably (2Ki 23:29) as the figure of the sun setting in bright daylight might then be founded on the eclipse which took place in that valley 30th Sept., A. D. 610. (Vid.Thenius on 2 Ki.)S. R. A,]Breathed, etc., . From Job 31:39 the meaning of the word exspirare seems plain. The rendering to sigh is too feeble in this connection.Her sun, the sun of her life, and the happiness (comp. Mal. 3:20; Psa 84:12) which she had in her sons is gone down. as in Gen 15:17; 2Sa 2:24; Mic 3:6. , comp. the previous at noon-day.And confounded. . The reference to the mother is to be preferred; for the sun itself does not suffer shame, but those who by the setting of the sun are reduced from the condition of an honored mother to the wretched state of a bereaved and childless one. In Isa 24:23 it is the sun and moon themselves which must pale before a more brilliant star.Deliver to the sword. Comp. Mic 6:14.
Footnotes:
[2]Jer 15:6. . The imperfect is frequently used to designate a fact often repeated in the past. Comp. Nargelsb. Gr., 87. f.
[3]Jer 15:8.[A. V. I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noon-day Boothroyd: against their mother city, a chosen one that spoileth, etc. Henderson:The words (Jer 15:8) have been very differently construed. Nor is the difficulty which they present by any means easy of solution, however simple the words may be in themselves. LXX. . Some compare the phrase the mother with her children [Syr., Arab., C. B. Mich., Ewald, etc.S. R. A.] but the position of the preposition before and not after renders such construction untenable. Others take to be in the construct state: the mother of the young man [Chald., Kimchi, .J. B. Mich., Hitzig, etc.S. R. A.] or regarding the nouns as collectives: the mothers of the young men [De Wette, Maurer, Rosenmueller, etc.S. R. A.] but neither of these affords a suitable sense. Jarchi, Capellus, Castalio, De Dieu, Doederlein, Eichhorn, Dahler, consider mother, to mean the metropolis, as 2Sa 20:19, and 2Sa 8:1. The word is thus used on Phnician coins. Comp. the Arab. , the Greek ; Callin. Fragm., 112; and the Latin mater, Flor. Jer 3:7; Jer 3:18; Ammian, Jer 17:13; Gesenius, in voc. The objection of Schnurrer, that it wants the article, is of little force, as the prophets sometimes omit it for the sake of condensation. See Isa 21:12, and Nordheimers Gr., II. p. 13, note. This, on the whole, as the text now stands, is the preferable interpretation.S. R. A.]
[4]Jer 15:8 has the meaning of unusual, unexpected. Comp. Jer 6:4; Amo 8:9. . . radically related to , = coarctatio, angor.
SECOND MAIN DIVISION
the consequences of the refusal with respect to the person of the prophet and instructions concerning his further course (Jer 15:10 to Jer 16:9)
1. Complaint and petition of the prophet on account of the consequences of the refusal with respect to his person
Jer 15:10-18
10Wo unto me, my mother, that thou hast borne me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land:
I have not borrowed nor lent, yet all curse me.5
11Jehovah said: Verily, I distress thee6 for thy good,
Verily the enemy shall approach thee imploringly7
In the time of calamity and in the time of distress.
12Will then iron break iron from the north and brass?
13Thy substance and thy treasures will I give up for spoil, not for hire,8
But on account of all thy sins and in all thy borders.
14And I take thee9 with thine enemies into a land that thou knowest not,
For a fire10 is kindled in my nostrils which shall burn over you.6
15Thou knowest it, O Jehovah, remember me,
And visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors;
Sweep me not away by11 thy long suffering;
Know that for thy sake I have suffered reproach.
16Thy words were offered and I devoured them,
And thy words12 were to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
For I bear thy name, O Jehovah, God of Zebaoth.
17I sat not in the assembly of the joyful, nor was merry.
Before thy hand I sat solitary, for thou hast filled me with indignation.
18Why then has my pain become perpetual,13
And my wound helpless,14 that will not heal?
Art thou then become to me as a deceitful brook,15
As precarious water?
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
After a sorrowful lament of the prophet, that without any fault of his, all curse him (Jer 15:10), follows (if Jer 15:11-14 are genuine) first a comforting assurance from the Lord, that all will accrue to his advantage and that even his enemies in their distress will turn to him as suppliants (Jer 15:11); and then a description of this distress: it comes as iron from the North which cannot be broken by other iron or brass (Jer 15:12); all wealth in all the borders of Israel will be plundered on account of their sin (Jer 15:13), and the people will be carried away into a strange land in consequence of the violent and inextinguishable anger of Jehovah (Jer 15:14). In Jer 15:15-18 follows a further address of the prophet to the Lord, which, by the words Thou knowest it, may possibly be connected with Jer 15:12, but may also be connected with Jer 15:10. The prophet prays the Lord for His gracious interposition, for vengeance on his enemies, for long-suffering forbearance, since he is indeed suffering for Gods sake (Jer 15:15). He grounds his petition further on his willing devotion to the Lord as His instrument (Jer 15:16), and his having walked worthy of this great honor (Jer 15:17). In conclusion another lament of the prophet: Why is there then for me no cure, no recreation? (Jer 15:18).
Jer 15:10. Wo unto me all curse me. Had the intercession of the prophet in Jeremiah 16. been heard, his lot, in so far as it depended on his countrymen, would have been more agreeable. But now that so stern a refusal has been given he sees the whole fury of the people discharged upon his person. The mention of the calamity of the mother, Jer 15:8-9, reminds the prophet of his own mother, not however to lament on her account, but on his own, that he was ever born. Comp. Jer 20:14; Job 3:3; 1Ma 2:7.Lending and borrowing cause most law-suits. The prophet neither receives loans from others (, Isa 24:2), which as a bad debtor he did not repay, nor does he himself lend money ( , Deu 24:11, creditor, exactor, Psa 109:11), which as a stern creditor he calls in with rigor.Observe the contrast between the accusations, which according to Jer 15:10 were universally raised against the prophet, and the touching petitions, which he, Jer 14:7-19, offers for his people. He thus gives a reply to those accusations, which causes their unrighteousness most distinctly to appear.
Jer 15:11. Jehovah said in time of distress. The formula Jehovah said ( ) thus prefixed is found besides only in Jer 46:25, and in no other prophet. I cannot agree with Graf, who in Jer 46:25 would attach it to the preceding context. (Comp. ). We cannot then say that this position of the formula is a proof of the spuriousness or corruption of the text.The Lord presents to the prophets view a second pleasing turn in his affairs: even his opponents, who now press him in a hostile way, shall then be brought to press him with supplications, because they perceive their only salvation to be in his intercession. This is more particularly explained in Jer 15:12.
Jer 15:12. Will then iron brass? The words are very variously construed. The most simple construction, which agrees well with the context, is to take the first iron, , as the nominative, and the two following as in the objective case. Will then iron, i.e. any other iron, brought by men, break the northern iron or brass? That the northern iron is the northern empire (Jer 13:20) is clear. The most celebrated iron and steel manufacture among the ancients was that of the Chalybeans in Pontus, of whom Strabo says, , XII. p. 826. Comp. J. D. Michaelis. Observv. phil. et crit., in Jer., Ed. Schleusner, p. 136. [Comp. Winer, R.-W.-B., II. S. 512; Smith. Bibl. Dict., II. p. 1376.S. R. A.]. It is accordingly quite suitable to represent this northern nation itself under the figure of the strongest iron. The connection with the preceding is this: thine enemies among the people will yet turn to thee as their only refuge, when they have learned their inability to master the northern iron. For the fulfilment see Jer 37:3; Jer 42:2 sqq.
Jer 15:13-14. Thy substance burn over you. These verses are evidently intended to give a plainer description of the distress, merely intimated in Jer 15:11, and briefly and obscurely described in Jer 15:12. The words are, however, taken from Jer 17:3-4, where they are found in the more original form and proper connection.Not for hire. The thought occurs similarly only in Psa 44:12. In this passage, however, it is the selling of the people, not of their property and treasures, which is spoken of. It is also a question whether in Psa 44:12 the selling is to be understood in a literal sense=thou causest thy people to be sold into slavery by their conquerors at a mean price (comp. Joe 3:8; Joe 3:11-12; Vaihinger on Psa 44:12). Since now it is doubtful whether the thought that God sells His people for nothing or without return is biblical, and still more doubtful whether it may be said God sells the treasures of His people for nothing, the view gains in probability that there is here a corruption of the text. Comp. the Textual Note 4.
Verses 11 and 12 contain in themselves nothing to lead us to doubt their integrity, nor do they in the connection form an incongruous element. Jer 15:11 contains a preliminary tranquilization of the prophet, Jer 15:12 a more particular characterization of the distress intimated in Jer 15:11, and the reason of approach imploringly, etc.Thou knowest, in Jer 15:15, may be connected with Jer 15:12, in the sense: I cannot indeed conceive how that is possible, but Thou Lord knowest it. For since Jer 15:11-12 contain the words of the Lord to the prophet, Thou knowest it cannot be an appeal by the prophet to the divine testimony, but only for the purpose of self-tranquilization. But on the other hand it cannot be denied, that this interruption in the prophets lament is the more remarkable, as Jeremiah afterwards continues in Jer 15:15 as though he hid received no consolation (comp. especially Jer 15:18) and the consolatory statements of Jer 15:11 recur in Jer 15:19 sqq. For these verses also declare that the affliction will accrue to the honor and welfare of the prophet and that the enemies will yet be compelled to apply to him. This is also favored by the perfect appropriateness with which Jer 15:15 is connected with Jer 15:10. The prophet had in Jer 15:10 protested his innocence, for which in Jer 15:15 he appeals to the Omniscient as a witness. Verses 13 and 14 bear in a much higher degree the stamp of spuriousness. For 1. They prolong in an unnecessary manner (as mere filling out of the portrayal of the previously intimated distress) the interruption of the connection; 2. They are a mere quotation from Jer 17:3-4 and textually corrupt, with which it accords, that they contain an address to the people which does not suit the connection; 3. The words Thou knowest, Jer 15:15, are then disconnected, for neither can they be referred to the close of Jer 15:14 nor to Jer 15:13-14 together, since these verses contain neither the words of the prophet, nor anything which appeared incredible to the prophet.
Jer 15:15 a. Thou knowest it thy long-suffering. On thou knowest itvid. supra; comp. Psa 40:10; Eze 37:3.And visit me, is frequently used of a gracious visitation of God after a period of disfavor: Gen 21:1; Exo 3:16; Exo 4:31; Rth 1:16; Psa 8:5-6; Isa 23:17, etc. Comp. Psa 106:4.Avenge, etc. properly=avenge Thee for my good upon my enemies. This construction here only. Comp. 1Sa 24:13; Num 31:2.By thy long-suffering. Since the prophet is not himself conscious of having deserved the divine anger, the long-suffering can be referred only to the enemies: Suffer not that in consequence of the delay of Thy vengeance I be swept away of my enemies.
Jer 15:15 b17. Know that filled with indignation. In these words the prophet presents the grounds on which he expects help from the Lord. He first prays the Lord to consider that he is suffering for His (the Lords) sake. Comp. Psa 69:8 (Zep 3:18)., He then appeals to the willingness with which he offered himself as the Lords organ, and his life in accordance with his high calling.Thy words, etc. The prophet did not excogitate what he was to proclaim but found it, it was offered to him. The found is according to Old Test, usage frequently that which is present of itself in opposition to that which one has produced or procured by his own activity. Comp. Gen 19:15; 1Sa 21:4; 1Sa 25:8.Devoured. As in Eze 2:8; Eze 3:3 coll. Rev 10:9-10, he designates by eating the eager complete reception of them into the mind. The commentators refer to Plautus, Aulul. III. 6, 1, nimium lubenter edi sermonem tuum.For I bear, etc. The word of the Lord may then have become the joy of his heart because it effected that the name of Jehovah was named over him (comp. rems. on Jer 7:10), i. e. that he was designated as a prophet of Jehovah in opposition to the prophets of the idols (comp. the prophets of Baal, 1Ki 18:19; 2Ki 10:19). This designation was to him an honorary title of the highest value. But by this it is not excluded that the word of the Lord in itself was already a cause of rejoicing to him.I sat not. The prophet here describes how his life externally had been spent in accordance with the prophetic calling. He had avoided the society of idle, pleasure-seeking men, he had sat in solitude, the feeling of being divinely possessed as well as the sorrow caused by the predominant objects of his vision, viz. human sin and divine punishment, rendering him incapable of taking part in the proceedings of the merry.Before thy hand. The expression hand designates the divine operation as immediate and irresistible. Comp. Isa 8:11; Eze 3:14; Eze 8:1; Eze 11:5; Eze 37:1, etc.For thou hast filled me, etc. The prophet is filled with indignation and anger by what he beholds in consequence of the divine operation. He cannot possibly be angry with God. Rather is he full of the divine wrath (Jer 6:11) at the sin of men and at the necessity of punishing them. Moreover we see from Jer 15:16 that indignation is not the only feeling of the prophet, nor the only reason which detained him from the society of men. He was in part too divinely troubled, in part too joyful in God, to feel at home in such society. [Henderson: The hilarity which the prophet had experienced was not that of the ungodly, who at their festive meetings treated divine things with scorn. With these he had had no fellowship, but because of the faithful communication of his inspired messages he had been expelled from society and made the object of their fiercest indignation. The occurrence of indignation with hand in this verse has generally induced the supposition that by the latter the afflicting power of God is intended; but it seems more in accordance with the bearing of the connection to regard the expression as designed to convey the idea of powerful divine impulse or prophetical inspiration. Comp. Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14, and frequently. Thus Vatablus, Clarius.S. R. A.]
Jer 15:18. Why then precarious water. The prophet concludes with an exclamation of hopelessness. After what he could declare of himself in Jer 15:16-17 he thought he had some claim for protection and consolation. But there is no prospect of this. As in despair he therefore inquires, Why is this?According to the sense the whole verse must be rendered as a question, and why therefore be referred to the second section of the verse.Precarious. Comp. Isa 33:16. [On Tindals objections to this passage, see Waterland, Scripture Vindicated, p. 245. Wordsworth.S. R. A.]
Footnotes:
[5]Jer 15:10. . This wholly abnormal form (comp. Olsh., 206 b) which as forma mixta has been variously explained, is evidently due, as J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, Graf, Meier have recognized, to a wrong division. It should read . The attraction of the to the following word may have been occasioned by the circumstance that the form ending with it is not found elsewhere (similar formation Deu 1:22. Comp. Eze 23:45; Eze 23:47; Gen 32:1; Gen 19:8). The 1st Pers. however is found in 2Sa 23:6.
[6]Jer 15:11. . The Chethibh may be read (who attack thee, anomalous inf. Kal. from , as Hitzig), (solvendo te, Rosenmueller), (initium tuum, Gesen.), solutio tua sc. erit, Winer), (in different meanings: confirmabo te or exhilarabo te, J. D. Michaelis; firmabo te, Maurer, Ewald; I do thee injury, I oppress thee, Gesen., Thesaur., Meier). The Keri is Piel from , which verb occurs besides only in Job 37:3 (disputed in the latter place) and is said to signify to loosen like the Aram. (comp. Dan 2:22; Dan 3:25; Ezr 5:2). [So Henderson.S. R. A.] The old translators vacillate and alter arbitrarily. Vulg., Targ., Raschi, Kimchi read for (comp. 1Ch 12:38; Olsh., S. 70 and 412), which they regard as = reliqui tu or finis tuus thy remnant, thy exit, for which however always stands elsewhere. [A. V.: it shall be well with thy remnant]. I agree with Gesenius in his Thesaurus and Meier. The scriptio defect. is no objection. Comp. ex. gr. Nah 1:12; Son 4:9. means torsit, contorsit. Hence , oppressor (Psa 8:3; Psa 27:11; Psa 54:7), cloud (contortum) torques, catena. The Lord tells the prophet for his consolation that the oppression will eventuate in favor of his best interests. Comp. Jer 15:19 sqq., besides only in Jer 32:39. Elsewhere (Jer 14:11; Jer 21:10; Jer 24:5-6; Jer 39:16; Jer 44:27).
[7]Jer 15:11. . signifies in Jer 7:16; Jer 27:18; Job 21:15; Rth 1:16 to apply to one, press one with petitions. Accordingly Hiphil here quite regularly = to cause such application, urging, although the Hiph. is elsewhere used in the sense of the Kal. (Isa 53:12; Isa 59:16; Jer 36:25).
[8]Jer 15:13. . There is probably here a corruption of the text. In the parallel passage Jer 17:3 we read after the words . Since now might very easily become , especially if we consider the difficulty of this word, it is very natural to perceive in the latter a corruption of the former. The unmeaningness of the sentence then led to the addition of which is wanting in the LXX. The author of the gloss might also have had in mind passages like Isa 45:13; Isa 52:3; Isa 55:1. What occasioned the deviation from Jer 17:3 it is difficult to tell. At any rate, if the words are to yield any sense, the first must be rendered by and indeed (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 111, 1), and be referred to the first section of the verse.
[9]Jer 15:14.. In Jer 17:4 we have , which is also given by the LXX., Syr., Chald. The Hiphil from is evidently a corruption, but in the gloss the genuine text, and therefore to be retained, although no commentator has yet been able to give a satisfactory explanation of it. From we see that the people (at any rate with the previously mentioned treasures) is regarded as the object.Comp. Jer 9:15.
[10]Jer 15:14., etc. The words are taken verbatim, from Deu 32:22, while in Jer 17:4 we have (transit. as in Isa 1:11; Isa 64:1). For we find in Jer 17:4 more appropriately .
[11]Jer 15:15. as in , Jer 9:2; , Jer 30:11. Comp. Isa 11:3; Isa 32:1.
[12]Jer 15:16.. The Chethibh is quite impertinent. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 105, 4 b, 3.
[13]Jer 15:18.: Subst. (comp. Psa 74:3; 1Ch 29:11) = perpetuitas. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 74.
[14]Jer 15:18., comp. Jer 30:15; Isa 17:11; Mic 1:9.
[15]Jer 15:18.. Comp. Mic 1:14. It is the opposite of , Deu 21:4; Amo 5:24. Comp. Exo 14:27.
2. THE LORDS TRANQUILIZING AND CONSOLATORY ANSWER
Jer 15:19-21
19Therefore thus saith Jehovah:
If thou return, I will cause thee again to stand before me;16
And if thou bring forth the precious without the base, thou shalt be as my mouth.17
They shall return to thee, but thou shalt not return to them.
20And I will make thee to this people a brazen wall, a strong one;
And they will contend against thee, but not prevail over thee;
For I am with thee to deliver
And to preserve thee, saith Jehovah.
21And I preserve thee from the hand of the wicked,
And redeem thee from the might of the violent.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Lord answers the prophet by promising him anew, together with a mild correction and on the condition of blameless purity, the honor of being permitted to serve Him as His organ (Jer 15:19 a). He then promises the return to him of his enemies (Jer 15:19 b), inexpugnable firmness (Jer 15:20), protection and deliverance from all dangers (Jer 15:21).
Jer 15:19. Therefore thus return to them.If thou return. In these words there is evidently a gentle reproof. In the preceding context, especially Jer 15:18, the prophet had allowed himself to be carried away into doubt of the fidelity and trustworthiness of the Lord. In this there was an element of alienation from the Lord. Without entering on a confutation or accusing the prophet directly of his departure, he gives him to understand that such a departure has taken place only by the conditional sentence, If thou return. For turning back presupposes a turning away. Comp. Jer 4:1.To stand before me, in the sense of mediatorship, which at the same time includes the honor of a servant and of one who stands very near his Lord: Jer 15:1; Jer 18:20; Jer 35:19; Jer 40:10.Bring forth, etc. From the context such a bringing forth only can be spoken of as on the one hand is opposed to the blameworthy utterances of the prophet in Jer 15:18, and as on the other hand qualifies him to be the Lords mouth. is therefore to be taken in the sense in which it occurs, ex. gr. in Job 15:13, which passage has in general a remarkable resemblance to the present. Then is away from, far from, without. Comp. Jer 10:14; Job 11:15; Job 21:9. Vid.Naegelsb. Gr. 112, 5 d.On the subject-matter comp. Exo 4:16.They, etc. The triumph of a witness of the truth consists in this that his opponents finally agree to his testimony. Comp. Pro 16:7.
Jer 15:20-21. And I will violent. The Lord confirms the prophet in his office and His promise in the same words in which He had assured him of both in the beginning, Jer 1:18-19.Brazen wall. [The Roman Poet felt something of the great truth contained in these divine words, when he said,
Hicmurus aheneusesto,
Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa.
(Horat. I. Epist. 1:60). Wordsworth.S. E. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 14:7. Medicina erranti confessio, qua de re Psa 32:3-4 et Ambrosius eleganter: Confessio verecunda suffragatur Deo, et pnam, quam defensione vitare non possumus, pudore revelamus (lib. de Joseph., c. 36), et alibi idem: Cessat vindicta divina, si confessio prcurat humana. Etsi enim confessio non est causa meritoria remissionis peccatorum, est tamen necessarium quoddam antecedens. Frster.
2. In earnest and hearty prayer there is a conflict between the spirit and the flesh. The flesh regards the greatness of the sins, and conceives of God as a severe Judge and morose being, who either will not help further or cannot. The spirit, on the other hand, adheres to the name of God, i. e., to His promise; he apprehends God by faith as his true comfort and aid, and depends upon Him. Cramer.
3. On Jer 14:9 a. Ideo non vult Deus cito dare, ut discas ardentius orare. Augustine.
4. On Jer 14:9 b. Quia in baptismo nomen Domini, i. e., totius SS. et individu Trinitatis super nos quoque invocatum est, eo et ipso nos in fdus Dei recepti sumus et inde populus Dei salutamur. Frster.
5. On Jer 14:10. So long as the sinner remains unchanged and uncontrite God cannot remove the punishment of the sin (Jer 26:13). Starke.Quotidie crescit pna, quia quotidie crescit et culpa. Augustine.
6. On Jer 14:11-12. [We further gather from this passage that fasting is not in itself a religious duty or exercise, but that it refers to another end. Except then they who fast have a regard to what is thereby intendedthat there may be a greater alacrity in prayerthat it may be an evidence of humility in confessing their sins,and that they may also strive to subdue all their lusts;except these things be regarded, fasting becomes a frivolous exercise, nay, a profanation of Gods worship, it being only superstitious. We hence see that fastings are not only without benefit except when prayers are added, and those objects which I have stated are regarded, but that they provoke the wrath of God as all superstitions do, for His worship is polluted. Calvin.S. R. A.] Unbelief is a mortal sin, so that by it the good is turned into evil. For fasting or praying is good; but when the man who does it has no faith it becomes sin (Psa 109:7). Cramer.
7. On Jer 14:14. He who would be a preacher must have a regular appointment. In like form for all parts of divine worship we must have Gods word and command for our support. If we have it not all is lost. Cramer.
8. On Jer 14:14 (I have not sent them). This does not come at all into the account now-a-days; and I do not know, whether to such a preacher, let him have obtained his office as he may, in preaching, absolution, marrying and exorcising, or on any other occasion, when he appeals to his calling before the congregation or against the devil, the thought once occurs, whether he is truly sent by God. Thus the example of the sons of Sceva (Act 19:14; Act 19:16) is no longer considered, and it appears that the devil is not yet disposed by such frightful occurrences to interrupt the atheistical carelessness of the teachers. Zinzendorf.
9. On Jer 14:15. The example of Pashur and others shortly afterwards confirms this discourse. This is an important point. One should however, with that modesty and prudence, which Dr. Wiesmann (Prof. of Theol. in Tbingen), who seems called of God to be a writer of church history, in his Introd. in Memorabilia histori sacr N. T. (1731 and 1745) which I could wish were in the hands of all teachers, repeatedly recommends, have regard to this also, when so-called judgments on the wicked are spoken of, that when the Lord in His wisdom and omnipotence exercises justice on such transgressors by temporal judgments, these are often a blessing to them and the yet remaining means of their salvation. It is related that a certain clergyman in a Saxon village, about the year 1730, felt such a judgment upon himself and his careless ministry, and after happy and humble preparation on a usual day of fasting and prayer, presented himself before his church as an example, and exercised on himself what is called church discipline, whereupon he is said to have fallen down dead with the words,
My sin is deep and very great,
And fills my heart with grief.
O for thy agony and death,
Grant me, I pray, relief.
He is no doubt more blessed, and his remembrance more honorable, than thousands of others, who are praised by their colleagues in funeral discourses as faithful pastors, and at the same time, or already before, are condemned in the first but invisible judgment as dumb dogs, wolves or hirelings. Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer 14:16. Although preachers lead their hearers astray, yet the hearers are not thus excused. But when they allow themselves to be led astray, the blind and those who guide them fall together into the ditch (Luk 6:39). Cramer. [When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble, they must in it see their own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the false prophets and the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to another. Henry.S. R. A.]
11. On Jer 14:19. Chrysostom refers to Rom 11:1 sqq., where the answer to the prophets question is to be found.
12. On Jer 14:21. Satan has his seat here and there (Rev 2:13). I should like to know why the Saviour may not also have His cathedral. Assuredly He has, and where one stands He knows how to maintain it, and to preserve the honor of the academy. Zinzendorf.
[Good men lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world, nearer their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched from thence, and great supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne of His glory, on earth; nor will He eclipse the glory of His throne by one providence, without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly than before, by another. God will be no loser in His honor in the long run. Henry.S. R. A.]
13. On Jer 14:22. Testimony to the omnipotence of God, for His are both counsel and deed (Pro 8:14). Use it for consolation in every distress and for the true apodictica [demonstration] of all articles of Christian faith, however impossible they may appear. Cramer.[The sovereignty of God should engage, and His all-sufficiency encourage, our attendance on Him, and our expectations from Him, at all times. Henry.Hence may be learned a useful doctrinethat there is no reason why punishments, which are signs of Gods wrath, should discourage us so as to prevent us from venturing to seek pardon from Him; but on the contrary a form of prayer is here prescribed for us; for if we are convinced that we have been chastised by Gods hand, we are on this very account encouraged to hope for salvation; for it belongs to Him who wounds to heal, and to Him who kills to restore to life. Calvin.S. R. A.]
14. On Jer 15:1. On the part of the Catholics it is maintained that hoc loco refellitur hreticorum error orationes defunctorum sanctorum nihil prodesse vivis. Contrarium enim potius ex hisce arguendum suggeritur, nempe istiusmodi sanctorum mortuorum orationes et fieri coram Deo solere pro viventibus, et quando viventes ipsi non posuerint ex semet obicem, illas esse iis maxime proficuas. Ghisl. Tom. II. p. 296). To this it is replied on the part of the Protestants. 1. Enuntiatio isthc plane est hypothetica. 2. Eo tantum spectat, ut si Moses et Samuel in vivis adhuc essent, adeoque in his terris pro populo preces interponerent suas, perinde ut ille, Exodus 32. hic vero 1 Samuel 7. (Frster, S. 86). He also adds two testimonies of the fathers against the invocation of saints. One from Augustine, who (contra Maximin., L. 1), calls such invocation sacrilegium, the other from Epiphanius who (Hres 2) names it an error seductorum, and adds non sanctos colimus, sed sanctorum dominum.That the intercession of the living for each other is effective, Cramer testifies, saying Intercession is powerful, and is not without fruit, when he who prays and he for whom he prays are of like spirit. Comp. Rom 15:30; 2Co 1:11; Eph 6:18-19; 1Ti 2:1-2; 1Jn 5:16. [To the same effect also Calvin and Henry.S. R. A.]
15. On Jer 15:4 b. Scilicet in vulgus manant exempla regentum, utque ducum lituos, sic mores castra sequuntur.Non sic inflectere sensus humanos edicta valent ut vita regentum.Qualis rex talis grex. Frster.
16. God keeps an exact protocol [register] of sins, and visits them to the third and fourth generation. Cramer. [See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not. Henry.S. R. A]
17. On Jer 15:5. When God abandons us we are abandoned also by the holy angels, and all creatures. For as at court when two eyes are turned away the whole court turns away; so when the Lord turns away all His hosts turn away also. Cramer.
18. On Jer 15:7. God as a faithful husbandman has all kinds of instruments for cleaning His grain. He has two kinds of besoms and two kinds of winnowing-fan. With one He cleanses, winnows the grain and sweeps the floor, so that the chaff may be separated from the good wheat. This is done by the Fatherly cross. But if this does not avail He takes in hand the besom of destruction. Cramer.
19. On Jer 15:10. The witnesses of Jesus have the name among others of being hard and rough people, from whom they cannot escape without quarreling. It is not only a reproach which Ahab and such like make to Elijah, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? (1Ki 19:17). But even true-hearted people like Obadiah do not thoroughly trust to them; every one has the thought, if they would only behave more gently it would be just as well and make less noise. Meanwhile the poor Elijah is sitting there, knowing not what to do; a Jeremiah laments the day of his birth why am I then such a monster? Why such an apple of discord? What manner have I? How do I speak? For when I speak, they are for war (Psa 120:7). He does not at once remember that they called the master Beelzebub, and persecuted all the prophets before him; that his greatest sin is that he cares for the interests of Jesus in opposition to Satan. Zinzendorf. [Even those who are most quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one side of the bargain, and therefore can but, as much as in us lies, live peaceably. Henry.S. R. A.]
20. On Jer 15:10 b. (I have neither lent nor borrowed at usury). My dear Jeremiah! Thou mightest have done that; that is according to the custom of the country, there would be no such noise about that. There is no instance of a preacher being persecuted because he cared for his household. But to take payment in such natural products as human souls, that is ground of distrust, that is going too far, that thou carriest too high, and thou must be more remiss therein, otherwise all will rise up against thee; thou wilt be suspended, removed, imprisoned or in some way made an end of, for that is pure disorder and innovation, that smacks of spiritual revolutionary movements. Zinzendorf.
21. On Jer 15:15 a. (Thou knowest that for thy sake I have suffered reproach). This is the only thing that a servant of the Lamb of God should care for, that he does indeed suffer not the least in that he has disguised and disfigured the doctrine of God and his Saviour. It might be wished that no servant of the Lord, especially in small cities and villages, would now and then make a quarrel to relieve the tedium, which will occupy the half of his life, and of which it may be said in the end: vinco vel vincor, semper ego maculor. Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer 15:16. The sovereign sign of a little flock depending on Christ is such a hearty, spiritual tender disposition towards the Holy Scriptures, that they find no greater pleasure than in their simple but heart-searching truths. I, poor child, if I but look into the Bible, am happy for several hours after. I know not what misery I could not alleviate at once with a little Scripture. Zinzendorf. [On Jer 17:17. It is the folly and infirmity of some good people that they lose much of the pleasantness of their religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they humor and indulge instead of mortifying it. Henry.S. R. A.]
23. On Jer 15:19, a. (And thou shalt stand before me: [Luther: thou shalt remain my preacher]) Hear ye this, ye servants of the Lord! Ye may be suspended, removed, lose your income and your office, suffer loss of house and home, but ye will again be preachers. This is the word of promise. * * * And if one is dismissed from twelve places, and again gets a new place, he is a preacher to thirteen congregations. For in all the preceding his innocence, his cross, his faith preach more powerfully than if he himself were there. Zinzendorf.
Note.On this it may be remarked that in order to be the mouth of the Lord it is not necessary to have a church.
24. On Jer 15:19 b. (Before thou return to them) We can get no better comfort than this, that our faithful Lord Himself assures us against ourselves. I will make thee so steady, so discreet, so well-founded, so immovable, that, hard as the human heart is, and dead and opposed, yet it will be rather possible that they all yield to thee, than that thou shouldest be feeble or slack and go over to them. Zinzendorf.
25. On Jer 15:20. A preacher must be like a bone, outwardly hard, inwardly full of marrow. Frster. [Ministers must take those whom they see to be precious into their bosoms, and not sit alone, as Jeremiah did, but keep up conversation with those they do good to, and get good by. Henry.S. R. A.]
26. On Jer 16:2. It is well-known that in no condition is celibacy attended by so many evils as in that of the clergy and that this condition entails in a certain measure a present necessity of marrying. For if any one needs a helpmeet to be by his side, it is the man who must be sacrificed to so many different men of all classes. But all this must be arranged according to circumstances. Ye preachers! Is it made out that ye marry only for Jesus? that you have the church alone as your object? and that you subject yourselves to all the hardships of this condition with its tribulations only for the profit of many? First, then, examine maturely in your offices, whether there is no word of the Lord, whether circumstances do not show, whether there is not an exception from the rule in your case, that you are to take no wife; whether Paul does not call to you in spirit, I would that thou wert as I. May it not sometimes be said? Take no wife at this time or at this place! or Take not another! How does the matter look on closer examination? The rather, as it is known to the servants of Christ to be no hyperbolical speech, when it is said, The minister has slain his thousands, but the ministers wife her ten thousands. He that loves anything more than Christ is not worthy of Him. If it cannot be cured endure it. But see to it the more, that those who have wives be as those who have them not (1Co 7:29). Lead your wife in prayer diligently and plainly, as Moses with Zipporah (Exo 4:25, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me). If they would not have you dead they must leave you your Lord. I know not when anything was so pleasing to me as when I saw a certain ministers wife weeping sorely from apprehension that her husband would not endure a certain trial. She saw clearly that he would retain his charge, but she feared the Saviour would make it hard to him.Zinzendorf.
27. On Jer 16:2. Ridiculi sunt Papicol, qui ex hoc typo articulum religionis su de clibatu saceraotum exstruere conantur. Nam. 1. tota hc res fuit typica. Typica autem et symbolica theologia non est argumentativa juxta axioma Thom. 2. Non simpliciter interdicitur conjugium prophet in omni loco, sed tantum in hoc loco. Frster.
28. On Jer 16:7. This passage (as also Isa 58:7) is used by the Lutheran theologians to prove that panem frangere may be equivalent to panem distribuere, as also Luther translates: They will not distribute bread among them. This is admitted by the Reformed, who, however, remark that it does not follow from this that frangere et distribuere also in Sacramento quipollere, quod esset a particulari ad particulare argumentari. Comp. Turretin., Inst. Theol. Elencht. Tom. III., p. 499.
29. On Jer 16:8. When people are desperately bad and will not be told so, they must be regarded as heathen and publicans (Mat 17:18; Tit 3:10; 1Co 5:9). Cramer.
30. On Jer 16:19. The calling of the heathen is very consolatory. For as children are rejoiced at heart when they see that their parents are greatly honored and obtain renown and praise in all lands, so do all true children of God rejoice when they see that Gods name is honored and His glory more widely extended. Cramer.This passage is one of those which predict the extension of the true religion among all nations, and are therefore significant as giving impulse and comfort in the work of missions. Comp. Deu 32:21; Hos. 2:1, 25; Joe 3:5; Isa 49:6; Isa 65:1; Rom 10:12 sqq.
31. On Jer 16:21. Nothing can be learned from God without God. God instructs the people by His mouth and His hand, verbis et verberibus. Cramer.
32. On Jer 17:1. Scripta est et fides tua, scripta est et culpa tua, sicut Jeremias dixit: scripta est Juda culpa tua graphio ferreo et ungue adamantino. Et scripta est, inquit, in pectore et in corde tuo. Ibi igitur culpa est ubi gratia; sed culpa graphio scribitur, gratia spiritu designatur. Ambros. de Sp. s. III. 2.
33. On Jer 17:1. The devil is Gods ape. For when he sees that God by the writing of His prophets and apostles propagates His works and wonders to posterity, he sets his own pulpiteers to work, who labor with still greater zeal, and write not only with pens and ink, but also with diamonds, that such false religion may have the greater respect and not go down. Cramer.
34. On Jer 17:5.
O man in human help and favor
Trust not, for all is vanity,
The curse is on it,happy he,
Who trusts alone in Christ the Saviour.
[When water is blended with fire, both perish; so when one seeks in part to trust in God and in part to trust in men, it is the same as though he wished to mix heaven and earth together, and to throw all things into confusion. It is then to confound the order of nature, when men imagine that they have two objects of trust, and ascribe half their salvation to God and the other half to themselves or to other men. Calvin.S. R. A.]
35. On Jer 17:5. A teacher is commanded to be the first to honor the authorities, to pray for them and be subject to them as Gods servants But since the authorities, in all which pertains to the concerns of the soul, have part only as members, there is great occasion for this cursed dependence on flesh when one from the hope of good personal protection gives up the work of the Lord to the powers of the earth. It is true the church is to have foster-parents who are kings. But nevertheless neither kings nor princes are its tutelar deities, much less lords and commanders of the church, but one is our Master, one our Judge, one our King, the Crucified. Zinzendorf.
36. On Jer 17:5. Reformed theologians, ex. gr., Lambertus Danus (ob. 1596) have applied this passage in the sense of Joh 6:63, in their controversies against the Lutheran doctrine of the Supper. But as Calvin declared, it is not the flesh of Christ, but only earthly flesh and that per contemtum which is here spoken of Comp. Frster, S. 97.
37. On Jer 17:7. Blessed are those teachers, who have betaken themselves, to His protection, who once promised His Church, that even the gates of hell should not prevail against it Who has ever been put to shame who trusted in Him? Zinzendorf.
38. On Jer 17:9. This is a spiritual anatomy of the heart. Examples: Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33.); Hezekiah (38:39); the children of Israel (Numbers 14.). Alii sumus dum ltamur et omnia in vita nobis secundo vento succedunt; alii vero in temporibus calamitosis, ubi quid prter sententiam acciderit. Comp. Ser. Jer 11:27. (MS. note in my copy of Cramers Bibel).
39. On Jer 17:9. . This applies with respect to ourselves and others. For the defiant it avails as an extinguisher (Rom 12:3); but the despairing may be reassured by it (1Jn 3:19-20).
40. On Jer 17:14. (Thou art my praise) When a teacher confines himself to the praise of the cross and lets all other matters of praise go, which might adorn a theologian of these times, and adheres immovably to this: I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ the crucified (1Co 2:2),amid all the shame of His cross He is victorious over the rest. Zinzendorf.
41. On Jer 17:16. (That which I have preached was right before thee). It is not difficult to know in these times what is right before the Lord. There is His word; he who adheres to this strictly, knows in thesi that he is right In all this it is the teachers chief maxim, not to make use of the application without need, but to make the truth so plain in his public discourse, that the hearers must necessarily make the application to themselves. Thus saying, thou reproachest us also, said the lawyer (Luk 11:45). Others went away convicted in their consciences. Zinzendorf.
42. On Jer 17:17. That is a period which straitens the hearts of witnesses, when their rock, their protection, their consolation, their trust is a terror to them. But under this we must bow and faithfully endure, and we shall have a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Discipline always ends gloriously. Zinzendorf.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
On Jer 14:7-9. Jeremiah a second Israel, who wrestles with the Lord in prayer. 1. In what the Lord is strong against the prophet: the sin of the people. 2. In what the prophet is strong against the Lord: the Name of the Lord (a) in itself. This compels him to show that He is not a desperate hero, or giant, who cannot help; (b) in that His name is borne by Israel. Thus the Lord is bound to show Himself as He who is in Israel (not a guest or stranger), and consequently the Comforter and Helper of Israel.Heim und Hoffmann, The Major Prophets (Winnenden, 1839). As Daniel (Jer 9:6) prayed, We have sinned and committed iniquity, etc., so Jeremiah took his share in the sin and guilt of his people.This is true penitence, when one no longer wishes to contend with God in tribulation, but confesses his sin and condemnation, when he sees that if God should treat us according to our misdeeds, He could find no ground for grace. But for His names sake He can show us favor. He Himself is the cause of the forgiveness of sin.Calwer Handbuch [Manual]. Notwithstanding the ungodliness of the people the prophet may still say, Thou art among us, because the temple of the Lord and His word were still in the land, and the pious have never all died out. [On Jer 14:7-9. Prayer hath within itself its own reward. The prayer of the prophet consists of confession and petition. 1. Confession fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is against God. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it, takes off the power of accusation, etc. 2. Petition: For Thy names sake. This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same and hath always the same force. The children of God are much beholden to their troubles for clear experiences of themselves and God. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of. Leighton.S. R. A.]
2. On Jer 14:13-16. Against false prophets. 1. They tell the world what it likes to hear (Jer 17:13); 2. The Lord denies them (Jer 17:14); 3. The Lord punishes them (Jer 17:15); 4. The Lord also punishes those who allow themselves to be deceived by them (Jer 17:16).Tb. Bibelw.: To enter the preachers office without divine calling, what an abomination is that! But mark this, ye hirelings! the sentence of condemnation is already pronounced over you (Jer 23:21; Mat 7:15).Osiander Bibl.: God avenges the deception of false teachers most severely, if not in this world in the next (Act 13:10-11).Starke: God punishes both deceivers and deceived, the latter cannot then lay all the guilt on the former (Jer 27:45).
3. On Jer 14:19-22. The churchs distress and consolation. 1. The distress is (a) outward (Jer 17:19), (b) inward (Jer 17:20, the reason of the outward, confession). 2. The consolation (a). The Lords Name, [] It is called and is One (Jer 17:22): [] His glory and that of the church (throne of glory) are one; (b) the Lords covenant (Jer 17:21).What in the present circumstances should be our position towards God? 1. The divine providence, in which we are at present: 2. Our confession, which we make before God: 3. Our petition, which we should address to Him. Voelter in Palmers Ev. Casual-Reden. [Occasional Discourses], 4th Ed., 1865.
4. On Jer 15:16. Sermon on a Reformation or Bible-Anniversary. The candlestick of the Gospel has been rejected by more than one church. We therefore pray: Preserve to us Thy word (Ps. 109:43). 1. Why we thus pray (Thy Word is our hearts joy and comfort); 2. Why we hope to be heard (for we are named by Thy name).
5. On Jer 15:19. Caspari (Installation-sermon at Munich, Adv., 1855). These words treat; 1, of the firm endurance; 2, of the holy zeal; 3, of the joyful confidence, with which a preacher of God must come to an evangelical church.
6. Homilies of Origen are extant on Jer 15:5-6; (Hom. XII., Ed. Lommatzsch); Jer 15:10-19 (Hom. XIV.); Jer 15:10; Jer 17:5 (Hom. XV.). [On Jer 15:20. I. Gods qualification to be an overseer of the church. The metaphor of a wall implies, (1) courage, (2) innocence and integrity, (3) authority. II. The opposition a church-governor will be sure to meet with, (1) by seditious preaching and praying, (2) by railing and libels; (3) perhaps by open force. III. The issue and success of such opposition (they shall not prevail). South.S. R. A.]
7. On Jer 16:19-21. Missionary Sermon. The true knowledge of God. 1. It is to be had in Christianity (Jer 17:19, a). 2. It will also make its way to the heathen, for (a) It is Gods will that they should be instructed (Jer 17:21); (b) they are ready to be instructed (Jer 17:19 b. 20).
8. On Jer 17:5-8. The blessing of faith and the curse of unbelief (comp. Ebal und Gerizim). 1. Why does the curse come upon the unbeliever? (He departs in his heart from the Lord). 2. Wherein this curse consists (Jer 17:6). 3. Why must blessing be the portion of the believer? (Jer 17:7). 4. Wherein this blessing consists (Jer 17:8).
9. On Jer 17:5-8, and Jer 18:7-10. Schleiermacher (Sermon on 28 Mar., 1813, in Berlin): We regard the great change (brought about by the events of the period) on the side of our worthiness before God. 1. What in this respect is its peculiar import and true nature. 2. To what we must then feel ourselves summoned.
10. On Jer 17:9-10. The human heart and its Judges 1. The antithesis in the human heart. 2. The impossibility of fathoming it with human eyes. 3. The omniscient God alone sees through it; and 4, judges it with justice. [The heart is deceitfulit always has some trick or other by which to shuffle off conviction. Henry.It is extremely difficult for sinners to know their hearts. I. What is implied in their knowing their own hearts. 1. It implies a knowledge of their selfishness. 2. Of their desperate incurable wickedness. 3. Of their extreme deceitfulness. II. Why it is so extremely difficult for them to know their own hearts. 1. They are unwilling to know them. 2. Because of the deceitfulness of sin. They love or hate, as they appear friendly or unfriendly to them: (a) God, (b) Christ, (c) good men, (d) one another, (e) the world, (f) their own hearts, (g) the means of grace, (h) their convictions, (i) heavenImprovement. The only way to know the heart is to inquire whether it loves God or not, etc. 2. Saints can more easily ascertain their true character than sinners Song of Solomon 3. All changes in life are trials of the heart, etc., etc. Emmons.I. The human heart exhibits great fraud and treachery. 1. We are changeable by that connection which the soul has with the body. 2. By its connection with external objects by our senses. 3. By its love of novelty and variety. 4. By its hasty resolutions. 5. By its self-love. II. Its excessive malice is seen in history and experience. III. Its deep dissimulation and hypocrisy render it inscrutable. Inferences: 1. We should entertain a sober diffidence of ourselves. 2. We should not be surprised when men use us ill or disappoint us. 3. We should take care and give good principles and a good example to those young persons under our guidance. 4. We should be ready to confess our offences to God. 5. We should bear in mind that we are under the inspection of one who searcheth the hearts, etc. Jortin.See also two Sermons by Jer. Taylor.S. R. A.].
11. Rud. Kgel (Court and Cathedral preacher at Berlin, 1865). Sermon on Jer 17:9; Jer 17:19, and Heb 13:9 : Two pictures: 1, the unregenerate; 2, the regenerate heart.
12. On Jer 17:12-13. Sermon for the dedication of a church, the anniversary of the Reformation, or on Whitsunday. The church of the Lord. 1. What it is in itself (place of sanctuary, throne of divine glory, house of Him, who is Israels hope). 2. What it will be (it will ever remain firm, Mat 16:18): 3. What they find who forsake it (Jer 17:19).
13. On Jer 17:14-18. Cry for help of a preacher tempted on account of the truth. 1. The temptation (Jer 17:15). 2. The demonstration of innocence (Jer 17:16). 3. The cry for help, (a) negative (Jer 17:17-18), (b) positive (Jer 17:19). [On Jer 17:14. The penitents prayer. 1. The words express an earnest desire for salvation. 2. He applies to Almighty God for it. 3. Through the medium of prayer. 4. With confidence that he will be heard. Dr. A. Thomson of Edinburgh.S. R. A.].
Footnotes:
[16]Jer 15:19., etc. The construction is like , Isa 47:1; Isa 47:5. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 95, g, Anm.
[17]Jer 15:19., Kaph veritatis. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 112, 5 c.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This is as sorrowful a Chapter as any in the prophecy. Though the last had closed with prayer, yet this begins and ends with judgment.
Jer 15:1
Reader! I cannot pass over this verse, without instantly making this observation: Though neither Samuel, nor Moses, can prevail for sinners, yet there is One mightier than both, whom the Father heareth always. Oh! how precious is to think, that Jesus cannot fail in his intercession, though all other intercessors fail. His blood is a speaking blood. And he ever liveth to appear, and to make intercession in the presence of God for us. Heb 7:25Heb 7:25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Eating of God’s Words
Jer 15:16
The former verse contains a suggestion which bears upon the interpretation of this text. That suggestion is this, that the position which the prophet finds himself in is due to the words of God which he had found and had eaten.
I. The first word he found was, the word of Divine ordination: ‘Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, before thy birth I knew thee; and at thy birth I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations’. He discovered that it was by no mere chance that he had entered into this life. On the contrary that he was sent into the world for a very definite purpose. He found he was where God intended him to be and he was fulfilling the mission for which God had given him life.
In the day of this discovery Jeremiah was delivered from the blight of a self-conscious insufficiency. ‘I cannot speak, for I am a child.’ That was a genuine word. While, however, he was under its spell he was utterly useless. He had no confidence in himself or in his powers. He was in consequence prostrated at the shrine of his own weakness and self-conscious insufficiency. Though a man may prostrate himself in true penitence for sin, even at the foot of the Cross, God can do nothing with him until he stands erect again, conscious no longer of his own weakness, but of a power which has become his by eating the words of the Lord.
II. The word of a Divine ministry a ministry which was to be first of all destructive, and then constructive. In that Divine ministry unto the nations he discovered: (1) The word of God’s integrity. (2) The word of God’s pleading. What is the story of this book? Is it not the story of a prolonged pleading, throughout the centuries, of God the Father with His rebellious sons? This is surely the word of the Cross. (3) The word of God’s judgments. This was perhaps the most difficult word which the prophet had to receive. It was certainly the most unpopular word. To its reception may be traced much of the trials, difficulties, and sorrows which had surrounded the life and ministry of this man of God. Yet he did not hesitate to receive it. He received it as complimentary to the word of pleading which had gone before it. He saw most clearly that consequent upon Israel’s refusal to receive the pleadings of God came the judgments of God.
III. Notice what the eating of these words meant to the prophet himself. (1) The reception of those words for the nourishment of his own spiritual life. (2) The willing acceptance of the principles and practices involved in them. God’s ordination would become the prophet’s ordination. (3) By the eating of these words of God, which he had found, the prophet would become in heart and mind entirely God’s. It is the mingling of the waters which make the ocean. It is the blending of the valleys and mountains and plains which make the landscape. It is the coming of God into man, and the losing of man in his God, which make the patriarch and the prophet, the Psalmist and the seer, the saint and the martyr, the disciple and the apostle, the preacher and the evangelist.
J. Gay, Common Truths from Queer Texts, p. 59.
References. XV. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 980; vol. xviii. No. 1079. XVII. 1 . Ibid. vol. xiv. No. 812. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah, p. 294. XVII. 5. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. i. p. 217. XVII. 5-8; XVIII. 7-10. Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher, p. 67. XVII. 6. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 341. XVII. 6, 8. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah, p. 302.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Seven More Questions
Jer 15
A terrible fate is indicated by these inquiries. The rejection was awful in its completeness and sternness; the tempest of the Lord seemed to break upon the rejected people from all the points of the compass: “I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy” ( Jer 15:3 ). How much it took to make God utter these words the imagination of man can never discover. Wo read them as if they were rhetorical terms, but they are words of the heart, saturated with tears, expressions of an inconceivable and inexpressible agony. And Jerusalem has come into such state that none shall turn aside “to ask how thou doest.” None shall have pity upon Jerusalem. Where Western nations say, “How do you do?” Eastern peoples said, “Is it peace?” The salutation in the East was always one of “Peace be with you,” and the inquiry addressed from friend to friend was, “Is it peace?” None would inquire after the peace of Jerusalem, none would concern himself to know what pain was at her heart, what darkness beclouded her vision. Have we not had experience of the same kind in some degree? Have we not been outcasts, and as the off-scouring of all things? Men that once took: an interest in us take an interest no longer; it is no more any concern of theirs how we are, where we are, what we are. We: could explain the indifference if we were faithful to ourselves: is there not a cause? The cause is not known to the very men. who adopt the policy of indifference, but there is a ministry always acting upon the human mind, directing it and inspiring it, although the mind itself be unconscious of the mysterious action. Sad beyond all sadness is it when no man says to us with his heart, How are you? is it peace? are you at peace? have you joy? when we feel ourselves suddenly in a crowd, surging and hastening onward, not caring whether we live or die. It is worse than useless, it is impious, to mourn this condition of affairs as if it were a great mystery, when we know in our heart of hearts that we deserve to be scouted, abandoned, forgotten. The Lord does not inflict this punishment upon Jerusalem without revealing the reason. It is as usual a moral reason, a spiritual explanation. When the heart goes wrong all the circumference of which it is the centre is enfeebled, loses pith and forcefulness of pulse and energy, and collapses like a thing that has been depleted and exhausted.
“Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?” ( Jer 15:12 ).
It is impossible to explain these words to the unanimous satisfaction of all men. The general explanation, according to a large consensus of opinion, is that the prayer of the prophet cannot break the inflexible purpose of Jehovah. Jeremiah is still concerned for Jerusalem, for his countrymen, and he will still pray, though, as we have just seen, he has been forbidden to pray, and has been told that if the mightiest intercessors that ever lived were to lift up their heads in devoutest argument they would not be listened to, for heaven was offended and mighty in just indignation. Now the question is put, not by Jeremiah, but by another: “Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?” Is there any iron in the south that can stand against the iron of the north? Has not the iron of the north been proved in a thousand controversies, and has it ever failed? Who will smite that northern iron with straw? Who will break it with a weapon of wood? Who will set his own frail hand against an instrument so tremendous? The argument, then, would seem to be Why pray to me for these people? It is as iron applied to the iron of the north, which has been seen to fail in innumerable instances: all the prayers that can now be offered to heaven would be broken upon the threshold of that sanctuary and fall back in fragments upon the weary intercessor; the day has closed, the door is shut, the offended angel of grace has flown away on eagle pinions, and the sister angel of mercy can no longer be found: pray no more for Jerusalem. Thus the Lord dramatically represents himself; and in all this dramatic reply to the interrogations and pleadings of earth there is a great principle indicated; that principle is that the day closes “My Spirit shall not always strive with men.” We may mortally offend the very love of God. In this way only can God represent the exhaustion of his patience, the termination of his pity. Do not imagine, the Lord would say, that you can fight fire with straw; do not suppose that your puny arm can successfully controvert omnipotence. There is a time when prayer is wasted breath, when the intercession of all the suppliants that ever took the kingdom of heaven by violence shall fail of its effect. These are awful words. If a man had invented them, we should have denied their truthfulness and their force; but when we hear them as from above we confirm them, we say, It is right, we do not deserve to be heard; if we had to assign ourselves to a fate, we dare not plant in the wilderness of our solitude one single flower; we have done the things we ought not to have done, we have left undone the things we ought to have done; all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way. Even the claims of nature are exhausted. Once we should have thrust our very flesh into the presence of Jehovah and said, Thou didst make it, and therefore thou art bound to take care of it. But we have deprived ourselves of any ground even from that natural argument. We have sinned at every point, we have left no finger clean; no hair upon the head but is a witness against us that we have tried to debase and diabolise the temple of God.
“Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?” ( Jer 15:18 ).
Here it is that the prophet would say, Wilt thou be unto me as a winter torrent, as water that has utterly dried up in the summer-time when I need it most? art thou a capricious God? art thou to be looked upon as men look upon waterfalls after a great rain, hastening to scenic landscapes that they may see the cascade in its fulness? and when I am thirsty wilt thou be unto me as a dried-up brook, a torrent channel, in which no cup of cold water can be found? wilt thou be unto me as a liar? And may not the Lord himself apply this very inquiry to us in another but still related sense? Are we not fickle in our religion? Are we not as a winter torrent that is dried up in the summer? Are we not sometimes enthusiastic? Does not our feeling flow, cascade-like, in great abundance, and make music by its very fall and rush and energy? At other times are we not like a dried-up torrent bed, without emotion, without heart, without response to the desire of God? Are we not as trees that are laden with leaves only? and that have no figs for him who is weary and hungry? Turn the questions round, look at them in every phase and aspect, make each one an inquiry of a direct kind addressed to the heart as well as addressed to heaven, and thus out of the questions as out of grapes press the last drop of wine.
“Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?” ( Jer 16:20 ).
Is not that impossible? From a certain point of view it is utterly impossible, and yet from another point of view it is the very thing men are doing every day in the week. Questions cannot always be answered literally. There may be a moral explanation under the literary definition. Sometimes we are in what may be termed theoretical moods, and then we would pronounce it impossible that any man could be so impiously foolish as to try to make a god. Sometimes we laugh an ignorant laugh at the idols of the heathen. They may be better men than we are; their idols may be more to them than our God is to us. There is an idolatry of the letter, an idolatry of formal doctrine, an idolatry of times and circumstances and ceremonies a mockery never to be forgiven. Who does not make himself gods as he needs them? not visible gods, otherwise they might bring down upon themselves the contempt of observers, and the contempt of their very makers; but ambitions, purposes, policies, programmes, methods of procedure, all these may be looked upon as refuges and defences and hidden sanctuaries into which the soul would go for defence and protection when the tempest rages loudly and fiercely. A subtle thing is this god-making. Every man is at times a polytheist that is, a possessor or a worshipper of many gods. The Lord could never bring the mind of his people directly and lovingly to the reception of the One Deity. It would seem to be the last thought of man that there can be, by metaphysical necessity, only one God. There cannot be a divided Deity. Yet it is this very miracle that the imagination of man has performed. He has set all round the household innumerable idols which he takes down according to the necessity of the hour. He knows he is intellectually foolish, morally the victim of self-delusion, practically an utterly unwise and impracticable man; yet somehow, by force not to be put into equivalent words, he will do this again and again, yea he takes to himself power to fill up vacancies, so that if any clay god or imagined idol has failed him he puts another in the place of the one that did not fulfil his prayer.
These are the charges that are brought against men, these are the bitter accusations with which God tests and tries the heart of the world. The difficulty is that we are not the same practically as we are theoretically. We seem to believe in theory, and every day to violate our theory by our practice. This is the unpardonable heterodoxy the heterodoxy of schism in the soul, of divorce of things that belong to one another by eternal right and claim. Who would deny the existence of God? Hardly any man. Yet he may be a more honest man who denies God than he who only theoretically affirms him. Men who deny God have to pay for their non-belief today. It cannot be a pleasant thing to them from a social point of view that they deny God, for their very denial costs them daily bread, social repute, high standing amongst their fellows, yea, and keeps them out of office and out of promotion and out of human confidence. Let us be just to every man, though he may differ from us by the width of infinity. It may be the easiest thing in the world to confess God, to be sure that he exists; and to live every moment of our life as if the heavens were empty, and as if destiny were but another term for the grave. We do not believe in God: if we believed in God, we should have no fear, no anxiety, we should have no difficulty; every battle would be but the beginning of victory, every suffering would be the cloud behind which is hidden a glory that would be otherwise intolerable, every step would be the step of a conqueror to his crown. We only believe in God somewhere in the head, in a theoretical sense, and we shudder when other men deny him, forgetting that in their denying they may be exhibiting a completer faith than we ourselves are displaying. Will a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? The answer is, Yes, he will do so; he has done it; every day he repeats the mischievous miracle.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked [incurably diseased]: who can know it?” ( Jer 17:9 ).
It is a singular thing that these men knew so much about the human heart. They were marvellous dreamers and metaphysicians, and analysts of human motive and impulse and purpose, to come to such definite conclusions about the heart It is not a man talking about his own heart, limiting his doctrine by his personal consciousness; it is an accuser standing up in heaven’s brightest light and charging the earth with apostasy. We want to deny it, but our denial is contradicted by facts; not by vulgar facts, that is, open, patent, obvious facts, but by very subtle, recondite, remote facts. All men do not show the heart disease in the same way; yea, there are some who would seek to cover up their own disease by a liberal criticism of other men. The inquiry, however, is, “Who can know it?” Can the man himself know it? Only in a certain sense. Who can know it? No observer, no critic, no judge. The heart was never seen in action. It has been felt, it has been known to be there, it has been the most eminent fact in the whole situation, and yet it has the curtaining power by which it shuts out brightest, keenest eyes, and laughs behind the arras at the fool who seeks to peer into the mystery. Men do not know themselves: hence the vanity of boasting; hence the impiety of being assured that whoever else may fall we can never fall. There is no man, woman, or child on earth that may not fall tomorrow: hence the brutality as well as the ignorance of pedantic Pharisaism, of saying what we have done, of indicating our superiority, and telling God that we are the patterns of all virtue and honour. Man needs to have the heart revealed unto him. Where is that revelation? Only in Holy Scripture. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” It can find an interstice where interstice there seems to be none, and the hand that uses that double-edged sword sometimes turns it so as to be assured that the iniquity has been found out and the disease has been discovered. Let us shut ourselves up with our Bible, and then we shall know ourselves, we shall hear our inmost thoughts expressed in definite terms, and we shall catch sight of ourselves in a mirror, and be affrighted by the ghastly revelation. Not until we get this view of human nature can we have any real gospel work. The gospel is a mistake if human nature be not in a condition of apostasy. The instrument which seeks the elevation of man is ill-adapted to its purpose if man can lift so much as one hand to help himself: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Let the weary heart exclaim Lord, I am lost: pity me I then will begin the upper, diviner life.
“O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord ( Jer 18:6 ).
The answer is Yes and No. The prophet was sent down to a potter’s house: he says, “I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord.” Yes No. So far as all physical energy is concerned, the Lord can do with us as the potter does with the clay; but the Lord himself cannot make a little child love him: there is a point at which the clay lives, thinks, reasons, defies. The potter can only work upon the clay up to a given point; so long as it is soft he can make it a vessel of honour or a vessel of dishonour, he can make it this shape or that; but once let him burn it, and it is clay no longer in the sense in which he can fashion it according to model or design. A marvellous thing is this, that the Lord has made any creature that can defy him; and that we can all defy him is the testimony of every day’s experience. Let the Lord say, Can I not crush the universe? and the answer must be, Yes, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; thou hast but to close thy fingers upon it, and it is dead, and thou canst throw the ashes away. But almightiness has its limits. There is no almightiness in the moral region. Here is what is not often clearly understood. Men say the Lord cannot be almighty, or he would not have any bad men in the world. That is a mistaken definition of almightiness. So far as physical effort is concerned; almightiness is supreme, the constellations are nothing, the phalanx and army of the world amount to nothing, the Lord bloweth upon them and they wither away; but when we come into the moral region every man by virtue of his being a man can defy the Creator that fashioned him. The Lord cannot conquer the human will by any exercise of mere omnipotence: the will is to be conquered by instruction, persuasion, grace, moral inducement, spiritual ministry, exhibition cf love upon love, till the exhibition rises into sacrifice and indicates itself in the Cross of Christ. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” Why does he not go in? Because he has no key of that door that can open it by force. Why does he not break it with one tremendous blow? Because then the heart would be crushed and killed, and would not be persuaded into becoming a guest-chamber for the king. We have it in our power to say No to God, to defy the Lord, to withdraw ourselves from the counsel and guidance of heaven.
“Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?” ( Jer 18:14 ).
Can a man be such a fool as this? The historical answer is Yes, he can; the experimental answer is, We ourselves do this very thing. “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Is that possible? Theoretically, no; practically, yes, not possible only, but actual. Who would be all the year round away from the snow-stream? Who would go into wildernesses where there is no water? unto deserts where there are no fountains and springs and wells? Who would not keep near the spring? who would not say, Presently Lebanon will send us down water, melted snow? “Lebabon” itself means white. It is said, poetically as well as historically, that the summit of Lebanon is faithful to its snow, and that the snow is faithful to the summit of Lebanon. Let the sun do what he may elsewhere create paradises, tropical luxuriance of plant and flower and fruit yet Lebanon is faithful to the snow, and the snow is faithful to Lebanon. There are times when we can run away from Lebanon, saying, There is an abundance of water everywhere. There are other times when we must come back and say, We want what help we can now get from the snow-white summits of Lebanon. So it is with God. We run away from him so easily; but let the child sicken, let the life tremble, let strength be displaced by weakness, let prosperity flee away, and dark adversity settle upon the rooftree; then we say, Where is Lebanon, where is the fountain of living water, where are the streams that make glad our poor human life? Thus poverty, dearth, drought, bring in more believers than are brought in by an abundant harvest, and by vineyards purple with luscious grapes. Look at that road: how sunny! how rich on either side are the fields, wheatfields, and fruitful orchards, and abounding harvests of every kind: who comes along that way to the church? Nobody. Look at that other road bleak, barren, desolate; a place where death might live, a God-forsaken spot of earth: are there travellers there? Yes, a thousand strong, and a thousand more are coming down the hillside yonder. What is their destiny? The sanctuary. Why? They are in trouble, in poverty, in distress; they are friendless, homeless, hopeless. Will there be room for them in the sanctuary? There may be: his mercy endureth for ever: none can tell what his mercy may do: there may be. Will those rich velvet-clad people never come? Not in velvet. If they do come, how will they come? Nakedly, forsakenly, self-accusingly, broken-heartedly. Will they not try to feast the Lord with their wheat? If they did they would but mock him, and he would consume it, and make the black soot fall upon their hypocritical faces. Have they not heaven enough in their vineyards and oliveyards? There is no heaven there. So it ever has been in all human history. When the water has failed men have tried to pray; when the harvest has broken down men have wondered whether they could not find in the church some comfort for their disappointment and their poverty. Blessed be God for that idea after all. We need it; we could not have borne the things we have endured but for religious help, religious sympathy, and religious hope. Christ never received the rich full prosperous man, saying to him, Your riches make you welcome, and your prosperity will make your religion sit easily upon you. Never! he has said, “How hardly” that is, with what infinite difficulty and struggle “shall a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven.” But brokenhearted men, contrite souls, penitents that had no excuse to offer, these he has received in abundance: and let it be said everywhere, in every tongue, in every tone of music, loud as thunder, softly as a whispered confidence “This man receiveth sinners.”
Prayer
How wondrous are thy words, thou Lord of hosts, God of all the earth, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who can find out the Almighty unto perfection? There is no searching of his understanding. Thou dost lead the blind by a way that they know not; yet thou dost bring them into light and liberty ere they are fully aware that thine hand is upon them. Thou art leading all men: thy purpose cannot fail of accomplishment; the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; every heart shall be loyal to Christ; the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Thou hast set forth life and immortality in the light of the Cross; to all men thou hast given the reward of faith; thou wilt not withhold from faith any blessing of heaven. Thou delightest in faith; without faith it is impossible to please thee: Lord, increase our faith, that we may make our Father glad because he sees our hearts ascending to himself. We would no longer walk by sight; it is a false leader: we cannot see anything as it really is; we are deluded by appearances and passing aspects; we do not see the innermost essence and real meaning of all that is about us: give us the eyes of faith, the sensitiveness of love, the responsiveness of gratitude; make us spiritual rather than material, may we have more soul than flesh: and thus may we live in continual communion with God, feeling thy going and thy coming as the going and the coming of a summer warmth. We bless thee for all we know of thy nature, for all we have partaken of thy grace: it is good to live in God, without him there is no life. May we, through Jesus Christ our Saviour who loved us and gave himself for us, know thee more truly and really and helpfully, that so we may disdain the heavens and the earth, and seek for their Creator, and know no rest until we worship him who made them all. At present we are overwhelmed by them, we speak of their vastness and dignity and glory, not knowing that all these things shall be dissolved and end with a great noise. We seek the King, we come by the way of the Cross; we walk over Calvary that we may reach Bethany, and from Bethany we would ascend with our ascending Lord, and enjoy with him what we may of the throne on which he is seated. Thou hast given us great promises, thou hast held out a great light before us, the whole horizon is aflame with glory: may we see beyond, and because of the glory that is to come may we despise the shame of the Cross. Bind us to thyself; work in us a new kinship with thine own nature; give us the new birth, the joy of its peace, the rapture of its liberty. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VII
THE BROKEN COVENANT OF JUDAH AND GOD’S DECREE TO PUNISH
Jeremiah 11-17
These prophecies were doubtless uttered during the reign of Jehoiakim, sometime between 608 and 603 B.C. They were written first by Baruch, as dictated by Jeremiah in 604 B.C., but cut to pieces and burned by Jehoiakim and then rewritten 603 B.C. They are also a report of Jeremiah’s preaching during the reign of this king, Jehoiakim.
The first two chapters (Jeremiah 11-12) deal with the broken covenant; Jer 13 , with the rotten girdle and the lessons drawn from it; the Jeremiah 14-15 set forth the prophecies relating to the drought that came upon the country at that time; Jer 16 gives the story of Jeremiah’s personal life and the lessons to be derived from it; Jer 17 deals with the impending evils that are threatened upon Jerusalem and exhorts them to keep the sabbath. This is the general outline of these chapters.
The occasion for the utterance of the prophecies of Jeremiah 11-12 was a lapse of the people from the reformation under Josiah into the sins under Jehoiakim. Under that wicked king they broke the covenant that they made with good King Josiah, and lapsed into idolatry again. In the opening words of chapter II the prophet pleads with them to remember their covenant and to suffer no backsliding. That was the real occasion. There had been a great reformation under Josiah; they had broken their covenant in going back into idolatry and the prophet pleads with them to remember their covenant so recently made. We know that Jeremiah helped Josiah and we also know that he preached during the reign of Jehoiakim.
He says, “The word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God.”
We find almost these identical words in Deu 27:16-26 .
Jeremiah receives those words from the Lord and, like a true Israelite, he replies, Jer 11:5 , “Amen, O Jehovah.” That expression reminds us of the scene that was enacted soon after Israel entered Palestine when the nation was gathered together and the law was read, the blessings and curses, and the people all answered each time, “Amen.” Over and over again this is repeated. Here he hears the words of the covenant as uttered to him by Jehovah, and he answers, “Amen.” He answered for the people of Judah and Jerusalem, that is, he answered, “Amen,” and he wanted them to answer likewise. But they did not.
The charge against the people in Jer 11:6-8 is that of a violation of the covenant. He says, Jer 11:6 : “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.” In these three mighty words Jeremiah sums up the substance of the great covenant made at Sinai: “Obey my voice.” “Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.”
The people are charged with a conspiracy against the Lord, Jer 11:9-13 : “And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers.” This statement shows the occasion of this prophecy. The people had had an understanding about this, and had agreed among themselves that they would not do as Josiah had commanded them to do; they would not worship Jehovah. Jeremiah calls that a conspiracy against God. They forsook Jehovah and made a covenant with other gods. The breaking of one covenant means the entering into another covenant with other gods.
The doom of the nation is indicated in the fact that Jeremiah is forbidden to pray for them Jer 11:14 : “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me because of their trouble.” The nation is doomed. We have here a full description of the doom that is to come upon this nation, the details of which we need to study very carefully. Jer 11:15 presents a great difficulty for the textual critics. There are three ways it may be rendered: “What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness?” The Septuagint renders this as in the margin: “Why hath my beloved wrought abominations in my house? Shall vows and holy flesh take away from thee thy wickedness, or shalt thou escape by these?” Ball, in the “Expositor’s Bible” renders it, “What hast my beloved to do in mine house? Shall her many altars and holy flesh take away her sin from her?” The text, as we have it, is obscure. We will pass it with the reminder that the general subject of the section is that the nation is doomed and woes are pronounced against her; that Judah cannot be saved by her formal religion.
The result was a plot against Jeremiah, who was commanded to stop prophesying or lose his life. This was the first crisis in Jeremiah’s life. He returned from Jerusalem to Anathoth and found that there was a conspiracy, a plot against him among his own friends. He must stop preaching or lose his life. This is how he puts it, Jer 11:18-20 : “And Jehovah gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then thou showedst me their doings. But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me.” That expression reminds us of Jesus’ words when he was plotted against and killed. He means to say, “I was Just doing my duty; I knew not that they were plotting against me; I knew not that they devised devices against me.” This is what they devised, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” After that discovery the prophet commits his case to Jehovah for vengeance. This shows that he had risen to a high plane of abiding faith. Jeremiah says, “I shall see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause.” The next three verses (Jer 11:21-23 ) contain the record of what Jehovah said regarding the manner in which these wicked conspirators should be punished: that their sons and daughters should perish.
The prophet raises a question in Jer 12:1-4 and Jehovah answers it in Jer 12:5-6 . We studied this passage in the chapter on “The Personal Life of Jeremiah.” I will not go into details here. The occasion of this marvelous passage was the plot against Jeremiah. He saw that these men who plotted to destroy him were living in plenty and prospered while he suffered. So he raised the great question as to why it is possible for the wicked to prosper and the righteous to suffer. Then he received his answer: “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?” That means, If you are going to give up before this little opposition that is but a trifle, what will you do when the great test and the real crisis comes?
The captivity is described. Here the prophet pictures these evils as having already taken place, Jer 12:7-13 : “I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. My heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest; . . . Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? . . . Then go and assemble all the beasts of the field and come upon her to devour her.” Then he accuses the shepherds of destroying the vineyard: “They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. . . They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns.” They must perish. In this we have a bare outline of the judgment to come. This is doubtless the substance of the sermons he preached.
Judah’s evil neighbors are referred to in Jer 12:14-17 . This doubtless means Edom, Ammon, and the enemies on the south. They harassed Judah in the time of Jehoiakim. What about these evil neighbors? Well, he says, “I will pluck them up from off their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah; and after I pluck them up I will return and have compassion on them as I will have on Judah.” That reminds us of the magnificent prophecy of Isaiah: “All the nations shall come up to Jerusalem to worship; all the peoples shall flow to Mount Zion, for the word of Jehovah shall go forth from Zion.”
In Jer 13:1-7 the prophet employs a symbolic action, and the interpretation of it is found in Jer 13:8-11 . By a command of Jehovah he buys a beautiful girdle, a common element of clothing in the East, and wears it for a time. Then the Lord commands him to take it and go to the river Euphrates and hide it in the cleft of a rock. He does so, and after many days the Lord said to him, “Go thou to the river Euphrates and take the girdle which I commanded thee to hide there. And I did so and went and digged up the girdle and behold it was marred and good for nothing.” Now, that was an object lesson to the people. Thus he says, Jer 13:11 : “For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah that they might be unto me for a people, but they would not hear.” That is a remarkable figure. The Lord chose the people of Judah and Israel as a man chooses a girdle and wears it about him. Judah had been a girdle for Jehovah, and he desired that they remain as a beautiful girdle forever, but they would not.
The prophet uses another symbol, that of a bottle, Jer 13:12-14 : “Every bottle shall be filled with wine: . . . Do not we know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness.” That bottle is a symbol of drunkenness, the drunkenness that is come upon the people. The symbol means that they shall be destroyed, as drunken men are destroyed.
There is an exhortation in Jer 13:15-17 , a command to the queen mother in Jer 13:18-19 , a curse announced in Jer 13:20-27 , and a great text in Jer 13:23 . In verse Jer 13:16 : “Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains,” is one of the most beautiful figures in all the Scriptures. That is like Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. In Jer 13:18 , he speaks thus: “Say thus to the king and queen mother.” He probably refers to the wife of Josiah, whose son, Jehoiachim, sat upon the throne. He said to the queen mother and the king, “Humble yourselves.” Then he addresses the shepherds and the princes: “Where is the flock that I gave you, the beautiful flock?” Where is it, thou king, and queen mother, and ye princes and prophets? Where is my beautiful flock that I gave you to care for? Then comes that classic passage: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Thus Jeremiah reaches the conclusion that man has to be changed before he can obey the word of God, and he cannot change himself.
A drought is pictured in Jer 14:1-6 . A drought in that land was terrible: “Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, they sit in black upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty.” That is a pathetic picture. We can almost see those children in their thirst and distress.
We have the prophet’s plea for the people in Jer 14:7-9 and Jehovah’s reply in Jer 14:10-12 . Here we have Jeremiah’s first intercession and its answer, Jer 14:7-17 . See how he pleads in verse Jer 14:7 : “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 time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside 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.” Sinners treat God as if he were a stranger, a sojourner, a man who is helpless to save. In verse Jer 14:11 : “Plead not for this people.” That is the answer to his prayer. “Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. . . I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.” So it is possible for people to go so far that God himself must give them up.
Jeremiah assails the priests and the prophets (Jer 14:13-22 ). He says (Jer 14:13 ), “The prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, nor the famine.” Then the Lord said unto him, “These prophets are) liars. They shall perish. These people that believe them shall perish, too. There is no hope for them.” But he will not give up. He begs God to spare the city and the people. Verse Jer 14:19 : “Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? . . . Why hast thou smitten us, and is there no healing for us?” Thus he speaks for the people out of his heart: “We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness . . . we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy names sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory.” It is said of Joseph Parker, the great preacher of London, that upon one occasion he prayed, “O Lord, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory.” Some of his stiff-backed hearers received a distinct shock when they heard it. One Presbyterian brother said, “Blasphemy!” but Dr. Parker was simply quoting Jeremiah. That shows that some preachers do not know everything in the Bible. “Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory,” that is, “do not disgrace Judah and Zion,” but he did; they were destroyed.
The impending danger is described in Jer 15:1-9 . We cannot go into detail here. It is not necessary. Read the passage. One point, verse Jer 15:9 : “Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.” That is another classical expression. Note also, verse Jer 15:1 : “Though Moses and Samuel plead for these people I could not save them.” Moses pleaded for the people when they broke the covenant at Sinai. He begged God to blot him out of the book rather than destroy the people. God did hear him and saved them. Samuel was a man of much prayer. Samuel saved Israel by his prayers in the time of Eli. “Though these mighty men of prayer, Moses and Samuel, were to pray to me I would not save these people.” How far can people wander away? There is a limit to God’s grace and mercy.
There are several thoughts in the paragraphs of Jer 15:10-21 . The prophet complains again and receives a reply. We had this in the chapter on “The Life and Character of Jeremiah,” and will not go into details here. It is sufficient to say that God answered him and maintained that the doom of the people was inevitable. Now we have the prophet’s last pleadings with God (Jer 15:15-21 ). We also studied this in the same chapter. Study carefully the text.
Then came the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah (Jer 16:1-9 ). We discussed that in a former chapter. Sufficient to say that he is commanded not to marry, not to have a family, not to mingle with merrymakers, not to have the joys or pleasures of social and family life. He is to be separated, a living example of warning to the people, for destruction is coming. No Jew would refuse to marry or have a family if there were not sufficient reasons for it.
Some questions are raised by the people in Jer 16:10-13 , viz: “Why are these calamities to come? What are the iniquities that we have done?” The answer is that they have forsaken Jehovah and walked after other gods.
There is a comparison in Jer 16:14-21 . The punishment of the captivity shall be most severe and terrible, therefore their return to their own land shall be even more wonderful than the deliverance from Egypt: “The day shall come that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt.” That fact would sink into insignificance in the face of the evils that were to be when Israel was scattered, and when God would gather them again from among the nations; that would be more wonderful than bringing them up out of the land of Egypt. The deliverance would be great because the punishment would be so terrible.
The nature of Judah’s sin and punishment is indicated in Jer 17:1-4 . Their sins are deep and indelible and therefore their punishment is severe: “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, graven on their hearts and on the horns of their altars.” Spurgeon, in a sermon on this text, discussed how sin can be graven into the human heart and cannot be erased by human power. It is written with a pen of iron, written in the very soul and nature. No stronger figure could be used to show the permanent effects of sin. As a result, punishment is certain.
A striking contrast is found in Jer 17:5-11 . Faith in man leads to destruction; faith in God leads to security. Verse Jer 17:5 : “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah.” In Jer 17:7-8 , we have the substance of Psa 1 : “Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah . . . he shall be as a tree planted by the waters; he shall not fear when the heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; he shall not be careful in the year of drought, but his tree shall continue yielding fruit.” Jer 17:9 is one of the profoundest descriptions of the human heart to be found in the Scriptures. It came to Jeremiah out of his experience.
The import of Jer 17:12-18 is that Jehovah is a sure source of strength. Few remarks are needed on this passage. Jeremiah’s faith in God shines very brightly here. Some expressions are very rich and suggestive, such as Jer 17:12-14 ; Jer 17:17 .
The prophecy of Jer 17:19-27 is a prophecy concerning the keeping of the sabbath. This was the great problem of Nehemiah. He had to meet it, and here it is in Jeremiah’s day also: “Go, stand in the gate and say unto the people, Ye shall bear no burdens on the sabbath day.” Verse Jer 17:25 : “Then shall there enter into this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, . . . The men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall remain forever,” this is, if they keep the sabbath day. Then the text shows how the nations will come upon them if they do not keep the sabbath day: “If you will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day and not to bear burdens and enter into the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” This is one of the most significant passages on the sabbath question in all the Bible. This paragraph furnishes the basis for God’s chastisement in the Babylonian captivity. It is specifically stated that this captivity was the penalty for the disregard of the sabbath law.
QUESTIONS
1. What the date of this group of prophecies?
2. Give a general outline of the group of chapters.
3. What the occasion of the prophecies of Jeremiah 11-12?
4. What the reply of the prophet to the words of Jehovah in Jer 11:1-5 and what the application?
5. What the charge against the people in Jer 11:6-8 ?
6. What the charge against the people in Jer 11:8-13 and what the result?
7. How is the doom of the nation indicated (Jer 11:14-17 ) and what the difficulties of the text?
8. What the result as it pertained to the prophet, how did he meet it and what Jehovah’s responses? (Jer 11:18-23 .)
9. What question does the prophet raise in Jer 12:1-4 and what Jehovah’s reply in Jer 12:5-6 ?
10. How is the captivity described in Jer 12:7-13 ?
11. Who Judah’s “evil neighbors” referred to in Jer 12:14-17 , what the threat against them and what hope held out to them?
12. What the symbolic action of Jer 13:1-7 , and what its interpretation (Jer 13:8-11 )?
13. What other symbol used by the prophet here (Jer 13:12-14 ) and what its interpretation?
14. What the exhortation in Jer 13:15-17 , what command to the queen mother in Jer 13:18-19 , what curse announced in Jer 13:20-27 , and what great text in Jer 13:23 ?
15. Describe the drought as pictured in Jer 14:1-6 .
16. What the prophet’s plea for the people in Jer 14:7-9 and what Jehovah’s reply in Jer 14:10-12 ?
17. What Jeremiah’s complaint and Jehovah’s reply in Jer 14:13-22 ?
18. Describe the impending danger (Jer 15:1-9 ).
19. What the thoughts in the paragraphs of Jer 15:10-21 ?
20. What the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah in Jer 16:1-9 , and what its lesson?
21. What questions are raised by the people in Jer 16:10-13 , and what the reply?
22. What the comparison in Jer 16:14-21 and what great hope is therein expressed?
23. How is the nature of Judah’s sin and punishment indicated in Jer 17:1-4 ?
24. What contrast in Jer 17:5-11 and in what other scripture do we find the same thought?
25. What the import of Jer 17:12-18 , and what suggestive passages in this paragraph?
26. What the prophecy of Jer 17:19-27 and what can you Bay of its importance?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jer 15:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, [yet] my mind [could] not [be] toward this people: cast [them] out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Ver. 1. Then said the Lord unto me. ] In answer to my prayer he replied, Thou hast well prayed, sed stat sententia, I am set, I am inexorable.
Though Moses.
And Samuel.
Yet my mind could not be to this people.
Cast them out of my sight.
And let them go forth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah Chapter 15
In the beginning of Jer 15 the Lord is still more peremptory. At the most critical points in the past Moses and Samuel had cried to Jehovah, and not in vain. The people had cast off Jehovah as their God and as their king; yet had he hearkened to His servants, and staid the hand uplifted as it was in judgment. But now, said Jehovah to Jeremiah, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will 1 stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the sees: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city. She that hath borne seven languisheth, she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the lord.” (Ver. 1-9.)
Most acutely does the prophet feel the anguish of such desolation from Jehovah’s hand (ver. 10), not famine merely in the land, but a sweeping captivity out of it. The point of faith in such circumstances is ever the spirit of faith that accepts the strokes as righteously measured out of His hand, and not as the result either of mistake on the part of the people or of skill and strength in their enemies. God ruled in it all, and this in view of His people’s shameless departure from Himself.
Nevertheless there is no time of retribution, chastening, and sorrow when the same faith which sees God in the circumstances is not given to see Him above them. “The Lord said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders. And 1 will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.” (Ver. 11-14.)
Here the prophet (ver. 15) looks for the judgment of his persecutors, who were found, alas! far more among the Jews than outside. He recounts the sweetness to his spirit of that divine word which brought him into pain perpetual in the sense of the people’s sin, and of the judgments impending on them. (Ver. 16 18.) Isolated and crushed he groans to Jehovah, who gives him the needed comfort: “If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible (Ver. 19-21 . ) To return from one’s own thoughts and feelings to Him is strength; and to have a heart for what is precious sifted and severed from the vile, fits one to be His mouthpiece. (Compare 2Ti 2:20-22 . ) True grace makes one immovable and victorious, let the odds be what they may.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 15:1-4
1Then the LORD said to me, Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! 2And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD:
Those destined for death, to death;
And those destined for the sword, to the sword;
And those destined for famine, to famine;
And those destined for captivity, to captivity.’
3I will appoint over them four kinds of doom, declares the LORD: the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
Jer 15:1 YHWH answers Jeremiah’s intercession. The few spiritual leaders in Israel/Judah’s history cannot avert the unbelief and rebellion of the current generation (cf. Ezekiel 18). Corporate prayers are effective only if the people share the faith and repentant attitude of the intercessor!
For the intercessory ministry (cf. Psa 99:6-8) of
1. Moses – see Exo 32:11-14; Exo 32:30-32; Num 14:13-25; Deu 9:18-20; Deu 9:25-29
2. Samuel – see 1Sa 7:9; 1Sa 12:23
Notice YHWH’s directives about Judah.
1. My heart (lit. nephesh, BDB 659, KB 711; see note at Gen 35:18 ) would not be with this people
2. send them away from My presence – BDB 1018, KB 1511, Piel IMPERATIVE
3. let them go – BDB 422, KB 425, Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense
Judah had rejected YHWH (Me, My, My, cf. Jer 15:6). They were no longer in a covenant relationship with Him (see Special Topic: APOSTASY (APHISTMI) at Jer 2:19)!
Jer 15:2 The people respond to YHWH’s message through Jeremiah. They are not searching knowledge but flippantly responding! Therefore, YHWH tells them exactly where they will go (cf. Jer 14:12).
1. some to death by the sword (warfare)
2. some to famine (siege)
3. some to captivity (exile)
The normal triad of judgment is the sword, famine, and pestilence (cf. Eze 14:21; Eze 33:27), but here captivity or exile is used.
Jer 15:3 I shall appoint The VERB (BDB 823, KB 955, Qal PERFECT) can mean
1. visit upon
a. in punishment – Isa 10:12; Jer 9:25; Jer 11:22; Jer 13:21; Jer 21:14
b. in mercy – Gen 21:1; Gen 50:24-25; Isa 23:17-18; Jer 15:15; Jer 27:22; Jer 29:10; Jer 32:5
2. appoint to, cf. Num 27:16; Jer 15:3; Jer 49:15; Jer 50:44; Jer 51:27
four kinds of doom There are four Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTS.
1. the sword to slay
2. the dogs to drag off (i.e., the horror of improper burial)
3. the birds of the sky to devour and destroy (cf. Deu 28:26; Jer 7:33; Jer 16:4; Jer 19:7; Jer 34:20)
4. the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy (cf. Deu 28:26; Jer 7:33; Jer 16:4; Jer 19:7; Jer 34:20)
Jer 15:4 I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth This Hebrew idiom is explained in Jer 24:9; Jer 29:18 (cf. Deu 28:25). Israel was meant to reveal YHWH’s loving character to the nations, but they did not see the mercy of YHWH because only His judgment was manifested in the life of Israel (cf. Eze 36:22-38).
because of Manasseh YHWH gives the specific origin of Judah’s idolatry King Manasseh. He was Hezekiah’s son who reigned longer than any other Judean king. He was by far the most evil king in Judah’s history (cf. 2Ki 21:1-18; 2Ki 23:26-27; 2Ki 24:3-4; 2Ch 33:1-17). He was saved and forgiven at the very end of his life, but the consequences of his idolatry were permanent to the people of Judah.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Then: or, And.
Moses and Samuel. See Psa 99:6 and Eze 14:14 (where other names are thus connected).
Moses. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 17:11; Exo 32:11. Num 14:13).
Samuel. Compare 1Sa 7:9; 1Sa 8:6; 1Sa 12:16-23.
My mind = My soul. Hebrew My nephesh. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 15
Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go foRuth ( Jer 15:1 ).
Now it is interesting that when God chooses examples of men of great intercessory prayer, He chooses Moses and Samuel. There is an interesting characteristic about both Moses and Samuel and they were men who had the ear for God. You remember Moses was out in the wilderness and he saw the burning bush and he approached it and God spoke to him out of the burning bush. He heard the voice of God. He had the ear tuned to God’s voice. Men of prayer, powerful men of prayer, are men who are tuned to the voice of God. Because the purpose of prayer is to get God’s will done always. The purpose of prayer is never to get your will done. Prayer is not…God is not a genie. Though so many times we sort of approach Him as that. “God, I’ve got three wishes. Please grant them to me, you know.”
You heard about the three fellows who were on the deserted island and about ready to die. A bottle came floating up on the beach. One guy went down and got it and rubbed it and genie popped out and says grant you three wishes. First fellow said, “I wish I was back in London now. Just to be in London again. Back in my own bed.” Back in his own bed. Second fellow said, “Oh, if I was only back in Italy sipping coffee. Once more, just on the streets there in Rome. Oh, to be in Rome sipping coffee.” Back in Rome sipping coffee. Third fellow says, “Oh, I’m so lonely without my two friends I wish they were back here with me.”
You see what we could do with wishes? We could really mess up the world. So prayer is not to get our will done. It isn’t that God is just going to grant our wishes.
Samuel, when as a little boy, brought by his mother to Eli, and there as he was sleeping he heard the voice, “Samuel, Samuel.” He went running into Eli. Said, “Did you call me?” “No, I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” Got back in bed and he heard, “Samuel, Samuel.” Went running into Eli again and said, “You called me.” “No, I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” And again he heard this voice, “Samuel, Samuel.” Went running in and Eli said, “Look, if you hear the voice again, just say, ‘Speak, Lord, Your servant hears.'” So he got back into bed again and hears, “Samuel, Samuel.” And he says, “Speak, Lord, Your servant hears.” And God began to tell him all about the sins of Eli the priest. And so Eli the next morning said, “Well, what happened?” He had a tough time. But he heard the voice of God. He was tuned in. His ear was tuned. Men of prayer are always men who are tuned to the voice of God.
So God uses two examples-Moses and Samuel. But they are men who had the listening ear. And the listening ear always precedes the life of prayer, of powerful prayer. Hearing the voice of God. Knowing the will of God makes for powerful prayer. So though Moses and Samuel, God said, these two shining examples of men of intercessory prayer capacities. You remember Moses said, “Lord, forgive their iniquities. And if not, then I pray You’ll blot my name out of Your book of remembrance.” Intercessor before God. “But though Moses stood before Me,” God said, “My heart can’t be towards them. Though Samuel stood before Me, My heart can’t be towards them. Cast them out of my sight. Let them go forth.”
And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: there will be the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the eaRuth ( Jer 15:2-4 ),
And God goes back now.
because of Manasseh ( Jer 15:4 )
That horrible, wicked son of Hezekiah that introduced these people to this pagan idolatry.
the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how you are doing? Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with changing ( Jer 15:4-6 ).
Now an interesting verse, because we know that God does not change. God does not repent. “God is not a man, that He should repent; nor the son of man, that He should change” ( Num 23:19 ). But we are limited in talking about God to human terminology. So we have to describe God’s actions in human terms. So we are faced with the dilemma how do you describe what apparently is a change of attitude by God. It would from my end look like God has changed His attitude. Not so. God has already, always known from the beginning. God doesn’t change. He knows. His foreknowledge. So from my standpoint it looks like God has changed. He has pronounced judgment is going to come. The people pray. They repent and so God forestalls the judgment. You say, “Oh, God changed.” No, He always knew that He was going to forestall the judgment. He really didn’t change, but it would appear that He changed but I have to describe it in human language. We don’t have divine language with which to speak of God.
And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; and I will bereave them of children, and I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sands of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city. She that hath borne seven is languishing: she hath given up the ghost ( Jer 15:7-9 );
Or she has died.
her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD. Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet they are all cursing me ( Jer 15:9-10 ).
Of course, Jeremiah was not saying things that were very pleasant. They were being angered by what this prophet had to tell them from God. Oftentimes a true prophet of God is not a popular man. They do generate a lot… people don’t want to hear the truth. People want to hear a lie. When people come in for counseling, so often they want to hear a lie. They want to hear you say, “Well, it’s just all right. Go ahead and do it. God doesn’t care.” “Oh, you’re a great counselor. Oh, love you, brother.” If they come and you say, “Look man, you persist in that and you’re going to hell. That’s a part of the works of the flesh and we know that they who do those things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. You better get right with God.” They go out angry, cursing, kicking. “Horrible counselor. He told me the truth. I don’t want to hear the truth. I want to hear pleasant words.” Jeremiah was telling them the truth. They had other prophets who were telling them lies. They were popular men. Jeremiah was unpopular.
The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with the remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction ( Jer 15:11 ).
Though the people are going to be destroyed, there will be a remnant that will be saved. They’ll be taken captive to Babylon and they’re going to do well in Babylon. Well, they did. They prospered in Babylon. In fact, the Jews were so prosperous in Babylon. They were basically farmers. But when they got into business they were fantastic. And soon they were running the best operations in all of Babylon, becoming very wealthy men. So that when they were able to go back from the Babylonian captivity, some of them were so prosperous they didn’t even want to go back. “Why should we go back to that hard life in Jerusalem? We got it made here.” And so a lot of them did not return because they had become so prosperous.
So God here declares that it’s going to be well with the remnant though they are in captivity in the time of their affliction.
Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all of your sins, even in all of your borders. And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not: for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn upon you ( Jer 15:12-14 ).
He’s predicting the Babylon captivity. Jeremiah responds.
O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your long-suffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke ( Jer 15:15 ).
Well, that’s good. Jesus said, “Blessed are ye, when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for so persecuted they the prophets before you” ( Mat 5:11-12 ). He’s referring to Jeremiah. He says, “Lord, for Your name’s sake, because I have spoken in Your name’s sake they’re persecuting me. They’re rebuking me.”
For thy words were found, and I did eat them; and the word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart ( Jer 15:16 ):
Can you say that of God’s Word? To me it is the joy and rejoicing. How I love the Word of God! How I enjoy finding beautiful truths in God’s Word that minister to my spirit and my soul. It’s the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Just to get into the Word and to read and study it, sort of devour it. And here’s Jeremiah saying, “I found Your Word and I devoured it and it was the joy and the rejoicing of my heart.”
for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? Therefore thus saith the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you again, and you will stand before me: and if you will take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brass wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the awesome ( Jer 15:16-21 ).
So God’s promise to His prophet. “You go out to them, they will come to you again and I’ll make you like a brass wall. I will be like a brass wall around you and though they will come against you to fight against you, they will not prevail because I am with you.” So God’s promise of the future, His sustaining of His prophet as he speaks forth the word of the Lord in the name of the Lord.
Shall we pray.
Father, we thank You tonight for the opportunity that You have given to us to again study Your Word. O Lord, may we devour Thy Word. May it be the joy and rejoicing of our hearts that we learn of Thee and we walk according to all that You have commanded. God, help us to hearken unto Your Word and to do it. May we not be hearers only, living in deception. But may we be doers of that which is right. God, help us that in these desperate days we might become desperate before Thee and in prayer. Make of us, Lord, men of prayer, women of prayer. Men and women of Your Word. In these last days, O God, help us that we might be able to lift others from the destruction that is coming upon the earth. That they might walk with You in Your kingdom. God, use us as Your instruments to speak Your truth. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jer 15:1-9
Jer 15:1-4
JEREMIAH’S SECOND PERSONAL LAMENT
Of course, the first nine verses of this chapter, especially the first four, continue the thought of the last chapter. Henderson suggested the following chapter divisions: Judah had sinned beyond the possibility of God’s averting their punishment (Jer 15:1-4); continued prophecy of Judah’s destruction (Jer 15:5-9); beginning of Jeremiah’s lament (Jer 15:10-11); destruction of Judah inevitable (Jer 15:12-14); Jeremiah’s discouragement and denial of his commission (Jer 15:15-18); God’s command to Jeremiah with promises contingent upon his obedience (Jer 15:19-21).
Jer 15:1-4
GOD’S NEGATIVE ANSWER TO JUDAH’S PLEA
Then said Jehovah unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, when they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith Jehovah: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith Jehovah: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
Moses and Samuel…
(Jer 15:1). These were historical heroes of the Jewish people, who, upon serious occasions of Israel’s rebellion against the Lord, had interceded for them, praying for their forgiveness; and there were several examples of this in the Old Testament. (Exo 32:11-14; Exo 32:30-34; Num 24:13-23; Deu 9:18-20; Deu 9:15-29; 1Sa 7:5-9; 1Sa 12:19-25; and Psa 99:6-8). However, the sad message here is that even the intercession of such intercessors as Moses and Samuel would be of no avail whatever in the present extremity of Judah’s total apostasy and rebellion.
We find no agreement with Thompson who thought that Jeremiah might have mentioned Moses and Samuel here, “because he saw in those two men a pattern of his own ministry; for he was in that succession of prophets ‘like unto Moses’ (Deu 18:9-22).” However, the Bible has no mention of a succession of “prophets” (plural) like unto Moses, but speaks of “The Prophet Like unto Moses,” a reference to Jesus Christ and to no other!
The perversion of this prophecy through Moses mentioned here is a favorite device of critics, but it stands upon no authority whatever.
Let them go forth…
(Jer 15:1). The meaning of this was extensive: Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. Do not bring them into my presence by your prayers; let them go forth into captivity. The meaning is further elaborated in the next verse.
Feinberg’s rendition of Jer 15:2-4 here is excellent:
“Those destined for death, to death;
those for the sword, to the sword;
those for starvation, to starvation;
those for captivity, to captivity.
I will send four kinds of destroyers against them, saith the Lord, The sword to kill, and the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field to devour and destroy.”
Because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah…
(Jer 15:4). The name of the pious father intensifies the horror at the wickedness of the Song of Solomon.
It might appear from this that the invasion and captivity of Judah were the consequences of Manasseh’s wicked reign; but it was not that reign alone that resulted in such disasters. “It was because the people persevered in that wickedness.” They resented and disapproved of Josiah’s reforms; as soon as Jehoiachim came to the throne, they heartily supported that wicked king’s campaign to restore all of the idolatrous trappings of Manasseh’s evil reign; and, when Jeremiah’s magnificent prophecies appeared to be a hindrance to such a resurgence of paganism, they plotted to kill Jeremiah. It was all of that, plus the deliberate preference of the great majority of Israel for the licentious rites of idolatry far over above the righteous government of the Lord that led to their eventual destruction and the deportation of a remnant.
Jer 15:5-9
FURTHER PROPHECIES OF JUDAH’S RUIN
For who will have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan thee? or who will turn aside to ask of thy welfare? Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I am weary with repenting. And I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved [them] of children, I have destroyed my people; they returned not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly. She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she hath been put to shame and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith Jehovah.
The consistent use of the past tense in this paragraph should not be misunderstood. “The first few verbs here (Jer 15:5) and the last verb (Jer 15:9) are in the imperfect tense; and most of the rest are perfects. They portray that which has not yet happened as though it had already transpired, so certain is the prophet that it is going to come about.”
Thou art gone backward…
(Jer 15:6). The whole nation had reverted to the gross paganism of the reign of Manasseh.
I am weary of repenting…
(Jer 15:6). Judah was aware of the great truth that when they repented God would turn and bless them again, as fully expounded by Jeremiah a little later in this prophecy (Jer 18:7-10); but this stresses another fact that Judah had either forgotten or had never even known, that being the fact that there is a point of no return in the persistent wickedness of any man or of any nation. It was evident in the classical account of Balaam, who set out on a rebellious course, contrary to God’s instructions; and when the going became really rough, he said, I will get me back again (Num 22:34); but God commanded him, saying, Go with the men (Num 22:35). There always comes the time in the career of rebellion against God that an angel with a drawn sword stands in the way and says, Go on in the way you have chosen; you have made your bed, now lie in it; you have preferred to rebel, now abide by the consequences! Even the forgiveness metered out to the repentant sinner in many cases can never nullify the physical consequences of a sinful life.
They returned not from their ways…
(Jer 15:7). It was no different in the seventh century from what it was in the eighth (Amo 4:6-11); and from this is seen the fact that a full century of God’s forbearance with the rebellious Israelites had made no significant difference whatever.
The gates of the land…
(Jer 15:7). As Keil pointed out here, ‘The gates of the land’ is undoubtedly a reference to the land of Judah.
Mother of the young men
(Jer 15:7) This is a metaphor in which Jerusalem, or Judah, is represented as seeing her sons sacrificed to the sword.
Final Rejection of Prophetic Intercession
Jer 15:1-9
It is useless for Jeremiah to continue to intercede for the people of Judah. Not even Moses and Samuel, the two greatest intercessors the nation had ever known, would be able to move God to show any affection or pity to the present sinful generation. God had hearkened to Moses and Samuel and extended His mercy to previous generations but only after Israel had manifested repentance. Jeremiahs generation was so steeped in sin that repentance seemed impossible and consequently intercessory prayer was useless. Jeremiah was to quit praying and go back to preaching the message of judgment which God had commissioned him to preach. In and through his preaching he is to cast away the inhabitants of Judah from the presence of the Lord that they might go out from before Him (Jer 15:1). If the people ask him to explain this cryptic statement go out the prophet is to have a ready answer. Every man will go out to the punishment which has been decreed for him. Some will suffer death by pestilence, others will die in battle, others will perish with hunger, still others will be taken into foreign captivity (Jer 15:2). All will suffer; none will escape. Four types, families or modes of punishment have been decreed for many of the inhabitants of Judah. They will be first slain by the sword of Babylon and then their unburied bodies will be ripped, torn and eaten by dogs, birds and beasts of the field (Jer 15:3). The nations of the world would witness the terrible things which happen to Israel and will fear for their own safety. All of this must befall Judah because of the sins of Manasseh, the most wicked king who ever sat on the throne of Judah (Jer 15:4).
From speaking about the people God turns and speaks directly to the people in Jer 15:5. By means of three rhetorical questions He drives home the point that no one in the world will really care when Judah falls. No one will show any sympathy or pity, no one will mourn, no one will even ask about the condition of the city (Jer 15:5). Many times in the past Israel had forsaken God and thereby had incurred the threat of divine wrath. But in the past God had always withheld the threat and had taken His people back. Now it is too late. He cannot forgive them any more. Using anthropomorphic language, He is weary with this business of making threats and then withholding the stroke at the last possible instance (Jer 15:6). Judgment will be executed. As the winnowing process separates the chaff from the grain, so God will cause the parents of Judah to be separated from their children. The children who served as soldiers would be slain as they attempted to defend the gates of their cities from the invading enemy. This terrible judgment is necessary because the inhabitants of Judah have not turned from their sinful ways (Jer 15:7). Wives will be deprived of their husbands and hence the land will be left defenseless. Against the mother of the young men, i.e., Jerusalem, God will bring a destroyer at the most unexpected time-at high noon when normally military operations temporarily ceased. Distress and terror will fall upon the mother when she realizes the danger which she faces (Jer 15:8). The woman with numerous children, usually the most proud and joyous inhabitant of the city, will be filled with consternation. She that has borne seven is a proverbial expression meaning one who bears numerous children. See 1Sa 2:5 and Rth 4:15.With the loss of her children her sun has gone down while it is yet day. In the prime of life all has become dark and dreary for her. All of her hopes, dreams, aspirations are dashed to pieces when the enemy slays her sons. The shame of childlessness comes upon her in full force when the remnant of the nation is given over to the sword of the enemy (Jer 15:9). The shame of childlessness is repeatedly mentioned in the Old Testament. See Jer 50:12; Isa 54:4; Gen 16:4; Gen 30:1; Gen 30:23.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
To this great appeal Jehovah again replied by declaring mercy to be impossible, and judgment inevitable, and this on account of the sin of Manasseh which had been persisted in, namely, the rejection of Jehovah by the people. Therefore they had been judged, and judgment must be completed.
On hearing this the prophet cried out in great anguish, and Jehovah promised to strengthen him, while reiterating His determination to punish the people.
Once again the prophet replied, first in resignation, and then in prayer on behalf of himself, which ended with a sigh, indicative of the strain being put on his faith. The controversy ends with Jehovah’s promise that if Jeremiah would be true to the word of God, God would be to him a defense and a deliverance.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
The solemn answer of the Lord in the first nine verses of chap. 15 gives no hope of deliverance. Even though Moses and Samuel stood to entreat for them, they would not be heard. The people must “go forth;” and if they despairingly ask, “Whither?” the awful answer is, “Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity” (Jer 15:2).
The sword, the dogs, the fowls, and the beasts of the earth, are alike appointed to carry out the work of destruction: and any escaping these would be carried into all the kingdoms of the earth; and this because their share in the sin of Manasseh had never been repented of. None should pity nor care; for having forsaken the Lord, He would stretch out His hand against them. Young and old must be destroyed. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;” (Heb 10:31) for “our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:29)
As the full extent of GOD’s sentence bursts upon his soul, Jeremiah is overcome by a sense of almost unutterable desolation. How deeply he feels his helplessness and loneliness, as one man endeavoring to stand for GOD and seeking the good of those who hate and despise Him!
His prayers seem to be unavailing. GOD apparently refuses to hearken to his voice. The people, on their part, turn a deaf ear to his messages. He cries out in anguish, “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me” (Jer 15:10).
The Lord at once replies in tenderest compassion and assures him that with himself and any who really seek His face, “it shall be well . . . in the time of evil and in the time of affliction,” (Jer 15:11) but due punishment must be meted out to the workers of iniquity.
Encouraged by this evidence that his cry has not really been unheard and unheeded, he can now pray with fuller assurance; for the Lord knows and will remember and visit at the appointed time.
“For Thy sake,” he cries, “I have suffered rebuke:” then he tells of what had been his solace in times of indifference and rejection – the Word of GOD (Jer 15:15-16).
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” (Jer 15:16)
Here we have two things intimately connected elsewhere in Scripture – the Word and the Name. “Thou . . . hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My Name” (Rev 3:8). See, also, Rev 2:13 – My Name” and “My faith” – that which is declared by the Word.
Jeremiah, the separatist (2Co 6:14-18; Isa 52:11) of his day, who, much as he loved the people of the Lord, yet had to turn sorrowfully from fellowship with them in their evil course, had to learn – as all others must who, in a day of declension, seek to walk in holy separation unto GOD – that “he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey” (Isa 59:15).
He was a man, as we have seen, characterized by much tenderness of heart, and certainly by intense affection for the heritage of the Lord (Jer 9:1-3); yet faithfulness demanded that he walk apart from them, testifying against their ways; and as a result he had to say, “Every one of them doth hate me.”
So also Paul could ask the Galatians, “Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” (Gal 4:16), when witnessing against their departure from the faith once delivered to the saints: and to the Corinthians he says, “I will gladly spend and he spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2Co 12:15). These dear men of GOD are seen pursuing their well-nigh solitary way at times, finding their refreshment and strength in the Word and the Name, though denied much as to godly fellowship with others.
In Jer 15:17 Jeremiah says, “I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy hand.” It was in this very period of loneliness for the Name’s sake, when he could say, “For Thy sake I have suffered reproach,” that the Word of GOD was more to him than ever before. The Lord’s people gave him only grief, but His Word filled him with joy. His heart might almost break as he contemplated their apostate condition. It was made to rejoice when he turned to the sure Word of GOD.
Job and David in their times could speak in similar terms. The former is heard crying out, “I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12), and this at a time when the ways of GOD with His dear servant seemed quite inexplicable, and he floundered in the vain effort to find Him out. Still “the words of His mouth” he loved to dwell upon, and, relying on them, dared to say, “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
The exalted shepherd, in the “Psalm of the Laver” (119), sweetly celebrates the preciousness and cleansing efficacy of the Word, and in Psa 119:111 joins with “the weeping prophet” in declaring, “Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever; for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” And again, he says, “I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way” (Psa 119:128). See also Psa 119:97, Psa 119:113, Psa 119:119, Psa 119:163.
Thus we have patriarch, ruler, and prophet, alike testifying to the fulness and richness of the testimonies of the Lord. And that Word – fuller and richer now because of added treasures, making known the hitherto secret things – shall Christians now treat it with indifference? Many, it is to be feared, find little to interest them in its sacred pages. And the reason is not far to seek – there is so little practical separation from evil, and so little cleaving to the Lord with purpose of heart. Of one thing we can rest assured. Those who really enter into what is involved in being gathered in truth to the Name of the Rejected One, will invariably find His Word an unfailing source of delight. Heart-identification with CHRIST results in heart-appreciation of His Word.
The great desideratum is to go on quietly and humbly with the Lord JESUS CHRIST, and to walk apart from the abounding iniquity (both in its gross and its pleasing forms) of these last days. Then let the Word of GOD be the man of your counsel. Make it your daily companion. Search its precious pages prayerfully and perseveringly.
Soon you will learn to feast upon it with ever-increasing delight.
An aged Christian once said, “When first converted, I commenced reading the Bible. I read it for ten years, and I thought it a very nice book. I enjoyed it greatly. I read it for ten years more, and I thought it a wonderful book – it thrilled my soul. I read it for ten years more, and I thought it the most surpassingly precious book in the world. It was as food and drink to me. Now I have been reading it for forty years, and I am filled with delight and amazement at its beauties and depth every time I open it.” May the reader and the writer know more of this increasing love for its “sure testimonies.” (Psa 93:5) Thus we shall find our delight in walking with Him, even though, as in Enoch’s day, all the world should take another course.
That separation from evil is the mind of GOD for His servants is brought out clearly in the few remaining verses of this portion. “Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before Me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them” (Jer 15:19). Whatever others might think, say, or do, Jeremiah is to walk apart; alone, if need be, from all the abounding evil; not to be amalgamated with it, or with those in it, in the vain hope of doing them good. If others took the same position as he, well and good; he would have their fellowship in his path of separation: but the word is plain, “Return not thou unto them.” (Jer 15:19)
In II Timothy 2 the same principle is enforced for the guidance of the man of GOD in the declension and ruin of the Church. He is to “purge himself” from all that is contrary to the Word of GOD, and from those who tolerate and condone the ecclesiastical lawlessness of the day. So shall he “be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use.” (2Ti 2:21) This is not, of course, to say that a mere Pharisaic separation from saints who do not see eye to eye as to details of doctrine or practice is enjoined by Him who would have His people endeavor “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:3) Unity is not necessarily uniformity. But the call is to separation from what is unholy and offensive to GOD. Unspiritual Christians, as well as worldlings, will doubtless misunderstand and abuse the one who acts upon this “saying of God,” but He will see to the consequences if we but yield implicit obedience to His revealed will. He promised to make Jeremiah as a wall of brass, and assured him that though “they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible” (Jer 15:20-21).
GOD was for him, who could be against him? His faith in this would be severely tested as the darkness deepened and the thunders of judgment roared more loudly. But “I am with thee” (Jer 15:20) is sufficient for every trial. Devils may rage, men may gnash their teeth in malicious hatred, Providence itself may seem to oppose; but the man who can rest in faith upon the promises of the Eternal shall never be put to shame.
~ end of chapter 7 ~
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
CHAPTER 15
The Prophets Deep Soul-Exercise
1. The answer (Jer 15:1-9)
2. The prophets grief and sorrow and Jehovahs answer (Jer 15:10-21)
Jer 15:1-9. The preceding prayer is now answered and the Lord tells Jeremiah that if Moses and Samuel, these two great men of intercessory prayer, were pleading, judgment would not be averted. What is in store for those who are appointed to death, for the sword, for the famine, for captivity, will be accomplished. There is no escape. They will be removed among all kingdoms on account of Manassehs great sin 2Ki 21:11-26. The terrors of judgment are described in Jer 15:7-9. Their children will be taken; widows increase; the mother of seven children faints, because they are all taken from her.
Jer 15:10-21. Jeremiah is overwhelmed. He pronounces a woe upon himself and declares that his mother has given birth to one who is a man of strife, of contention to the whole land. He has faithfully discharged his duty; he loved his people and they hated him beyond measure. Every one cursed him, as if he were a wicked man. What anguish of soul this implies! But then the Lord was near to cheer and comfort him, as He is near to us when we are in sorrow and all is dark and we are in despair. It would be well with him and with those, who, like Jeremiah, trust the Lord. But the remnant, too, would suffer with the nations portion (Jer 15:13-14). This brings out another prayer from Jeremiahs heart. He pleads for revenge upon his adversaries, and then prays, Take me not away in Thy longsuffering, know that for Thy sake I have suffered rebuke. But while he prayed he also used the Word of God. Thy words were found, and I did eat them. He fed on the bread of life. The word was unto him the joy and rejoicing of his heart. He knew from the Word that he was called by His Name. And we also can turn to the Word and feed on it. But how few can say, Thy Word is the joy and rejoicing of my heart. That Word on which Jeremiah fed, which filled his sorrowful heart, led him to separation. It will lead us also to separation in the evil day of departure from God and the threatening judgment. He sat alone; He refused to have anything to do with the assembly of mockers, those who denied His Word and His Name, who listened to the false prophets with their false message. Jer 15:18 must be interpreted in the sense that Jeremiah speaks as representing the godly remnant of Israel. There was such a remnant then in the midst of the wicked mass, there will be such a remnant again in the future, during the great tribulation, or, as Jeremiah calls that time, The time of Jacobs trouble. They suffer in the trials and judgments; they are fearful, yet trusting. Jeremiah is representative of this remnant. The answer the Lord gives in Jer 15:19-21 must be explained in the same light. Jer 15:21 will find its final fulfillment of the future remnant when the Lord returns and redeems them from the hand of the wicked and the hand of the terrible, the two beasts of Rev 13:1-18.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Though: Jer 7:16, Jer 11:14, Jer 14:11, Eze 14:14, Eze 14:21
Moses: Exo 32:11-14, Num 14:13-20, 1Sa 7:9, 1Sa 12:23, Psa 99:6
stood: Jer 18:20, Gen 19:27, Psa 106:23, Zec 3:3, Heb 9:24
my mind: Jdg 5:9, Pro 14:35
cast: Jer 7:15, Jer 23:39, Jer 52:3, 2Ki 17:20
Reciprocal: Gen 18:22 – stood Gen 20:7 – pray Exo 15:25 – cried Exo 32:10 – let me alone Num 11:2 – prayed Num 21:7 – And Moses Deu 9:14 – Let me 1Sa 3:14 – the iniquity 1Sa 12:17 – I will call 1Sa 16:1 – seeing 1Ki 9:3 – mine eyes 2Ki 17:18 – removed 2Ki 23:26 – Notwithstanding 2Ki 24:3 – remove them 2Ki 24:4 – which 2Ki 25:11 – the rest 2Ch 34:25 – Because 2Ch 34:28 – I will gather Job 42:8 – my servant Job shall Pro 29:8 – wise Son 6:5 – away Isa 6:9 – Go Jer 4:28 – because Jer 10:18 – I will Jer 11:15 – to do Jer 13:10 – evil Jer 14:19 – utterly Jer 15:19 – stand Jer 16:5 – I have Jer 20:8 – I cried Jer 27:18 – let them Jer 32:24 – because Jer 52:15 – carried Lam 2:5 – was Lam 3:44 – that Lam 4:11 – Lord Lam 5:22 – But thou hast utterly rejected us Eze 13:5 – have not Eze 20:4 – judge them Eze 22:30 – make Eze 23:18 – then Eze 24:8 – it might Hos 1:9 – Loammi Jon 2:4 – out Zec 8:14 – I repented Mat 25:9 – lest Mat 25:30 – cast Luk 13:8 – let Joh 9:31 – him Act 3:24 – Samuel Heb 11:32 – Samuel Jam 5:16 – The effectual 1Jo 5:16 – There Rev 3:16 – I will spue thee out Rev 15:8 – no
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE TRUE POWER OF A NATION
Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people.
Jer 15:1
In saying these words, God recognised that these two men had special power with Him. Nearly a thousand years after, Jehovah remembered the power that these men had had with Him. Recognising this fact,
I. Would it not be worth while to see what was that style of prayer that God Himself acknowledged as having power with Himself?Moses had two special seasons of intercession, prayer to God, and so had Samuel, but it will not be necessary to dwell upon both. The first, in the case of Moses, was found in the thirty-second chapter of Exodus. The people of Israel were dancing round the golden calf, and God, looking down, said, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let Me alone.
Thus the Let Me alone, in answer to Moses pleading, showed that God was conscious of this power that he possessed. I wonder whether Jehovah has ever had any reason to say to any of us, Let Me alone? With Moses, also, God linked Samuel, and the record to which doubtless this referred was 1Sa 7:5. The ark had been for twenty years at Kirjath-jearim, and the Israelites had for many years been under the heel of the Philistines; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samuel, and he was bold enough to send out this notice to the people: Gather to Mizpah, and I will pray for you. After their twenty years of backsliding, Israel accepted the invitation, and the Philistines, on hearing of this, gathered together a vast army. But as Samuel prayed, the Lord thundered, and the Philistine host were scattered. Besides these two men there was, too, another known to them to have had special power with GodElijah; for, when he prayed, after three years of famine and drought, the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. We thus see three men acknowledged by God to have special power in prayer, and do we not believe that now God raises up such men, both in nations and in the churches? I am persuaded that such men as these are worth more to a nation than all her armies and all her navies. Seeing that there had been an awful revival of the military spirit, cursing the nation, it is good for us to bear this in mind, that a few men like Moses and Samuel and Elijah were worth more than any army or navy, for
II. When men that had power with God laid hold of Him, a nation might be saved.The real power in our churches is to be found in those who have this peculiar power. There are some that have money power, others that have social power, both of which are not to be despised; but in all churches there are some that have got this strange and wonderful power that God noticed.
Look at the value of these men! I do not think they are so highly valued as they deserve to benot by men; they are by God. Moses was not very much valued by Israel, and Samuel was strangely neglected for twenty years. Think for a moment what prayer had accomplished in time past; and, indeed, in days of scepticism it was best to recall this. What had prayer done? Well, I know prayer has piled up the billows like grass, has sealed lions mouths before now, has marshalled all the stars of the heavens against the enemies of Gods people, and, what I think more wonderful, has brought back spirits from the Eternal World. Prayer has conquered demons, has commanded whole legions of angels, and brought them down from above to encamp round about the saints. Oh, the wealth that lay in all our churches, then, in the men concerning whom God said, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me.
III. Note the secret of this power.I hope you will not imagine for a moment that I am speaking upon the secret of the power because personally I know it. All present knew sufficiently of it to long to know more. Without a doubt, the secret of the power of these three men was (1) their sympathy with God. These men were in awful sympathy with God; and if we ourselves are going to have power with God, we too must be in sympathy with Him. (2) Then with this full sympathy with God, there was a marvellous love for men. Do you know much of that? Do you know what it was to have that intense passion for the ingathering of souls?
Illustration
The life of constant opposition to his people was full of labour and sorrow to the gentle disposition of the prophet. He had not acted in any such way as to merit the hatred with which he was beset, and yet the detestation with which men hate the usurer was meted out to him in full measure. But for those who do Gods work, there is a Divine safeguard and reward. God will deliver them for good, and cause their enemies to come as suppliants to them, acknowledging that God is with them (1Sa 7:11). Yes, it were easier to break the northern iron or steel, the toughest and strongest of metals, than to overcome the barriers with which God surrounds those who believe in Him.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jer 15:1. In the preceding chapter Jeremiah expressed his feelings for the sad fate overhanging his beloved nation. It is true the wording of it sounds as if the people were doing the pleading for themselves, and doubt-less there were many of them who had made such complaints as we may read In the passages. However, the prophet actually was making his personal intercession on behalf of his countrymen. He may have thought the Lord would change his verdict in view of this faithful service he had always rendered, and because he was & recognized prophet; his importance would surely count for something in the case. God did not wish Jeremiah to think there was anything lacking in his life that was causing the divine decree to be so strongly reaffirmed. As evidence of this, the Lord named Moses and Samuel and said that even they would not be able to change the degree. Moses was the first national lawgiver and Samuel was the first national prophet (Acts 3; Acts 24; Act 13:20). Surely Jeremiah could not expect to have more weight with the Lord than those great men. No, the time and condition had come when intercession was not in order. We should be careful not to form a wrong conclusion on this critical occasion. It was not on account of Gods lack of mercy that he declared nothing could stop the invasion and captivity. He is a God of infinite knowledge and was able to see that the captivity was the only thing that would cure the people of the sin of idolatry. Knowing this awful truth it would have been an unmerciful thing to prevent such an experience from occurring just because a period of exile seemed to be a severe treat-ment. It would have been like refraining from performing some necessary surgery because the treatment would be painful. Therefore the Lord in actual kindness though with apparent harshness gave Jeremiah to understand that His decision was “final and that the people must, he let go out of his sight which meant out of his favor as a nation in their own land.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 15:1. Then said the Lord unto me, &c. This is the Lords answer to the fervent prayers of Jeremiah, contained in the last four verses of the preceding chapter. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me By prayer or sacrifice to reconcile me to them; yet my mind could not be toward this people Yet I could not be prevailed with to admit them into favour. As God had forbidden Jeremiah before to intercede for them, because it would be to no purpose; so here he declares, that he would not admit the prayers of any others, though eminent favourites, in their behalf. Moses obtained pardon for the people after their sin in making the golden calf, Exo 32:34; and again, after their despising the promised land, Num 14:20. Samuels intercession prevailed for their deliverance out of the hands of the Philistines, 1Sa 7:9. And these two persons are mentioned together, as remarkably prevalent by their prayers, Psa 99:6; Psa 99:8. But here God says, that if these very persons were alive, and in that near attendance to him which they formerly enjoyed, (for that is the import of the phrase, To stand before him,) yet even their prayers should not avert his judgments from this people. Lowth. Cast them out of my sight Declare that they shall be cast out, as that which is in the highest degree odious and offensive; or tell them to come no more to me with their supplications, but to go out of my sanctuary. A strong declaration of determined displeasure. Thus the Lord dismisses them with a severity whereof we have few examples in Scripture. See Eze 14:14; Eze 14:16.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 15:1. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, as when Moses by his prayers saved the nation, Exo 32:11, and Samuel in Mizpeh was heard, when the Lord terrified the Philistine armies by thundering from heaven, and scattering all their host. 1Sa 7:10.
Jer 15:2. Such as are for death, to death. By death is here evidently intended the pestilence; which, with the sword, the famine, and the captivity, should consume the whole nation.
Jer 15:3. I will appoint over them four kinds of visitations, saith the Lord; words which are often repeated by this prophet with some variations: chap. 14:15. First, the sword, which shall defeat and slay the young men in the field, a martial spirit being denied them in this crisis of affairs. Next, the dogs and foxes shall feed on the slain, Then vultures and ravens shall succeed in the feast. And lastly, the wild beasts shall follow and complete the carnage. What a revolting portrait to the pride of Judah.
Jer 15:8. The mother. Jerusalem, here called the metropolis or mother-city, having borne many children, and become the mother of many cities, against whom Nebuchadnezzar, the spoiler, came.
Jer 15:12. Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? The reference seems to be to the Chalybes, a northern nation on the Black sea, famed as workers in iron, and skilled in tempering steel. From this nation, the name of our chaly-beate waters, or tepid mineral springs, is derived. Strabo 12. God had promised, Jer 1:18, to make Jeremiah like a fortified city, like a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass. The words then are full of strong consolation, that the invasion against Judah, as a revolted nation, should hurt neither the prophet nor the praying remnant.
Jer 15:17. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers. See Psa 1:1. I have not gone to their feasts. I sit alone. And where, alas, is my joy in the Lord?
Jer 15:18. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar? This is a rough reading. The sense is, wilt thou deceive me in the above promise of divine support, as a man is deceived, who coming thirsty to brooks and fountains, finds them dried up. When the prophet spake these words, there was great drought and dearth in all the land: Jer 14:3.
REFLECTIONS.
Jeremiah continues here to preach the same sermon to the Jews, but with new modifications, and if possible with more impressive figures. Manassehs sins had so sapped the morals of the nation, as to frustrate every effort for the salvation of the people. But let us observe what an honour God here puts upon his praying servants; with what respect and affection he speaks of Moses and Samuel, who had been dead many centuries. If any thing could have reconciled him to Israel, it would have been their intercession. This shows the power of prayer, and what pleasure God takes in his worshipping servants, says the judicious Orton. It also shows what a blessing those are who offer up earnest prayers for their country, and how desirable and necessary it is that we should abound in supplication on this account.
We next see how difficult it is to bear censure and reproach with patience and cheerfulness. Jeremiah was much out of frame, through the strife and contention of his countrymen; and it is indeed hard to live peaceably and keep our temper, when we live among bad neighbours, who are disposed to pick quarrels and spread slander.
Faithful ministers have reason to expect opposition. Jeremiah had pursued no secular business, which is often the source of envy and contention; he acted in his own sphere, and delivered his messages faithfully; and merely on this account these wicked men hated and persecuted, and did all they could to silence him as a troublesome man. Let none of Gods faithful servants, particularly his ministers, wonder, if they are called by evil names; and if they who are reproved, and will not be reformed, censure their best friends, and those who would save them from destruction.
Ministers in such circumstances are to meditate on the word of God; to digest it, and endeavour thoroughly to understand and relish it. They are not to study to please men by sinful compliances, and by bringing down christian precepts to their standard; but to deliver their messages faithfully, and urge men to come up to the purity of the christian standard. They are to distinguish between the precious and the vile, to reprove the wicked and the careless, to encourage and comfort the righteous. They are to consider themselves as Gods mouth, to speak nothing but what his word requires; and when they do so we are to consider them as Gods mouth, and pay as much regard to what they say, as if God himself spoke to us. These are maxims necessary to be regarded by us at all times, especially amidst prevailing degeneracy; and in so doing God will support and deliver us, and we shall stand before him with honour and acceptance through Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 14:1 to Jer 15:9. The Drought in Judah, and Jeremiahs consequent Intercession.The date of this disaster is unknown, but some year in the latter half of Jehoiakims reign is most probable. The effects of the drought are graphically described in Jer 14:2-6. The personified gates represent the people who gather at them in mourning attire and attitude (sit in black upon the ground; cf. Jer 8:21, Jer 13:18). The empty pits are dried-up storage cisterns (cf. Jer 2:13). Men cover their heads because of grief (2Sa 15:30). The first clause of Jer 14:4 (to chapt) is best emended, with Duhm, after LXX, The tillers of the ground are dismayed (cf. mg.). The eyes of the wild asses fail through fruitless search for herbage (cf. Lam 4:17). In Jer 14:7-9, the prophet confesses the peoples sin, but appeals to Yahwehs honour (Jer 14:7), and His ownership of Israel (Jer 14:9; cf. Jer 7:10), as a reason for His permanent presence and effective help. In Jer 14:10-18, Yahweh replies that His aloofness corresponds (even so) to the peoples abandonment of Him (Jer 14:10 b as Hos 8:13), and announces evil as the only answer to their sacrifice; to which Jeremiah objects (Jer 14:13) that the people have been misled by the prophets (Jer 23:9 ff.) who promised peace. Yahweh, disowning these prophets (Jer 14:14), announces their doom as well as that of the people, and Jeremiah is bidden to lament the horrors that are coming on Judah through invasion and its consequences. In Jer 14:19-22, Jeremiah continues the dialogue with a further confession on behalf of the people, and with an appeal to the ties that bind Yahweh to Israel (Jer 14:21 mg.); Yahweh alone can remove the terrors of this drought. In Jer 15:1-9, Yahweh replies that even such pleaders as Moses (Num 14:13-20) and Samuel (1Sa 7:9) would not turn Him from His purpose; let the people go forth to pestilence (death, Jer 15:2), sword, famine, and captivity; let them be an object of consternation (for tossed to and fro, Jer 15:4) to all, because of the heathenism of Manasseh (2Ki 21:11 ff.). It is Jerusalem that has rejected Yahweh (thou, Jer 15:6, emphatic), and therefore is winnowed with a fork. The coming destruction is described (Jer 15:8) as widespread and unexpected (at noonday, as in Jer 6:4); even the (happy) mother of seven (1Sa 2:5) utterly collapses.
Jer 14:3. Read both mgg.
Jer 14:14. divination, and a thing of nought: read, with Driver, a worthless divination by omission of one letter.
Jer 14:18 b is difficult and obscure; for go about we should perhaps render go begging, or, with second mg. alternative, simply journey
Jer 14:21. the throne of thy glory: Jerusalem, as containing the Temple; cf. Jer 17:12.
Jer 14:22. vanities: i.e. gods.
Jer 15:7. fanned with a fan: i.e. winnowed; cf. Jer 4:11, Isa 30:24, Mat 3:12. The Eastern threshing-floor is described in Thomson, The Land and the Book, pp. 538ff.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
15:1 Then said the LORD to me, {a} Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, [yet] my mind [could] not [be] toward this people: cast [them] out of my sight, and let them go forth.
(a) Meaning that if there were any man living moved with so great zeal toward the people as were these two, yet he would not grant this request, as he had determined the contrary, Eze 14:14 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord assured Jeremiah that even if two of Israel’s most effective intercessors stood before Him and pleaded for the people now, they would not change His mind about bringing judgment. Moses had been effective in getting God to change His plans when Israel had been unfaithful (Exo 32:11-14; Exo 32:30-32; Num 14:13-20; Deu 9:13-29). Samuel had also obtained God’s mercy for Israel when she had sinned greatly (1Sa 7:8-9; 1Sa 12:19-25). But now these "defense attorneys" would prove ineffective, and the Lord would drive the guilty from His presence. [Note: See Thomas L. Constable, "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change," in Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER IX
THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS
Jer 14:1-22; Jer 15:1-21 (17?)
VARIOUS opinions have been expressed about the division of these chapters. They have been cut up into short sections, supposed to be more or less independent of each other; and they have been regarded as constituting a well-organised whole, at least so far as the eighteenth verse of chapter 17. The truth may lie between these extremes. Chapters 14, 15 certainly hang together; for in them the prophet represents himself as twice interceding with Iahvah on behalf of the people, and twice receiving a refusal of his petition, {Jer 14:1-22; Jer 15:1-4} the latter reply being sterner and more decisive than the first. The occasion was a long period of drought, involving much privation for man and beast. The connection between the parts of this first portion of the discourse is clear enough. The prophet prays for his people, and God answers that He has rejected them, and that intercession is futile. Thereupon, Jeremiah throws the blame of the national sins upon the false prophets; and the answer is that both the people and their false guides will perish. The prophet then soliloquises upon his own hard fate as a herald of evil tidings, and receives directions for his own personal guidance in this crisis of affairs. {Jer 15:10-21; Jer 16:1-9} There is a pause, but no real break, at the end of chapter 15. The next chapter resumes the subject of directions personally affecting the prophet himself; and the discourse is then continuous so far as Jer 17:18, although, naturally enough, it is broken here and there by pauses of considerable duration, marking transitions of thought, and progress in the argument. The heading of the entire piece is marked in the original by a peculiar inversion of terms, which meets us again, Jer 46:1; Jer 47:1; Jer 49:34, but which, in spite of this recurrence, wears a rather suspicious look. We might render it thus: “What fell as a word of Iahvah to Jeremiah, on account of the droughts” (the plural is intensive, or it signifies the long continuance of the trouble-as if one rainless period followed upon another). Whether or not the singular order of the words be authentic, the recurrence at Jer 17:8 of the remarkable term for “drought” (Hebrews baccoreth of which baccaroth here is plur.) favours the view that that chapter is an integral portion of the present discourse. The exordium {Jer 14:1-9} is a poetical sketch of the miseries of man and beast, closing with a beautiful prayer. It has been said that this is not “a word of Iahvah to Jeremiah,” but rather the reverse. If we stick to the letter, this no doubt is the case; but, as we have seen in former discourses, the phrase “Iahvahs word” meant in prophetic use very much more than a direct message from God, or a prediction uttered at the Divine instigation. Here, as elsewhere, the prophet evidently regards the course of his own religious reflection as guided by Him who “fashioneth the hearts of men,” and “knoweth their thoughts long before”; and if the question had suggested itself, he would certainly have referred his own poetic powers-the tenderness of his pity, the vividness of his apprehension, the force of his passion, -to the inspiration of the Lord who had called and consecrated him from the birth, to speak in His Name.
There lies at the heart of many of us a feeling, which has lurked there, more or less without our cognisance, ever since the childish days when the Old Testament was read at the mothers knee, and explained and understood in a manner proportioned to the faculties of childhood. When we hear the phrase “The Lord spake,” we instinctively think, if we think at all, of an actual voice knocking sensibly at the door of the outward ear. It was not so; nor did the sacred writer mean it so. A knowledge of Hebrew idiom-the modes of expression usual and possible in that ancient speech-assures us that this Statement, so startlingly direct in its unadorned simplicity, was the accepted mode of conveying a meaning which we, in our more complex and artificial idioms, would convey by the use of a multitude of words, in terms far more abstract, in language destitute of all that colour of life and reality which stamps the idiom of the Bible. It is as though the Divine lay farther off from us moderns; as though the marvellous progress of all that new knowledge of the measureless magnitude of the world, of the power and complexity of its machinery, of the surpassing subtlety and the matchless perfection of its laws and processes, had become an impassable barrier, at least an impenetrable veil, between our minds and God. We have lost the sense of His nearness, of His immediacy, so to speak; because we have gained, and are ever intensifying, a sense of the nearness of the world with which He environs us. Hence, when we speak of Him, we naturally cast about either for poetical phrases and figures, which must always be more or less vague and undefined, or for highly abstract expressions, which may suggest scientific exactness, but are, in truth, scholastic formulae, dry as the dust of the desert, untouched by the breath of life; and even if they affirm a Person, destitute of all those living characters by which we instinctively and without effort recognise Personality. We make only a conventional use of the language of the sacred writers, of the prophets and prophetic historians, of the psalmists, and the legalists, of the Old Testament; the language which is the native expression of a peculiar intensity of religious faith, realising the Unseen as the Actual and, in truth, the only Real.
“Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish,
They are clad in black down to the ground;
And the cry of Jerusalem hath gone up.
And their nobles have sent their lesser folk for water;
They have been to the pits, and found no water:
Their vessels have come back empty;
Ashamed and confounded, they have covered their heads.”
“Because the ground is chapt, for there hath not been rain in the land,
The ploughmen are ashamed, they have covered their heads.
For even the hind in the field hath yeaned and forsaken her fawn,
For there is no grass.
And the wild asses stand on the bare fells
They snuff the wind like jackals
Their eyes fall, for there is no pasturage.”
“If our sins have answered against us,
Iahweh, act for Thine own Name sake;
For our relapses are many:
Against Thee have we trespassed.”
“Hope of Israel, that savest him in time of trouble,
Wherefore wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land,
And as a traveller that leaveth the road but for the night?
Wherefore wilt Thou be as a man oerpowered with sleep,
As a warrior that cannot rescue?”
“Sith Thou art in our midst, O Iahvah,
And Thy Name upon us hath been called;
Cast us not down!”
How beautiful both plaint and prayer! The simple description of the effects of the drought is as lifelike and impressive as a good picture. The whole country is stricken; the city gates, the place of common resort, where the citizens meet for business and for conversation, are gloomy with knots of mourners robed in black from head to foot, or, as the Hebrew may also imply, sitting on the ground, in the garb and posture of desolation. {Lam 2:10; Lam 3:28} The magnates of Jerusalem send out their retainers to find water; and we see them returning with empty vessels, their heads muffled in their cloaks, in sign of grief at the failure of their errand. {1Ki 18:5-6} The parched ground everywhere gapes with fissures; the yeomen go about with covered heads in deepest dejection. The distress is universal, and affects not man only, but the brute creation. Even the gentle hind, that proverb of maternal tenderness, is driven by sorest need to forsake the fruit of her hard travail; her starved dugs are dry, and she flies from her helpless offspring. The wild asses of the desert, fleet, beautiful, and keen-eyed creatures, scan the withered landscape from the naked cliffs, and snuff the wind, like jackals scenting prey; but neither sight nor smell suggests relief. There is no moisture in the air, no glimpse of pasture in the wide sultry land.
The prayer is a humble confession of sin, an unreserved admission that the woes of man evince the righteousness of God. Unlike certain modern poets, who bewail the sorrows of the world as the mere infliction of a harsh and arbitrary and inevitable Destiny, Jeremiah makes no doubt that human sufferings are due to the working of Divine justice. “Our sins have answered against our pleas at Thy judgment seat; our relapses are many; against Thee have we trespassed,” against Thee, the sovereign Disposer of events, the Source of all that happens and all that is. If this be so, what plea is left? None, but that appeal to the Name of Iahvah, with which the prayer begins and ends. “Act for Thine own Name sake.” “Thy Name upon us hath been called.” Act for Thine own honour, that is, for the honour of Mercy, Compassion, Truth, Goodness; which Thou hast revealed Thyself to be, and which are parts of Thy glorious Name. {Exo 34:6} Pity the wretched, and pardon the guilty: for so will Thy glory increase amongst men; so will man learn that the relentings of love are diviner affections than the ruthlessness of wrath and the cravings of vengeance.
There is also a touching appeal to the past. The very name by which Israel was sometimes designated as “the people of Iahvah,” just as Moab was known by the name of its god as “the people of Chemosh,” {Num 21:29} is alleged as proof that the nation has an interest in the compassion of Him whose name it bears; and it is implied that, since the world knows Israel as Iahvahs people, it will not be for Iahvahs honour that this people should be suffered to perish in their sins. Israel had thus, from the outset of its history, been associated and identified with Iahvah; however ill the true nature of the tie has been understood, however unworthily the relation has been conceived by the popular mind, however little the obligations involved in the call of their fathers have been recognised and appreciated. God must be true, though man be false. There is no weakness, no caprice, no vacillation in God. In bygone “times of trouble” the “Hope of Israel” had saved Israel over and over again; it was a truth admitted by all-even by the prophets enemies. Surely then He will save His people once again, and vindicate His Name of Saviour. Surely He who has dwelt in their midst so many changeful centuries, will not now behold their trouble with the lukewarm feeling of an alien dwelling amongst them for a time, but unconnected with them by ties of blood and kin and common country; or with the indifference of the traveller who is but coldly affected by the calamities of a place where he has only lodged one night. Surely the entire past shows that it would be utterly inconsistent for Iahvah to appear now as a man so buried in sleep that He cannot be roused to save His friends from imminent destruction. {cf. 1Ki 18:27, St. Mar 4:38} He who had borne Israel and carried him as a tender nursling all the days of old (Isa 63:9) could hardly without changing His own unchangeable Name, His character and purposes, cast down His people and forsake them at last.
Such is the drift of the prophets first prayer. To this apparently unanswerable argument his religious meditation upon the present distress has brought him. But presently the thought returns with added force, with a sense of utmost certitude, with a conviction that it is Iahvahs Word, that the people have wrought out their own affliction, that misery is the hire of sin.
“Thus hath Iahvah said of this people:
Even so have they loved to wander,
Their feet they have not refrained;
And as for Iahvah, He accepteth them not”;
“He now remembereth their guilt,
And visiteth their trespasses.
And Iahvah said unto me,
Intercede thou not for this people for good!
If they fast, I will not hearken unto their cry;
And if they offer whole offering and oblation,
I will not accept their persons;
But by the sword, the famine, and the plague, will I consume them.”
“And I said, Ah, Lord Iahvah!
Behold the prophets say to them,
Ye shall not see sword,
And famine shall not befall you
For peace and permanence will I give you in this place.”
“And Iahvah said unto me:
Falsehood it is that the prophets prophesy in My Name.
I sent them not, and I charged them not, and I spake not unto them.
A vision of falsehood and jugglery and nothingness, and the guile of their own heart,
They, for their part, prophesy you.”
“Therefore thus said Iahvah:
Concerning the prophets who prophesy in My Name, albeit I sent them not,
And of themselves say
Sword and famine there shall not be in this land;
By the sword and by the famine shall those prophets be fordone.
And the people to whom they prophesy shall lie thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem,
Because of the famine and the sword,
With none to bury them,”-
“Themselves, their wives, and their sons and their daughters:
And I will pour upon them their own evil.
And thou shalt say unto them this word:
Let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day,
And let them not tire;
For with mighty breach is broken
The virgin daughter of my people-
With a very grievous blow.
If I go forth into the field,
Then behold! the slain of the sword;
And if I enter the city,
Then behold! the pinings of famine:
For both prophet and priest go trafficking about the land,
And understand not.”
It has been supposed that this whole section is misplaced, and that it would properly follow the close of chapter 13. The supposition is due to a misapprehension of the force of the pregnant particle which introduces the reply of Iahvah to the prophets intercession. “Even so have they loved to wander”; even so, as is naturally implied by the severity of the punishment of which thou complainest. The dearth is prolonged; the distress is widespread and grievous. So prolonged, so grievous, so universal, has been their rebellion against Me. The penalty corresponds to the offence. It is really “their own evil” that is being poured out upon their guilty heads (Jer 14:16; cf. Jer 4:18). Iahvah cannot accept them in their sin; the long drought is a token that their guilt is before His mind, unrepented, unatoned. Neither the supplications of another, nor their own fasts and sacrifices, avail to avert the visitation. So long as the disposition of the heart remains unaltered; so long as man hates, not his darling sins, but the penalties they entail, it is idle to seek to propitiate Heaven by such means as these. And not only so. The droughts are but a foretaste of worse evils to come; “by the sword, the famine, and the plague will I consume them.” The condition is understood, If they repent and amend not. This is implied by the prophets seeking to palliate the national guilt, as he proceeds to do, by the suggestion that the people are more sinned against than sinning, deluded as they are by false prophets; as also by the renewal of his intercession (Jer 14:19). Had he been aware in his inmost heart that an irreversible sentence had gone forth against his people, would he have been likely to think either excuses or intercessions availing? Indeed, however absolute the threats of the prophetic preachers may sound, they must, as a rule, be qualified by this limitation, which, whether expressed or not, is inseparable from the object of their discourses, which was the moral amendment of those who heard them.
Of the “false,” that is, the common run of prophets, who were in league with the venal priesthood of the time, and no less worldly and self-seeking than their allies, we note that, as usual, they foretell what the people wishes to hear; “Peace (Prosperity), and Permanence,” is the burden of their oracles. They knew that invectives against prevailing vices, and denunciations of national follies, and forecasts of approaching ruin, were unlikely means of winning popularity and a substantial harvest of offerings. At the same time, like other false teachers, they knew how to veil their errors under the mask of truth; or rather, they were themselves deluded by their own greed, and blinded by their covetousness to the plain teaching of events. They might base their doctrine of “Peace and Permanence in this place!” upon those utterances of the great Isaiah, which had been so signally verified in the lifetime of the seer himself; but their keen pursuit of selfish ends, their moral degradation, caused them to shut their eyes to everything else in his teachings, and, like his contemporaries, they “regarded not the work of Iahvah, nor the operation of His hand.” Jeremiah accuses them of “lying visions”; visions, as he explains, which were the outcome of magical ceremonies, by aid of which, perhaps, they partially deluded themselves, before deluding others, but which were none the less, “things of naught,” devoid of all substance, and mere fictions of a deceitful and self-deceiving mind (Jer 14:14). He expressly declares that they have no mission: in other words, their action is not due to the overpowering sense of a higher call, but is inspired by purely ulterior considerations of worldly gain and policy. They prophesy to order; to the order of man, not of God. If they visit the country districts, it is with no spiritual end in view; priest and prophet alike make a trade of their sacred profession, and, immersed in their sordid pursuits, have no eye for truth, and no perception of the dangers hovering over their country. Their misconduct and misdirection of affairs are certain to bring destruction upon themselves and upon those whom they mislead. War and its attendant famine will devour them all.
But the day of grace being past, nothing is left for the prophet himself but to bewail the ruin of his people (Jer 14:17). He will betake himself to weeping, since praying and preaching are vain. The words which announce this resolve may portray a sorrowful experience, or they may depict the future as though it were already present (Jer 14:17-18). The latter interpretation would suit Jer 14:17, but hardly the following verse, with its references to “going forth into the field,” and “entering into the city.” The way in which these specific actions are mentioned seems to imply some present or recent calamity; and there is apparently no reason why we may not suppose that the passage was written at the disastrous close of the reign of Josiah, in the troublous interval of three months, when Jehoahaz was nominal king in Jerusalem, but the Egyptian arms were probably ravaging the country, and striking terror into the hearts of the people. In such a time of confusion and bloodshed, tillage would be neglected, and famine would naturally follow; and these evils would be greatly aggravated by drought. The only other period which suits is the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim; but the former seems rather to be indicated by Jer 15:6-9.
Heartbroken at the sight of the miseries of his country, the prophet once more approaches the eternal throne. His despairing mood is not so deep and dark as to drown his faith in God. He refuses to believe the utter rejection of Judah, the revocation of the covenant. (The measure is Pentameter).
“Hast Thou indeed cast off Judah?
Hath Thy soul revolted from Sion?
Why hast Thou smitten us past healing?
Waiting for peace, and no good came,
For a time of healing, and behold terror!”
“We know, Iahvah, our wickedness, our fathers guilt;
For we have trespassed toward Thee.
Scorn Thou not, for Thy Name sake
Disgrace not Thy glorious throne!
Remember, break not, Thy covenant with us!”
“Are there, in sooth, among the
Nothings of the nations senders of rain?
And is it the heavens that bestow the showers?
Is it not Thou, Iahvah our God?
And we wait for Thee,
For Thou it was that madest the world.”
To all this the Divine answer is stern and decisive. “And Iahvah said unto me: If Moses and Samuel were to stand” (pleading) “before Me, My mind would not be towards this people: send them away from before Me” (dismiss them from My Presence), “that they may go forth!” After ages remembered Jeremiah as a mighty intercessor, and the brave Maccabeus could see him in his dream as a grey-haired man “exceeding glorious” and “of a wonderful and excellent majesty” who “prayed much for the people and for the holy city” (2Ma 15:14). And the beauty of the prayers which lie like scattered pearls of faith and love among the prophets soliloquies is evident at a glance. But here Jeremiah himself is conscious that his prayers are unavailing; and that the office to which God has called him is rather that of pronouncing judgment than of interceding for mercy. Even a Moses or a Samuel, the mighty intercessors of the old heroic times, whose pleadings had been irresistible with God, would now plead in vain Exo 17:11 sqq., Exo 32:11 sqq.; Num 14:13 sqq. for Moses; 1Sa 7:9 sqq., 1Sa 12:16 sqq.; Psa 99:6; Sir 46:16 sqq. for Samuel. The day of grace has gone, and the day of doom is come. His sad function is to “send them away” or “let them go” from Iahvahs Presence; to pronounce the decree of their banishment from the holy land where His temple is, and where they have been wont to “see His face.” The main part of his commission was “to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow” (Jer 1:10). “And if they say unto thee, Whither are we to go forth? Thou shalt say uno them, thus hath Iahvah said: They that belong to the Death” (i.e., the Plague; as the Black Death was spoken of in mediaeval Europe) “to death; and they that belong to the Sword, to the sword; and they that belong to the Famine, to famine: and they that belong to Captivity, to captivity!” The people were to “go forth” out of their own land, which was, as it were, the Presence chamber of Iahvah, just as they had at the outset of their history gone forth out of Egypt, to take possession of it. The words convey a sentence of exile, though they do not indicate the place of banishment. The menace of woe is as general in its terms as that lurid passage of the Book of the Law upon which it appears to be founded. {Deu 28:21-26} The time for the accomplishment of those terrible threatenings “is nigh, even at the doors.”
On the other hand, Ezekiels “four sore judgments” {Eze 14:21} were suggested by this passage of Jeremiah.
The prophet avoids naming the actual destination of the captive people, because captivity is only one element in their punishment. The horrors of war-sieges and slaughters and pestilence and famine-must come first. In what follows, the intensity of these horrors is realised in a single touch. The slain are left unburied, a prey to the birds and beasts. The elaborate care of the ancients in the provision of honourable resting places for the dead is a measure of the extremity, thus indicated. In accordance with the feeling of his age, the prophet ranks the dogs and vultures and hyenas that drag and disfigure and devour the corpses of the slain, as three “kinds” of evil equally appalling with the sword that slays. The same feeling led our Spenser to write:
“To spoil the dead of weed
Is sacrilege, and doth all sins exceed.”
And the destruction of Moab is decreed by the earlier prophet Amos, “because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime,” thus violating a law universally recognised as binding upon the conscience of nations. {Amo 2:1} Cf. also Gen 23:1-20.
Thus death itself was not to be a sufficient expiation for the inveterate guilt of the nation. Judgment was to pursue them even after death. But the prophets vision does not penetrate beyond this present scene. With the visible world, so far as he is aware, the punishment terminated. He gives no hint here, nor elsewhere, of any further penalties awaiting individual sinners in the unseen world. The scope of his prophecy indeed is almost purely national, and limited to the present life. It is one of the recognized conditions of Old Testament religious thought.
And the ruin of the people is the retribution reserved for what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. To the prophet, as to the author of the book of Kings, who wrote doubtless under the influence of his words, the guilt contracted by Judah trader that wicked king was unpardonable But it would convey a false impression if we left the matter here: for the whole course of his after preaching-his exhortations and promises, as well as his threats-prove that Jeremiah did not suppose that the nation could not be saved by genuine repentance and permanent amendment. What he intends rather to affirm is that the sins of the fathers will be visited upon children who are partakers of their sins. It is the doctrine of St. Mat 23:29 sqq.; a doctrine which is not merely a theological opinion, but a matter of historical observation.
“And I will set over them four kinds-It is an oracle of Iahvah-the sword to slay, and the dogs to hale, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. And I will make them a sport for all the realms of earth; on account of Manasseh ben Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem!-the mention of that magical name touches another chord in the prophets soul; and the fierce tones of his oracle of doom change into a dirge-like strain of pity without hope.
“For who will have compassion on Thee, O Jerusalem? And who will yield thee comfort? And who will turn aside to ask of thy welfare? Twas thou that rejectedst Me (it is Iahvahs word); Backward wouldst thou wend: So I stretched forth My hand against thee and destroyed thee; I wearied of relenting. And I winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I bereaved, I undid My people: Yet they returned not from their own ways. His widows outnumbered before Me the sand of seas: I brought them against the Mother of Warriors a harrier at high noon; I threw upon her suddenly anguish and horrors. She that had borne seven sons did pine away; She breathed out her soul. Her sun did set, while it yet was day; He blushed and paled. But their remnant will I give to the sword Before their foes: (It is Iahvahs word).”
The fate of Jerusalem would strike the nations dumb with horror; it would not inspire pity, for man would recognise that it was absolutely just. Or perhaps the thought rather is, In proving false to Me, thou wert false to thine only friend: Me thou hast estranged by thy faithlessness; and from the envious rivals, who beset thee on every side, thou canst expect nothing but rejoicing at thy downfall. {Psa 136:1-26; Lam 2:15-17; Oba 1:10 sqq.} The peculiar solitariness of Israel among the nations {Num 23:9} aggravated the anguish of her overthrow.
In what follows, the dreadful past appears as a prophecy of the yet more terrible future. The poet-seers pathetic monody moralises the lost battle of Megiddo-that fatal day when the sun of Judah set in what seemed the high day of her prosperity, and all the glory and the promise of good king Josiah vanished like a dream in sudden darkness. Men might think-doubtless Jeremiah thought, in the first moments of despair, when the news of that overwhelming disaster was brought to Jerusalem, with the corpse of the good king, the dead hope of the nation-that this crushing blow was proof that Iahvah had rejected His people, in the exercise of a sovereign caprice, and without reference to their own attitude towards Him. But, says or chants the prophet, in solemn rhythmic utterance,
“Twas thou that rejectedst Me;
Backward wouldst thou wend:
So I stretched forth My hand against thee, and wrought thee hurt;
I wearied of relenting.”
The cup of national iniquity was full, and its baleful contents overflowed in a devastating flood. “In the gates of the land”-the point on the northwest frontier where the armies met-Iahvah doomed to fall from those who were to survive, as the winnowing fan separates the chaff from the wheat in the threshing floor. There He “bereaved” the nation of their dearest hope, “the breath of their nostrils, the Lords Anointed”; {Lam 4:20} there He multiplied their widows. And after the lost battle He brought the victor in hot haste against the “Mother” of the fallen warriors, the ill-fated city, Jerusalem, to wreak vengeance upon her for her ill-timed opposition. But, for all this bitter fruit of their evil doings, the people “turned not back from their own ways”; and therefore the strophe of lamentation closes with a threat of utter extermination: “Their remnant”-the poor survival of these fierce storms” Their remnant will I give to the sword before their foes.”
If the thirteenth and fourteenth verses be not a mere interpolation in this chapter, {see Jer 17:3-4} their proper place would seem to be here, as continuing and amplifying the sentence upon the residue of the people. The text is unquestionably corrupt, and must be amended by help of the other passage, where it is partially repeated. The twelfth verse may be read thus:
“Thy wealth and thy treasures will I make a prey,
For the sin of thine high places in all thy borders.”
Then the fourteenth verse follows, naturally enough, with an announcement of the Exile:
“And I will enthral thee to thy foes
In a land thou knowest not:
For a fire is kindled in Mine anger,
That shall burn for evermore!”
The prophet has now fulfilled his function of judge by pronouncing upon his people the extreme penalty of the law. His strong perception of the national guilt and of the righteousness of God has left him no choice in the matter. But how little this duty of condemnation accorded with his own individual feeling as a man and a citizen is clear from the passionate outbreak of the succeeding strophe.
“Woes me, my mother,” he exclaims, “that thou barest me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to all the country!
Neither lender nor borrower have I been;
Yet all of them do curse me.”
A desperately bitter tone, evincing the anguish of a man wounded to the heart by the sense of fruitless endeavour and unjust hatred. He had done his utmost to save his country, and his reward was universal detestation. His innocence and integrity were requited with the odium of the pitiless creditor who enslaves his helpless victim, and appropriates his all; or the fraudulent borrower who repays a too ready confidence with ruin.
The next two verses answer this burst of grief and despair:
“Said Iahvah, Thine oppression shall be for good;
I will make the foe thy suppliant in time of evil and in time of distress.
Can one break iron,
Iron from the north, and brass?”
In other words, faith counsels patience, and assures the prophet that all things work together for good to them that love God. The wrongs and bitter treatment which he now endures will only enchance his triumph when the truth of his testimony is at last confirmed by events, and they who now scoff at his message come humbly to beseech his prayers. The closing lines refer, with grave irony, to that unflinching firmness, that inflexible resolution, which, as a messenger of God, he was called upon to maintain. He is reminded of what he had undertaken at the outset of his career, and of the Divine Word which made him “a pillar of iron and walls of brass against all the land”. {Jer 1:18} Is it possible that the pillar of iron can be broken, and the walls of brass beaten down by the present assault?
There is a pause, and then the prophet vehemently pleads his own cause with Iahvah. Smarting with the sense of personal wrong, he urges that his suffering is for the Lords own sake; that consciousness of the Divine calling has dominated his entire life, ever since his dedication to the prophetic office; and that the honour of Iahvah requires his vindication upon his heartless and hardened adversaries.
Thou knowest, Iahvah!
Remember me, and visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors.
Take me not away in thy long suffering;
Regard my bearing of reproach for Thee.
Thy words were found and I did eat them,
And it became to me a joy and mine hearts gladness;
For I was called by Thy Name, O Iahvah, God of Sabaoth!
I sate not in the gathering of the mirthful, nor rejoiced;
Because of Thine hand I sate solitary,
For with indignation Thou didst fill me.
“Why hath my pain become perpetual,
And my stroke malignant, incurable?
Wilt Thou indeed become to me like a delusive stream,
Like waters which are not lasting?”
The pregnant expression, “Thou knowest, Iahvah!” does not refer specially to anything that has been already said; but rather lays the whole case before God in a single word. The Thou is emphatic; Thou, Who knowest all things, knowest my heinous wrongs: Thou knowest and seest it all, though the whole world beside be blind with passion and self-regard and sin. {Psa 10:11-14} Thou knowest how pressing is my need; therefore “Take me not away in Thy long suffering”: sacrifice not the life of Thy servant to the claims of forbearance with his enemies and Thine. The petition shows how great was the peril in which the prophet perceived himself to stand: he believes that if God delay to strike down his adversaries, that longsuffering will be fatal to his own life.
The strength of his case is that he is persecuted because he is faithful; he bears reproach for God. He has not abused his high calling for the sake of worldly advantage; he has not prostituted the name of prophet to the vile ends of pleasing the people, and satisfying personal covetousness. He has not feigned smooth prophecies, misleading his hearers with flattering falsehood; but he has considered the privilege of being called a prophet of Iahvah as in itself an all-sufficient reward; and when the Divine Word came to him, he has eagerly received, and fed his inmost soul upon that spiritual aliment, which was at once his sustenance and his deepest joy. Other joys, for the Lords sake, he has abjured. He has withdrawn himself even from harmless mirth, that in silence and solitude he might listen intently to the inward Voice, and reflect with indignant sorrow upon the revelation of his peoples corruption. “Because of Thine Hand”-under Thy influence; conscious of the impulse and operation of thy informing Spirit; -“I sate solitary; for with indignation Thou didst fill me.” The man whose eye has caught a glimpse of eternal Truth, is apt to be dissatisfied with the shows of things; and the lighthearted merriment of the world rings hollow upon the ear that listens for the Voice of God. And the revelation of sin-the discovery of all that ghastly evil which lurks beneath the surface of smooth society-the appalling vision of the grim skeleton hiding its noisome decay behind the mask of smiles and gaiety; the perception of the hideous incongruity of revelling over a grave; has driven others, besides Jeremiah, to retire into themselves, and to avoid a world from whose evil they revolted, and whose foreseen destruction they deplored.
The whole passage is an assertion of the prophets integrity and consistency, with which, it is suggested, that the failure which has attended his efforts, and the serious peril in which he stands, are morally inconsistent, and paradoxical in view of the Divine disposal of events. Here, in fact, as elsewhere, Jeremiah has freely opened his heart, and allowed us to see the whole process of his spiritual conflict in the agony of his moments of doubt and despair. It is an argument of his own perfect sincerity; and, at the same time, it enables us to assimilate the lesson of his experience, and to profit by the heavenly guidance he received, far more effectually than if he had left us ignorant of the painful struggles at the cost of which that guidance was won.
The seeming injustice or indifference of Providence is a problem which recurs to thoughtful minds in all generations of men.
“O, goddes cruel, that governe
This world with byndyng of your word eterne
What governance is in youre prescience
That gilteles tormenteth innocence?
Alas! I see a serpent or a theif,
That many a trewe man hath doon mescheif,
Gon at his large, and wher him luste may turne;
But I moste be in prisoun.”
That such apparent anomalies are but a passing trial, from which persistent faith will emerge victorious in the present life, is the general answer of the Old Testament to the doubts which they suggest. The only sufficient explanation was reserved, to be revealed by Him, who, in the fulness of time, “brought life and immortality to light.”
The thought which restored the failing confidence and courage of Jeremiah was the reflection that such complaints were unworthy of one called to be a spokesman for the Highest; that the supposition of the possibility of the Fountain of Living Waters failing like a winter torrent, that runs dry in the summer heats, was an act of unfaithfulness that merited reproof; and that the true God could not fail to protect His messenger, and to secure the triumph of truth in the end.
To this Iahvah said thus:
If thou come again, I will make thee again to stand before Me;
And if thou utter that is precious rather than that is vile,
As My mouth shalt thou become:
They shall return unto thee,
But Thou shalt not return unto them.
“And I will make thee to this people an embattled wall of brass;
And they shall fight against thee, but not overcome thee,
For I will be with thee to help thee and to save thee;
It is Iahvahs word.
And I will save thee out of the grasp of the wicked,
And will ransom thee out of the hand of the terrible.”
In the former strophe, the inspired poet set forth the claims of the psychic man, and poured out his heart before God. Now he recognises a Word of God in the protest of his better feeling. He sees that where he remains true to himself, he will also stand near to his God. Hence springs the hope, which he cannot renounce, that God will protect His accepted servant in the execution of the Divine commands. Thus the discords are resolved; and the prophets spirit attains to peace, after struggling through the storm.
It was an outcome of earnest prayer, of an unreserved exposure of his inmost heart before God. What a marvel it is-that instinct of prayer. To think that a being whose visible life has its beginning and its end, a being who manifestly shares possession of this earth with the brute creation, and breathes the same air, and partakes of the same elements with them for the sustenance of his body; who is organised upon the same general plan as they, has the same principal members discharging the same essential functions in the economy of his bodily system; a being who is born and eats and drinks and sleeps and dies like all other animals; -that this being and this being only of all the multitudinous kinds of animated creatures, should have and exercise a faculty of looking off and above the visible which appears to be the sole realm of actual existence, and of holding communion with the Unseen! That, following what seems to be an original impulse of his nature, he should stand in greater awe of this Invisible than any power that is palpable to sense; should seek to win its favour, crave its help in times of pain and conflict and peril; should professedly live, not according to the bent of common nature and the appetites inseparable from his bodily structure, but according to the will and guidance of that Unseen Power! Surely there is here a consummate marvel. And the wonder of it does not diminish when it is remembered that this instinct of turning to an unseen Guide and Arbiter of events is not peculiar to any particular section of the human race. Wide and manifold as are the differences which characterise and divide the families of man, all races possess in common the apprehension of the Unseen and the instinct of prayer. The oldest records of humanity bear witness to its primitive activity, and whatever is known of human history combines with what is known of the character and workings of the human mind to teach us that as prayer has never been unknown, so it is never likely to become obsolete. May we not recognise in this great fact of human nature a sure index of a great corresponding truth? Can we avoid taking it as a clear token of the reality of revelation; as a kind of immediate and spontaneous evidence on the part of nature that there is and always has been in this lower world some positive knowledge of that which far transcends it, some real apprehension of the mystery that enfolds the universe? a knowledge and an apprehension which, however imperfect and fragmentary, however fitful and fluctuating, however blurred in outline and lost in infinite shadow, is yet incomparably more and better than none at all. Are we not, in short, morally driven upon the conviction that this powerful instinct of our nature is neither blind nor aimless; that its Object is a true, substantive Being; and that this Being has discovered, and yet discovers, some precious glimpses of Himself and His essential character to the spirit of mortal man? It must be so, unless we admit that the souls dearest desires are a mocking illusion, that her aspirations towards a truth and a goodness of superhuman perfection are moonshine and madness. It cannot be nothingness that avails to evoke the deepest and purest emotions of our nature; not mere vacuity and chaos, wearing the semblance of an azure heaven. It is not into a measureless waste of outer darkness that we reach forth trembling hands.
Surely the spirit of denial is the spirit that fell from heaven, and the best and highest of mans thoughts aim at and affirm something positive, something that is, and the soul thirsts after God, the Living God.
We hear much in these days of our physical nature. The microscopic investigations of science leave nothing unexamined, nothing unexplored, so far as the visible organism is concerned. Rays from many distinct sources converge to throw an ever-increasing light upon the mysteries of our bodily constitution. In all this, science presents to the devout mind a valuable subsidiary revelation of the power and goodness of the Creator. But science cannot advance alone one step beyond the things of time and sense; her facts belong exclusively to the. material order of existence; her cognition is limited to the various modes and conditions of force that constitute the realm of sight and touch; she cannot climb above these to a higher plane of being. And small blame it is to science that she thus lacks the power of overstepping her natural boundaries. The evil begins when the men of science venture, in her much-abused name, to ignore and deny realities not amenable to scientific tests, and immeasurably transcending all merely physical standards and methods.
Neither the natural history nor the physiology of man, nor both together, are competent to give a complete account of his marvellous and many-sided being. Yet some thinkers appear to imagine that when a place has been assigned him in the animal kingdom, and his close relationship to forms below him in the scale of life has been demonstrated: when every tissue and structure has been analysed, and every organ described and its function ascertained; then the last word has been spoken, and the subject exhausted. Those unique and distinguishing faculties by which all this amazing work of observation, comparison, reasoning, has been accomplished, appear either to be left out of the account altogether, or to be handled with a meagre inadequacy of treatment that contrasts in the strongest manner with the fulness and the elaboration which mark the other discussion. And the more this physical aspect of our composite nature is emphasised; the more urgently it is insisted that, somehow or other, all that is in man and all that comes of man may be explained on the assumption that he is the natural climax of the animal creation, a kind of educated and glorified brute-that and nothing more; -the harder it becomes to give any rational account of those facts of his nature which are commonly recognised as spiritual, and among them of this instinct of prayer and its Object.
Under these discouraging circumstances, men are fatally prone to seek escape from their self-involved dilemma by a hardy denial of what their methods have failed to discover and their favourite theories to explain. The soul and God are treated as mere metaphysical expressions, or as popular designations of the unknown causes of phenomena; and prayer is declared to be an act of foolish superstition which persons of culture have long since outgrown. Sad and strange this result is; but it is also the natural outcome of an initial error, which is none the less real because unperceived. Men “seek the living among the dead”; they expect to find the soul by post mortem examination, or to see God by help of an improved telescope. They fail and are disappointed, though they have little right to be so, for “spiritual things are discerned spiritually,” and not otherwise.
In speculating on the reason of this lamentable issue, we must not forget that there is such a thing as an unpurified intellect as well as a corrupt and unregenerate heart. Sin is not restricted to the affections of the lower nature; it has also invaded the realm of thought and reason. The very pursuit of knowledge, noble and elevating as it is commonly esteemed, is not without its dangers of self-delusion and sin. Wherever the love of self is paramount, wherever the object really sought is the delight, the satisfaction, the indulgence of self, no matter in which of the many departments of human life and action, there is sin. It is certain that the intellectual consciousness has its own peculiar pleasures, and those of the keenest and most transporting character; certain that the incessant pursuit of such pleasures may come to absorb the entire energies of a man, so that no room is left for the culture of humility or love or worship. Everything is sacrificed to what is called the pursuit of truth, but is in sober fact a passionate prosecution of private pleasure. It is not truth that is so highly valued; it is the keen excitement of the race, and not seldom the plaudits of the spectators when the goal is won. Such a career may be as thoroughly selfish and sinful and alienated from God as a career of common wickedness. And thus employed or enthralled, no intellectual gifts, however splendid, can bring a man to the discernment of spiritual truth. Not self-pleasing and foolish vanity and arrogant self-assertion, but a self-renouncing humility, an inward purity from idols of every kind, a reverence of truth as divine, are indispensable conditions of the perception of things spiritual.
The representation which is often given is a mere travesty. Believers in God do not want to alter His laws by their prayers-neither His laws physical, nor His laws moral and spiritual. It is their chief desire to be brought into submission or perfect obedience to the sum of His laws. They ask their Father in heaven to lead and teach them, to supply their wants in His own way, because He is their Father; because “It is He that made us, and His we are.” Surely, a reasonable request, and grounded in reason.
To a plain man, seeking for arguments to justify prayer may well seem like seeking a justification of breathing or eating and drinking and sleeping, or any other natural function. Our Lord never does anything of the kind, because His teaching takes for granted the ultimate prevalence of common sense, in spite of all the subtleties and airspun perplexities in which a speculative mind delights to lose itself. So long as man has other wants than those which he can himself supply, prayer will be their natural expression.
If there be a spiritual as distinct from a material world, the difficulty to the ordinary mind is not to conceive of their contact but of their absolute isolation from each other. This is surely the inevitable result of our own individual experience, of the intimate though not indissoluble union of body and spirit in every living person.
How, it may be asked, can we really think of his Maker being cut off from man, or man from his Maker? God were not God, if He left man to himself. But not only are His wisdom, justice, and love manifested forth in the beneficent arrangements of the world in which we find ourselves; not only is He “kind to the unjust and the unthankful.” In pain and loss lie quickens our sense of Himself. {cf. Jer 14:19-22} Even in the first moments of angry surprise and revolt, that sense is quickened; we rebel, not against an inanimate world or an impersonal law, but against a Living and Personal Being, whom we acknowledge as the Arbiter of our destinies, and whose wisdom and love and power we affect for the time to question, but cannot really gainsay. The whole of our experience tends to this end-to the continual rousing of our spiritual consciousness. There is no interference, no isolated and capricious interposition or interruption of order within or without us. Within and without us, His Will is always energising, always manifesting forth His Being, encouraging our confidence, demanding our obedience and homage.
Thus prayer has its Divine as well as its human side; it is the Holy Spirit drawing the soul, as well as the soul drawing nigh unto God. The case is like the action and reaction of the magnet and the steel. And so prayer is not a foolish act of unauthorised presumption, not a rash effort to approach unapproachable and absolutely isolated Majesty. Whenever man truly prays, his Divine King has already extended the sceptre of His mercy, and bidden him speak.
Jer 16:1-21; Jer 17:1-27
After the renewal of the promise there is a natural pause, marked by the formula with which the present section opens. When the prophet had recovered his firmness, through the inspired and inspiring reflections which took possession of his soul after he had laid bare his inmost heart before God (Jer 15:20-21), he was in a position to receive further guidance from above. What now lies before us is the direction, which came to him as certainly Divine, for the regulation of his own future behaviour as the chosen minister of Iahvah at this crisis in the history of his people. “And there fell a word of Iahvah unto me, saying: Thou shalt not take thee a wife: that thou get not sons and daughters in this place.” Such a prohibition reveals, with the utmost possible clearness and emphasis, the gravity of the existing situation. It implies that the “peace and permanence,” so glibly predicted by Jeremiahs opponents, will never more be known by that sinful generation. “This place,” the holy place which Iahvah had “chosen, to establish His name there,” as the Book of the Law so often describes it; “this place,” which had been inviolable to the fierce hosts of the Assyrian in the time of Isaiah, {Isa 37:33} was now no more a sure refuge, but doomed to utter and speedy destruction. To beget sons and daughters there was to prepare more victims for the tooth of famine, and the pangs of pestilence, and the devouring sword of a merciless conqueror. It was to fatten the soil with unburied carcases, and to spread a hideous banquet for birds and beasts of prey. Children and parents were doomed to perish together; and Iahvahs witness was to keep himself unencumbered by the sweet cares of husband and father, that he might be wholly free for his solemn duties of menace and warning, and be ready for every emergency.
For thus hath Iahvah said:
Concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place,
And concerning their mothers that bear them,
And concerning their fathers that beget them, in this land:
By deaths of agony shall they die;
“They shall not be mourned nor buried;
For dung on the face of the ground shall they serve;
And by the sword and by the famine shall they be for done:
And their carcase shall serve for food
To the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the earth.” {Jer 16:3-4}
The “deaths of agony” seem to indicate the pestilence, which always ensued upon the scarcity and vile quality of food, and the confinement of multitudes within the narrow bounds of a besieged city (see Josephus well known account of the last siege of Jerusalem).
The attitude of solitary watchfulness and strict separation, which the prophet thus perceived to be required by circumstances, was calculated to be a warning of the utmost significance, among a people who attached the highest importance to marriage and the permanence of the family.
It proclaimed more loudly than words could do, the prophets absolute conviction that offspring was no pledge of permanence; that universal death was hanging over a condemned nation. But not only this. It marks a point of progress in the prophets spiritual life. The crisis, through which we have seen him pass, has purged his mental vision. He no longer repines at his dark lot; no longer half envies the false prophets, who may win the popular love by pleasing oracles of peace and well-being; no longer complains of the Divine Will, which has laid such a burden upon him. He sees now that his part is to refuse even natural and innocent pleasures for the Lords sake; to foresee calamity and ruin; to denounce unceasingly the sin he sees around him; to sacrifice a tender and affectionate heart to a life of rigid asceticism; and he manfully accepts his part. He knows that he stands alone-the last fortress of truth in a world of falsehood; and that for truth it becomes a man to surrender his all.
That which follows tends to complete the prophets social isolation. He is to give no sign of sympathy in the common joys and sorrows of his kind.
For thus hath Iahvah said:
Enter thou not into the house of mourning,
Nor go to lament, nor comfort thou them:
For I have taken away My friendship from this people (Tis Iahvahs utterance!)
The lovingkindness and the compassion;
And old and young shall die in this land,
They shall not be buried, and men shall not wail for them;
Nor shall a man cut himself, nor make himself bald, for them:
Neither shall men deal out bread to them in mourning,
To comfort a man over the dead;
Nor shall they give them to drink the cup of consolation,
Over a mans father and over his mother.
“And the house of feasting thou shalt not enter,
To sit with them to eat and to drink.
For thus hath Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, said:
Lo, I am about to make to cease from this place,
Before your own eyes and in your own days,
Voice of mirth and voice of gladness,
The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.”
Acting as prophet, that is, as one whose public actions were symbolical of a Divine intent, Jeremiah is henceforth to stand aloof, on occasions when natural feeling would suggest participation in the outward life of his friends and acquaintance. He is to quell the inward stirrings of affection and sympathy, and to abstain from playing his part in those demonstrative lamentations over the dead, which the immemorial custom and sentiment of his country regarded as obligatory; and this, in order to signify unmistakably that what thus appeared to be the state of his own feelings, was really the aspect under which God would shortly appear to a nation perishing in its guilt. “Enter not into the house of mourning for I have taken away My friendship from this people, the lovingkindness and the compassion.” An estranged and alienated God would view the coming catastrophe with the cold indifference of exact justice. And the consequence of the Divine aversion would be a calamity so overwhelming that the dead would be left without those rites of burial which the feeling and conscience of all races of mankind have always been careful to perform. There should be no burial, much less ceremonial lamentation, and those more serious modes of evincing grief by disfigurement of the person, which, like tearing the hair and rending the garments, are natural tokens of the first distraction of bereavement. Not for wife or child, {me: Gen 23:3} nor for father or mother should the funeral feast be held; for mens hearts would grow hard at the daily spectacle of death, and at last there would be no survivors.
In like manner, the prophet is forbidden to enter as guest “the house of feasting.” He is not to be seen at the marriage feast, -that occasion of highest rejoicing, the very type and example of innocent and holy mirth; to testify by his abstention that the day of judgment was swiftly approaching, which would desolate all homes, and silence for evermore all sounds of joy and gladness in the ruined city. And it is expressly added that the blow will fall “before your own eyes and in your own days”; showing that the hour of doom was very near, and would no more be delayed.
In all this, it is noticeable that the Divine answer appears to bear special reference to the peculiar terms of the prophets complaint. In depairing tones he had cried, {Jer 15:10} “Woes me, my mother, that thou didst bear me!” and now he is himself warned not to take a wife and seek the blessing of children. The outward connection here may be: “Let it not be that thy children speak of thee, as thou hast spoken of thy mother!” But the inner link of thought may rather be this, that the prophets temporary unfaithfulness evinced in his outcry against God and his lament that ever he was born is punished by the denial to him of the joys of fatherhood-a penalty which would be severe to a loving, yearning nature like his, but which was doubtless necessary to the purification of his spirit from all worldly taint, and to the discipline of his natural impatience and tendency to repine under the hand of God. His punishment, like that of Moses, may appear disproportionate to his offence; but Gods dealings with man are not regulated by any mechanical calculation of less and more, but by His perfect knowledge of the needs of the case; and it is often in truest mercy that His hand strike hard. “As gold in the furnace doth He try them”; and the purest metal comes out of the hottest fire.
Further, it is not the least prominent, but the leading part of a mans nature that most requires this heavenly discipline, if the best is to be made of it that can be made. The strongest element, that which is most characteristic of the person, that which constitutes his individuality, is the chosen field of Divine influence and operation; for here lies the greatest need. In Jeremiah this master element was an almost feminine tenderness; a warmly affectionate disposition, craving the love and sympathy of his fellows, and recoiling almost in agony from the spectacle of pain and suffering. And therefore it was that the Divine discipline was specially applied to this element in the prophets personality. In him, as in all other men, the good was mingled with evil, which, if not purged away, might spread until it spoiled his whole nature. It is not virtue to indulge our own bent, merely because it pleases us to do so; nor is the exercise of affection any great matter to an affectionate nature. The involved strain of selfishness must be separated, if any naturally good gift is to be elevated to moral worth, to become acceptable in the sight of God. And so it was precisely here, in his most susceptible point, that the sword of trial pierced the prophet through. He was saved from all hazard of becoming satisfied with the love of wife and children, and forgetting in that earthly satisfaction the love of his God. He was saved from absorption in the pleasures of friendly intercourse with neighbours, from passing his days in an agreeable round of social amenities; at a time when ruin was impending over his country, and well-nigh ready to fall. And the means which God chose for the accomplishment of this result were precisely those of which the prophet had complained; {Jer 15:17} his social isolation, which though in part a matter of choice, was partly forced upon him by the irritation and ill will of his acquaintance. It is now declared that this trial is to continue. The Lord does not necessarily remove a trouble when entreated to do it. He manifests His love by giving strength to bear it, until the work of chastening be perfected.
An interruption is now supposed, such as may often have occurred in the course of Jeremiahs public utterances. The audience demands to know why all this evil is ordained to fall upon them. “What is our guilt and what our trespass, that we have trespassed against Iahvah our God?” The answer is a twofold accusation. Their fathers were faithless to Iahvah, and they have outdone their fathers sin; and the penalty will be expulsion and a foreign servitude.
“Because your fathers forsook Me (It is Iahvahs word!)
And went after other gods, and served them, and bowed down to them,
And Me they forsook, and My teaching they observed not:
And ye yourselves (or, as for you) have done worse than your fathers;
And lo, ye walk each after the stubbornness of his evil heart,
So as not to hearken unto Me.
Therefore will I hurl you from off this land,
On to the land that ye and your fathers knew not;
And ye may serve there other gods, day and night,
Since I will not grant you grace.”
The damning sin laid to Israels charge is idolatry, with all the moral consequences involved in that prime transgression. That is to say, the offence consisted not barely in recognising and honouring the gods of the nations along with their own God, though that were fault enough, as an act of treason against the sole majesty of Heaven; but it was aggravated enormously by the moral declension and depravity which accompanied this apostasy. They and their fathers forsook Iahvah “and kept not His teaching”; a reference to the Book of the Law, considered not only as a collection of ritual and ceremonial precepts for the regulation of external religion, but as a guide of life and conduct. And there had been a progress in evil; the nation had gone from bad to worse with fearful rapidity: so that now it could be said of the existing generation that it paid no heed at all to the monitions which Iahvah uttered by the mouth of His prophet, but walked simply in stubborn self-will and the indulgence of every corrupt inclination. And here too, as in so many other cases, the sin is to be its own punishment. The Book of the Law had declared that revolt from Iahvah should be punished by enforced service of strange gods in a strange land; {Deu 4:28; Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64} and Jeremiah repeats this threat, with the addition of a tone of ironical concession: there, in your bitter banishment, you may have your wish to the full; you may serve the foreign gods, and that without intermission (implying that the service would be a slavery).
The whole theory of Divine punishment is implicit in these few words of the prophet. They who sin persistently against light and knowledge are at last given over to their own hearts lust, to do as they please, without the gracious check of Gods inward voice. And then there comes a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie, and take evil for good and good for evil, and hold themselves innocent before God, when their guilt has reached its climax; so that, like Jeremiahs hearers, if their evil be denounced, they can ask in astonishment: “What is our iniquity? or what is our trespass?”
They are so ripe in sin that they retain no knowledge of it as sin, but hold it virtue.
“And they, so perfect is their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,
But boast themselves more comely than before.”
And not only do we find in this passage a striking instance of judicial blindness as the penalty of sin. We may see also in the penalty predicted for the Jews a plain analogy to the doctrine that the permanence of the sinful state in a life to come is the penalty of sin in the present life. “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still!” and know himself to be what he is.
The prophets dark horizon is here apparently lit up for a moment by a gleam of hope. The fourteenth and fifteenth verses (Jer 16:14-15), however, with their beautiful promise of restoration, really belong to another oracle, whose prevailing tones are quite different from the present gloomy forecast of retribution. {Jer 23:7 sqq.} Here they interrupt the sense, and make a cleavage in the connection of thought, which can only be bridged over artificially, by the suggestion that the import of the two verses is primarily not consolatory but minatory; that is to say, that they threaten Exile rather than promise Return; a mode of understanding the two verses which does manifest violence to the whole form of expression, and, above all, to their obvious force in the original passage from which they have been transferred hither. Probably some transcriber of the text wrote them in the margin of his copy, by way of palliating the otherwise unbroken gloom of this oracle of coming woe. Then, at some later time, another copyist, supposing the marginal note indicated an omission, incorporated the two verses in his transcription of the text, where they have remained ever since. {See on Jer 23:7-8}
After plainly announcing in the language of Deuteronomy the expulsion of Judah from the land which they had desecrated by idolatry, the prophet develops the idea in his own poetic fashion; representing the punishment as universal, and insisting that it is a punishment, and not an unmerited misfortune.
“Lo, I am about to send many fishers (It is Iahvahs word!)
And they shall fish them;
And afterwards will I send many hunters,
And they shall hunt them,
From off every mountain,
And from off every hill,
And out of the clefts of the rocks.”
Like silly fish, crowding helplessly one over another into the net, when the fated moment arrives, Judah will fall an easy prey to the destroyer. And “afterwards,” to ensure completeness, those who have survived this first disaster will be hunted like wild beasts, out of all the dens and caves in the mountains, the Adullams and Engedis, where they have found a refuge from the invader.
There is clearly reference to two distinct visitations of wrath, the latter more deadly than the former; else why the use of the emphatic note of time “afterwards”? If we understand by the “fishing” of the country the so-called first captivity, the carrying away of the boy-king Jehoiachin and his mother and his nobles and ten thousand principal citizens, by Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon; {2Ki 24:10 sqq.} and by the “hunting” the final catastrophe in the time of Zedekiah; we get, as we shall see, a probable explanation of a difficult expression in the eighteenth verse, which cannot otherwise be satisfactorily accounted for. The next words (Jer 16:17) refute an assumption, implied in the popular demand to know wherein the guilt of the nation consists, that Iahvah is not really cognisant of their acts of apostasy.
For Mine eyes are upon all their ways,
They are not hidden away from before My face
Nor is their guilt kept secret from before Mine eyes.
The verse is thus an indirect reply to the questions of Jer 16:10; questions which in some mouths might indicate that unconsciousness of guilt which is the token of sin finished and perfected; in others, the presence of that unbelief which doubts whether God can, or at least whether He does regard human conduct. But “He that planted the ear, can He not hear? He that formed the eye, can He not see?”. {Psa 94:9} It is really an utterly irrational thought, that sight, and hearing, and the higher faculties of reflection and consciousness, had their origin in a blind and deaf a senseless and unconscious source such as inorganic matter, whether we consider it in the atom or in the enormous mass of an embryo system of stars.
The measure of the penalty is now assigned.
“And I will repay first the double of their guilt and their trespass
For that they profaned My land with the carcases of their loathly offerings,
And their abominations filled Mine heritage.”
“I will repay first.” The term “first,” which has occasioned much perplexity to expositors, means “the first time,” {Gen 38:28; Dan 11:29} and refers, if I am not mistaken, to the first great blow, the captivity of Jehoiachin, of which I spoke just now; an occasion which is designated again (Jer 16:21), by the expression “this once” or rather “at this time.” And when it is said “I will repay the double of their guilt and of their trespass,” we are to understand that the Divine justice is not satisfied with half measures; the punishment of sin is proportioned to the offence, and the cup of self-entailed misery has to be drained to the dregs. Even penitence does not abolish the physical and temporal consequences of sin; in ourselves and in others whom we have influenced they continue-a terrible and ineffaceable record of the past. The ancient law required that the man who had wronged his neighbour by theft or fraud should restore double; {Exo 22:4; Exo 22:7; Exo 22:9} and thus this expression would appear to denote that the impending chastisement would be in strict accordance with the recognised rule of law and justice, and that Judah must repay to the Lord in suffering the legal equivalent for her offence. In a like strain, towards the end of the Exile, the great prophet of the captivity comforts Jerusalem with the announcement that “her hard service is accomplished, her punishment is held sufficient; for she hath received of Iahvahs hand twofold for all her trespasses”. {Isa 40:2} The Divine severity is, in fact, truest mercy. Only thus does mankind learn to realise “the exceeding sinfulness of sin,” only as Judah learned the heinousness of desecrating the Holy Land with “loathly offerings” to the vile Nature gods, and with the symbols in wood and stone of the cruel and obscene deities of Canaan; viz. by the fearful issue of transgression, the lesson of a calamitous experience, confirming the forecasts of its inspired prophets.
Iahvah my strength and my stronghold and my refuge in the day of distress!
Unto Thee the very heathen will come from the ends of the earth, and will say:
Mere fraud did oar fathers receive as their own,
Mere breath, and beings among whom is no helper.
Should man make him gods,
When such things are not gods?
“Therefore, behold I am about to let them know-
And this time will I let them know My hand and My might,
And they shall know that my name is Iahvah!”
In the opening words Jeremiah passionately recoils from the very mention of the hateful idols, the loathly creations, the lifeless “carcases,” which his people have put in the place of the Living God. An overmastering access of faith lifts him off the low ground where these dead things lie in their helplessness, and bears him in spirit to Iahvah, the really and eternally existing, Who is his “strength and stronghold and refuge in the day of distress.” From this height he takes an eagle glance into the dim future, and discerns-O marvel of victorious faith!-that the very heathen, who have never so much as known the Name of Iahvah. must one day be brought to acknowledge the impotence of their hereditary gods, and the sole deity of the Mighty One of Jacob. He enjoys a glimpse of Isaiahs and Micahs glorious vision of the latter days, when “the mountain of the Lords House shall be exalted as chief of mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it.”
In the light of this revelation, the sin and folly of Israel in dishonouring the One only God, by associating Him with idols and their symbols, becomes glaringly visible. The very heathen (the term is emphatic by position), will at last grope their way out of the night of traditional ignorance, and will own the absurdity of manufactured gods. Israel, on the other hand, has for centuries sinned against knowledge and reason. They had “Moses and the prophets”; yet they hated warning and despised reproof. They resisted the Divine teachings, because they loved to walk in their own ways, after the imaginings of their own evil hearts. And so they soon fell into that strange blindness. which suffered them to see no sin in giving companions to Iahvah, and neglecting His severer worship for the sensuous rites of Canaan.
A rude awakening awaits them. Once more will Iahvah interpose to save them from their infatuation. “This time” they shall be taught to know the nothingness of idols, not by the voice of prophetic pleadings, not by the fervid teachings of the Book of the Law, but by the sword of the enemy, by the rapine and ruin, in which the resistless might of Iahvah will be manifested against His rebellious people. Then, when the warnings which they have ridiculed find fearful accomplishment, then will they know that the name of the One God is IAHVAH-He Who alone was and is and shall be for evermore. In the shock of overthrow, in the sorrows of captivity, they will realise the enormity of assimilating the Supreme Source of events, the Fountain of all being and power, to the miserable phantoms of a darkened and perverted imagination.
Jer 17:1-18. Jeremiah, speaking for God, returns to the affirmation of Judahs guiltiness. He has answered the popular question (Jer 16:10), so far as it implied that it was no mortal sin to associate the worship of alien gods with the worship of Iahvah. He now proceeds to answer it with an indignant contradiction, so far as it suggested that Judah was no longer guilty of the grossest forms of idolatry.
Jer 17:1-2. “The trespass of Judah,” he affirms, “is written with pen of iron, with point of adamant; Graven upon the tablet of their heart, And upon the horns of their altars: Even as their sons remember their altars, And their sacred poles by the evergreen trees, Upon the high hills.”
Jer 17:3-4. O My mountain in the field! Thy wealth and all thy treasures will I give for a spoil, For the trespass of thine high places in all thy borders. And thou shalt drop thine hand from thy demesne which I gave thee; And I will enslave thee to thine enemies, In the land that thou knowest not; For a fire have ye kindled in Mine anger; It shall burn for evermore.”
It is clear from the first strophe that the outward forms of idolatry were no longer openly practised in the country. Where otherwise would be the point of affirming that the national sin was “written with pen of iron, and point of adamant”-that it was “graven upon the tablet of the peoples heart?” Where would be the point of alluding to the childrens memory of the altars and sacred poles, which were the visible adjuncts of idolatry? Plainly it is implied that the hideous rites, which sometimes involved the sacrifice of children, are a thing of the past; yet not of the distant past, for the young of the present generation remember them; those terrible scenes are burnt in upon their memories, as a haunting recollection which can no more be effaced, than the guilt contracted by their parents as agents in those abhorrent rites can be done away. The indelible characters of sin are graven deeply upon their hearts; no need for a prophet to remind them of facts to which their own consciences, their own inward sense of outraged affections, and of nature sacrificed to a dark and bloody superstition, bears irrefragable witness. Rivers of water cannot cleanse the stain of innocent blood from their polluted altars. The crimes of the past are unatoned for, and beyond reach of atonement; they cry to heaven for vengeance, and the vengeance will surely fall. {Jer 15:4}
Hitzig rather prosaically remarks that Josiah had destroyed the altars. But the stains of which the poet-seer speaks are not palpable to sense; he contemplates unseen realities.
“Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?
No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”
The second strophe declares the nature of the punishment. The tender, yearning, hopeless love of the cry with which Iahvah resigns His earthly seat to profanation and plunder and red-handed ruin, enhances the awful impression wrought by the slow, deliberate enunciation of the details of the sentence-the utter spoliation of temple and palaces; the accumulated hordes of generations-all that represented the wealth and culture and glory of the time-carried away forever; the enforced surrender of home and country; the harsh servitude to strangers in a far off land.
It is difficult to fix the date of this short lyrical outpouring, if it be assumed, with Hitzig, that it is an independent whole. He refers it to the year B.C. 602, after Jehoiakim had revolted from Babylon-“a proceeding which made a future captivity well nigh certain, and made it plain that the sin of Judah remained still to be punished.” Moreover, the preceding year (B.C. 603) was what was known to the Law as a Year of Release or Remission (shenath shemittah); and the phrase “thou shalt drop thine hand,” i.e., “loose thine hold of” the land, {Jer 17:4} appears to allude to the peculiar usages of that year, in which the debtor was released from his obligations, and the corn lands and vineyards were allowed to lie fallow. The Year of Release was also called the Year of Rest; {shenath shabbathon, Lev 25:5} and both in the present passage of Jeremiah, and in the book of Leviticus, the time to be spent by the Jews in exile is regarded as a period of rest for the desolate land, which would then “make good her sabbaths”. {Lev 26:34-35; Lev 26:43} The Chronicler indeed seems to refer to this very phrase of Jeremiah; at all events, nothing else is to be found in the extant works of the prophet with which his language corresponds. {2Ch 36:21}
If the rendering of the second verse, which we find in both our English versions, and which I have adopted above, be correct, there arises an obvious objection to the date assigned by Hitzig; and the same objection lies against the view of Naegelsbach, who translates:
“As their children remember their altars,
And their images of Baal by (i.e., at the sight of) the green trees, by the high hills.”
For in what sense could this have been written “not long before the fourth year of Jehoiakim,” which is the date suggested by this commentator for the whole group of chapters, Jer 14:1-22; Jer 15:1-21; Jer 16:1-21; Jer 17:1-27; Jer 18:1-23? The entire reign of Josiah had intervened between the atrocities of Manasseh and this period; and it is not easy to suppose that any sacrifice of children had occurred in the three months reign of Jehoahaz, or in the early years of Jehoiakim. Had it been so, Jeremiah, who denounces the latter king severely enough, would certainly have placed the horrible fact in the forefront of his invective; and instead of specifying Manasseh as the king whose offences Iahvah would not pardon, would have thus branded Jehoiakim, his own contemporary. This difficulty appears to be avoided by Hitzig, who explains the passage thus: “When they (the Jews) think of their children, they remember, and cannot but remember, the altars to whose horns the blood of their immolated children cleaves. In the same way, by a green tree on the hills, i.e., when they come upon any such, their Asherim are brought to mind, which were trees of that sort.” And since it is perhaps possible to translate the Hebrew as this suggests, “When they remember their sons, their altars, and their sacred poles, by” (i.e., by means of) “the evergreen trees” (collective term) “upon the high hills,” and this translation agrees well with the statement that the sin of Judah is “graven upon the tablet of their heart,” his view deserves further consideration. The same objection, however, presses again, though with somewhat diminished force. For if the date of the section be 602, the eighth year of Jehoiakim, more than forty years must have elapsed between the time of Manassehs bloody rites and the utterance of this oracle. Would many who were parents then, and surrendered their children for sacrifice, be still living at the supposed date? And if not, where is the appropriateness of the words “When they remember their sons, their altars, and their Asherim?”
There seems no way out of the difficulty, but either to date the piece much earlier, assigning it, e.g., to the time of the prophets earnest preaching in connection with the reforming movement of Josiah, when the living generation would certainly remember the human sacrifices under Manasseh; or else to construe the passage in a very different sense, as follows. The first verse declares that the sin of Judah is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of their altars. The pronouns evidently show that it is the guilt of the nation, not of a particular generation, that is asserted. The subsequent words agree with this view. The expression, “Their sons” is to be understood in the same way as the expressions “their heart,” “their altars.” It is equivalent to the “sons of Judah” (bene Jehudah), and means simply the people of Judah, as now existing, the present generation. Now it does not appear that image worship and the cultus of the high places revived after their abolition by Josiah. Accordingly, the symbols of impure worship mentioned in this passage are not high places and images, but altars and Asherim, i.e., the wooden poles which were the emblems of the reproductive principle of Nature. What the passage therefore intends to say would seem to be this: “The guilt of the nation remains, so long as its children are mindful of their altars and Asherim erected beside the evergreen trees on the high hills”; i.e., so long as they remain attached to the modified idolatry of the day.
The general force of the words remains the same, whether they accuse the existing generation of serving sun pillars (macceboth) and sacred poles (asherim), or merely of hankering after the old, forbidden rites. For so long as the popular heart was wedded to the former superstitions, it could not be said that any external abolition of idolatry was a sufficient proof of national repentance. The longing to indulge in sin is sin; and sinful it is not to hate sin. The guilt of the nation remained, therefore, and would remain, until blotted out by the tears of a genuine repentance towards Iahvah.
But understood thus, the passage suits the time of Jehoiachin, as well as any other period.
“Why,” asks Naegelsbach, “should not Moloch have been the terror of the Israelitish children, when there was such real and sad ground for it, as is wanting in other bugbears which terrify the children of the present day?” To this we may reply,
(1) Moloch is not mentioned at all, but simply altars and, asherim;
(2) would the word “remember” be appropriate in this case?
The beautiful strophes which follow (Jer 17:5-13) are not obviously connected with the preceding text. They wear a look of self-completeness, which suggests that here and in many other places Jeremiah has left us, not whole discourses, written down substantially in the form in which they were delivered, but rather his more finished fragments; pieces which being more rhythmical in form, and more striking in thought, had imprinted themselves more deeply upon his memory.
Thus hath Iahvah said:
Cursed is the man that trusteth in human kind,
And maketh flesh his arm,
And whose heart swerveth from Iahvah!
And he shall become like a leafless tree in the desert,
And shall not see when good cometh;
And shall dwell in parched places in the steppe,
A salt land and uninhabited.
“Blessed is the man that trusteth in Iahvah,
And whose trust Iahvah becometh!
And he shall become like a tree planted by water,
That spreadeth its roots by a stream,
And is not afraid when heat cometh,
And its leaf is evergreen;
And in the year of drought it feareth not,
Nor leaveth off from making fruit.”
The form of the thought expressed in these two octostichs, the curse and the blessing, may have been suggested by the curses and blessings of that Book of the Law of which Jeremiah had been so faithful an interpreter; {Deu 27:15-26; Deu 28:1-20} while both the thought and the form of the second stanza are imitated by the anonymous poet of the first psalm.
The mention of “the year of drought” in the penultimate line may be taken, perhaps, as a link of connection between this brief section and the whole of what precedes it so far as chapter 14, which is headed “Concerning the droughts.” If, however, the group of chapters thus marked out really constitute a single discourse, as Naegelsbach assumes, one can only say that the style is episodical rather than continuous; that the prophet has often recorded detached thoughts, worked up to a certain degree of literary form, but hanging together as loosely as pearls on a string. Indeed, unless we suppose that he had kept full notes of his discourses and soliloquies, or that, like certain professional lecturers of our own day, he had been in the habit of indefinitely repeating to different audiences the same carefully elaborated compositions, it is difficult to understand how he would be able without the aid of a special miracle, to write down in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the numerous utterances of the previous three and twenty years. Neither of these suppositions appears probable. But if the prophet wrote from memory, so long after the original delivery of many of his utterances, the looseness of internal connection, which marks so much of his book, is readily understood.
The internal evidence of the fragment before us, so far as any such is traceable, appears to point to the same period as what precedes, the time immediately subsequent to the death of Jehoiakim. The curse pronounced upon trusting in man may be an allusion to that kings confidence in the Egyptian alliance, which probably induced him to revolt from Nebuchadrezzar, and so precipitate the final catastrophe of his country. He owed his throne to the Pharaohs appointment, {2Ki 23:34} and may perhaps have regarded this as an additional reason for defection from Babylon. But the chastisement of Egypt preceded that of Judah; and when the day came for the latter, the king of Egypt durst no longer go to the help of his too trustful allies. {2Ki 24:7} Jehoiakim had died, but his son and successor was carried captive to Babylon. In the brief interval between those two events, the prophet may have penned these two stanzas, contrasting the issues of confidence in man and confidence in God. On the other hand, they may also be referred to some time not long before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when that king, egged on by Egypt, was meditating rebellion against his suzerain; an act of which the fatal consequences might easily be foreseen by any thoughtful observer, who was not blinded by fanatical passion and prejudice, and which might itself be regarded as an index of the kindling of Divine wrath against the country.
“Deep is the heart above all things else:
And sore diseased it is: who can know it?
I, Iahvah, search the heart, I try the reins,
And that, to give to a man according to his own ways,
According to the fruit of his own doings.”
“A partridge that gathereth young which are not hers,
Is he that maketh wealth not by right.
In the middle of his days it will leave him,
And in his end he shall prove a fool.”
“A throne of glory, a high seat from of old,
Is the place of our sanctuary.
Hope of Israel, Iahvah!
All that leave Thee shall be ashamed;
Mine apostates shall be written in earth;
For they left the Well of Living Waters, even Iahvah.”
“Heal Thou me, Iahvah, and I shall be healed,
Save Thou me, and I shall be saved,
For Thou art my praise.”
“Lo, they say unto me,
Where is the Word of Iahvah?
Prithee, let it come!
Yet I, I hasted not from being a shepherd after Thee,
And woeful day I desired not-
Thou knowest;
The issue of my lips, before Thy face it fell.”
“Become not a terror to me!
Thou art my refuge in the day of evil.
Let my pursuers be ashamed, and let not me be ashamed!
Let them be dismayed, and let not me be dismayed;
Let Thou come upon them a day of evil,
And doubly with breaking break Thou them!”
In the first of these stanzas, the word “heart” is the connecting link with the previous reflections. The curse and the blessing had there been pronounced not upon any outward and visible distinctions, but upon a certain inward bent and spirit. He is called accursed, whose confidence is placed in changeable, perishable man, and “whose heart swerveth from Iahvah.” And he is blessed, who pins his faith to nothing visible; who looks for help and stay not to the seen, which is temporal, but to the Unseen, which is eternal.
The thought now occurs that this matter of inward trust, being a matter of the heart, and not merely of the outward bearing, is a hidden matter, a secret which baffles all ordinary judgment. Who shall take upon him to say whether this or that man, this or that prince confided or not confided in Iahvah? The human heart is a sea, whose depths are beyond human search; or it is a shifty Proteus, transforming itself from moment to moment under the pressure of changing circumstances, at the magic touch of impulse, under the spell of new perceptions and new phases of its world. And besides, its very life is tainted with a subtle disease, whose hereditary influence is ever interfering with the will and affections, ever tampering with the conscience and the judgment, and making difficult a clear perception, much more a wise decision. Nay, where so many motives press, so many plausible suggestions of good, so many palliations of evil, present themselves upon the eve of action; when the colours of good and evil mingle and gleam together in such rich profusion before the dazzled sight that the mind is bewildered by the confused medley of appearances, and wholly at a loss to discern and disentangle them one from another; is it wonderful, if in such a case the heart should take refuge in the comfortable illusion of self-deceit, and seek, with too great success, to persuade itself into contentment with something which it calls not positive evil but merely a less sublime good?
It is not for man, who cannot see the heart, to pronounce upon the degree of his fellows guilt. All sins, all crimes, are in this respect relative to the intensity of passion, the force of circumstances, the nature of surroundings, the comparative stress of temptation. Murder and adultery are absolute crimes in the eye of human law, and subject as such to fixed penalties; but the Unseen Judge takes cognisance of a thousand considerations, which, though they abolish not the exceeding sinfulness of these hideous results of a depraved nature, yet modify to a vast extent the degree of guilt evinced in particular cases by the same outward acts. In the sight of God a life socially correct may be stained with a deeper dye than that of profligacy or bloodshed; and nothing so glaringly shows the folly of inquiring what is the unpardonable sin as the reflection that any sin whatever may become such in an individual case.
Before God, human justice is often the liveliest injustice. And how many flagrant wrongs, how many monstrous acts of cruelty and oppression, how many wicked frauds and perjuries, how many of those vile deeds of seduction and corruption, which are, in truth, the murder of immortal souls; how many of those fearful sins, which make a sorrow-laden hell beneath the smiling surface of this pleasure-wooing world, are left unheeded, unavenged by any earthly tribunal! But all these things are noted in the eternal record of Him who searches the heart, and penetrates mans inmost being, not from a motive of mere curiosity, but with fixed intent to award a righteous recompense for all choice and all conduct.
The calamities which marked the last years of Jehoiakim, and his ignominious end, were a signal instance of Divine retribution. Here that kings lawless avarice is branded as not only wicked, but foolish. He is compared to the partridge, which gathers and hatches the eggs of other birds, only to be deserted at once by her stolen brood. “In the middle of his days, it shall leave him” (or “it may leave him,” for in Hebrew one form has to do duty for both shades of meaning). The uncertainty of possession, the certainty of absolute surrender within a few short years, this is the point which demonstrates the unreason of making riches the chief end of ones earthly activity. “Truly man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain: he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.” It is the point which is put with such terrible force in the parable of the Rich Fool. “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for thyself for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” “And the Lord said unto him, Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee.”
The covetousness, oppression, and bloodthirstiness of Jehoiakim are condemned in a striking prophecy, {Jer 22:13-19} which we shall have to consider hereafter. A vivid light is thrown upon the words, “In the middle of his days it shall leave him,” by the fact recorded in Kings, {2Ki 23:36} that he died in the thirty-sixth year of his age; when, that is, he had fulfilled but half of the threescore years and ten allotted to the ordinary life of man. We are reminded of that other psalm which declares that “bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.” {Psa 55:23}
Apart indeed from all consideration of the future, and apart from all reference to that loyalty to the Unseen Ruler which is mans inevitable duty, a life devoted to Mammon is essentially irrational. The man is mostly a “fool”-that is, one who fails to understand his own nature, one who has not attained to even a tolerable working hypothesis as to the needs of life, and the way to win a due share of happiness; -who has not discovered that
“riches have their proper stint
In the contented mind, not mint”;
and that
“those who have the itch
Of craving more, are never rich”;
and who has missed all apprehension of the grand secret that
“Wealth cannot make a life, but love.”
From the vanity of earthly thrones, whether of Egypt or of Judah, thrones whose glory is transitory, and whose power to help and succour is so ill-assured, the prophet lifts his eyes to the one throne whose glory is everlasting, and whose power and permanence are an eternal refuge.
“Thou Throne of Glory,
High Seat from of old,
Place of our Sanctuary,
Hope of Israel, Iahvah!
All who leave Thee blush for shame:
Mine apostates are written in earth;
For they have forsaken the Well of Living Water, even Iahvah!”
It is his concluding reflection upon the unblest, unhonoured end of the apostate Jehoiakim. If Isaiah could speak of Shebna as a “throne of glory,” i.e., the honoured support and mainstay of his family, there seems no reason why Lahvah might not be so addressed, as the supporting power and sovereign of the world.
The terms “Throne of Glory” “Place of our Sanctuary” seem to be used much as we use the expressions, “the Crown.” “the Court,” “the Throne,” when we mean the actual ruler with whom these things are associated. And when the prophet declares “Mine apostates are written in earth,” he asserts that oblivion is the portion of those of his people, high or low, who forsake Iahvah for another god. Their names are not written in the Book of Exo 32:32; Psa 69:28, but in the sand whence they are soon effaced. The prophets do not attempt to expose
“The sweet strange mystery
Of what beyond these things may lie.”
They do not in express terms promise eternal life to the individual believer.
But how often do their words imply that comfortable doctrine! They who forsake Iahvah must perish, for there is neither permanence nor stay apart from IAHVAH, whose very Name denotes “He who Is,” the sole Principle of Being and Fountain of Life. If they-nations and persons-who revolt from Him must die, the implication, the truth necessary to complete this affirmation, is that they who trust in Him, and make Him their arm, will live; for union with Him is eternal life.
In this Fountain of Living Water Jeremiah now seeks healing for himself. The malady that afflicts him is the apparent failure of his oracles. He suffers as a prophet whose word seems idle to the multitude. He is hurt with their scorn, and wounded to the heart with their scoffing. On all sides men press the mocking question, “Where is the word of Iahvah? Prithee, let it come to pass!” His threats of national overthrow had not been speedily realised; and men made a mock of the delays of Divine mercy. Conscious of his own integrity, and keenly sensitive to the ridicule of his triumphant adversaries, and scarcely able to endure longer his intolerable position, he pours out a prayer for healing and help. “Heal me,” he cries, “and I shall be healed, Save me and I shall be saved” (really and truly saved, as the form of the Hebrew verb implies); “for Thou art my praise,” my boast and nay glory, as the Book of the Law affirms. {Deu 10:21} I have not trusted in man, but in God; and if this my sole glory be taken away, if events prove me a false prophet, as my friends allege, applying the very test of the sacred Law, {Deu 18:21 sq.} then shall I be of all men most forsaken and forlorn. The bitterness of his woe is intensified by the consciousness that he has not thrust himself without call into the prophetic office, like the false prophets whose aim was to traffic in sacred things; {Jer 14:14-15} for then the consciousness of guilt might have made the punishment more tolerable, and the facts would have justified the jeers of his persecutors. But the case was far otherwise. He had been most unwilling to assume the function of prophet; and it was only in obedience to the stress of repeated calls that he had yielded. “But as for me,” he protests, “I hasted not from being a shepherd to follow Thee.” It would seem, if this be the correct, as it certainly is the simplest rendering of his words, that, at the time when he first became aware of his true vocation, the young prophet was engaged in tending the flocks that grazed in the priestly pasture grounds of Anathoth. In that case, we are reminded of David, who was summoned from the sheepfold to camp and court, and of Amos, the prophet herdsman of Tekoa. But the Hebrew term translated “from being a shepherd” is probably a disguise of some other original expression; and it would involve no very violent change to read “I made no haste to follow after Thee fully” or “entirely” {Deu 1:36} a reading which is partially supported by the oldest version. Or it may have been better, as involving a mere change in the punctuation, to amend the text thus: “But as for me, I made no haste, in following Thee,” more literally, “in accompanying Thee”. {Jdg 14:20} This, however, is a point of textual criticism, which leaves the general sense the same in any case.
When the prophet adds: “and the ill day I desired not,” some think that he means the day when he surrendered to the Divine calling, and accepted his mission. But it seems to suit the context better, if we understand by the “ill day” the day of wrath whose coming was the burden of his preaching; the day referred to in the taunts of his enemies, when they asked, “Where is the word of Iahvah?” adding with biting sarcasm: “Prithee, let it come to pass.” They sneered at Jeremiah as one who seized every occasion to predict evil, as one who longed to witness the ruin of his country. The utter injustice of the charge, in view of the frequent cries of anguish which interrupt his melancholy forecasts, is no proof that it was not made. In all ages, Gods representatives have been called upon to endure false accusations. Hence the prophet appeals from mans unrighteous judgment to God the Searcher of hearts. “Thou knowest; the utterance of my lips” {Deu 23:24} “before Thy face it fell”: as if to say, No word of mine, spoken in Thy name, was a figment of my own fancy, uttered for my own purposes, without regard of Thee. I have always spoken as in Thy presence, or rather, in Thy presence. Thou, who hearest all, didst hear each utterance of mine; and therefore knowest that all I said was truthful and honest and in perfect accord with my commission.
If only we who, like Jeremiah, are called upon to speak for God, could always remember that every word we say is uttered in that Presence, what a sense of responsibility would lie upon us; with what labour and prayers should we not make our preparation! Too often alas! it is to be feared that our perception of the presence of man banishes all sense of any higher presence; and the anticipation of a fallible and frivolous criticism makes us forget for the time the judgment of God. And yet “by our words we shall be justified, and by our words we shall be condemned.”
In continuing his prayer, Jeremiah adds the remarkable petition, “Become not Thou to me a cause of dismay!” He prays to be delivered from that overwhelming perplexity, which threatens to swallow him up, unless God should verify by events that which His own Spirit has prompted him to utter. He prays that Iahvah, his only “refuge in the day of evil,” will not bemock him with vain expectations; will not falsify His own guidance; will not suffer His messenger to be “ashamed,” disappointed and put to the blush by the failure of his predictions. And then once again, in the spirit of his time, he implores vengeance upon his unbelieving and cruel persecutors: “Let them be ashamed,” disappointed in their expectation of immunity, “let them be dismayed,” crushed in spirit and utterly overcome by the fulfilment of his dark presages of evil. “Let Thou come upon them a day of evil, And doubly with breaking break Thou them!” This indeed asks no more than that what has been spoken before in the way of prophecy-“I will repay the double of their guilt and their trespass” {Jer 16:18} -may be forthwith accomplished. And the provocation was, beyond all question, immense. The hatred that burned in the taunt “where is the word of Iahvah? Prithee, let it come to pass!” was doubtless of like kind with that which at a later stage of Jewish history expressed itself in the words “He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him!” “If He be the Son of God, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on Him!”
And how much fierce hostility that one term “my pursuers” may cover, it is easy to infer from the narratives of the prophets evil experience in chapters 20, 26, and 38. But allowing for all this, we can at best only affirm that the prophets imprecations on his foes are natural and human; we cannot pretend that they are evangelical and Christ-like. Besides, the latter would be a gratuitous anachronism, which no intelligent interpreter of Scripture is called upon to perpetrate. It is neither necessary to the proper vindication of the prophets writings as truly inspired of God, nor helpful to a right conception of the method of revelation.