Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 31:18
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus]; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou [art] the LORD my God.
18. The Lord declares that He has heard Ephraim confessing that his punishment was the just consequence of his sin, and praying for acceptance.
as a calf unaccustomed to the yoke] that has not been tamed.
I shall be turned ] rather I will turn in the neuter sense (not the passive, which modern English usage implies). See Dr. p. 366.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Jer 31:18-21
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.
Repentant Ephraim
The real turning-point in mans spiritual history is when he begins to accuse himself and to justify God. From self-accusation the soul is led on by the Spirit of God to self-condemnation. Mark, in the first place, what it is that Ephraim bemoans. It is himself. To mourn sinful acts is one thing, and may be done by even a Judas. To mourn over a sinful nature, an evil heart dwelling within, of which the act is only an expression, is quite another. The one may be the work of the natural conscience unenlightened by the Spirit of God: the other is the genuine mark of a soul that has been under the leading of that Spirit, and has passed from death unto life. Mark it in the case of Ephraim. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. It is no mere surface work. It is Ephraim under conviction of sin. It is Ephraim taking up the prophets words, Woe is me, for I am undone. Mark the three times the word surely occurs here. I have surely heard Ephraim; surely after that I was turned, I repented; I will surely have mercy. These are the sure mercies of David, given to the soul under the training of the Spirit of God. There is the sure ear of God, the sure repentance of the soul, and the sure mercy to meet it. Why is this? Because the work is Gods. It is a thorough work. Observe, next, how God often brings the soul to the knowledge of itself. Thou hast chastised me. It is through the sharp strokes of trial and discipline. Ah! these do Gods work often when nothing else will. Let God draw near and lay His hand upon us, then the true character of the heart will display itself. That character is unchangeable–enmity to God. Blessed be God when we are brought to see and feel it! Then, like Ephraim, we say, Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. And what is the ground on which this is urged? For Thou art the Lord my God. What a plea! What sweet assurance! What trust! What knowledge of Him these words imply! Oh, to draw near at all times with this on the lips! Then will the bow of peace span the darkest cloud, and light and peace and joy be the heritage of the soul. Observe the next clause. God turns the soul, then there is true repentance. Then He instructs that soul by His Spirit. It goes on learning deeper lessons of Him and of His wondrous grace. But mark the direction which this instruction takes, and the spirit it begets in the soul. After that I was instructed, &c. How the instruction increases humility! How the soul begins with smiting, and goes on to shame and confounding! Mark, next, the Lords language to the returning child. Ephraim, My dear son; a pleasant child; for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore My bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. How beautifully the history of the prodigal son confirms this! Set thee up way-marks; make thee high heaps. Make thee finger-posts to guide thee to heaven. How many a thing the believer may set before him each day to help him onward. How many a passage of Scripture stored up in memory may preserve the soul in dangers hour, and send it on its way more than conqueror! How many a secret prayer sent up to God has been a way-mark, leading the soul into a right path when all was perplexity and darkness! Yes, not only set thee up way-marks, but make thee high heaps. A high heap is one that can easily be seen. Oh! it is a great thing when we come to some perplexity in life, when we come to some turning-point in our history, to have something ready to hand. It is a blessed thing not to have to search about for it, not to be hindered in the course by delay, but to see the path plainly and clearly before us! And what is the last word in this passage to Ephraim? Turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. It is a prophetic word, bidding that exile from her long-lost home look back again in hope. It is the climax of all that has gone before. It is that blessed hope, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious prospect awaits the despised and downtrodden nation of Israel! What a glorious prospect awaits the Church of the living God–the Bride of the Lamb! (F. Whitfield, M. A.)
The picture of a true penitent
I. The picture of a true penitent. The piteous lamentations,–the bitter self-accusations, the tears and prayers of the broken-hearted are delineated with a force and accuracy which transport us to the scenes described.
1. His position is solitary, bemoaning himself. It is not an easy, but it is an indispensable process, that all sources of relief should be forsaken but those which are in God Himself, when man is seeking the pardon of sin and the salvation of the soul.
2. Self-reproach. Shame at having acted so unworthy a part,–so contrary to one s own best interests,–so ungrateful to the Heavenly Benefactor, so derogatory to His glory,–so injurious to the welfare of others,–so morally bad in its defilement,–so insufficient in its motives,–so degrading in its results.
3. The true penitent refers his state to God. If the events of life are in our esteem only the outcome of fixed laws, altogether detached from an intelligent and personal control, they yield us no profit. If, on the other hand, we trace them to God, they become luminous in the instruction which they furnish, and the whole discipline of life resolves itself into a system in which goodness and mercy, wisdom and power, are most effectively taught.
4. It is a favourable sign of this true penitent that he mingles with his self-reproaches the language of childlike interest in God. For Thou art the Lord my God.
II. The process of restoration. In the case of Israel it was as it is often now; by means of affliction God awakened him to spiritual things. The discipline of affliction is not, however, limited to that part of the Christian life which precedes conversion. They have a most important office to perform in the training and perfecting of the sons of God.
1. They are employed as preventive. The condition of life may be very limited, but its limitation is to a godly man a source of security. The suffering in which he is involved may be very acute, but it makes prayer exceeding real, the Bible very sweet, and the consolations of Christ abound as the sufferings of Christ abound (2Co 1:6). It is better, says an old divine, to be preserved in brine than to rot in honey.
2. The treatment which God adopted with Ephraim He still employs with His people, inasmuch as He makes their sorrows and trials restorative in their character. The scalpel may cause the patient to wince, but it will cut away incipient corruption and death. The sharpest winters are followed by the most fruitful summers.
3. All the trials of the present world are employed by Divine wisdom as preparatives for the future of the Christian. (W. G. Lewis.)
Ephraim bemoaning himself
I. A sinner bemoaning himself.
1. Bowed down with a peculiar grief. Inward sorrow. True repentance.
2. Well-founded sorrow. Over guilt, outrage on Gods goodness and grace.
3. Humble sorrow. Not excusing or flattering himself, or making new resolutions; but bemoaning.
4. A thoughtful sorrow.
5. A hopeless yet a hopeful sorrow.
II. The lord observing him.
1. God heard all Ephraim had to say. It may be but a stammering cry. Broken prayers are the best.
2. God delights in the broken and contrite spirit.
3. God is full of compassion.
III. The lord working in his effectual grace.
1. The only turning in the world that is saving and Divine, is the turning of the heart.
2. The Lords way of turning men varies in each case.
(1) A distinct sight of wrath to come stops a sinner.
(2) Or the awakened conscience is led to see the real nature of sin.
(3) The grand turning-point is the sight of Christ on the Cross.
(4) One of the most blessed ways by which God makes a sinner turn is, He manifests His everlasting love to him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The cry of the penitent
Amidst all the confused and discordant sounds that are for ever rising from this fallen world of ours into the ears of the Most High God, there is one to which He can never be indifferent; and that is, the voice of a stricken and contrite sinner bemoaning himself. He finds that from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is no soundness in him. He is out of heart with himself altogether, and despairs of being able to improve his position. O wretched man that I am! he exclaims, who will deliver me from the body of this death? And thus by his very perplexity and helplessness he is drawn to look out of himself for assistance. Oh, you who are bemoaning yourselves, here is comfort for you. You never would have come to that point, you would have been even now either excusing or endeavouring to amend yourselves, but for the blessed influence of the Divine Spirit, who has shown you your true condition and brought you to an end of yourself, and thus put you m a position to begin with Him. Oh, thank Him for it, and since He has brought you thus far, trust Him to bring you farther. Come, let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. But here I want you to observe one feature specially of the perplexity and distress which leads Ephraim so to bemoan himself. He makes the humiliating discovery that not only has his past life been full of sin, but that his very efforts to repent and turn to God have also been characterised by a strange and fatal perversity. His repentance itself has to be repented of. This attitude of moral perversity is illustrated in our text by a remarkable and suggestive metaphor. Thou hast chastised me, exclaims Ephraim, bemoaning himself, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke–a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke–an unbroken bullock! Of all the perverse things to be found in the world, where will you find anything more unmanageable than this? Here Ephraim sees a picture of himself, and here also too many an awakened sinner finds himself represented. How often does such a one adopt a course exactly the reverse of that which God would have him take! How often does he insist on adopting the course of action least appropriate to his spiritual condition, and as a result he has to feel the chastening goad, and only by stern discipline of sorrow has he to be brought to the obedience of faith and the submission of the will, to see and acknowledge his own folly, and to yield himself to God. At last, Ephraim does the wisest thing that he could do, and what he should have done long before. Having reached the point of self-despair; having seen the folly of his own attempts to better himself, and having repented of his own perversity, he just puts the whole thing into the hands of God. O Lord, I have tried my best, and my best has failed me: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; but still, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, I have continued to make mistakes and to do the wrong thing; now in my helplessness I must make the whole matter over to Thee. Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned: for Thou art the Lord my God. Ah, that is the only true solution of the difficulty. Here is the turning-point in our experience, here is the moment of victory for the helpless. Let a man once put himself thus unreservedly into the hands of his God, and all the devils of hell cannot keep him from the blessing. His present salvation is at once secure, because the honour and truth of the everlasting God are pledged for the safety of the man who trusts himself to God. O God, cries the penitent and self-despairing sinner, I cannot turn myself, I cannot change my own nature, but I believe that Thou canst, so I put myself completely in Thy hands to do it for me. How often have I hindered Thy work by endeavouring to do for myself what only Thou canst do; how often in my very efforts to turn myself have I, as it were, turned the wrong way. Lord, if I am to be saved at all, Thou must save me, for I cannot save myself. Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned: for Thou art the Lord my God! And who is there that God cannot turn when he is thus submitted to Him–who so far gone, so deeply sunk, that God cannot change him? The things impossible with men are possible with God; and often when the change has been beyond all human hope, God has done it to the glory of His own great name. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
The inner side of conversion
There are turning-points in most lives. We go on in a straight line for a certain distance, but suddenly we come to a place where we must make a choice of roads. All the rest of our journey may depend upon what we do at those particular points. Character often hinges on a days resolve. An interesting book has been written upon Turning-points in life, and it is capable of indefinite extension. According to a mans station and disposition, those turning-points take place at different periods; but whenever they are before us, they call for special prayer and trust in God. There is, however, one turning-point, and one only, which will secure salvation and eternal life; and that is what we call conversion, which is the first apparent result of regeneration, or the new birth. The man being renewed, the current of his life is turned: he is converted.
I. First, here is man at the turning-point as God observes him. Is not that a wonderful word of the Lord, I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself? Of a certainty the Lord hears all the sorrowful voices of men. The Lord hears surely: that is to say, He hears the sense and meaning of our wordless moans: He puts into language that which no words of ours could express. The Lord understands us better than we understand ourselves.
1. Concerning the man here described, we note that he is in a state of great sorrow about himself. The grief is within. All the water outside the ship is of small account; it is when the leak admits the water to the hold that there is danger. Let not your heart be troubled: it matters something if your country or your house be troubled; but to you the trying matter is if your heart be troubled. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? This is what the Lord tenderly notes about the sinner at the turning-point, that he bemoans himself.
2. This bemoaning was addressed to his God. This is a very hopeful point about it: he cried to Jehovah, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised. It is a blessed thing when a man in his distress turns to his God, and not from Him.
3. Notice how Ephraim in the text has spied out his God as having long ago dealt with him. He tells the Lord that He has chastised him. Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised. The man had not before observed the hand of God in his suffering: but he does now. I have hope of that man who sees Gods hand, even though he sees only a rod in it.
4. But the mourner in our text means more than this by his bemoanings: he owns that the chastening had not set him right. Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; and that was all. He had smarted, but he had not submitted. He had not obeyed, but had still further rebelled.
5. Yet there is something better than this; the mourner in our text despairs of all but God. He cannot turn himself, and chastisement will not turn him; he has no hope left but for God Himself to interpose. Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned.
6. To all this confession poor bemoaning Ephraim adds another word, whereby he submits to the supreme sway of Jehovah his God, For Thou art the Lord my God. He does as good as say, Man cannot help me. I cannot help myself. Even Thy chastenings have not availed to turn me. Lord, I appeal to Thee, Thyself! Thou art Jehovah. Thou canst do all things. Thou art my God, for Thou hast made me; and therefore Thou canst new-make me. I pray Thee, therefore, exercise Thine own power, and renew Thy poor, broken and defiled creature.
II. Man after the turning-point. Here you have the description in the nineteenth verse. It begins with Surely. Is it not very remarkable that each of these verses should be stamped with the hall-mark, and each one bear the word surely? The Lord said He had surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself; and here Ephraim says, Surely after that I was turned, I repented.
1. See, before us, prayer mixed with faith soon answered. Not many moments after Ephraim had said, Thou art the Lord my God, he felt that he was turned. My friend, do you remember when you were turned? Do you know your spiritual birthday, and the spot of ground where Jesus unveiled His face to you? Some of us do, although others do not. The main point is to be turned; to know the place and time is a secondary matter.
2. Yet I say some of us know when we were turned; and here is one reason why we remember it, for repentance came with turning. After that I was turned, I repented. He that is truly turned turns his face to the wall to weep and pray. Thou canst not make thyself repent; but when God hath changed thy heart, thou wilt repent as naturally as the brook flows adown the valley when once its bands of ice are thawed. After that I was turned, I repented.
3. Deep sorrow followed upon further instruction. The Holy Spirit does not leave the convert, but gives him further instruction; and out of that comes a sorer regret, a more complete self-abasement. After that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh. Want of knowledge tends to make men hardened, unfeeling, self-complacent, and proud; but when they are instructed by the Divine Spirit, then they are ready to inflict wounds upon themselves as worthy of buffetings and blows. God be merciful to me, a sinner is a fit prayer for the instructed, and the lowliest posture well becomes such a one.
4. To this deep sorrow there followed shame. Ephraim says, I was ashamed, yea, even confounded. This man knew everything before; now he knows nothing, but is confounded. Once he could dispute, and dispute, and dispute; but now he stands silent before his Judge. He stands like a convicted felon, who, when he is asked by the judge if he has anything to say in stay of sentence, lays his hand on his mouth, and, blushing scarlet, confesses by his silence that he deserves to die. This is the man with whom mercy can work her will.
5. Lastly on this point, memory now comes in, and revives the reproach of youth Memory is a very terrible torture to a guilty heart. Son, remember! is one of the voices heard in hell. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. I can only compare the sinner with a quickened memory to one who is travelling across the plains of Russia dreaming in his carriage, and on a sudden he is aroused by the sharp bark of a wolf behind him; and this is followed up by a thousand cruel voices of brutes, hungry, and gaunt, and grim, all eager for his blood. Hearken to the patter of those eager feet I the howls of those hungry demons! Whence came they? You thought that your sins were dead long ago, and quite forgotten. See, they have left their tombs! They are on your track. Like wolves, your old sins are pursuing you. They rest not day nor night. They prepare their teeth to tear you. Whither will you flee? How can you escape the consequences of the past? They are upon you, these monsters, their hot breath is in your face; who can now save you? Only a miracle can rescue you from the reproach of your youth; will that miracle be wrought? May we dare to look for it? We have something better than a mere hope to set before you. Jesus meets these packs of wolfish sins. He interposes between us and them! He drives them back! He scatters them! There is not one of them left!
III. Now we will turn, and hear God at this turning-point. Is Ephraim My dear son? is he a pleasant child? Does this look like a question? The answer has been already given in the ninth verse: I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. The gracious Lord sees Ephraim sore with chastisement, spent with weeping, pale with shame, and moaning with agony, and then his sonship is acknowledged. He bends over the crushed one, and cries, This is My son. This is My dear child. How gracious on Gods part to acknowledge the guilty rebel as a son! See here is love acknowledging the object of its choice, love confessing its near relationship to one most unworthy and most sorrowful. Then behold the same love well pleased. The Lord does not merely say, Ephraim is My son; yea, he is My child; but He calls him My dear son, a pleasant child. A pleasant child! Why, he has been full of rebellion from his birth! Yes; but he confesses it, and mourns it; and he is a pleasant child when so much holy sorrow is seen in him. Love takes delight in repenting sinners. Notice, in this case, love in earnest. The Lord says, Since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still God in earnest–that is a great conception! God in earnest over one moaning sinner! God earnest in thoughts of love, even when He bids the preacher tell the offender of the wrath to come. Notice, next, love in sympathy. Ephraim is bemoaning himself, and what is the Lord doing? He says, My bowels are troubled for him. Gods heart is wounded when our hearts are broken. Then comes love in action: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. I am so glad to think that the surely is found again in this place. Surely God heard Ephraim bemoaning; Surely he said that he was turned, and now God says, Surely I will have mercy upon him. The Lord God puts His hand and seal to it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Presumptuous sins call for profound repentance
The will of man is a sour and stubborn piece of clay, that will not frame to any serviceable use without much working. A soft and tender heart, indeed, is soon rent in pieces, like a silken garment if it do but catch upon any little nail; but a heart hardened with a long custom of sinning, especially if it be with one of these presumptuous sins, is like the knotty root end of an old oak that has lain long a-drying in the sun. It must be a hard wedge that will enter, and it must be handled with some skill too to make it do that; and when the wedge is entered, it will endure many a hard knock before it will yield to the cleaver, and fail in sunder. And indeed it is a blessed thing, and to be acknowledged a gracious evidence of Gods unspeakable mercy to those that have wilfully suffered such an unclean spirit to enter in and to take possession of their souls, if they shall ever be enabled to out him again, though with never so much fasting and prayer. (Bp. Sanderson.)
Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised.—
Chastisement resulting in penitence
I. An acknowledgment.
1. Inefficacy of former corrections.
2. Though corrections are calculated to produce amendment, it is evident, from observation and experience, they often fail in accomplishing the effect.
3. Ephraim is here represented as reflecting upon it. (Proximate causes of the inefficacy of correction by itself.)
4. Inattention to the hand of God, and, as a natural consequence, their neglecting to pass from the contemplation of their sufferings to their sins. Religion begins with consideration.
5. In the serious purpose of a religious life, formed under afflictive dispensations, too many depend entirely upon resolutions formed in their own strength. To such purposes may be applied the beautiful image of Nahum: And as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known.
II. The prayer.
1. The plea of necessity. There is no other resource.
2. To entreat God to turn is not to ask an impossibility. The residue of the Spirit is with Him.
3. It is worthy of His interposition. The turning of the heart is a fit occasion on which Omnipotence may act.
4. The plea may be enforced by precedents. It implies no departure from His known methods.
5. We may force it by a reference to the Divine mercy. (Robert Hall, M. A.)
To the penitent.
I. The soliloquy of the penitent.
1. He reflects on his misimprovement of the dealings of God with him.
2. He prays for converting grace.
3. He describes the working of his mind.
4. He assigns special prominence to his youthful sins.
II. The address of God to him.
1. He owns him as a son.
2. He declares that he has a place in His memory.
3. He expresses His sympathy with him.
4. He promises him mercy. (G. Brooks.)
The cause and design Of affliction
I. God is to be acknowledged as the author and dispenser of all afflictions. He consented to all those disarrangements of the creation that inflict numberless ills and distresses, that He might have materials ever at hand for the affliction of the children of men for sin, in a state of probation, and for urging them to use the means provided for their recovery. He dispenses all the particular causes of affliction, in their movements and operations: they are all His servants, and obey His orders, however complicated their movements, however long or short the series in which they are connected with each other, and made dependent the one upon the other: they are all a large army, whose movements, individually and collectively, are according to His plans and His will.
1. This truth approves itself to our reason. It follows from the fact of His sustaining care over the world, as necessary for its provision: for all created things depend on Him; they could do nothing without His permission.
2. This truth is further confirmed by the consideration of the meritorious cause of affliction, which is sin. For sin is originally committed against God: it violates His law, contemns His authority, and despises alike His favour and HIS frown. Who, then, is to dispense affliction as the punishment of sin, but He who is its supreme avenger?
3. This is a truth, which when once confirmed by our reason, is recognised throughout Scripture. There you find that the afflictions of the children of men are dispensed to them in number and in measure.
II. The designs of God in afflictions are very merciful and beneficent. Afflictions never sow the seed of religion in the soul; they cannot do this: but they may soften the soil to receive it, and subserve the growth and the expansion of the seed when sown. They are lessons of instruction to the mind through the senses; corroborating those lessons of truth from revelation to the mind alone; and which are responded to by the conscience.
1. Afflictions are to bring men to become the people of God.
(1) That this is their design will appear from their nature. For what is the obvious drift of that disappointment through the whole course of life, in finding happiness from the world–what is the drift of it but to cure us of that mistake, to direct our attention from that object, and to lead us to Him in whose favour is life? What is the apparent design of certain miserable effects to certain sins, but to breed in us remorse for those sins, and wean us from them? Again, what is the obvious design of those particular evils that belong to our individual condition? What are they, what can they be, but a thorn planted in our earthly nest, to make us arise and go out of it, and seek for happiness in some higher quarter?
(2) That such is their design, is evident from the result of them in many cases.
2. When men become the people of God, afflictions do not cease; on the contrary, there are new reasons for the continuance of the former ones, and even for the addition of others to them. But these reasons are all wise and good, and the ends they have in view are so benign and gracious, as far more than to reconcile us to them.
(1) They are to prevent them from degenerating, so as to settle in a state of declension and backsliding from God. And this they do by bringing their sins to their remembrance in a timely way, before they can make head against them.
(2) They are employed to recover man from a state of backsliding. (J. Leifchild.)
Discipline
There are chastisements in life which cannot be classed amongst great afflictions. There are little checks, daily disappointments, irritations, defeats, and annoyances shadows which cherquer what else would be a sunny way–things which themselves cannot be treated with dignity, yet they tease and wear the heart.
I. Human life is established upon a disciplinary basis. There is a yoke everywhere–in sin, in repentance, in grace. No one can have everything just as he wants it. Man is made to feel that there is somebody in the world besides himself. We are made to feel that our very life is a vapour, and that every respiration is but a compromise with death. We should ask ourselves the meaning of these things. Discipline touches the whole scheme: boy at school, going from home, bodily affliction, oversights and miscalculations, losses, &c.
II. The value of discipline depends upon its right acceptance.
1. We may become desperate under it: as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Men may mourn, complain, rebel; they start arguments against God; they justify themselves; they become lost in secondary, agencies and incomplete details.
2. Then there is a better way. Ephraim bemoaned himself, repented before God, and said, Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. In this state of mind see–
(1) Self-renunciation.
(2) Devout and joyful confidence in Gods sovereignty and graciousness.
Application–
1. There is a yoke in sin. The way of transgressors is hard.
2. There is a yoke in goodness. It is often difficult to be upright, noble, holy.
3. God helps the true yoke-bearer. We must bear a yoke; say, shall it be the bad yoke, or the yoke of Jesus Christ? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Sanctified affliction
I. The acknowledgment made by the people of God in times of trouble.
1. That the affliction is from the Lord.
(1) It is this circumstance–this perception of God, as connected with affliction–which imparts to the afflicted an air of something more than solemnity and seriousness, as if the man had sustained a loss–were deprived of what was agreeable to him. It invests him, in some measure, with a character which inspires awe. He knows that God has been dealing with him. And yet, on this part of my subject, let me offer a word of counsel to the people of God. It is true that you believe that all afflictions come from the Lord.
(2) Beware of resting satisfied with this as a part of your creed. Take care lest you do no more than in words acknowledge that the Lord is the author of your trouble.
2. That there is a necessity for improvement. This is the direction which the gracious soul takes, when its afflictions are in the way of being sanctified. It is submissive: it cannot question the act of the Lord: it is solemnised. But it is more than all this. There is a disposition and desire to make the dispensation an instrument of spiritual benefit and glory to God. To this spirit and exercise believers are brought by several considerations.
(1) That the Lord does nothing in vain.
(2) That this is the declared purpose of the Lord in the visitations of trouble. He calls His afflictions chastenings.
(3) That improvement and reformation have been the effects produced by chastisement upon many.
(4) There is a felt necessity for improvement, as well as experience derived from affliction in the past.
II. Some of the uses of sanctified affliction.
1. Thus do believers become intimately acquainted with their God. God is then set before them in various aspects.
(1) In the character of a Sovereign.
(2) In the character of a Comforter.
2. Believers, when in affliction, know experimentally the value of their Saviour.
3. By affliction believers are weaned from the world. This is the result of their consideration of the Lords dealings with them, and the work of His Spirit in them. Affliction of itself will not wean us from the world. Some it only glues more closely to that which is left. But when the solemn question upon a trial or a bereavement is, What meaneth the Lord by this? the effect is necessarily happy and useful. The meditation leads to the conclusion, that these objects we have lost are but creatures–that as creatures they must be regarded–and that God must have the first place in our affections and hearts.
4. By affliction believers are quickened in the performance of duties.
(1) They are quickened in the duties which they owe peculiarly to God.
(a) They are quickened so as to be more serious and frequent in their thoughts of God.
(b) They are quickened so as to inquire after Him in His Word.
(c) They are quickened in prayer. They pray after another fashion. They pray as the needy to the God who hears.
(2) They are quickened in their duties to others. Sanctified affliction creates a tender feeling for others. (J. Thorburn.)
Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God.
A pattern prayer for the penitent
I. A confession of moral inability. Gods words and mans thoughts both declare this: the difference lies here that God does not let it be any reason for our despair. Comp. Jer 13:23; Jer 17:1; Jer 17:4, with the saying of George Eliot, The world does not believe in conversion, and the world is mostly right; and with this of Cotter Morrison, The sooner it is perceived that bad men will be bad, do what we will (though, of course, they may be made less bad), the sooner shall we come to the conclusion that the welfare of society demands the suppression or elimination of bad men and the careful cultivation of the good only There is no remedy for a bad heart, and no substitute for a good one.
II. A prayer for Divine help. There is no hope for the sinner but in God. The more absolute seems our own helplessness the more earnestly must we cry to Him. God requireth that we do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with Him; but He must give what He asks.
III. An all-prevailing plea. For Thou art the Lord my God. Our confident appeal is to Gods own nature as revealed by His Word, and with so much the more assurance as His revelation is now more perfect (Heb 1:1-4). In Christ crucified and risen is the supreme unfolding of Gods heart. As we look at Him we learn godly sorrow for sin, and heart-trust in the abundance of the Divine pardon, while we are quickened with His life given for us, and kindled by the flame of His love. (C. M. Hardy, B. A.)
The stubborn sinner submitting to God
I. The feelings and conduct of an obstinate impenitent sinner, while smarting under the rod of affliction. In this situation he is like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; wild, unmanageable, and perverse. That such is the natural temper of man, must be evident to parents and all others who are concerned in the education of children. How soon do they begin to discover s perverse and stubborn temper, a fondness for independence, and a desire to gratify their own will in everything! and what severe punishments will they often bear, rather than submit to the authority of their parents and instructors! This disposition, so strong in us by nature, grows with our growth and strengthens with our strength; and to subdue it, is the principal design of all the calamities with which we are in this world afflicted by our Heavenly Father. Sometimes He afflicts sinners by taking away their property and sending poverty, as an armed man, to attack them. At other times He corrects us by depriving us of our relatives, who rendered life pleasant, by sharing with us its joys, or helping to bear its sorrows. If these afflictions do not avail, He brings the rod yet nearer, and touches our bone and our flesh. Then the sinner is chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones are filled with strong pain; so that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat. All these outward afflictions are also frequently accompanied with inward trials and sorrows, still more severe. Conscience is awakened to perform its office, and fills the soul with terror, anxiety, and remorse. Now when God visits impenitent sinners with these afflictions, they usually murmur, struggle, and reluctate, like a stubborn bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, or a wild bull entangled in a net. This perverse and rebellious temper manifests itself in a great variety of ways, as persons circumstances, situation, and dispositions vary. Sometimes it displays itself merely in a refusal to submit, and sullen, obstinate perseverance in those sins which caused the affliction. At other times, impenitent sinners manifest their rebellious dispositions under the rod by flying to the world for comfort, and plunging with increased eagerness into its pleasures and pursuits, instead of calling upon God agreeably to His command, and repenting of their sins. With others this disposition displays itself in a settled formal endeavour to frustrate the will of God by sinning against Him with a high hand, in open contempt of all His inflictions and threatenings. But the perverse, unreconciled disposition of impenitent sinners most frequently appears in the increase of hard thoughts of God, and proud, angry feelings towards Him, as if He were severe, unmerciful, or unjust.
II. The new views and feelings which, through Divine grace, His afflictions were instrumental it producing.
1. We here find the once stubborn and rebellious, but now awakened sinner deeply convinced of his guilt and sinfulness, and deploring his unhappy situation. He still complains indeed, but it is of himself and not of God. He acknowledges the goodness, condescension, and justice of God in correcting him. Perhaps more are convinced of sin, and brought to repentance, by reflecting on their impious, unreconciled feelings under affliction, than by reflecting on any other part of their sinful exercises.
2. We find this awakened, afflicted sinner praying. Convinced of his wretched situation, and feeling his need of Divine aid, he humbly seeks it from his offended God.
3. We find this corrected, mourning, praying sinner reflecting upon the effects of Divine grace in his conversion. Surely, says he, after I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. It is worthy of remark, my friends, how soon the answer followed the prayer. In one verse, we find Ephraim calling God to turn or convert him. In the very next, we find him reflecting upon his conversion and rejoicing in it. And what were the effects of this change, thus suddenly produced by Divine grace? The first was repentance. The second was self-loathing and abhorrence.
III. A correcting, but passionate and pardoning God, watching the result of His corrections, and noticing the first symptoms of repentance, and expressing His gracious purposes of mercy respecting the chastened, penitent sinner. In this description God represents Himself–
1. As a tender father solicitously mindful of his penitent, afflicted child.
2. As listening to his complaints, confessions, and petitions. Certainly nothing in heaven or earth is so wonderful as this; and if this language does not affect us and break our hearts, nothing can do it.
3. God declares His determination to pardon him: I will surely have mercy upon him. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Surely after that I was turned, I repented.—
Evangelical repentance
I. The constant way and manner wherein true grace discovers itself, when once it is implanted in the heart. I repented, surely I repented. Agreeable to this is the language of the prodigal (Luk 15:18). Old things are passed away with the man that is born of the Spirit; his face is turned Zionward, and his eager steps show how desirable and delightful are wisdoms ways to his renewed soul.
II. The only spring from whence this amazing change doth always proceed. Surely after that I was turned, I repented. Grace first enters the heart, before it can be discovered in the life and conversation. The God of all grace first of all draws us, or else we shall never move towards Him (Joh 6:44). Had not the same mighty power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, been exerted toward us, we should still have continued in the same conversation which we had in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. But quickening grace opens the way to godly sorrow, and this always issues in evangelical repentance (2Co 7:10).
III. An account of the progress of this great work in the hand cf the Spirit; wherein the true nature of repentance unto life is clearly described.
I. What are the things in which the soul is instructed by the Spirit, when a principle of grace is wrought in the heart?
(1) The Spirit begins His work, with leading the soul to the knowledge of sin.
(a) The Spirit shows us the nature of sin, as attended with guilt, whereby we are obnoxious to the curse of the law.
(b) The Spirit shows the sinner the defiling nature of sin, as opposed to the holiness of that God with whom he hath to do.
(c) The Spirit shows the sinner the many heinous aggravations wherewith his sins in particular have been attended.
(2) The Spirit instructs the soul in the nature of pardoning grace and mercy, which is the sweetest sound that an awakened conscience can ever hear; the most agreeable message a self-condemning sinner can ever receive.
(a) The Spirit instructs the sinner that the privilege is attainable; that there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared.
(b) The Spirit instructs the sinner in the only way through which His grace and mercy is to be attained; lets him know that an absolute God is a consuming fire; and directs him to Christ Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
(c) The Spirit instructs the sinner into the way through which pardon is communicated to him. That it was obtained by Christ; that it is received by faith; and that whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely.
(d) The Spirit further instructs the sinner who the persons are to whom this pardoning grace and mercy are applied. This He teaches, by the absolute promises of the Word, which reach the case of the most rebellious criminals.
2. What are the various actings of the soul in consequence of these instructions?
(1) The soul thus instructed sorrows after a godly sort. This is the first thing in which Gospel-repentance discovers itself to be genuine and of the right kind; of which smiting upon the thigh is very expressive.
(2) The soul thus instructed is filled with shame and confusion of face, attended with an utter hatred of the sins he hath been guilty of. was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
(3) The soul thus instructed hath an abiding sense of these things. He is not weary of his rags to-day, and pleased with them again to-morrow; humbled for sin now, and wallowing in the same mire and dirt anon: No, I did bear (saith Ephraim) the reproach of my youth.
(4) The soul thus instructed is most sensibly affected with those sins to which he hath been most addicted. Heart sins are bewailed by the sincere Christian, and youthful transgressions are never forgotten by him.
(5) The soul thus instructed always applieth to the blood of Christ for pardon. (J. Hill.)
The repentance of the truly converted
1. We notice this about the cry of the wanderer of the Old Covenant, resembling herein the prodigal son of the New Testament–it is not like the utterance of the heathen who had never known God. The powerlessness of man is indeed brought out; for the words are, Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; but there is the remembrance still of a Father, of a Divine promise, a heavenly home though long despised.
2. The text goes on to speak of the effect of this conversion, of the result of this homeward journey: Surely after that I was turned, I repented. It is not a sign of the truly converted heart, to spring at a bound from the rebelliousness of a sinner to the rejoicing of a saint. Those who go most frequently to the Holy Communion know best the gulf which separates the two–they know in that nearness to Jesus Christ how far off they have been, how unworthy they are.
3. It takes much teaching, much fatherly correction and chastisement, many humble approaches to that altar which reveals the greatness of our burden, ere the soul can thus fully and heartily repent. Most of us, like Ephraim, are so unaccustomed to the yoke, through the easy, careless life we lead, that we need much application of doctrine to ourselves, much reproof of our personal faults, much instruction in righteousness.
4. It often happens that contrition of heart is granted long after maturity is reached–so that much recollection is needed ere the whole life can be reviewed before God. What is it which then disturbs us most? The remembrance probably of those precious years wherein the character was being formed–those priceless years, which might have witnessed the moulding of our yet pliant will into the thorough obedience of Christ, but which have been marked, instead, by a growing hardness and indifference and selfishness, scarcely to be altered afterwards. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
5. God means us to feel the weight of these old chains: He speaks against us in our wonderfully responsive conscience, writes the most painful truths concerning us in His heart-piercing Word–and why? Exactly for the opposite reason to that which makes Satan stand at our right hand to resist and accuse us. God smites on purpose that He may Himself be troubled for us, Himself have mercy upon us, Himself create a new thing in the earth, the Incarnation of His own Eternal Son, to be the propitiation for our sins, the renewer of our wasted youth and misused talents, the restorer of paths to dwell in. (Canon Jelf.)
Repentance
I. Repentance is an abiding characteristic, or principle of the new heart. The heart itself is, by nature, impenitent. It has a natural fitness to sin, without shame or ingenuous sorrow. The heart itself, by grace, is penitent, broken, contrite. It has a fitness to repent, an aptitude to mourn ingenuously over sin. This is a permanent principle, or source of sorrow for sin, and of turning from it unto holiness.
II. Repentance is the gift of God.
1. The mind, to which God has granted repentance unto life, has a just sense of its sins.
2. Another trait of the mind to which God has granted repentance, is an appreciation of His mercy through Christ.
3. Another characteristic of the penitent man is, that he turns from sin.
4. Another particular in this state of the penitent man, is a constant endeavour to obey God.
III. What are the evidences of repentance unto life? There are individuals who seem to suppose that a serious attendance on the duties of private and public prayer–a diligent reading of the Scriptures–a reverent hearing of the Word–and a celebration of the ordinances appointed by God–are an evidence that they are born of the Spirit. This is ample evidence of their love to the forms of religion, but no proof of its power. It has dwelt in thousands whose hearts were not right with God. There are others who seem to suppose that the abandonment of some external vice is to be regarded as evidence of repentance unto life. Repentance unto life is, indeed, attended by a reformation of morals, in all those who spiritually mourn over their sins. But this reformation is the effect of an internal change. The soul of the penitent man is careful to discriminate between good and evil–between light and darkness. It struggles against every unholy propensity, and every sinful habit, and toils through grace to extirpate them from the bosom. He exercises himself to have a conscience void of offence, both towards God and man. These powerful principles in the penitent heart diffuse their odour through the whole man, and cause him to be widely different from what he was previously. Nor is this a temporary change in his life. The whole course of an individual who is brought into the kingdom of God, is a course of repentance. So permanent is it in this life, as not to be completed till the saints are made perfect in glory. (J. Foot, D. D.)
Mercy to penitents
I. The favoured objects of Divine mercy. True penitents; men whose hearts are humbled under a deep sense of sin; and who, by the Spirit and grace of God, are brought to their right minds.
II. The abundant exercise of Divine mercy.
1. In bestowing pardon.
2. In promoting peace; that rest of conscience which is the close attendant of pardon, and accompanies the scriptural hope and evidence of it.
3. In affording preservation.
III. The absolute certainty Of Divine mercy.
1. The greatness of God secures it.
2. The goodness of God secures it.
3. The faithfulness of God secures it.
(1) He is faithful to His covenant; to His own solemn and voluntary engagement to save guilty man, according to a prescribed method; and this method is all of mercy, of abundant mercy, especially to the broken-hearted penitent.
(2) He is faithful to His Word. This is the revelation of His covenant; its statement to us in direct promises and positive assurances.
(3) He is faithful to His Son.
(4) He is faithful to Himself. The whole scheme of Divine mercy is adapted and intended to display the glory of the Divine perfections; and can we suppose that this end will be frustrated?
From the whole–
1. Let the impenitent tremble.
2. Let the humble hope.
3. Let the believer rejoice. (T. Kidd.)
Set thee up way-marks.—
Spiritual way-marks
Here is an invitation–
I. To follow an ancient custom. Not all old customs bad, the good filtrates through all time. It is a holy duty to follow in the good, tried paths of the just men made perfect.
II. To keep alive our spiritual experiences.
1. While faith obeys implicitly, aids are not rejected.
2. To recount becomingly our experiences serves two ends: we put God in remembrance; we keep Him in remembrance.
3. Our experiences may be such as–
(1) Past grace received.
(a) The grace to know,
(b) And the grace to love.
(2) Past strength renewed.
(3) Wonderful deliverance from fears.
(4) Help in trouble.
(5) Times of sweet communion. Thus we put in practice the word, forget not all His benefits.
III. To put up lasting memorials.
1. All our spiritual privileges may be as way-marks set up.
2. Blessed hours of devotion and times of sweet communion.
3. The Gospel of a holy life in the common lot for ever.
IV. To have a regard for posterity. Sinners will need directing, saints will require comforting, workers with flagging energies must be stimulated. Then set up your way-marks. The records of our experience will stand out like milestones, and all shall be as inspiring testimony to the faithfulness of Him who has promised neither to leave us nor forsake us. (John Jones.)
I did bear the reproach of my youth.–
Sin the reproach and shame of youth
I. Sin is of a reproachful nature.
1. It flings an unrighteous reproach on God and others.
(1) Let us begin with others. Friends and families are often disgraced by the sinners that belong to their houses: They are frequently ashamed of them, and reproached for them; they are ashamed to think, speak, or hear of them, to see or own them; and many are apt to reflect, sometimes indeed with too much reason, but at others without cause, as if their parents, their masters, or their other relations and friends, who have been most conversant with them, and might have had the greatest influence over them, have not taken proper care to counsel, caution, and restrain them.
(2) But what is still infinitely worse, is that their iniquities throw the most vile and unrighteous reproach upon the holy and blessed God Himself, as if He were not what He is, and were not to be treated with the reverence and honour that are His due. Sin reproaches Gods perfections, His name and His image, as if they were not worthy to be maintained with honour; it reproaches His workmanship in man, as if a creature had come out of His hand unworthy of Himself to be the author of; and it furnishes occasions to other sinners to reproach and blaspheme His blessed majesty.
2. It is a just reproach upon sinners themselves. It is the disgrace of their nature, it disrobes it of all its glory, defaces the beauteous image of God in which it was at first created, and debases it into the odious likeness and deformity of the devil, and of the brute.
II. The sins of young persons must needs be the reproach of their youth. Youth is indeed the most amiable age of life. It is the time for beauty and ornament, for activity and vigour, for gathering and improving in all that is excellent and desirable, and for pursuing after everything that is honourable and glorious. It is the time of expectation and hope, and the time of their own chief delight, and of others delighting in them. But sin stains all this glory of their youth, it sweeps away their lovely bloom, it depraves and perverts their vigorous powers, and makes them only so much the more capable of becoming despicable and vile; they are thereby daily heaping to themselves infamous and destructive things; they glory in their own shame; sport themselves in their own vain and foolish deceivings; and give melancholy prospects of growing up, the shame and torment of their friends, and the pests, instead of the blessings, of the rising generation; and they arc in the direct way of entailing all misery, for this world and the next, upon themselves.
III. A time is coming, when, one way or other, they will bear this reproach.
1. There is a bearing it, in the fruits and effects of their sins. They are the source of many sorrows; they often bring great and numerous distresses upon sinners in the way of Gods righteous judgment, and by the natural operation of their iniquities themselves.
2. There is a bearing the reproach of youth, in being reproached by others for their sins. Some sins bring such a reproach upon young men and women, as they can never get rid of all their days (2Sa 13:12-13; Pro 6:32-33).
3. There is a bearing the reproach of youth, in the reflections of their own consciences upon their sins.
IV. When they come to bear the reproach of their youth, they will be ashamed, yea, even confounded at it.
1. Young people will be ashamed, yea, even confounded at the reproach of their youth, when they come to bear it in the way of Gods mercy to them.
2. Young people will be ashamed, and even confounded at the reproach of their youth, when they come to bear it in the way of Gods wrath against them.
Reflections–
1. Let young and old think seriously with themselves, which of these is, or is like to be their condition.
2. How should Christ and His Gospel be prized and improved, to take away the reproach of your youth! (John Guyse, D. D.)
Is Ephraim My dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still.–
A pleasant child
Within one circle, one limited circle, a pleasant child is always a centre of the most engrossing interest and delight. Nor is the blessing of such a child confined exclusively to the home circle. The neighbourhood, the community, the Church of God are sharers in it. Along the street, in all the modest duties and interchanges of daily life, in the hour of play, and wild exuberance of youthful feeling, in the Sunday School and sanctuary–everywhere and in all places, s pleasant child is a perpetual comfort. Heaven lies about him.
I. Cheerful obedience is a conspicuous trait in a pleasant child. Cheerful, in distinction from compulsory obedience. It will not be a sacrifice, forced out of him by overstrained prerogative, or rigorous compulsion, but rather the spontaneity of a loving, loyal heart. It will be a high sense of what is due from the offspring to the progenitor–a willing and cheerful consent to the known precepts and principles established at home. It not only yields readily to each expressed and absolute command, but goes beyond and acts continually upon what is implied, and expected, under the parental rule. It anticipates the audible prohibition: it waits not for the check or caution, for the law once revealed is thenceforth written on the mind and heart. Knowing that to do right, is the measure of that law, the constant aim will be to do right, whether it is expressly required or not. What a contrast there is–what a vital and tremendous difference–between such a child and his opposites son whose nature revolts at all the proper constraints of home, and puts scorn upon its holiest claims of honour and duty; a petulant, self-willed, wrongheaded son, who lives in his father s house, like a wild beast in a cage; who files in the face of authority, and bursts into uncontrollable fits of rage at the slightest reproof, and dares to turn upon those who support and cherish him, with words of abuse and malediction; a son who can look into the pleading face of the mother that bare him and laugh at her counsels, or the father that begat him with open contempt and loud dispute, and oh, the difference, who can measure it? Often have agonized parents been known to declare, that to have laid the child in his grave, would have been far easier than to have borne the daily inflictions of his wilfulness and evil behaviour (Pro 22:25). Nor is this without an impressive lesson for parents. Remember this solemn truth–the obedience due to you is enshrined in a universal and unqualified law. What is your example–what is your course of life? Your children are commanded to honour you, and they will usually do so, by adopting your practice. What is it?
II. Reverence is a principal feature in the character and deportment of a pleasant child. It is not servility of which I speak, or an abject, self-distrusting spirit, which shrinks and cringes in the presence of authority or age. I would rather define it to be a due and noble appreciation of what belongs to parents and all superiors, including also a chastened respect for whatever is sacred or august. The true filial sentiment, as an excellent writer has said, will show itself in the tone of manners. You may detect the grace of this living sentiment, in the unnumbered offices that diminish a fathers or a mothers care, or relieve their troubles. What exceeding beauty is there in the gentle, modest kindnesses that childhood and youth may throw around the hearthstone–the refined address–the unobtrusive attentions–the willing proffers of service! Do you ask if this be reverence? Yes–and but one rivulet from the fountain-head, for children have it in their power, if they have it in their hearts, not only to sweeten home with their courteous demeanour and ready will, but to be like attending angels there, in all that contributes to household peace and order: and when amidst the uncertainties of this mortal life, adversity or sickness invade their circle, and a shadow falls, what a blessing may arise from their hushed solicitude and consideration–what relief, more potential than all the arts of medicine, may they bring to the aching pillow, or the chamber of convalescence, by their tender assiduities. But more than this, a truly reverent child will ever be glad to adapt himself to all the varying circumstances and conditions of his fathers house. If the sun of prosperity cease to shine upon it, or a necessity for frugal expenditures suddenly arise, he will not deepen the trial by a murmuring reluctance. The habit of obeisance and affectionate respect thus cultivated at home, will be displayed abroad and upon all occasions. Reverence will beautify all the ways of a pleasant child, and become his characteristic mark.
III. Early piety. Hitherto your attention has been drawn only to the branches and specimens of the fruit–this is the root of the tree. If the trunk is vigorous, if the boughs are luxuriant and well laden, hanging over the wall of the domestic garden, so that even the wayfarer may delight in their shade, it is altogether traceable to a spring of fatness, a hidden life beneath the ground. In like manner, the mind and affections of childhood, nurtured by godly counsels, quickened and enlightened beneath home culture, pleased and persuaded by the gentle tones of a mothers voice, and freshened by the ever-descending dews of heavenly grace, will steal forth upon the outward life in visible forms of fruit and flowers, and manifold attractiveness. We shall see that conscientiousness–that sense of the Divine presence–that shrinking from sin, because it is offensive to God–that love of purity and truth, which is so much to be admired–that interest in whatsoever things are lovely and honest, and of good report–that trusting, prayerful, guileless temper, which looks upward for help, and would not willingly go astray. Who can express the comeliness and beauty which rest upon such a child? (W. F. Morgan, D. D.)
The Divine mercy to mourning penitents
The text naturally resolves itself into three parts. First, we find the careless, resolute, impenitent, reduced by chastisement to a sense of his danger, and the necessity of turning to God; and yet sensible of his utter inability, and therefore crying for the attractive influences of Divine grace. The attractive influences of Divine grace are granted, and he is enabled to return; which introduces the second branch of the text, in which the new convert is represented as reflecting upon the efficacy of converting grace, and the glorious change wrought in him by it. While the returning prodigal is venting himself in these plaintive strains in some solitary corner, his Heavenly Fathers bowels are moving over him. The third part of the text represents the blessed God listening to the cries of His mourning child.
I. The returning sinner under his first spiritual concern, which is generally preparatory to evangelical repentance. Where shall we find him? What is he doing? He is not congratulating himself upon the imaginary goodness of his heart or life, or priding himself with secret wonder in a rich conceit of his excellences; but you will hear him, in his sorrowful retirement, bemoaning, condoling himself. He sees his case to be really awful and sad, and he, as it were, takes up a lamentation over himself. He is no more senseless, hard-hearted, and self-applauding, as he was wont to be; but, like a mourning turtle, he bewails himself. Thou hast chastised me. This, as spoken by Ephraim, had a particular reference to the Babylonish captivity; but we may naturally take occasion from it to speak of those calamities in general, whether outward or inward, that are made the means of alarming the secure sinner. There are many ways which our Heavenly Father takes to correct His undutiful children until they return to Him. Sometimes He kindly takes away their health, the abused occasion of their wantonness and security, and restrains them from their lusts with fetters of affliction (Job 33:19, &c.). Sometimes God awakens the sinner to bethink himself, by stripping him of his earthly supports and comforts, his estate, or his relatives, which drew away his heart from eternal things, and thus brings him to see the necessity of turning to God, the fountain of bliss, upon the failure of the streams (2Ch 33:11-12). Thus also God promises to do with His chosen (Eze 20:37; Psa 89:32; Pro 22:15; Pro 29:15). But the principal means of correction which God uses for the end of return to Him is that of conscience; and indeed without this, all the rest are in vain. It is conscience that makes the sinner sensible of his misery and scourges him till he return to his duty. Conscience is a serpent in his breast, which bites and gnaws his heart; and he can no more avoid it, than he can fly from himself. Its force is so great and universal that even the heathen poet Juvenal, not famous for the delicacy of his morals, taught by experience, could speak feelingly of its secret blows, and of agonising sweats under its tortures. Let not such of you as have never been tortured with its remorse, congratulate yourselves upon your happiness, for you are not innocents; and therefore conscience will not always sleep; it will not always lie torpid and inactive, like a snake benumbed with cold, in your breast. It will awaken you either to your conversion or condemnation. Therefore now submit to its wholesome severities, now yield to its chastisements. Such of you as have submitted to its authority, and obeyed its faithful admonitions, find it your best friend; and you may bless the day in which you complied with its demands, though before Divine grace renewed your heart, your wills were stubborn and reluctant; and you might say with Ephraim, I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. You see the obstinate reluctance of an awakened sinner to return to God. Like a wild young bullock, he would range at large, and is impatient of the yoke of the law, and the restraints of conscience. He loves his sin and cannot bear to part with it. He has no relish for the exercises of devotion and ascetic mortification; and therefore will not submit to them. The way of holiness is disagreeable to his depraved heart, and he will not turn his feet to it. But the happy soul, on whom Divine grace is determined to finish its work in spite of all opposition, is suffered to weary itself out in a vain resistance of the chastisements of conscience, till it is obliged to yield, and submit to the yoke. And then with Ephraim it will cry, Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. This is the mourning sinners language, when convinced that he must submit and turn to God, and in the meantime finds himself utterly unable to turn. Never did a drowning man call for help, or a condemned malefactor plead for pardon with more sincerity and ardour. If the sinner had neglected prayer all his life before now, he flies to it as the only expedient left, or if he formerly ran it over in a careless unthinking manner, as an insignificant form, now he exerts all the importunity of his soul; now he prays as for his life, and cannot rest till his desires are answered. The sinner ventures to enforce his petition by pleading his relation to God, Turn me; for Thou art the Lord my God. The awakened sinner is obliged to take all his encouragement from God, and not from himself. All his trust is in the Divine mercy, and he is brought to a happy self-despair.
II. As reflecting upon the surprising efficacy of grace he had sought, and which was bestowed upon him in answer to his prayer. When the Lord exerts His power to subdue the stubbornness of the sinner, and sweetly to allure him to Himself, then the sinner repents; then his heart dissolves in ingenuous disinterested relentings we learn from this passage, that the true penitent is sensible of a mighty turn in his temper and inclinations Surely after that I was turned, I repented. His whole soul Is turned from what he formerly delighted in, and turned to what he had no relish for before. Particularly his thoughts, his will, and affections are turned to God; there is a heavenly bias communicated to them which draws them to holiness, like the law of gravitation in the material world. The penitent proceeds, After that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh. The same grace that turns him does also instruct him; nay, it is by discovering to him the beauty of holiness, and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that it draws him. And when instructed in these, He smites upon his thigh. This gesture denotes consternation and amazement. He is struck with horror to think what an ungrateful, ignorant, stupid wretch he has been all his life till this happy moment. The pardoned penitent proceeds, I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. We are ashamed when we are caught in a mean, base, and scandalous action; we blush, and are confounded, and know not where to look, or what to say. Thus the penitent is heartily ashamed of himself, when he reflects upon the sordid dispositions he has indulged, and the base and scandalous actions he has committed. He blushes at his own inspection; he is confounded at his own tribunal.
III. The tender compassion of God towards mourning penitents. While they are bemoaning their case, and conscious that they do not deserve one look of love from God, He is represented as attentively listening to catch the first penitential groan that breaks from their hearts. What strong consolation may this give to desponding mourners, who think themselves neglected by that God to whom they are pouring out their weeping supplications! He hears your secret groans, He counts your sighs, and puts your tears into His bottle. His eyes penetrate all the secrets of your heart, and He observes all your feeble struggles to turn to Himself; and He beholds you not as an unconcerned spectator, but with all the tender emotions of fatherly compassion: for, while He is listening to Ephraims mournful complaints, He abruptly breaks in upon him, and sweetly surprises him with the warmest declarations of pity and grace. Is this Ephraim? &c. This passage contains a most encouraging truth, that, however vile and abandoned a sinner has been, yet, upon his repentance, he becomes Gods dear son, His favourite child. He will, from that moment, regard him, provide for him, protect him, and bring him to His heavenly inheritance, as His son and heir (Rom 8:38). (President Davies.)
The contrite comforted
What is it that wins back the heart to God? It is Gods free, full, everlasting mercy. This attracts the sinner, melts, transforms, comforts, saves him.
I. A broken heart. Such was Ephraims; he had departed far from God, he had fretted against the Lord, he had refused for a time to submit, but chastisement after chastisement in mercy came, and at length he received instruction.
1. His froward course is strikingly set forth. A bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, Ephraim had spurned the hand that would have guided him.
2. There was insight into, and confession of his guilt. Nothing so fit to describe his state, am it was seen by his now enlightened eye, as the untamed bullock; like Asaph, his heart is grieved, he is pricked in his reins; like him he is ready to exclaim, So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before Thee.
3. There were the true breathings of prayer. Turn Thou me.
(1) The source is acknowledged whence this godly sorrow flows. After that I was turned.
(2) There is application for mercy. Turn Thou me.
(3) Faith was in exercise in this prayer of Ephraim. Thou art the Lord my God.
II. Healing mercy. The mercy that God gives is Godlike mercy; yea, He giveth Himself to the believing soul in and by Jesus Christ.
1. God makes no mention of his sins.
2. He transcribes a fair copy of his confessions.
3. He treasures up his groans.
4. He addresses by the titles of affection the once wayward but now bemoaning Ephraim.
5. God answers the one desire of the contrite heart. (F. Storr, M. A.)
Gods tender mercy to the penitent
We have in this passage two speakers, two personalities. It is so everywhere. All religion which is worthy the name is the meeting, the intercourse, the converse and conversation of two spirits; till they come into communication and contact there is no religion, no possibility of religion in any but a barren and lifeless sense–the spirit of the man, and the Spirit of his God. Ephraim is bemoaning himself, but it is in Gods presence. I have surely heard him, God says, and that, not only because He who made the ear must hear all things, but because the self-bemoaning is addressed to God, as concerned, and interested, and acting in all. Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. Oh, let Ephraim never bemoan himself in solitude. Let him shut the world out, but not shut self in. Let God hear him. Let him lay bare the sins and the sorrows which follow the sins, in the presence, consciously, discerningly–in the presence of the God against whom the sins are committed, and from whom the consequent sorrows come. We know not how it is, yet we do know that the whole character of the self-bemoaning is changed at once by the thought that God hears it. Oh, when I bemoan myself upon my knees, for the darkness in which sin has wrapped me round and round, for the chain which binds me, for the misery which chills me, for the weakness which bathes, and the experience of evil which paralyses me–when I do this upon my knees, there is a glimmering at once, and peradventure at least, at once of hope that I am so made as to feel that there is light in heaven, and that He before whom I kneel is already, in virtue of creation, Himself what Ephraim here called Him, the Lord my God. We pass from the one speaker of the text, and the one personality to the other, and, having listened to the self-bemoaning of Ephraim in Gods presence, have yet to give audience to the most pathetic words in all the Bible: Is Ephraim My dear son? God is the speaker. Is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: My heart is troubled for him: I must surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. You will not easily persuade us that the words were spoken of Ephraim the tribe, or of even the ten tribes, and not of Ephraim the individual and the man. It is because God feels thus towards man, that He feels thus towards the nation. Never let us lose the collective life in the individual; never let us rob the collective life whether of Israel or of England, of the precious promises written of it in the Word. On the other hand, let us see an argument, as it were a fortiori, of the love of God to the responsible sin-suffering soul in all that He speaks in the Bible of that aggregate of souls which is the corporate being. We cannot err in taking the words home. We honour God when we clasp to our bosom any one of His utterances. It was for us if we can make it our own–and we can make this our own. There is something unspeakably affecting in that thought, that the very heart of God is, as He here says, troubled for the sinner that He has been obliged to speak against. He would not have been true, He would not have been righteous, He would not have been gracious, He would not have been God, if He had not spoken against him whilst he was going astray. He must speak against him while he is bent upon his own ruin; but oh! to hear Him saying that He earnestly remembers him still, even while He speaks. Earnestly remembers him! What about him? We can answer that question. He remembers that He made him in His own image; He remembers what He made him for–holiness, happiness, a delightful life, full of love and joy, and growing, maturing, expanding beauty, one day to shine as the sun in the kingdom of his Father. But more, and much more than this. He remembers the man himself, just as a parent remembers a son far away serving his country in India or Egypt; or a son gone into the unseen country, oh! how to be missed and mourned; or a son–for this is more appropriate–a son who has given him trouble, for whom he has had endless anxiety, for whom his own pillow has been wet, night after night, with tears. Yes, Ephraim has given God trouble. For Ephraim God left heaven, went after him into his exile, shed His lifes blood for him. St. Paul said so at Miletus. What more could He have done for him that He has not done! and, though it has been for a long time in vain, though neither gentleness nor severity has succeeded with him, though He might, if He had been a human parent, long ago have given him up, yet, being God and not man, He earnestly remembers him still (Dean Vaughan.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself] The exiled Israelites are in a state of deep repentance.
Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised] I was at first like an unbroken and untoward steer, the more I was chastised the more I rebelled; but now I have benefited by thy correction.
Turn thou me] I am now willing to take thy yoke upon me, but I have no power. I can only will and pray. Take the matter into thy own hand, and fully convert my soul.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The prophet in this verse showeth the change that should be wrought in the hearts of the Israelites preceding this turn out of their captivity. God had made an ancient promise to this people in their enemies hands, Lev 26:40-42, If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that they also have walked contrary unto me; and that also I have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The Lord, to show his faithfulness to his word, and also to mind them of what must first be done before the aforementioned promises could be fulfilled, and made good to them, and to quicken them to their duty, speaks of a thing yet to come as of a thing past, foretelling that before their deliverance should come he should hear Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, or rather, those of all the twelve tribes that feared the Lord, bemoaning or bewailing their miserable state, or themselves, both for that and their sins, which had brought them into such a state, and acknowledging not only what God had done unto them, that it was he who had chastised them, and that justly; for they were as wanton bullocks not used to the yoke, which ordinarily are very unruly when they are first put into it, but by use are more quiet under it; and praying to God that he would both change their hearts and also their state; for without him it could never be done, and by him it would be done easily; and to this purpose laying a claim to God as their God, and owning him as their God, promising him that though other lords had ruled over them, yet hereafter he alone should be owned, acknowledged, worshipped, and obeyed by them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. Ephraimrepresenting theten tribes.
bemoaning himselfThespirit of penitent supplication shall at last be poured on Israel asthe necessary forerunner of their restoration (Zec12:10-14).
Thou hast chastised me, and Iwas chastisedIn the first clause the chastisement itself ismeant; in the second the beneficial effect of it in teachingthe penitent true wisdom.
bullock unaccustomed to . . .yokeA similar image occurs in De32:15. Compare “stiff-necked,” Act 7:51;Exo 32:9, an image from refractoryoxen. Before my chastisement I needed the severe correction Ireceived, as much as an untamed bullock needs the goad. Compare Ac9:5, where the same figure is used of Saul while unconverted.Israel has had a longer chastisement than Judah, not having beenrestored even at the Jews’ return from Babylon. Hereafter, at itsrestoration, it shall confess the sore discipline was all needed to”accustom” it to God’s “easy yoke” (Mat 11:29;Mat 11:30).
turn thou meby Thyconverting Spirit (La 5:21).But why does Ephraim pray for conversion, seeing that he is alreadyconverted? Because we are converted by progressive steps, and needthe same power of God to carry forward, as to originate, ourconversion (Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65;compare with Isa 27:3; 1Pe 1:5;Phi 1:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus],…. Not Ephraim in person; though, as he was a very affectionate and tenderhearted man, as appears from 1Ch 7:22; he is with like propriety introduced, as Rachel before; but Ephraim intends Israel, or the ten tribes, and even all the people of the Jews; and the prophecy seems to respect the conversion of them in the latter day, when they shall be in soul trouble, and bemoan their sins, and their sinful and wretched estate, and especially their rejection of the Messiah; when they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitterness, as one that mourns for his firstborn, and which the Lord will take notice of and observe, Zec 12:10; and it may be applied to the case of every sensible sinner bemoaning their sinful nature; want of righteousness; impotence to all that is spiritually good; their violations of the righteous law of God; and the curse they are liable to on account of it; their many sins against a God of love, grace, and mercy; and their ruined and undone state and condition by sin; all which the Lord takes notice of: “hearing I have heard” s; which denotes the certainty of it, and with what attention he hears, yea, with what pleasure; it is the moan of his doves, of those who are like doves of the valley, everyone mourning for his iniquity; he hears, so as he answers; and sympathizing with them, he sends comfort to them, and delivers them out of their troubles:
thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; this is the case bemoaned; not so much the chastising hand of God, as unaffectedness with it, and not being the better for it; the Lord has indeed, as if Ephraim should say, chastised me, and I have been chastised by him, and that is all; it has made no manner of impression upon me; I have not received correction, nor has it been of any use to me; and this he bemoaned: and this will be the case of the Jews when they are converted; they will then reflect upon all the corrections and chastisements of God under which they have been ever since the rejection of the Messiah, and still are; and yet are now stupid under them, and take no notice of them, and are never the better for them; and this they will lament when their eyes are opened: and so it is with particular persons at conversion; in their state of unregeneracy they have been chastened and corrected by the Lord, by one providence or another, by one disease and disorder or another, and they have not observed it; it has not wrought upon them, nor awakened them to a sense of danger; God has spoken once, and twice, in this rough way, and they have not perceived; he has stricken them, and they have not grieved; beaten them, and they felt it not; but now being made sensible, they bemoan their former stupidity and inattention, and wonder at the forbearance and goodness of God:
as a bullock unaccustomed [to the yoke]; or to draw the plough; as senseless and as stupid, yea, as thoughtless of danger, as that creature is when led to the slaughter; as “untaught”, as the word t signifies; as ignorant of divine and spiritual things; knowing nothing of Christ, or God in Christ, or of the way of salvation by him, and of the operations of his Spirit and grace; as unruly as that to bear the yoke of the law, or the yoke of Christ; and as impatient under the yoke of affliction, kicking, tossing, and flinging, like a wild bull in a net; all which give concern to an awakened mind, that now sees its need of conversion, and prays for it, as follows:
turn thou me, and I shall be turned; which designs not a mere reformation of manners, or conversion to a doctrine or doctrines; nor a restoration after backslidings; nor a carrying on of the work of grace on the soul, and a daily renewing it; but the first work of conversion; which lies in a man’s being turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God; is a turn of the heart, and not of the head and action only; of the will, affections, and bias of the mind; it is a turning of persons to the Lord Jesus Christ, to look to him for righteousness, life, and salvation; and in such sense will the Jews be turned in the latter day, 2Co 3:16; and this being prayed for, not only shows a sense of need of it, but of inability to work it; that it is not in the power of man to do it; that he is not active, but passive in it; that it is the Lord’s work, and his only; and that when he does it, it is done effectually:
for thou [art] the Lord my God: the “Lord”, the mighty Jehovah, and therefore able to do it; “my God”, covenant God, who has promised to do it; and by virtue of covenant grace will be the conversion of the Jews; and to which the conversion of everyone is owing, Ro 11:25; or, “for thou [shalt be] the Lord my God”; I will own, acknowledge, fear, serve, and glorify thee as such, being converted to thee; see
Ge 28:20.
s “audiendo audivi”, Vatablus, Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt. t “non instructus”, Munster; “non doctus”, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Ephraim’s Repentance and Privilege; Encouragements to the Captives. | B. C. 594. |
18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. 19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. 20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD. 21 Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. 22 How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. 23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. 24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. 26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
We have here,
I. Ephraim’s repentance, and return to God. Not only Judah, but Ephraim the ten tribes, shall be restored, and therefore shall thus be prepared and qualified for it, Hos. xiv. 8. Ephraim shall say, What have I do to any more with idols? Ephraim the people, is here spoken of as a single person to denote their unanimity; they shall be as one man in their repentance and shall glorify God in it with one mind and one mouth, one and all. It is likewise thus expressed that it might be the better accommodated to particular penitents, for whose direction and encouragement this passage is intended. Ephraim is here brought in weeping for sin, perhaps because Ephraim, the person from whom that tribe had its denomination, was a man of a tender spirit, mourned for his children many days (1Ch 7:21; 1Ch 7:22), and sorrow for sin is compared to that for an only son. This penitent is here brought in, 1. Bemoaning himself and the miseries of his present case. True penitents do thus bemoan themselves. 2. Accusing himself, laying a load upon himself as a sinner, a great sinner. He charges upon himself, in the first place, that sin which his conscience told him that he was more especially guilty of at this time, and that was impatience under correction: “Thou has chastised me; I have been under the rod, and I needed it, I deserved it; I was justly chastised, chastised as a bullock, who would never have felt the goad if he had not first rebelled against the yoke.” True penitents look upon their afflictions as fatherly chastisements: “Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised; that is, it was well that I was chastised, otherwise I should have been undone; it did me good, or at least was intended to do me good; and yet I have been impatient under it.” Or it may intimate his want of feeling under the affliction: “Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised, that was all; I was not awakened by it and quickened by it; I looked no further than the chastisement. I have been under the chastisement as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, unruly and unmanageable, kicking against the pricks, like a wild bull in a net,” Isa. li. 20. This is the sin he finds himself guilty of now; but (v. 19) he reflects upon his former sins and looks as far back as the days of his youth. The discovery of one sin should put us upon searching out more; now he remembers the reproach of his youth. Ephraim, as a people, reflect upon the misconduct of their ancestors when they were first formed in a people. It is applicable to particular persons. Note, The sin of our youth was the reproach of our youth, and we ought often to remember it against ourselves and to bear it in a penitential sorrow and shame. 3. He is here brought in angry at himself, having a holy indignation at himself for his sin and folly: He smote upon his thigh, as the publican upon his breast. He was even amazed at himself, and at his own stupidity and frowardness: He was ashamed, yea even confounded, could not with any confidence look up to God, nor with any comfort reflect upon himself. 4. He is here recommending himself to the mercy and grace of God. He finds he is bent to backslide from God, and cannot by any power of his own keep himself close with God, much less, when he has revolted, bring himself back to God, and therefore he prays, Turn thou me and I shall be turned, which implies that unless God do turn him by his grace he shall never be turned, but wander endlessly, that therefore he is very desirous of converting grace, has a dependence upon it, and doubts not but that that grace will be sufficient for him, to help him over all the difficulties that were in the way of his return to God. See ch. xvii. 14, Heal me and I shall be healed. God works with power, can make the unwilling willing; if he undertake the conversion of a soul, it will be converted. 5. He is here pleasing himself with the experience he had of the blessed effect of divine grace: Surely after that I was turned I repented. Note, All the pious workings of our heart towards God are the fruit and consequence of the powerful working of his grace in us. And observe, He was turned, he was instructed, his will was bowed to the will of God, by the right in forming of his judgment concerning the truths of God. Note, The way God takes of converting souls to himself is by opening the eyes of their understandings, and all good follows thereupon: After that I was instructed I yielded, I smote upon my thigh. When sinners come to a right knowledge they will come to a right way. Ephraim was chastised, and that did not produce the desired effect, it went no further: I was chastised, and that was all. But, when the instructions of God’s Spirit accompanied the corrections of his providence, then the work was done, then he smote upon his thigh, was so humbled for sin as to have no more to do with it.
II. God’s compassion on Ephraim and the kind reception he finds with God, v. 20. 1. God owns him for a child and a prodigal: Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? Thus when Ephraim bemoans himself God bemoans him, as one whom his mother comforts, though she had chidden him, Isa. lxvi. 13. Is this Ephraim my dear son? Is this that pleasant child? Is it he that is thus sad in spirit and that complains so bitterly? So it is like that of Saul (1 Sam. xxvi. 17), Is this thy voice, my son David? Or, as it is sometimes supplied, Is not Ephraim my dear son? Is he not a pleasant child? Yes, now he is, now he repents and returns. Note, Those that have been undutiful backsliding children, if they sincerely return and repent, however they have been under the chastisement of the rod, shall be accepted of God as dear and pleasant children. Ephraim had afflicted himself, but God thus heals him–had abased himself, but God thus honours him; as the returning prodigal who thought himself no more worthy to be called a son, yet, by his father, had the best robe put on him and a ring on his hand. 2. He relents towards him, and speaks of him with a great deal of tender compassion: Since I spoke against him, by the threatenings of the word and the rebukes of providence, I do earnestly remember him still, my thoughts towards him are thoughts of peace. Note, When God afflicts his people, yet he does not forget them; when he casts them out of their land, yet he does not cast them out of sight, nor out of mind. Even then when God is speaking against us, yet he is acting for us, and designing our good in all; and this is our comfort in our affliction, thatthe Lord thinks upon us, though we have forgotten him. I remember him still, and therefore my bowels are troubled for him, as Joseph’s yearned towards his brethren, even when he spoke roughly to them. When Israel’s afflictions extorted a penitent confession and submission it is said that his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel (Judg. x. 16), for he always afflicts with the greatest tenderness. It was God’s compassion that mitigated Ephraim’s punishment: My heart is turned within me (Hos 11:8; Hos 11:9); and now the same compassion accepted Ephraim’s repentance. Ephraim had pleaded (v. 18), Thou art the Lord my God, therefore to thee will I return, therefore on thy mercy and grace I will depend; and God shows that it was a valid plea and prevailing, for he makes it appear both that he is God and not man and that he is his God. 3. He resolves to do him good: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord, Note, God has mercy in store, rich mercy, sure mercy, suitable mercy, for all that insincerity seek him and submit to him; and the more we are afflicted for sin the better prepared we are for the comforts of that mercy.
III. Gracious excitements and encouragements given to the people of God in Babylon to prepare for their return to their own land. Let them not tremble and lose their spirits; let them not trifle and lose their time; but with a firm resolution and a close application address themselves to their journey, Jer 31:21; Jer 31:22. 1. They must think of nothing but of coming back to their own country, out of which they had been driven: “Turn again, O virgin of Israel! a virgin to be again espoused to thy God; turn again to these thy cities; though they are laid waste and in ruins, they are thy cities, which thy God gave thee, and therefore turn again to them.” They must be content in Babylon no longer than till they had liberty to return to Zion. 2. They must return the same way that they went, that the remembrance of the sorrows which attended them, or which their fathers had told them of, in such and such places upon the road, the sight of which would, by a local memory, put them in mind of them, might make them the more thankful for their deliverance. Those that have departed from God into the bondage of sin must return by the way in which they went astray, to the duties they neglected, must do their first works. 3. They must engage themselves and all that is within them in this affair: Set thy heart towards the highway; bring thy mind to it; consider thy duty, the interest, and go about it with a good-will. Note, The way from Babylon to Zion, from the bondage of sin to the glorious liberty of God’s children, is a highway; it is right, it is plain, it is safe, it is well-tracked (Isa. xxxv. 8); yet none are likely to walk in it, unless they set their hearts towards it. 4. They must furnish themselves with all needful accommodations for the journey: Set thee up way-marks, and make thee high heaps or pillars; send before to have such set up in all places where there is any danger of missing the road. Let those that go first, and are best acquainted with the way, set up such directions for those that follow. 5. They must compose themselves for their journey: How long will thou go about, O backsliding daughter? Let not their minds fluctuate, or be uncertain about it, but resolve upon it; let them not distract themselves with care and fear; let them not seek about to creatures for assistance, not hurry hither and thither in courting them, which had often been an instance of their backsliding from God; but let them cast themselves upon God, and then let their minds be fixed. 6. They are encouraged to do this by an assurance God gives them that he would create a new thing (strange and surprising) in the earth (in that land), a woman shall compass a man. The church of God, that is weak and feeble as a woman, altogether unapt for military employments and of a timorous spirit (Isa. liv. 6), shall surround, besiege, and prevail against a mighty man. The church is compared to a woman, Rev. xii. 1. And, whereas we find armies compassing the camp of the saints (Rev. xx. 9), now the camp of the saints shall compass them. Many good interpreters understand this new thing created in that land to be the incarnation of Christ, which God an eye to in bringing them back to that land, and which had sometimes been given them for a sign, Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6. A woman, the virgin Mary, enclosed in her womb the Mighty One; for so Geber, the word here used, signifies; and God is called Gibbor, the Mighty God (ch. xxxii. 18), as also is Christ in Isa. ix. 6, where his incarnation is spoken of, as it is supposed to be here. He is El-Gibbor, the mighty God. Let this assure them that God would not cast off this people, for that blessing was to be among them, Isa. lxv. 8.
IV. A comfortable prospect given them of a happy settlement in their own land again. 1. They shall have an interest in the esteem and good-will of all their neighbours, who will give them a good word and put up a good prayer for them (v. 23): As yet or rather yet again (though Judah and Jerusalem have long been an astonishment and a hissing), this speech shall be used, as it was formerly, concerning the land of Judah and the cities thereof, The Lord bless you, O habitation of justice and mountain of holiness! This intimates that they shall return much reformed and every way better; and this reformation shall be so conspicuous that all about them shall take notice of it. The cities, that used to be nests of pirates, shall be habitations of justice; the mountain of Israel (so the whole land is called, Ps. lxxviii. 54), and especially Mount Zion, shall be a mountain of holiness. Observe, Justice towards men, and holiness towards God, must go together. Godliness and honesty are what God has joined, and let no man think to put them asunder, not to make one to atone for the want of the other. It is well with a people when they come out of trouble thus refined, and it is a sure presage of further happiness. And we may with great comfort pray for the blessing of God upon those houses that are habitations of justice, those cities and countries that are mountains of holiness. There the Lord will undoubtedly command the blessing. 2. There shall be great plenty of all good things among them (Jer 31:24; Jer 31:25): There shall dwell in Judah itself, even in it, though it has now long lain waste, both husbandmen and shepherds, the two ancient and honourable employments of Cain and Abel, Gen. iv. 2. It is comfortable dwelling in a habitation of justice and a mountain of holiness. “And the husbandmen and shepherds shall eat of the fruit of their labours; for I have satiated the weary and sorrowful soul;” that is, those that came weary from their journey, and have been long sorrowful in their captivity, shall now enjoy great plenty. This is applicable to the spiritual blessings God has in store for all true penitents, for all that are just and holy; they shall be abundantly satisfied with divine graces and comforts. In the love and favour of God the weary soul shall find rest and the sorrowful soul joy.
V. The prophet tells us what pleasure the discovery of this brought to his mind, v. 26. The foresights God had given him sometimes of the calamities of Judah and Jerusalem were exceedingly painful to him (as ch. iv. 19), but these views were pleasant ones, though at a distance. “Upon this I awaked, overcome with joy, which burst the fetters of sleep; and I reflected upon my dream, and it was such as had made my sleep sweet to me; I was refreshed, as men are with quiet sleep.” Those may sleep sweetly that lie down and rise up in the favour of God and in communion with him. Nor is any prospect in this world more pleasing to good men, and good ministers, than that of the flourishing state of the church of God. What can we see with more satisfaction than the good of Jerusalem, all the days of our life, and peace upon Israel?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Prophet here speaks more distinctly of a blessed issue, and shews that the punishment by which God had already chastised the people, and by which he was prepared to chastise the tribe of Judah, was wholly necessary, which he would give them as a medicine. For as long as we have set before us the wrath of God, we necessarily, as it has been already said, try to avoid it, because we wish well to ourselves, and endeavor to remove to a distance, as much as we can, whatever is adverse to us: hence the punishment which God inflicts is never pleasant to us, our sorrow in evils and adversities is never mitigated, nor do we quietly submit to God, unless we direct our minds to the fruit which distresses and chastisements bring forth. We now then perceive the object of the Prophet: the Jews always murmured and said, “Why does not God spare and forgive us? why does he not deal more gently with us?” The Prophet therefore shews, that God had a regard to the wellbeing of his people in chastising them; for had he indulged them in their sins, their pride and perverseness would have increased.
The intention then of these words is this, and it is for this end the Prophet speaks, — that the Jews might know that all their punishment, which would have been otherwise bitter and grievous, was a sort of medicine, by which their spiritual diseases were to be healed.
He therefore says, Hearing I have heard Ephraim, after having transmigrated, etc. The participle מתנודד, metnudad, is in Hithpael, and comes from נוד , nud, or from נדד nedad. Some render it, “transmigrating,” and others, “lamenting.” But נוד, nud, means to move, to wander, to migrate from one place to another; it means also to complain, to tell of adversities, though it is often applied to those whose object is to solace the miserable and the mournful. If any one prefers the rendering, “I have heard Ephraim lamenting,” I do not object, for there is a sufficient probability in its favor. But it may also be derived from נוד , nud, as well as from נדד nedad; the most suitable sense would then be, “after having moved into exile,” or literally, “after having transmigrated,” that is, after God had driven Ephraim, even the ten tribes, into exile. (36)
After Ephraim then had thus transmigrated, or had been driven into exile, he then began to say, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastened, for I was an untamed bullock: Turn thou me and I shall be turned; for thou, Jehovah, art my God. (37) The Prophet, no doubt, as I said before, meant here to check the murmurs which prevailed among the Jews, who said, that God was too rigid and severe, he shews not only that they were worthy of the very grievous punishment they were suffering, but also that it was a testimony of God’s favor, that he thus intended to cleanse them from their sins; for they would have a hundred times grown putrid in their wickedness, had not God thus reduced them to a sound mind. He at the same time sets forth Ephraim as an example, that the Jews might resignedly follow their brethren, and not discontentedly bear their exile, seeing that it had already been profitable to their brethren. When therefore they perceived that their punishment was useful to the Israelites, and brought forth good fruit, they ought to have submitted themselves willingly to God, and not to have murmured against him for punishing them for their sins, but to have borne their exile as a paternal correction.
Then he says, “I have heard Ephraim,” — at what time? This circumstance ought to be especially noticed, it was after he had transmigrated. When they were quiet in the land, they were, as it follows, like untameable steers. The Prophets also use this mode of speaking, when they describe the Israelites before their dispersion; they call them fat and well fed oxen: affluence produced luxury, and luxury pride. Thus, then, they kicked, as it were, against God, according to what is said by Moses,
“
My people having grown fat kicked.” (Deu 32:15)
As they were such, it was necessary that they should be tamed. And to this refers the time that is mentioned: when Ephraim was forcibly driven from his own country, then he began to acknowledge his evils and to be touched with a penitent feeling; “Thou hast chastised me,” he says, “and I was instructed.” The verb יסר, iser, means to instruct as well as to chastise, and is applied to princes, counsellors, fathers, and magistrates. The word chastise is more restricted in Latin. But יסר iser, properly means to teach, and yet often it means to chastise, for that is one way of teaching or instructing. He then says that he was chastised, though in a different sense: in the first clause, when he says, “Thou hast chastised me,” he refers to the punishment by which God had humbled his people; and in the second clause he says, “I was instructed,” that is, “I begin now at length to become wise;” for it is the wisdom even of fools, not to become hardened under their calamities; for they who become hardened are altogether in a hopeless state. It is the chief part of wisdom to acknowledge what is right, and willingly to follow it; but, except we be willing to regard our own good, God will then chastise us. (38)
When our diseases are healable, we turn to God; but the perversely wicked bite and champ the bridle, and contend with God’s judgment: But the Prophet here refers to the faithful alone; for punishment has not the same effect on all indiscriminately. God, indeed, calls all men by punishment to repentance, so that even the reprobate are without excuse when they harden their hearts, and profit not under the rod. But punishment is peculiarly useful to the faithful; for God not only scourges them, but also, by his Spirit, bends their minds to docility, so that they willingly suffer themselves to be corrected by him. Hence I said that this clause properly refers to the faithful, when the Prophet says that Ephraim was instructed, after having been warned by punishment, to turn himself to God.
He compares himself to an untameable steer; for steers are wanton before they are habituated to the yoke. Such also is the wantonness of men before God subdues them by various kinds of punishment, and not only subdues them, but renders them also tractable and submissive. Next week I shall lecture instead of Beza.
(36) The idea of “transmigrating” is alone given by the Vulg., the other versions and the Targ. have “lamenting:” and the latter is more consonant with the context, and has been adopted by almost all modern commentators. It is used in Jer 15:5, in the sense of being moved or affected for another, of sympathizing or condoling. It is there in its simple form, that is, in Kal. As it is here in Hithpael, its meaning is, self-condoling, or condoling himself, — an idea which is very expressive, and is more fully explained in the next verse. — Ed.
(37) This is no doubt the right rendering, and not, “Thou art Jehovah my God.” So in the first commandment, the version ought to be, “I Jehovah,” or, I the Lord, “am thy God.” The meaning is not, that he is Jehovah, but that he who is Jehovah is our God. — Ed.
(38) The Vulg. and the Targ. favor this view of a different sense of the same verb in the second clause. The Sept. retain the same meaning. There is no need of altering the sense; indeed, another sense does not so well comport with the passage. He says that God had chastised him, and that he was chastised as an untamed, or rather untrained steer or bullock, implying that he was compelled to bear the yoke, and also that he had been brought to submit to it: hence the prayer that follows, “turn,” or rather, restore, etc. The verb יסר means to correct rather than to chastise, even to correct by the rod, or by the goad; and then to teach as the effect of correction, —
Thou hast corrected me; Yea, I was corrected like a steer, not trained: Restore thou me, and I shall be restored; For thou, Jehovah, art my God.
After a confession with regard to correction, a confession that intimates that it had its proper effect, a prayer for restoration seems suitable, and that prayer is founded on the fact that Jehovah was their God. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
4. The despondent (Jer. 31:18-20)
TRANSLATION
(18) I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning him self, You have chastened me and I was chastened, like a calf that would not be taught; restore me that I might be restored, for You are the LORD my God.
(19) For after I strayed, I repented; and after I learned my lesson, I slapped my thigh; I am ashamed and embarrassed, for I bore the reproach of my youth. (20) Is Ephraim My precious son? Is he My darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I longingly think of him. Therefore MY heart yearns for him; I surely will show compassion to him (oracle of the LORD).
COMMENTS
Not only does the prophet hear Rachel weeping for her children he also hears despondent Ephraim lamenting his waywardness. Like a calf which would not submit to the yoke, Ephraim went his own rebellious way and thus incurred the chastisement of the Lord. Finally the prodigal son came to himself and cried out unto God to help him repent: Turn me that I may return! (Jer. 31:18). That prayer was answered. Through the discipline of exile Ephraim came to recognize his miserable condition. He was confused and confounded, utterly ashamed of the reproach of his youth, the sins committed in the earlier history of the nation. He smote his thigh in consternation and contrition (Jer. 31:19). This sets the stage for one of the most beautiful verses in the Book of Jeremiah. God asks the question IS Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? literally, a child of delights i.e., one in whom a parent takes intense pleasure. It is as though God is expressing surprise at His own mercy for wayward man. Ephraim had certainly been unworthy of the love of the heavenly Father. He had not been the kind of child in whom a parent could delight. But as often as God speaks of Ephraim He remembers the close relationship which in the past existed between them. His bowels (the seat of the emotions in Hebrew thought) yearn (literally, sound, moan) for the wayward son. God must exercise mercy on behalf of Ephraim! (Jer. 31:20).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(18) 1 have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.The prophets thoughts still dwell upon the exiles of the northern kingdom. They have been longer under the sharp discipline of suffering. By this time, he thinks, they must have learnt repentance. He hearsor Jehovah, speaking through him. hearsthe moaning of remorse; and in that work, thought of as already accomplished, he finds a new ground for his hope for Judah. Ephraim at last owned that he had deserved the chastisement of the yoke that had been laid on him.
As a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.The comparison is the nearest approach in the Old Testament to the Greek proverb about kicking against the pricks (Act. 9:5; Act. 26:14). In Hos. 10:11 (Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught ), which may well have been in Jeremiahs thoughts, we have a like comparison under a somewhat different aspect. The cry which is heard from the lips of the penitent, Turn thou me . . . , is, as it were, echoed from Jer. 3:7; Jer. 3:12; Jer. 3:14, and is reproduced in Lam. 5:21.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. As a bullock unaccustomed Literally, like an untamed calf. See Hos 10:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 1072
THE REFLECTIONS OF A PENITENT
Jer 31:18-20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
THERE is a wide difference between ostentatious sanctity and true piety. Hypocrites always endeavour to attract the attention of the world. The true penitent, on the contrary, affects privacy and retirement: though cheerful before men, his sorrows are deep before God: were his groanings overheard by the world, he would probably be made an object of pity or derision; but God beholds him with pleasure and complacency [Note: Isa 66:2.]. Ephraim, or the ten tribes, are represented in the text as penitent; the secret working of their minds is here opened to our view: and this accords with the experience of every repenting sinner. God then declares how acceptable such repentance is in his sight.
The passage naturally leads us to consider,
I.
The reflections of a true penitent
We first see the state of his mind in the beginning of his repentance
He reflects on his incorrigibleness in the ways of sin
[Men seldom turn to God, till subdued by heavy afflictions: nor does the rod at first produce any thing but impatience, The penitent calls to mind his perverseness under such a state. He compares his conduct with an untamed heifer [Note: The bullock, while unaccustomed to the yoke, rebels against the will of his master: though nourished and supported by him, it will not subserve his interests: when chastised, it rebels the more; yea, repeated strokes serve only to inflame its rage, and to call forth its more strenuous resistance: nor will it ever submit, until it be wearied out, and unable to maintain its opposition. Thus the sinner generally fights against God.]. He laments that there is such enmity in his heart against God.]
He pleads with God to turn and convert his soul
[He feels the necessity of divine grace to change his heart [Note: Joh 6:44.]. He therefore cries to God, Turn thou me. He ventures like the prodigal to address God as his God. He urges this relation as a plea to enforce his request.]
We next see the state of his mind in the progress of his repentance
He reflects upon the progress he has made
[He has felt very pungent grief on account of his iniquities [Note: This is the import of that significant action of smiting upon the thigh: see Eze 21:12.]. Through the remonstrances of his conscience he has been ashamed. He has been even confounded by discoveries of his own corruptions. His constitutional propensities, which were the reproach of his youth, are still his burthen, and his grief [Note: The expressions of his grief rise in a climax; he repents, he smites on his thigh; he is filled with shame; he is confounded before God. This, though an afflictive process, is a salutary and blessed experience; as it argues deeper self-knowledge, and an increasing view of the purity of Gods law.].]
But he gives the glory of his advancement to God alone
[He had cried to God for the gift of converting grace. He now acknowledges that grace to have come from God. He ascribes his deeper insight into the corruptions of his own heart to the illuminating operations of Gods Spirit. Thus he adopts from his heart the confessions of Job [Note: Job 40:4.], and of Paul [Note: 1Co 15:10.]]
How acceptable to God such a penitent is, appears from,
II.
The reflections of God over him
The penitent can scarcely find terms whereby to express his own vileness; but God accounts no honours too great for such a person
He owns the penitent as a dear and pleasant child
[The lower thoughts we have of ourselves, the higher God has of us, While we are confounded before him, he rejoices over us with joy. While we are saying, Surely such an one as I cannot be a child of God, He delights in testifying that we are his children [Note: The force of these positive interrogations is the same as if they had been expressed negatively: they import a strong affirmation: see 1Sa 2:27-28.]. God appeals, as it were, to our contrition, in proof that we are his.]
He further expresses his compassionate regard for him
[The chidings and rebukes of God are all in love [Note: Heb 12:6.]. But the afflicted penitent is apt to complain with Zion of old [Note: Isa 49:14.]God however never feels for us more than when he hides his face from us. Like a tender parent, he longs to renew to us the tokens of his love [Note: Isa 49:15-16.]. The contrite soul may apply to itself those gracious declarations [Note: Isa 54:7-8.]]
He promises to manifest his mercy towards him
[God never will despise the broken in heart [Note: Psa 51:17.]. No past sins, however heinous, snail be remembered against them [Note: Isa 1:18.]. For such God has prepared a glorious inheritance in heaven [Note: Mat 25:34.].]
He grants to him all that he himself could possibly desire
[What more could the penitent ask of God than an assurance of his adoption into Gods family, a declaration of Gods love towards him, and a promise that he shall find mercy at the last day? Yet these are all expressed in Gods reflections over Ephraim. What inexpressible comfort should this administer to drooping penitents!]
Application
[Can God testify of us as of Ephraim in the text? If he cannot, we must expect shame, confusion, and agony at the last day [Note: Dan 12:2 and Mat 13:49-50.]. If he can, we are assured of happiness both in this world and the next [Note: Psa 126:5-6.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Perhaps there is not a more beautiful and interesting representation in the whole compass of the Old Testament scripture, than what is here drawn, of the melting heart of a sinner by grace; and of the Lord’s bowels of mercies, yearning over a returning sinner on the occasion. Here is Ephraim falling down at the footstool of the mercy-seat: and the Lord stooping down, as it were, to raise him up. I am a worthless sinner, cries Ephraim; like a beast, stubborn and restive I have been. Thou art a dear child, saith the Lord. My soul is troubled, saith Ephraim, in the recollection of what I have done: my bowels are troubled for thee, saith the Lord. Oh! what a representation is here! It can only be equaled by that divine drawing which the Lord Jesus hath given in his parable, Luk 15:17-24 . I hope the Reader cannot want a single observation, to take the whole blessedness of the instruction home to his own heart. It speaks of God’s grace, mercy, and love in Christ equal to a volume; and it holds forth the most unequalled persuasion to poor sinners, in prompting them to return. Isa 55:7-9 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus]; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou [art] the LORD my God.
Ver. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. ] Heb., Hearing I have heard; his moans and laments have rung in mine ears. So Hos 14:8 , “I have heard him, and observed him.” This is God’s speech concerning the Christian Church of the Jews; for in this sermon we may easily observe a frequent change of persons, tanquam in opere dramatico, as in an interlude.
Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,
Turn thou me.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I have surely heard, &c. Figure of speech Prolepsis.
hast chastised = didst chastise.
was chastised = I have been chastised.
turn Thou me = cause Thou me to return.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 31:18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus;
It is God who is here speaking. There is never a moan, or a sob, or a cry,or a sigh, but God hears it. The Lord is very quick of hearing for the sorrows of penitent sinners; there is no mistake about this matter, for he says, I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus;
Jer 31:18. Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,
No good came of it. I smarted, but I was not benefited: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,
Jer 31:18. As a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou; art the LORD my God.
There was never a heart that spake thus, unless grace had been secretly at work with it; and depend upon it, if God has brought us to this point, that we are ready to declare him to be our God, and are anxious to be the subjects of his converting grace, it is because God has looked upon us in his wondrous love. If thou desirest to be turned towards God, thou art already in a measure turned towards him. The desire to feel is a kind of feeling, the longing to believe has some measure of faith in it. Be comforted by this thought, yet be not content to rest where thou art, but go on till thou hast all the blessing that the Lord is waiting and willing to bestow upon thee. Happy is the man who is saying to God at this moment, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God.
Jer 31:19. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed yea, even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
When a man has sown his wild oats, and God in mercy helps him to come back from such a dreadful field as that, he recollects what he has been, and he is ashamed of himself; sometimes, he is more than half ashamed to mingle with Gods people, for he is afraid that they will have nothing to do with such a wretch as he has been; but he is, most of all, ashamed to come near to his God, because of the reproach of his youth. Yet listen to the Lords gracious words concerning him:
Jer 31:20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
Here we seem to look into the very heart of God; and he is represented to us as though he had contending passions within him. He speaketh angrily one day, but he doth earnestly remember mercy the next day. God changes not, yet his dealings with men must change, because their state varies so much. He sometimes speaks in great wrath while they hold to their sin, but love lies even at the bottom of that wrath; and anon he changeth his tone, and speaketh comfortably, and putteth away the sinners sin when he sees that his anger has wrought the due result, and the sinner quits his sin to come to his God. Some of you understand this treatment, for you have experienced it; but you cannot comprehend the fullness of mercy and love that is in the heart of God towards the repenting sinner.
Jer 31:21-22. Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter?
How long will you be seeking comfort where you cannot find it, and pleasure where nothing but misery can come?
Jer 31:22-23. For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
Jerusalem was cursed because of sin; but God declared that, in his great mercy, he would make it to be a place of blessing, and men should speak of it as the habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
Jer 31:24-26. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
He that can sleep and dream as Jeremiah did, may well say that his sleep was sweet to him. May God grant to us, whether we sleep or wake, to be always with him! Then our time shall be indeed sweet unto us.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
surely: Job 33:27, Job 33:28, Psa 102:19, Psa 102:20, Isa 57:15-18, Hos 5:15, Hos 6:1, Hos 6:2, Luk 15:20
Ephraim: Jer 31:6, Jer 31:9, Jer 3:21, Jer 3:22, Jer 50:4, Jer 50:5, Hos 11:8, Hos 11:9, Hos 14:4-8
Thou hast: Jer 2:30, Jer 5:3, Job 5:17, Psa 39:8, Psa 39:9, Psa 94:12, Psa 119:75, Pro 3:11, Isa 1:5, Isa 9:13, Isa 57:17, Hos 5:12, Hos 5:13, Zep 3:2, Heb 12:5, Rev 3:19
as a: Psa 32:9, Pro 26:3, Pro 29:1, Isa 51:20, Isa 53:7, Lam 3:27-30, Hos 10:11
turn: Jer 17:14, Psa 80:3, Psa 80:7, Psa 80:19, Psa 85:4, Lam 5:21, Mal 4:6, Luk 1:17, Act 3:26, Phi 2:13, Jam 1:16-18
for: Jer 3:22, Jer 3:25, Isa 63:16
Reciprocal: Lev 26:40 – confess Deu 21:3 – an Deu 21:18 – will not 1Ki 8:47 – done perversely 1Ki 18:37 – thou hast turned 2Ch 6:37 – We have sinned 2Ch 33:12 – And when Job 34:31 – General Job 40:5 – but I will proceed Psa 7:1 – O Psa 7:12 – If Psa 32:3 – When Psa 51:13 – converted Psa 107:13 – General Psa 119:59 – turned Psa 119:67 – but now Psa 119:176 – seek Pro 23:35 – stricken Son 6:12 – soul Isa 1:19 – General Isa 12:1 – though Isa 30:18 – wait Isa 31:6 – Turn Isa 42:3 – bruised Isa 57:18 – have Isa 64:5 – in those Jer 3:4 – Wilt thou Jer 3:13 – acknowledge Eze 7:16 – mourning Eze 14:6 – Repent Eze 16:61 – remember Eze 18:28 – he considereth Eze 20:43 – and ye shall Eze 24:13 – because Eze 33:11 – turn ye Eze 36:31 – shall ye Dan 9:13 – that we Hos 2:7 – I will Hos 14:3 – Asshur Hos 14:8 – I have Jon 3:10 – God saw Hab 1:12 – for Zec 1:3 – and Zec 12:12 – the land Mat 5:3 – the poor Mar 4:12 – be converted Mar 14:72 – Peter Luk 6:21 – ye that weep Luk 7:38 – weeping Luk 15:15 – he went Luk 18:13 – but Luk 22:61 – looked Luk 22:62 – and wept Act 3:19 – be Act 9:11 – for Act 11:18 – granted 1Co 11:31 – General 2Co 7:7 – mourning 2Co 7:9 – I rejoice 2Co 7:11 – indignation 2Th 3:14 – that he 2Ti 2:25 – if Jam 4:9 – afflicted
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 31:18. Ephraim stands for the 10 tribes when used in this way because the capital of that kingdom was in the possession of that tribe. That kingdom had been removed from their land a century before this writing of Jeremiah, and the prophet is predicting their release from the exile which was t.o occur at the same time with the 2 tribes. Turn me and I shall he turned refers to the cure from idolatry that was accomplished by the captivity. The historical note that shows the fulfillment of this prediction was quoted at Isa 1:25 in volume 3 of this Commentary,
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 31:18. I have surely heard Ephraim, &c. Here, still further to diversify the subject, and give it the greater force, the other personage referred to in the preceding note is introduced. Ephraim, representing the ten tribes, is brought forward, lamenting his past undutifulness with great contrition and penitence, and professing an earnest desire of amendment. And these symptoms of returning duty are no sooner discerned in him than God acknowledges him once more as a darling child, and resolves to receive him with mercy. The passage is intended to show the change necessary to be wrought in the hearts of the Israelites, in order to their obtaining this restoration from captivity, according to the conditional promises made of old to this people. See Lev 26:40-41. Previously to his conferring this great benefit upon them, God must hear them bemoaning themselves, or bewailing their miserable state, and the sins which had brought them into it, acknowledging that the chastisements which they had suffered had not been more or greater than their sins had justly merited, and praying earnestly for mercy and deliverance. Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised Or, instructed by thy discipline, as maybe properly rendered. As a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Whereas before I was as an untamed bullock, or heifer, that is not to be managed but by stripes and corrections. Turn thou me, and I shall be turned Do thou turn my heart by thy preventing and renewing grace, and then I shall be effectually reformed, Lam 5:21. Sometimes the Scripture ascribes the whole work of mans conversion to God, because his grace is the first and principal cause of it. But yet, to make it effectual, mans concurrence is necessary, as appears particularly from Jer 51:9, where God says, We would have healed Babylon, and she is not healed; that is, God did what was requisite on his part for her conversion, but she refused to comply with his call. To the same purpose he speaks to Jerusalem, (Eze 24:13,) I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
31:18 I have surely heard {u} Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus]; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a {x} bull unaccustomed [to the yoke]: {y} turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou [art] the LORD my God.
(u) That is, the people who were led captive.
(x) Which was wanton and could not be subject to the yoke.
(y) He shows how the faithful used to pray, that is, desire God to tame them as they cannot turn of themselves.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Yahweh heard Ephraim, the people of the Northern Kingdom, acknowledging that He had chastened them like an untrained calf. They cried out to Him to restore them because He was their God.