4<\/strong>. We have had (chs. Jer 7:29<\/span> to Jer 8:3<\/span>) a kind of parenthesis, setting forth the nature of the coming punishment. Jeremiah now returns to the subject of the conduct which has procured it.<\/p>\n Chs. Jer 8:4<\/span> to Jer 9:1<\/span>. Forecast of punishment as the result of sin<\/p>\n The section may be thus summarized.<\/p>\n (i) Jer 8:4-9<\/em><\/span>. Human fortunes and conduct are as a rule liable to change, but Israel pursues a steady course of disobedience. Migratory birds obeying unerringly their instincts compare favourably with the men who have intellect to understand Jehovah’s teaching, yet falsify or ignore it. (ii) Jer 8:10-12<\/em><\/span>. Even prophets and priests are covetous, insincere, foolishly optimistic, and unblushingly wicked. They must suffer the penalty. Their wives and lands shall be given to others. (iii) Jer 8:13-17<\/em><\/span>. They are as a tree without fruit or leaf. It remains only in despair to take refuge within walls. The northern foes’ approach can be already heard. They devastate city and country alike. No charm can avert this serpent-like attack. (iv) Jer 8:18<\/em><\/span> to Jer 9:1<\/em><\/span><\/em>. There sounds from afar the cry of dismay from those who have moved Jehovah to anger. The time for deliverance has gone by. Is there indeed no remedy? No, none. Would that my tears were as limitless as the calamity which calls them forth.<\/p>\n The prophet here resumes from Jer 7:28<\/span> the main subject of his prophecy. He again invites the Jews to repentance.<\/P> Shall they fall? – <\/B>The argument is that when men fall, they do not lie upon the ground, but endeavor to get up again: and when a man loses his way, he does not persist in going on, but turns round, and retraces his steps. Israel then will be only following the dictates of comnon sense in desisting from that which she now knows to be her ruin.<\/P> <\/p>\n Jer 8:4-7<\/span><\/p>\n Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n A great evil and an urgent question<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> <\/strong>It is an evil in its nature; it is a great sin against God, involving the basest ingratitude, the abuse of the greatest mercies, and the violation of the most solemn vows.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is an evil in its influence.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Upon self. It arrests the progress of the soul, darkens its prospects, curtails its liberty, and destroys its usefulness.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Upon others. It encourages the religious sceptic, it staggers the anxious inquirer, it embarrasses the friends of truth.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Not by the force of circumstances over which they have no control. No power in the universe drives them back against their will.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Not by the withdrawal of heavens helping agency.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The causes are in themselves. Neglect of the means of spiritual improvement, the study of the Scriptures, and the ministry of the Word; the cherishing of some secret sin; engrossment in worldly pursuits; fellowship with sceptical and ungodly men. (Homilist.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Backsliding tendencies<\/strong><\/p>\n The tendency to the lukewarmness of spiritual life is in us all. Take a bar of iron out of the furnace on a winter day, and lay it down in the air, and there is nothing more wanted. Leave it there, and very soon the white heat will change into livid dulness, and then there will come a scale over it, and in a short time it will be as cold as the frosty atmosphere around it. And so there is always a refrigerating process acting upon us which needs to be counteracted by continual contact with the fiery furnace of spiritual warmth, or else we are cooled down to the degree of cold around us. (A. Maclaren.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n To the backslider<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The fear of man.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Inter course with worldly society.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Presumption.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Secret sin.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Neglect of prayer.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The absence of pleasure in attending to the secret exercises of religion.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Irregular and unprofitable attendance on public ordinances.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Unwillingness to act or suffer for the honour of Christ.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Uncharitable feelings toward fellow Christians.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Indulgence in sins once abandoned.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Declension into error.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Declension into unbelief.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Declension into lukewarmness, or want of love.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Declension into prayerlessness.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Declension into immorality.<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>Declension into open rejection of a Christian profession.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Let the backslider remember from whence he has fallen.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Let the backslider reflect on his guilt and danger.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Let the backslider return to God, from whom he has wandered.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Let the backslider live near to Christ.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Let the backslider forsake the sin into which he has fallen.<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>Let the backslider learn to depend on the promised aid of the Holy Spirit. (G. Brooks.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n National degeneracy<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>They break over the restraints of His goodness. He promised to make them the most numerous, the most wealthy, and the most respectable nation on earth.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>A religious people who are perpetually backsliding grow worse and worse under the restraint of Divine authority. He gave His peculiar people His judgments, His statutes, and His laws, which were far superior to those of any other nation. There was another way by which God often laid a restraint upon His backsliding people, and that was by His rod of correction; but they often broke over this restraint, and persisted in their wicked ways.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>A perpetually backsliding people will hold fast deceit, and refuse to return to God from whom they have revolted, even under the severest tokens of His wrath.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>They delude themselves by backsliding very gradually. They first forget the goodness of God in one smaller favour, and then in another; and this leads them to forget God in greater and greater favours, until Divine goodness loses all its restraining influence over them. In the same imperceptible manner they break over all the restraints of Divine authority and of Divine corrections. Such a gradual backsliding becomes more and more habitual, and, of course, more and more insensible. Every backslider always feels self-condemned for the first instances of his deviation from the path of duty. But one deviation naturally leads to another, and serves to palliate it, till self-regret and self-reproach cease to operate, and men feel as easy and innocent in their gradual declensions as they did before they began to backslide; and, like Ephraim, while they have grey hairs here and there upon them, they know it not.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>All backsliding consists in mens walking in the ways of their hearts, instead of walking in the ways of Gods commandments. They backslide because they love to backslide; and what they love, they endeavour to persuade themselves is right. If they are reproved, they will justify rather than condemn their backsliding.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Backsliders are more or less under the blinding and deluding influence of the great adversary of souls. He is now deluding all the heathen world, and insensibly involving them in fatal darkness, and leading them blindly to destruction. And he is more or less concerned in spreading errors and delusions in all the Christian world, who love and hold fast deceit.<\/p>\n Improvement–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It appears from the description of a religious people which has been given in this discourse, that we in this country deserve that character.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>If we have given a just description of a perpetually backsliding people, that character justly belongs to us.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It appears from what has been said, that our national sins are very great and aggravated. They are of the nature of backsliding, which greatly enhances their criminality. Backsliding is not a sin of ignorance, but a sin of knowledge. Our national vices, immoralities, and errors, have been commited against greater light and stronger restraints than those of any other nation.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>It appears from what has been said, that no external means nor motives will reform a backsliding people. They backslide so gradually and insensibly, and are so fond of their backslidings, and are under such a powerful influence of the great deceiver, that they will hold fast deceit, and refuse to repent, return, and reform. Their perpetual backsliding is perpetually stupefying their hearts and consciences; for they feel no guilt and fear no danger. They are certainly out of the reach of men and means to save them from ruin. Hence,<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>This people have abundant occasion for fasting, humiliation, and prayer. Their situation is extremely critical and dangerous, and every way adapted to affect every benevolent heart. It is the imperious duty of all the Noahs, Jobs, and Daniels to arise and plead with God to take His own work into His own hands, and bow the hearts of this people to Himself. (N. Emmons, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n They refused to return.<\/strong>—<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Mans backwardness to repent<\/strong><\/p>\n 1<\/strong>. <\/em><\/strong>God reasons with us from what we do in other cases. Shall they fall, etc. (Jer 8:4<\/span>). He makes us judges in our own cause. If a man slips and gets a fall, does he lie where he fell, without making any attempt to get up again? Why, then, God saith, doth this people what no others do? Why do they fall, and rise not? stray, and return not? Despair of pardon leads many to continue in sin. But is there cause for this despair? Is it God that is unwilling? No; they refused to return. The Lord, as it were, saith, How often would I have gathered them together, and they would not! My outward calling you by the Word, My inward moving by me Spirit, My many benefits, My gentle chastisements, My long-suffering–all show, that I was willing for your return.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>God reasons with us from His own anxious desire. He represents Himself to us as hearkening with patient, attentive ear, if He may catch from us the words of repentance. And what does God expect to hear from us? What have I done? These words, said not with the lips only, but from the deep feelings of the heart, may lead to better things. How vile was the act of sin in itself! how full is it of shame and remorse! What have I done, as in the sight of God, so fearful in power, so glorious in majesty? What have I done as for any profit derived, any passing, empty pleasure? How have I injured my body and my soul!<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>God sends us to the birds of the sky; to creatures without reason, that we, reasonable beings, may learn our duty from them. Yea, the stork, etc. These birds have an appointed time for coming back; they know and observe it. There is an accepted time, if we would know it; if, like the birds, we would observe, and take it; and the Scripture tells us, that that time is now. (E. Blencowe, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 4<\/span>. Moreover thou shalt say<\/B><\/I>] Dr. Blayney<\/I> very properly observes, “In that part of the prophecy which follows next, the difference of speakers requires to be attended to; the transition being quick and sudden, but full of life and energy. The prophet at first, in the name of God, reproves the people’s incorrigibility; he charges their wise ones with folly, and threatens them with grievous calamities, Jer 8:4-13<\/span>. In the three next verses he seems to apostrophize his countrymen in his own person, and as one of the people that dwelt in the open towns, advising those that were in the like situation to retire with him into some of the fortified cities, and there wait the event with patience, since there was nothing but terror abroad, and the noise of the enemy, who had already begun to ravage the country, Jer 8:14-16<\/span>. God speaks, Jer 8:17<\/span>, and threatens to bring foes against them that should be irresistible. The prophet appears again in his own person, commiserating the daughter of his people, who is heard bewailing her forlorn case in a distant land; while the voice of God, like that of conscience, breaks in upon her complaints, and shows her that all this ruin is brought upon her by her own infidelities, Jer 8:18-20<\/span>. The prophet once more resumes his discourse; he regrets that no remedy can be found to close up the wounds of his country, and pathetically weeps over the number of her slain, Jer 8:21<\/span>; Jer 9:1<\/span>.”<\/P> <\/P> Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not<\/B><\/I> <\/B>return?<\/B><\/I>] That is, It is as possible for sinners to return from their sin to God, for his grace is ever at hand to assist, as it is for God, who is pouring out his judgments, to return to them on their return to him. But these held fast deceit, and refused to<\/I> return<\/I>; they would not be undeceived.<\/P> <\/p>\n Moreover thou shalt say unto them; though possibly it be all in vain, yet thou shalt keep in thy work. <\/P> Shall they fall, and not arise? an interrogation that hath the force of a negative, i.e. surely none. Or, Will men, is there no hope? And are they upon this ground desperate? Or rather, Will men fall, and not arise? Are they such fools, that having fallen by their sins, and been foretold all that is coming, that they will not accept of a remedy? Jer 7:27<\/span>; Hos 14:1<\/span>. <\/P> Shall he turn away, and not return? a metaphor taken from one that is out of his way; can any imagine that if one tell him of it, and direct him aright, that he will not hearken to him, and turn back? It is even against nature itself for a man not to seek his own good. <\/P> <\/p>\n 4.<\/B> “Is it not a naturalinstinct, that if one falls, he rises again;<\/I> if one turns away(that is, wanders from the way), he will return<\/I> to the pointfrom which he wandered? Why then does not Jerusalem do so?” Heplays on the double sense of return;<\/I> literal and metaphorical(Jer 3:12<\/span>; Jer 4:1<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n Moreover, thou shalt say unto them<\/strong>,…. The Jews, in Jeremiah’s time, in order to leave them inexcusable, though the Lord had before assured that they would not hearken to him, Jer 7:27<\/span>:<\/p>\n thus saith the Lord, shall they fall, and not rise<\/strong>? men, when they fall, endeavour to get up again, and generally they do:<\/p>\n shall he turn away, and not return<\/strong>? when a man turns out of the right way into a wrong one, as soon as he is sensible of his mistake, he returns back; this is usually done among men. This is generally the case in a natural sense, and might be expected in a moral sense; that whereas these people had fallen into sin, they would rise again by repentance; and, having turned from the good ways of God, would soon return again to them.<\/p>\n The People’s Obstinacy in Wickedness, and the Dreadfulness of the Judgment. – Since the people cleaves stedfastly to its sin (Jer 8:4-13<\/span>), the Lord must punish sorely (Jer 8:14<\/span> -23). – Jer 8:4-13<\/span>. “And say to them, Thus hath the Lord said: Doth one fall, and not rise again? or doth one turn away, and not turn back again? <\/em> Jer 8:5<\/span>. Why doth this people of Jerusalem turn itself away with a perpetual turning? They hold fast by deceit, they refuse to return. <\/em> Jer 8:6<\/span>. I listened and heard: they speak not aright; no one repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? They all turn to their course again, like a horse rushing into the battle. <\/em> Jer 8:7<\/span>. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and turtle-dove, and swallow, and crane, keep the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of Jahveh. <\/em> Jer 8:8<\/span>. How can ye say, Wise are we, and the law of Jahve we have? Certainly the lying pen of the scribes hath made it a lie. <\/em> Jer 8:9<\/span>. Ashamed the wise men become, confounded and taken; lo, the word of Jahveh they spurn at; and whose wisdom have they? <\/em> Jer 8:10<\/span>. Therefore will I give their wives unto others, their fields to new heirs: for from the small to the great, they are all greedy for gain; from the prophet even unto the priest, they all use deceit. <\/em> Jer 8:11<\/span>. And they heal the hurt of the daughter of my people as it were a light matter, saying, Peace, peace; and yet there is no peace. <\/em> Jer 8:12<\/span>. They have been put to shame because they have done abomination; yet they take not shame to themselves, ashamedness they know not. Therefore they shall fall amongst them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall stumble, that Jahve said. <\/em> Jer 8:13<\/span>. Away, away will I sweep them, saith Jahveh: no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf is withered; so I appoint unto them those that shall pass over them.”<\/p>\n <\/em> This strophe connects itself with what precedes. A judgment, dreadful as has been described in Jer 7:32-8:3, will come on Judah, because the people cleaves stiffneckedly to its sins. The of Jer 8:4<\/span> corresponds to that in Jer 7:28<\/span>. The questioning clauses in Jer 8:4<\/span> contain universal truths, which are applied to the people of Judah in Jer 8:5<\/span>. The subjects to and are indefinite, hence singular and plural with like significance: cf. Gesen. 137, 3; Ew. 294, b<\/em>. The verb , turn oneself, turn about, is here used in a double sense: first, as turn away from one; and then turn towards him, return again. In the application in Jer 8:5<\/span>, the Pilel is used for to turn away from, and strengthened by: with perpetual turning away or backsliding. is not partic. Niph. fem<\/em>. from , but an adjectival formation, continual, enduring, from , continuance, durableness. “Jerusalem” belongs to “this people:” this people of Jerusalem; the loose grammatical connection by means of the stat. constr<\/em>. not being maintained, if the first idea gives a sense intelligible by itself, so that the second noun may then be looked on rather in the light of an apposition conveying additional information; cf. Ew. 290, c<\/em>. , equivalent to , deceit against God. they refuse to return. Sense: they will not receive the truth, repent and return to God. The same idea is developed in Jer 8:6<\/span>. The first person: I have listened and heard, Hitz. insists, refers to the prophet, “who is justified as to all he said in Jer 8:5<\/span> by what he has seen.” But we cannot account that even an “apt” view of the case, which makes the prophet cite his own observations to show that God had not spoken without cause. It is Jahveh that speaks in Jer 8:5<\/span>; and seeing that Jer 8:6<\/span> gives not the slightest hint of any change in the speaker, we are bound to take Jer 8:6<\/span> also as spoken by God. Thus, to prove that they cleave unto deceit, Jahveh says that He has given heed to their deeds and habits, and heard how they speak the , the not right, i.e., lies and deceit. The next clause: not one repents him of his wickedness, corresponds to: they refuse to return; cf. Jer 8:5<\/span> ( is partic<\/em>.). Instead of this, the whole of it, i.e., all of them, turn again to their course. with , construed as in Hos 12:7<\/span>: turn oneself to a thing, so as to enter into it. For , the sig. course is certified to by 2Sa 18:27<\/span>. The Chet<\/em>. .tehC e is doubtless merely an error of transcription for , as is demanded by the Keri<\/em>. Turn again into their course. The thought is: instead of considering, of becoming repentant, they continue their evil courses. This, too, is substantially what Hitz. gives. Ros., Graf, and others, again, take this in the sense of turning themselves away in their course; but it is not fair to deduce this sense for without from Jer 8:4<\/span>; nor is the addition of “from me” justifiable. Besides, this explanation does not suit the following comparison with the horse. It is against analogy to derive from with the sig. desire, cupidity. Ew., following the Chald<\/em>., adopts this sense both here and in Jer 22:17<\/span> and Jer 23:10<\/span>, though it is not called for in any of these passages, and is unsuitable in Jer 22:17<\/span>. As a horse rusheth into the battle. , pour forth, overflow, hence rush on impetuously; by Jerome rightly translated, cum impetu vadens <\/em>. Several commentators compare the Latin se effundere<\/em> (Caes. Bell. Gall<\/em>. v. 19) and effundi<\/em> (Liv. xxviii. 7); but the cases are not quite in point, since in both the words are used of the cavalry, and not of the steed by itself. This simile makes way for more in Jer 8:7<\/span>. Even the fowls under the heaven keep the time of their coming and departure, but Israel takes no concern for the judgment of its God; cf. Isa 1:3<\/span>. , ( avis<\/em>) pia<\/em>, is the stork, not the heron; see on Lev 11:19<\/span>. “In the heaven” refers to the flight of the stork. All the birds mentioned here are birds of passage. and are turtle-dove and pigeon. For the Masoretes read , apparently to distinguish the word from that for horse; and so the oriental Codd<\/em>. propose to read in Isa 38:14<\/span>, although they wrote . is the crane (acc. to Saad. and Rashi), both here and in Isa 38:14<\/span>, where Gesen., Knob., and others, mistaking the asyndeton, take it as an adjective in the sig. sighing.<\/p>\n (Note: Starting from this unproved interpretation of Isa 38:14<\/span>, and supporting their case from the lxx translation of the present passage, , Hitz. and Graf argue that is not the name of any particular bird, but only a qualifying word to , in order to distinguish the swallow from the horse, the sense more commonly attached to the same word. But that confused text of the lxx by no means justifies us in supposing that the cop<\/em>. was introduced subsequently into the Heb. text. It is possible that is only a corrupt representation of , and the came into the lxx text in consequence of this corruption. but certainly the fact that the lxx, as also Aquil. and Symm., both here and in Isa 38:14<\/span>, did not know what to make of the Hebrew word, and so transcribed it in Greek letters, leads us to conclude that these translators permitted themselves to be guided by Isa 38, and omitted here also the copula, which was there omitted before .<\/p>\n are the fixed times for the arrival and departure of the birds of passage.<\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>A great evil. Backsliding.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>An urgent question. Why?<\/p>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>The causes of backsliding.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The symptoms of backsliding.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The forms of backsliding.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>The evils of backsliding.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>The cure of backsliding.<\/p>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>What denominates a religious people. The Jews were a religious people in distinction from all other nations who were given to superstition and idolatry. They professed to believe the existence of the only living and true God. All the nations at this day, who profess to believe the truth of Christianity, and who observe the public worship of God and the ordinances of the Gospel, are called religious nations, though the great majority may be totally destitute of vital piety. It is the explicit profession and external conduct of a people that give them their religious character.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>When a religious people may be said to be a backsliding clue. Grace, in the present state, does not entirely destroy nature. Large measures of moral corruption remain in the hearts of the best of men in the most religious nations. So, every people, who profess to believe the Gospel and live under its influence, have something in them that dislikes the character, the laws, and the government of God. On this account they are bent to backsliding from Him. Among every religious people there is a great, if not the greatest part of them, who are under only the restraining, and not the sanctifying, influence of the Gospel. It is when they break over such restraints as ought to keep them from backsliding from Him; and they are perpetually backsliding, while they are constantly breaking over one restraint after another.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Why a backsliding people will persist in backsliding. This is owing to some great delusion.<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n