Jeremiah 2
The second chapter forms the introduction of a group of
discourses (Jeremiah
2.-6.), which should be read together. It is thought to be
the first oracle which
Jeremiah delivered in public. This would bring it into the thirteenth year
of the
reign of Josiah (see v. 3).
It is, obviously, only a summary of the prophet’s
spoken words which we have in this most impressive
discourse. In order to
appreciate it, we must bear in mind the external political
relations and the internal
religions condition of the
upon in the general introduction. Josiah’s reformation — in
the strict sense of the
word — did not begin till the eighteenth year of that
king’s reign; and that the
state of things was at this time complicated by a dangerous
alliance with that
continual protest. The first section of the prophecy is a
general introduction,
already full of serious charges against the people (vs.
1-9); in the second,
the special occasion of the discourse is declared in the
form of a question,
and the sin referred to is rebuked (vs. 10-19); in the
third,
idolatry is denounced, and the disappointment and ruin to
which it led candidly
pointed out (vs. 20-28); and in the fourth, half in earnest
and half in ironical satire,
the prophet points the moral of this foolish Egyptian fever
which has seized upon
rulers and people (ver. 29-37).
It is always interesting to notice how later inspired
writers hasten to do
honor to their predecessors. Originality is not an object
with the prophets,
but rather the developing and adapting the truths long ago
“delivered.” The
whole group of prophecies to which Jeremiah 2 belongs
contains numerous
points of contact, in ideas or phraseology, with the song
of Moses
(Deuteronomy 32.). The following have been indicated:
1 “Moreover the
word of the Lord came unto me saying,” - The introductory
formula agrees with ch. 1:4. We
have as it were two parallel prophecies (both
branching out of the original chronological statement in
ch.1:2
.
2 “Go and cry in the ears of
had received his call at Anathoth
(ch. 1:1). “Thus
saith the Lord; I remember
thee, the kindness of thy youth,” rather, I remember
for thy good the kindness
of thy youth. It is an
open question whether the “kindness”
spoken of is that of
God towards the people, or of the people towards God. The
usage of the Hebrew
(khesed) admits of either
acceptation; compare for the first, Psalm 5:7, 36:5, and
many other passages; for the second, Hosea 6:4, 6 (in v. 6
rendering for “mercy,”
“goodness”)
and Isaiah 57:1 (rendering “men of piety”).
But the context,
which dwells so strongly on the oblivion into which the Divine
benefits had
been allowed to pass, is decidedly in favor of the first
view. How beautiful
is this condescending language! Jehovah’s past feelings
come back to Him;
at least, so it appears to the believer, when God lets the
light of His
countenance shine forth again (compare ch.31:20; Hosea 9:10). He even
condescends to overlook the weakness and inconsistency of
the
antiquity. He idealizes it (i.e. Jeremiah is permitted to
do so). This is in harmony
with other prophetic passages (see Isaiah 1:26 (“as at the
first”); Hosea 11:1, 3-4;
Ezekiel 16:6-14). The figure of the bride recurs constantly
(see Hosea 2:19-20;
Isaiah 54:4-5; Ezekiel 16:8) – “the love of thine espousals,” - rather, thy bridal
state – “when
thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land
that was
not sown.” (compare
Deuteronomy 8:2, “all the way which
Jehovah thy God
led thee these forty years in the wilderness”).
God’s Estimation of His People’s
Love (v. 2)
A remarkable passage: to be taken in its evident meaning,
and not to be
explained away. What a loving use to make of the past
faithfulness and
attachment of His people! He would remind them of them,
that they may
repent and return.
I. IT IS FULL OF INTEREST TO HIM. To those who feel intense love
for others, it is exceedingly grateful to find their love
reciprocated. High,
pure, disinterested love, like that of God for men, never
receives equal
return; but what it does elicit it prizes beyond all its
intrinsic value. The
parent thinks
more of the child’s love for him than the child of the parent’s.
1. It spoke of
trust. There is no fear or selfishness in love Divine love
awakens. The wilderness could
not daunt the simple hearts of faithful
of promise. So with respect to
Christ.
2. It spoke of
gratitude. He had saved them from
made them His own freemen. No
service was too arduous; no trial too
severe. Jesus has saved
us from sin and its consequences; we owe to Him a
deeper gratitude.
3. It spoke of
an affection that was its own reward. There was delight in
the presence and communion of
God. Worship was rapture. The chief
interest of life
was spiritual and Divine. The life of
sanctified to God. Love that
could manifest itself thus was a sign and
guarantee that the love of God
had not been in vain.
II. ITS FAILINGS ARE CONDONED BY ITS
GENUINENESS. No
mention is made of their murmurings, their disobedience,
and unbelief.
Where the true spirit of Divine love is exhibited God can
forgive defects,
etc. To Him it is enough for the present that we do our
best, and are true
and earnest. So at the first signs of repentance He is
willing to forget all our
offences. What is good and real in men, is of infinitely
more value to Him
than we can imagine, and for the sake of that He is
willing to cover the
guilty past. This is all
the more precious a trait in the Divine character that
it does not spring from ignorance of us. He knows us
altogether, our
secret thoughts, our down-sitting and our uprising. (Psalm
139) The readiness of
God so to forgive and to overvalue past love and trust on
the part of His people,
ought to fill us with compunction and shame. We ought to
ask, “Was this
our love?” “Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, fed thee? or thirsty and
gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked
and clothed thee.” (Matthew 25:37-38)
III. THOUGH TRANSIENT, IT ELICITS AN ETERNAL
ATTACHMENT AND
LEAVES AN UNDYING MEMORY. “I
remember.” It
ought to be a strong motive to the Christian to think that
his little works of faith and labors of love are so highly
prized, and so long
remembered. “For thy works’ sake.” Who would not
rather charge the
memory of God with such gracious memories, that “heap
up wrath against
the day of wrath?” (Romans 2:5)
3 “
(compare Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2; 26:19).
Isaiah, fond as he
is of the phrase “
correlative truth, as Jeremiah does here - “and the first-fruits of His
increase:” - rather, His firstfruits
of increase.
firstfruits (reshith) of the land,
which were devoted to the house of the
Lord (Exodus 23:19; Numbers 18:12-13). So in Amos 6:1, the
title given him is “the
chief [margin, ‘firstfruits’] of the nations” (in
ch.
31:7, a synonymous and cognate word, rosh,
takes the place
of reshith for
“chief”) - “all that devour him shall
offend;” - rather, all
that ate him incurred guilt, or became guilty of a trespass. Foreigners were
forbidden to eat of consecrated things; by breaking this
law they became
guilty of a “trespass,”
having invaded the rights of Jehovah (Leviticus
22:10,15-16). The word for “trespass” is the same as that
rendered “guilt.”
“evil shall come
upon them, saith the Lord.”
Recollections
of a Happy Past (vs. 1-3)
It is pleasing to see how the prophet of judgment opens his first
oracle with
touching reminiscences of the early happy relations between God and His
people. Thus the young man connects his new utterances with ancient
experience and the old well-tried principles of spiritual religion.
Thus, too,
he leads the way from thoughts of God’s goodness and memories of early
devotion to a right condition of reflection and tenderness of heart, in
which the revelation of dark truths of the future will be less likely
to harden
his hearers in rebellion than if they had been spoken abruptly and harshly.
HAPPY
PAST.
In years of deepening disappointment the sunny days of
youth rise up to
memory and rebuke the cynical mood which sorrow is too
ready to engender. In
years of lessening
spirituality the holy seasons of
early devotion may be
recalled to mind to startle us out of our self-
complacency. It is
well to reflect upon such a past history as that of the
Jews.
ü This was marked by peculiar blessings on God’s side.
Ø It was a time when
God’s love and kindness were felt with
all the fresh receptiveness
of youth; and
Ø it was memorable for
remarkable Divine protection and
blessing.
ü This was characterized
by great fidelity on the side of Israel. In
spite of frequent murmurings
and rebellions, the age of the Exodus
had been the heroic age of
Israel’s national and religious history.
Ø The people then
followed God with affectionate devotion;
they “went after Him.”
Ø They consecrated
themselves in purity and in service;
“Israel was consecrated unto the
Lord.”
Ø They were the earliest
true servants of God — God’s
“firstfruits.” Yet the first may
become last
(Matthew 20:16).
Ø This devotion was
witnessed under trying circumstances.
It was “in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.”
God’s love is sometimes most manifest when outward
circumstances are most
distressing, and men are often more
faithful to God in the
wilderness than in the land flowing with
milk
and honey. What a strange irony of history is this, that
though, while passing
through the wilderness, the people
looked
forward to their happiness in the possession of the
promised
land, after they have had long possession of it they
are
led to look back on those early homeless wanderings
as containing the most blessed age of their
existence!
But
true happiness is ever found, not in external comfort, but
in
spiritual blessedness. Can we recollect early days when the
battle
of life was hard, and we longed for the ease which came
with
success, and now see that there, in that hard battle, our
best
days were lived, our true blessedness was realized?
Such
a memory must be full of pathetic suggestions.
“borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon
her knees”
(Isaiah 66:12b)
first love” it is well that we should know
this:
ü that we may see how
far we have fallen, and repent (Revelation 2:4-5);
ü that the recollection of
the blessedness of early devotion may revive the
longing
for its return;
ü that the consciousness
that this was once attained may encourage us to
believe
that it is a possibility, and therefore may be attained again,
ü It is foolish simply to
regret the happy past. The
use of memory is not
to give to us profitless
melancholy, but to
lead us actively to do
better for the future.
ü It is a mistake for us
to seek simply to regain the lost
past, because
Ø this is gone irrevocably,
Ø the new age requires
new forms of life, and
Ø we should seek better
things in the future. The second Adam
is better than the first
Adam before the fall. (I Corinthians
15:45-47) - The kingdom of heaven is more glorious than
the garden of Eden. The ripe
Christian is higher in the
spiritual
life, though he may have fallen in the past, than the
innocent
child who has never known evil but has not
experienced
the discipline of life.
First Love
to God (vs. 2-3)
We have here a picture of the idyllic days of the soul’s
first love for God.
The emphasis is on the sentiment — its depth, reality, and attractiveness. It
is spoken of as something in which’ God delights; as in the
odor of a rose,
the beauty of a landscape, or the pleasant melody of a
song.
I. IT IS ATTRACTIVE. For its spontaneity; its spirit of self-sacrifice; and
its absoluteness.
II. IT IS IMMEDIATE IN ITS INFLUENCE. UPON
CHARACTER
AND LIFE. Generous sacrifice. Dominance of spiritual aims and
interests.
Personal holiness.
III. IT IS FULL OF PROMISE. Not only what it is, but what it may
become. In one sense the bud is more valuable than the
leaf, or flower, or
knit. It has the interest of growth and the future about
it.
then, were to God but “first fruits.” God only knows what capacity of
spiritual progress and enlargement is ours; and He alone can
tell the
influence and
importance of His people’s faithfulness.
Guilty Instruments of
Divine Judgment (v. 3)
This is a great problem in morals. Pharaoh’s “heart
is hardened,” and yet his guilt
remains. Nations are raised up to punish
“offend” in doing
this very thing.
I. WHEREIN THE GUILT OF INSTRUMENTS OF DIVINE
VENGEANCE MAY
CONSIST. At least two explanations of this
are to
be found:
1. In the
distinction between the formal and the material character of
actions. The essential evil or good of an action is in the intention,
the
subjective conditions that originate and give character
to it. It is subjective,
not actualized; or its
actualization in one of several forms or directions is
indifferent. Towards any of
these the Divine power may direct the impulse
and tendency; or they may be
shut up to them through the unconscious
influence of providence, working
in wider cycles.
2. In the
overdoing or aggravation of the appointed task.
II. WHAT IT IS THAT AGGRAVATES THE GUILT OF THE
WICKED INSTRUMENT
OF DIVINE WRATH. It is the character of
God’s people, and the relation they bear to Him. They have
been “holiness
unto the Lord.” In
so far as this character is interfered with or injured by
the instruments of vengeance, the latter shall be the more
guilty. In so far,
too, as hatred for this character, either as past or present,
in God’s people
has actuated the vengeance inflicted, the avengers “shall
offend.” (Compare
for a similar sentiment, Matthew 18:6. “But whoso shall offend one of these
little ones which believ e in me,
it were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the
depth of the sea.”)
The Divine Being declares His personal attachment to those He has chosen,
and His identification with them. To injure them is
to injure Him. They also
represent, even in their apostasy, the stock from which salvation is to come, and
the world’s spiritual future.
4 “Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house
of Jacob, and all the
families of the house
5 “Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in
me,
that they are gone far from me,” - rather, what
unrighteousness - (compare
Deuteronomy 32:4, “a God of faithfulness, and without
unrighteousness,”
alluding to the “covenant” between Jehovah and
grace (His ‘anavah, Psalm
18:36). As if he were under an obligation to
(compare Micah 6:3; Isaiah 5:3) – “and have walked after
vanity,” - i.e. the
idols; literally, a breath (so ch.10:15; 14:22;
16:19) – “and are become vain.”
The whole being of man is affected by the want of solid
basis to his religion
(compare 23:16; Psalm 115:8); and the evident allusion to
our passage in
Romans 1:21 (Paul has ἐματαιώθησαν - emataiothaesan - they-were-MAKE-ed-VAIN
from μάταιος (futile, unproductive,
useless, aimless as Septuagint here). The clause
is verbally repeated in II Kings 17:15, with reference to
the ten tribes.
6 “Neither said
they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land
of
were forced by stress of trouble to say (Isaiah 63:11; Then he remembered the
days of old. It is questioned who remembered, God or His people.
The
reflections which follow in the next two verses, seem
certainly most appropriate
to the people, or to the prophet speaking in their
name. Where is he that brought
them up out of the sea? i.e.“the
become of the protecting God who then delivered them?
With
the shepherd
of his flock; or, shepherds,
according to another reading. The “shepherd”
might
be either Moses, or “the angel of his face” (v. 9). The “shepherds” — if that
reading be preferred — must be Moses, Aaron, and perhaps
Miriam (Micah 6:4).
Where He that put His Holy Spirit within him? The “him” of
this passage
undoubtedly refers to “the people” - God gave to the people
in the wilderness
“His good Spirit to
instruct them” (Nehemiah 9:20), and guide
them (Haggai
2:4-5), and govern them (Numbers 11:17).) – “through a land of desserts
and of pits, through
a land of drought, and of the shadow of death,
through a land that no man passed through, and where no man
dwelt?”
The first phrase applied to the region through which the
Israelites passed
(“a wilderness”) was
vague, and might mean merely pasture-land. The
remainder of the description, however, shows that “wilderness” is here meant,
as often (Isaiah 35:1; 50:2), in the sense of “desert.”
Though recent travelers
have shown that the Sinaitie
peninsula is not by any means universally a “desert,”
and that in ancient times it was still less so, it is not
unnatural that an agricultural
people should regard it as a most inhospitable region, and
should even idealize
its terrors (compare Deuteronomy 8:15). “Pits,” i.e. rents and fissures in the
soil,
in which the unwary traveler might lose his life (ch. 18:20, 22).
7 “And I brought you into a plentiful
country,” - A “
were - “
i.e., land planted with vines and other choice plants. “to eat the fruit thereof;
but when ye
entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an
abomination.” So
ch.4:26; Isaiah 29:17; 37:24.
The
Ingratitude of Sin (vs. 5-7)
Of the many
aspects under which sin may be viewed none is more sad than
that of
ingratitude to God. Every act of sin is a distinct act of ingratitude;
for every such
act is an offence against Him who has shown to us nothing
but love, and
from whom we are taking innumerable favors in the very
moment of our
transgression.
I. THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE
FORGETFULNESS
OF GOD’S SAVING
MERCY. So the Israelites forget the
glorious
deliverance from
wilderness (v. 6). God is resorted to in distress only to
be ignored,
forsaken, insulted, directly rebelled against, when He has
effected a
deliverance.
II. THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE
IGNORING OF
THE PRESENT
GOODNESS OF GOD. (v. 7.) The Israelites
were
eating the fruit of the good land which God had given to
them while they
were rebelling against him. This is even worse than
ingratitude for past
blessings. Such ingratitude might attempt to plead the
excuse of failure of
memory; but ingratitude for present mercies can only arise
from gross
spiritual blindness or willful disregard of all claims of
justice and affection.
III. THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE FALSE
CHARACTER WHICH
IS ASCRIBED TO GOD. God asks, “What
unrighteousness have your fathers found in me?” The conduct of the Jews
was a direct indictment of the character of God. They
deliberately insulted
Him, and rejected Him for heathen deities. Such conduct
could only be
justified by the discovery that He was not what He claimed
to be. After God
has revealed Himself to men in myriad fold evidences of
goodness, there are
some who hold, if they do not confess to, such evil
conceptions of His
character as amount to the basest calumnies of heartless
ingratitude.
IV. THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE
CHARACTER OF
THE GODS WHO ARE
PREFERRED TO JEHOVAH. These are “false”
gods. Jews who knew that converted religious worship into an
unreality,
and thus became
themselves hollow and unreal. For this
miserable result
did they forsake the God of heaven and earth, their Savior
and constant
Benefactor! If they had found a rival with some pretensions
to worth the
insult would have been less. Herein is the grossness of the
insult to God
seen in all sin. What do men prefer to HHim?
Transient pleasures, earthly
dross. The pearl of great price is flung away, not for a
smaller pearl, but for
dust and
ashes.
V. THE
INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE ABUSE AND
CORRUPTION OF GOD’S GIFTS. God gave the Israelites “gardenland,”
and they defiled it; they made God’s heritage an
abomination. When
we sin we do so by employing the very powers which God has
bestowed
upon us. We insult Him by
turning His own gifts into weapons of rebellion.
We blaspheme Him
with the tongue which He has made.
8 “The priests said
not, Where is the Lord? And they that
handle the law
knew me not: the
pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets
prophesied by Baal,” - The blame
principally falls on the three leading
classes (as in v. 26; Micah
3:11). First on the priests who “handle the Law,”
i.e. who have a
traditional knowledge of the details of the Law, and teach the
people accordingly (Deuteronomy 17:9-11; 33:10; ch. 18:18; see also on
ch.
8:8); next on the “pastors,” or“shepherds” (in the Homeric sense), the civil
and not the spiritual
authorities; so generally in the Old Testament (see ch.
3:15;
10:21; 22:22; 25:34; Zechariah 10:3; 11:5, 8, 16; Isaiah
44:28); and lastly on the
prophets, who
sought their inspiration, not from Jehovah (compare note on
v. 30), but from Baal. To prophesy by (by means of) Baal or rather, the
Baal,
implies that prophecy is due to an impulse from the supernatural world; that
it is not an objectifying of the imaginations of the prophet himself. Even the
Baal prophets yielded to an impulse from without, but how that impulse was
produced the prophet does not tell us. (Pehaps some from
the modern
“secular media”
could tell us where they are getting their vibes – CY – 2011)
We are told in I Kings 22:19-23, that even prophets of
Jehovah could
be led astray by a “lying
spirit;” much more presumably could
prophets of
the Baal. The Baal is here used as a representative
of the idol-gods, in
antithesis to Jehovah; sometimes “Baalim,”
or the Baals, is used instead
(e.g. v. 23; ch. Jeremiah 9:13),
each town or city having its own Baal
(“lord”) – “and walked after things that do not profit.”
A synonym for
idols (compare ch.16:19; Isaiah 44:9; I Samuel 12:21).
(vs.
1-8)
Desertion rather than apostasy is the word by which to
describe the offence
charged against
abstract and unemotional a way of putting the thing. The spectacle
presented to us
is that of one person deserting another in the basest and
most ungrateful
way. It is a desertion without excuse,
aggravated by every
circumstance which can aggravate it. And now Jehovah sends
His servant
to bring the reality of this desertion distinctly before
the nation. And
suitably enough He sends him to “cry in the ears of
sounded forth in the capital by a man who has had the words
of God put in
his mouth may be expected to go to the ends of the land.
I. THE
WHOLE NATION IS SPOKEN TO. God has the
power to look
at human life in the light of a unity which the individual
man is scarcely able
to conceive. Here He looks not only at the living
generation of those who
had sprung from Jacob, but all backward through the past;
each generation
is, as it were, a year in the life of one who still lives,
and is able to look
back on things that happened centuries ago as events of his
own youth.
Thus not only is it true that one generation goes and
another comes, while
GOD ABIDES FOR
EVER but it is also true that while
one generation goes and
another comes,
man might be spoken to, exhorted in the midst of
backsliding and unworthy
habits to look back on the
far different promise of his youth.
II. THE NATION IS SPOKEN TO AS SUSTAINING A
MOST
ENDEARING
RELATION TO GOD. Even as a husband loves
and
cherishes his wife; so God
has loved and cherished
into the past, and He sees a great fall. The youth of
present view of it, was a
time of love and devotion. No doubt there were
murmurings and rebellions; and indeed, when we think of
some of the
things that
seem exaggerated in speaking of the kindness of
of its espousals. But then we must bear in mind that we know
only in a
very imperfect
way what is recorded, whereas God saw all, and to Him the
enthusiasm of
the people on certain memorable occasions was very
significant. He remembered all those events in which
height of its better self, and indicated the possibilities
that might be
expected from it. Such events now stand forth like sunny
heights in
memory. They are reasons why God should not allow His
people quietly to
depart, farther and further, into the alienations of
idolatry. This is what
makes the present
attempt at restoration so full of interest, that it is an
attempt to bring
back the erring spouse to her first love.
III. THE NATION IS VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OFA PAST
IN WHICH
JEHOVAH HAD MADE
GREAT PROMISES AND ENTERTAINED GREAT
EXPECTATIONS
WITH REGARD TO
reckoned a holy nation. They were as firstfruits
of the whole earth, to
which He attached an especial value. Levi He brought in
sacred nearness to
himself in lieu of the firstborn of
He has become the firstfruits of
them that slept; and so here there was
a
nation which was the first to step out from long-accustomed
idolatry. The
glory of Abraham’s faith in the unseen was still, as it
were, resting on
in the wilderness. Jehovah told the people where to go; He gave them
bread, water,
and defense against enemies, in a land of peculiar desolation
and danger. Promises for the future were given in the most effective
way
by distinguished services rendered in the present. When at
last the Israelites
settled down in
sure that he who has
freely, amply, and just at the right time, supplied your
every need, will
also, in all the generations to come, whatever their peculiar
experiences, do the
same thing?” God had taken His people into the
deepest
darkness, and put out every earthen-kindled light, just that He might
manifest in greater glory and attractiveness that light
which is the portion
of all unwavering believers in Himself. Thus the past of
God of
had in it such elements of God’s favor and assiduity (constant and close
attention) as made the national desertion of Him a great mystery.
IV. OBSERVE HOW COMPLETELY IT IS BROUGHT OUT THAT
THE DESERTION IS
A NATIONAL ACT.
1.
The priests appointed
mediators in offering and atonement between
Jehovah and His people; the expounders
of the Law, whose business
it was to keep ever manifest the
difference between right and wrong;
2.
the shepherds, such, for instance, as every father at the head of his
household, providing and guiding;
3.
the prophets, who should have been the messengers of Jehovah;
all these, far away
from their right place, are found in the very forefront
of iniquity. Jehovah is not
only ignored; he is almost treated as if he were
unknown. THE PEOPLE CARELESSLY LET THEIR LEADERS DO
THE
THINKING FOR
THEM! When the priest in the parable went by on the
other
side, the inferior would have thought it presumption to
have acted differently.
Wickedness
in Leaders (v. 8)
The great indictment of Israel reaches its climax in the accusation of
the leaders of the
people. Even they who should have been the guardians of truth and the vindicators
of right have turned aside to evil ways. After this the defection of the whole nation
appears
utter and hopeless. We have here an instance of the terrible condition into
which a country has fallen when its leaders, its teachers,
its responsible civil and
religious authorities, are unfaithful to their mission and set examples of
wickedness.
I. CONSIDER THE SIGNS OF WICKEDNESS IN LEADING
MEN.
1. These are often
unrecognized until the evil has wrought disastrous
effects. For there are circumstances
which make them difficult to detect,
viz:
(a) External propriety. The priests still minister at the altar,
the Law is still
slavishly
observed in ceremonial details, rulers still exercise authority,
prophets still
write and preach in orthodox language, and on the outside all
things go on
respectably, while there is rottenness hidden within.
This was
specially the
case after the reformation of Josiah, when an outward respect
for religious observances was
established without any purification of
heart or revival of spiritual life.
(b) Respect for authority. Many people are too subservient to
question the
character of
their leaders. They would rather unite with their rulers in
crucifying Christ
than recognize His claims against the authority of these
men. They
do not judge of the character of their leaders by any standard
of morals, but found their standard of morals on that character.
2. The signs of wickedness in leading men may be detected in
its bearing
on the special functions of
their respective offices. The priests are the
temple servants of Jehovah, yet
they never seek their Master. They who are
familiar with the precepts of
the Law know
nothing of the person and will
of the Lawmaker. The civil rulers who are ruling under a theocracy directly
transgress the Law of God. The
prophets lend themselves to a corrupt
source of inspiration. So now again we
may see men abusing the powers of
office, and sinning in the very exercise of the responsibilities
which are
entrusted to them for the sake of the maintenance of
right and truth.
Therefore we must be on our
guard, and not simply follow those who
claim to lead because of their
rank or office. Men of leading are not always
men of light. We must try the spirits (1 John 4:1), and judge of the
character of those who claim to
lead us by their actions, “Ye shall know
them by their
fruits” (Matthew 7:16).
II. CONSIDER THE PECULIAR GUILT OF WICKEDNESS IN
LEADING.
1. It is contrary
to knowledge. The priests handle the
Law. Men of
influence are usually in a
position to learn what is wise and good. Teachers
of religion may be presumed to
know more than the average of men. How
great, then, is
their guilt when their conduct is corrupt (Romans 2:21-
23)
2. It is contrary
to profession. These leaders set
themselves up as examples
to others, and then even they go
wrong. They who assume a high position
should justify that position by
manifesting a high character. More is
expected of the professed
Christian than of the confessed man of the
world.
3. It is an abuse of great responsibility. If men willfully employ positions
of trust as means of violating
the very objects of those trusts, their guilt is
proportionate to the privileges
they have received and the honors they have
accepted. He who uses a
Christian pulpit to propagate doctrines subversive
of Christianity is guilty of
base treason.
III. CONSIDER THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF WICKEDNESS
IN
LEADING MEN. These will be great in proportion to the influence of the
men, and will partake of the special characteristics of
that influence, viz.:
1. Breadth. Leading men have a
wide influence, and the seeds of evil which
they sow will be widespread.
2. Depth. Leading men have power at their disposal. Their example
is
weighty.
3. Subtlety. Dignity,
prestige, authority, disguise
the evil which would be
recognized if it were stripped of the pomp of price. Therefore:
(a) see that good men are chosen for posts of
influence, and let the
selection and education of civil and
religious leaders be a matter of more
prayer and thought on the part of the
Church; and
(b) be not too ready to follow with blind
obedience those who may be in
high positions.
Be independent and watchful. Follow the one infallible
Leader, “the Good Shepherd,” Christ.
9 “Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD,” - Repeated acts
of rebellion call forth repeated abjurations and punishments. “and with your
children’s children will I plead.” For God “visits the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children” (Exodus 20:5).
The
Indictment of
The chosen nation
is arraigned in all its generations and in all its orders. It
is a universal and
continuous crime; and it ran parallel with a succession of
unheard-of mercies, deliverances, and favors. In these respects it
corresponds to the
sin of God’s people in every age — forgetfulness of
past mercy, abuse
of present blessings, the corruption and perverseness of
those who were
entrusted with Divine mysteries and sacred offices.
I. JEHOVAH APPEALS TO HIS CHARACTER AND
DEALINGS IN
THE PAST IN
DISPROOF OF THERE BEING ANY EXCUSE IN
THEM FOR THE SIN
OF HIS PEOPLE. Inquiry is challenged.
History is
rehearsed. So it always has been. The reason for the sins,
etc., of God’s
people is in themselves and not in God. God is just, and
all the allegations
and murmurs of unbelieving and disobedient
Christians often give for their faults and offences are
already answered in
advance. We have received from Him nothing but good. His help and
protection were
at our disposal; but we forsook Him, and sinned against
both Him and ourselves.
II. THE ENORMITY OF THE OFFENCE IS THEN SET
recital is marked by simplicity, symmetry, force, and
point. It contains the
undeniable commonplaces of history and experience, but the
artist’s power
is shown in the grouping and perspective.
1. It is ancient
and hereditary. The fathers, the children, and the children’s
children. Just as they
could not go back to a time when God had not cared
for them and blessed them, so they could not discover a time when they
or
their forefathers
had not shown unbelief and ingratitude.
It is pertinent to
ask in such a case, “Must there
not be some hereditary and original taint in
the sinners themselves?” What
will men do with the actual existence of
depravity? How will they explain
its miserable entail? Human history in
every age is marked by
persistent wickedness; Christianity
suggests an
explanation of this. It is for
objectors to substitute a better.
2. It consists
in ingratitude, unbelief, and the service of false gods. The
Exodus with all its marvels and
mercies, the blessings that surrounded them
in the present, go
for naught. They are forgotten or ignored.
And idols,
which are but vanity, are sought
after to such an extent that their
worshippers “are like unto them.” This is the
history of religious defection
in every age. Forgetfulness of God, ingratitude, and the overwhelming
influence of worldly
interests and concerns, and the lusts of our own sinful
nature, work the
same ruin in us. How many idols does
the modern world,
the modern Church not set up?
3. It is marked
by the abuse of blessings and the breach of sacred trusts.
When men are rendered worthless by their sinful
practices, they cannot
appreciate the good things of God. Divine bounty is wasted,
and blessings
are abused. Sacred
things are
desecrated. Those who ought to
be leaders
and examples are worse than others. The priest who, if any one, ought to
know the “secret place,” “the holy
of holies,” of the Most High, is asking
where He is. The lawyers are the greatest law-breakers. The pastors, who
ought to guide and feed, are
become “blind mouths.” And the prophets are
false. Corruptio
optimi pessima. How
hard is the heart that has once
known God! “If the light that is in you be darkness, how great
is that
darkness!” (Matthew
6:23) The backslider, the child of holy parents, etc.,
who shall estimate their
wickedness?
III. FOR ALL THESE THINGS MEN WILL BE BROUGHT INTO
JUDGMENT. The assurance is very terrible: “I will yet plead with”
(i.e.
reckon with or plead against) “you... and with your children’s
children will
I plead.” This is
the same Jehovah who “keepeth mercy for
thousands” but
“visiteth the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children.” (Exodus 34:7)
There is
a SOLIDARITY in
light in that day. “It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God”
(Hebrews 10:31), and to bear our
offences in the company of transgressors and
the universal connection of the world’s sin.
“But
as in Adam all have died, so
in Christ shall all be made
alive.” (I Corinthians 15:22)
Jesus
is set forth as the
Head and
Representative of the humanity He redeems. LET
US SEEK ONENESS
WITH HIM THROUGH FAITH!
10 “For pass over the isles of Chittim,” - i.e. the islands
and maritime countries
of the West, represented by
Chittim, compare Numbers 24:24; Daniel 11:30) – “and see; and send unto
Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there
be such a thing.” Justification
of Jehovah’s judicial action towards
Pass over — rather, pass over to Kedar, in the narrower sense, is a large tribe of
Arabian origin, whose haunts were between
Arabia Petraea and
however, it is used in a wider sense for the Arab tribes in general (so
ch. 49:28;
Isaiah 21:16-17).
11 “Hath a nation changed their gods, which
are yet no gods? But my
people have changed their glory for that which doth not
profit.” - Has any
heathen nation ever changed its idol-god for another? The prophet clearly
implies a negative answer; and yet it must be
admitted that the adoption of a new
religion, under the pressure of conquest or a higher
foreign civilization is
not an unknown phenomenon in the ancient world. Glory; i.e.
source of all
outward prosperity (compare Psalm 3:3, “my Glory, and the lifter up of
my head”). Religion was, in fact, the root of national life in
antiquity;
contrast our own division between the sacred and the
secular! Jehovah
elsewhere receives the title “the Pride of
rather weakly, “the Excellency of Israel” —(Amos 8:7; Hosea
5:5.
Compare the parallel passages, Psalm 106:20; Romans 1:23).
For
Heathendom Gives an Unconscious Rebuke
to Apostate
(vs.
10-11)
From humiliating contrast of the present conduct of
have been reasonably expected from the peculiar experiences
of the past,
God now turns to make a contrast more humiliating still
with heathen
nations. The request to look back is succeeded by a request to look
round.
Search through every nation, inquire in every idol temple,
watch the
religious life of idolaters, and everywhere you will see a
fidelity which puts
the apostate children of
Jehovah has indeed put to shame, notably the gods of
but in spite of
all, the heathen are still clinging to the falsehoods in which
they have been
taught to believe. Their fanatical
devotion is, indeed, a
pitiable thing, but even in the midst of all that is
pitiable, God can find
something to be used for good. This very fidelity to what
is so false and
degrading may be used to point a
keen reproach to those who owe but do
not pay allegiance to
Jehovah.
There is thus suggested as a topic the UNCONSCIOUS REBUKES
WHICH THE WORLD
GIVES TO THE CHURCH. The heathendom on
which Jehovah bade His people look has long passed away. In
spite of the
fidelity here indicated, the temples have fallen into ruin
and the idols are
utterly vanished. Nay, more; increasing signs come in from
year to year,
that all heathendom is gradually dissolving, so that, in
one sense, Jehovah’s
words may be said no longer to apply. But we know that, in
the spirit of
the words, they continue to apply only too forcibly. It is
but the form of the
idol that passes away; the reality is the same. Thus he who
calls himself and
wishes to be
thought a believer in Christ, does well to look out and see
what he can
gather by way of spiritual instruction and rebuke from the
world. The world has much to teach us if we would only learn. Jesus
Himself gave the
New Testament parallel when He spoke of the children of
the world being
wiser in their generation than the children of light. And
though we should be very foolish to pay any attention to
the world, when it
puts on the air of a wiseacre and talks with the utmost self-conceit of
things it does not understand, there is all the more reason why we should
learn all we can by our own divinely directed observation.
How the world
rebukes us, for instance, every time we see men of
science searching after
truth! Think of the patient
attention given day after day with the telescope,
the microscope, and all the apparatus of the experimentalist
in physics.
Think of the perils and privations of the traveler in
tropic and in arctic
zones. Think of the unwearied hunting of facts, for
possibly a whole
lifetime, in order to turn some hypothesis into an
established truth. And we
also have truth to attain. Jesus and His apostles often
spoke of truth which
we have to make our own; understanding it, believing it,
and making it part
of our experience. But
that truth assuredly is not to be won without effort.
The question may well be asked if such differences would
continue to exist
among Christians as do exist, provided they only set themselves in reality
and humility to
discover all that may be known on the subject-matter of
their
convictions. A man of science, for
instance, would not grudge the
labor needed to learn another language, if he felt that an
increase of
knowledge would prove the result to be worth the labor. But
how many
Christians can be found who have any notion that it might
be worth their
while to learn the Greek Testament for themselves instead
of depending
upon even the best of translations? Again, the world
rebukes us as we
consider the enthusiasm of terrestrial citizenship. There is much for
the
Christian to learn
as he contemplates the spirit breaking forth in many men
at the thought of
the land that gave them birth. How the feelings of such
men glow to fever
heat with the exhibition of a national flag, the singing of
a national anthem,
or the mention of great military and naval triumphs, with
the names of the
captains who achieved them! Then think of
what is better
still, the unwearied labors of social reformers, simply
from love to their
country, to lessen crime, vice, disease, and ignorance. In view of all
this
deep attachment
to the land where the natural man has sprung into
existence and
is sustained, may not Christ well ask His people, if the
heavenly πολιτείᾳ - politeia - the relation in which a citizen stands
to
the state -
into
which they have been introduced by the second
birth, is as
dear to them? Then,
what a rebuke comes to us as we look at
the efforts of commercial enterprise. What toil there is here!
what daring
investments of capital! what quick combinations of the many
to attain what
cannot be done by the one I what formation of business habits
so as to
make easy and regular what would otherwise be difficult,
perhaps
impossible! And yet it is all
done to get that wealth on which the
Scriptures have so
many warning words to speak. As these gods of the
nations were no gods, so the wealth men think so much of
is really no
wealth at all. We
are not to look towards the goal of their desires, nor
follow in their steps. But as
earnestly as they look towards the goal of an
earthly fortune, we
should look towards that of a heavenly one.
As we
stand among men
clinging to riches which they cannot keep,
and clinging
none the less firmly because the riches are hollow, let us bear in mind how
easy it is for us who are but sinful mortals also to be
deluded away into
neglect of the true riches.
(10 “He
that is faithful in that which is least is
faithful
also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in
the unrighteous mammon,
who
will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if ye have not been
faithful
in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which
is
your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will
hate
the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise
the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Luke 16:11-12)
12 “Be astonished,”
- “Be appalled” would more nearly express the
force of the Hebrew (so ch.18:16; 19:8) - “O ye heavens, at this, and be
horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith
the Lord.” - literally, become dry;
i.e. not so
much “shrivel and roll up” (on the analogy of Isaiah 34:4), as
“become stiff with horror.”
13 “For my people
have committed two evils;” -
like the heathen, by idolatry, but by deserting the only God who can satisfy the
needs of human nature.
(That is God’s design, that ONLY HE can help us
in our
need – CY – 2011) - “they
have forsaken me the fountain of living waters,” –
So ch.17:13 (compare
Psalm 36:9). Fountain; literally, tank
or reservoir. Such
reservoirs were dug in the ground (ch.6:7), and chiefly intended for storing living
waters, i.e. those of springs and rivulets – “and
hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” A
cistern, by its very nature, will only
hold a limited amount, and the water collected from clay roofs or
from marly
soil, has the color of weak soapsuds, the taste of the
earth or the stable.
Who would prefer such an impure supply to the sweet,
wholesome water
of a fountain?
But these cisterns cannot even be depended upon for this
poor, turbid drink. They are “broken,” like so many even of the best rock-hewn
cisterns. How fine a description of the combined
attractiveness and disappointment
of heathen religions, qualities the more striking in
proportion to the scale on
which the religions problem is realized (e.g. in Hinduism)!
The Marvel of Unbelief
(vs. 10-13)
A magnificent apostrophe. Yet this is no mere rhetoric.
There is a terrible
reality in the phenomenon to which attention is directed. Chittim, the
general name of the islands and coast of the eastern
for the extreme west; and Kedar,
the general name of the Arabs of the
desert for the extreme east of the “world,” with which the
prophet and his
hearers were familiar. Our “from
meaning to us.
I. THE CONSIDERATIONS THAT MAKE IT MARVELLOUS. The
people themselves were but dimly conscious of the
strangeness of their
apostasy. The prophet seeks to rouse their better nature by
the most
striking comparisons and illustrations.
1. He compares it with the general fixedness of heathen
systems. A
tendency to subdivide and stereotype life in the family, society,
and the
state is shown by idolatry.
Idolatries reflect and pamper human desires and
ideas, and enter into the whole
constitution of the people. They undermine
the moral life and spiritual strength, and flourish upon
the decay they have
made. Their victims
are helpless because they are expiring or dead. The
words of Isaiah are justified in
such a case; “from the sole of the foot even
unto the head
there is no soundness in it,” (Isaiah 1:6)
This is the reason of
the perpetuation of error and
superstition; but the fact is there all the same,
and it is in striking contrast
to the indescision and apostasy of God’s people.
That which only appears to be
good is clung to with reverence and tenacity
from age to age. That which is
acknowledged to be best, and in part
realized to be so, is cast aside
repeatedly.
2. Look too at
the character of Him who is forsaken. He has already told
them a little of God’s doings
(vs. 5-7). Now it is sufficient to describe
Him as the “Glory” of
world over, are to wonder and to
be horror-struck at this unheard-of
ingratitude and
folly.
3. Disadvantage
and dissatisfaction must evidently result. The action of
the apostate is twofold —
negative and positive. Describe the figure. How
great the labor of worldliness; and its disappointment!
II. HOW SUCH CONDUCT CAN BE ACCOUNTED FOR. It is explained by:
1. The influence
of the near and sensible. The physical side of our nature
is more developed than the spiritual. Our need appeals to us first and most
strongly on that side. Abraham,
who pleaded for
Jacob, the dreamer of
the yielding of the man of God
to the false prophet (1 Kings 13.)! After
David’s signal escapes and
deliverances, he yet said in his heart, “I shall
now perish one day
by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me
than that I should
speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.”
(I Samuel 27:1) Elijah, after all his miracles and
testimonies, sighs out,
“Let me die....I
am not better than my fathers.” (I
Kings 19:4)Peter, upon
whoso witness Christ was to
found His Church, is addressed as he is ready
to sink at the vessel’s side, “O
thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt?” (Matthew
14:31) Paul, who had withstood
them “that
seemed to
be pillars,” quails beneath the “thorn in the flesh.”
2. The demands
made by true religion. Self has to be
denied. The whole
carnal life is condemned. Diligence
is insisted upon. We have to “pray
without ceasing,”
to labor and not faint. We have to “press
toward the
mark for the prize
for the high calling of in Christ Jesus..” (Philippians
3:14) Patience is demanded, and the
Christian profession commits us
o indefinite
sacrifice.
Broken
Cisterns (v. 13)
I. ALL MEN NEED SPIRITUAL REFRESHMENT. The soul has its
thirst (Psalm 63:1).
1. This is natural. We are born with
instincts which reach out to the
unseen, and the worldly habits
which deaden these instincts cannot utterly
eradicate them. If they could,
we should cease to be men and become
merely rational brutes, for “man
is a religious animal.”
2. This is
intensified by the presence of life.
Thirst is increased by a heated
atmosphere, hard work, disease,
and special agents, e.g. salt water; so
spiritual thirst is deepened by the heat and burden of
life, by its toil and
battle, by the fever of passion
and the weariness of sorrow, by the poison
of sin and the disappointment of
delusive promises of satisfaction. How
pathetic is this picture! If the living water is
forsaken, cisterns — even
poor, broken cisterns, with scant supply of foul water,
are resorted to, for
in some way the burning thirst of the soul must be
quenched.
II. THEY WHO FORSAKE GOD INJURE THEIR OWN SOULS.
Hitherto the prophet has spoken of the guilt of unfaithfulness. He now
speaks of the loss this entails. It is right that we should first think of the
simple sinfulness of our sin, for this is its most
important feature. But it is
profitable to consider also the
folly of it, and the misery that it must bring
upon us. This is not to be
all relegated to the world of future punishments.
It is to be
felt now, and would be felt keenly if men were not blind to their
own condition. As godliness has the promise of the life which now is as
well as of that which is to come (I Timothy 4:8), so ungodliness brings present loss.
This must not be looked for in the direction of material
profit and loss, of bodily
pain and pleasure, towards which the Jew was too much
inclined to turn
his attention. It is inward and spiritual,
yet it is not the less real. For THE
SPIRIT IS THE SELF!
When the noise of the world is stilled, in silent watches
of the night, in lonely hours of reflection, does not the
poor homeless soul feel
some sense of unrest, some vague thirst which no pleasure
or possession
has yet satisfied? Freedom of expression and the drug culture is no replacement
with the class
and meaning that the religious influence
of traditional American
culture had. (CY - 2011)
III, THE
INJURY ARISING FROM FORSAKING GOD IS FOUND
FIRST IN THE VERY LOSS OF GOD. God is more to us than all His
gifts. (He is our “Exceeding Great Reward” – Genesis 15:1) - The
greatest
loss of the prodigal son is not the food which he craves for in the
land of
famine, but the father whom he has forsaken. God is the chief
source
of the soul’s
refreshment. Men talk of the duty of religion.
They should consider its blessings, and learn to seek God
as they seek their
bread and water — the first necessaries of life. God is a Fountain of living
water
1. His refreshing grace is ever flowing, and in great
abundance, not limited
in quantity as that of the largest cistern may be so that there is enough for
all, and it may be had at all times.
2. It is fresh, like the mountain stream bubbling forth cool from the
rock,
not like the stale waters of the
cistern. “He giveth more grace” (James
4:6), and “grace for grace” (John
1:16). The
Christian does not have to
go back to the grace of God in past ages. There is a fresh stream now
flowing, and prayer opens to us fresh supplies of the love
and help of God.
3. It is wholesome and invigorating, unlike the earthy waters of the cistern.
How foolish, then,
to turn aside from such a supply for anything! We need
no better.
IV. THE
INJURY ARISING FROM FORSAKING GOD IS
INTENSIFIED BY THE UNSATISFACTORY NATURE OF THE
SUBSTITUTES MEN TURN TO.
1. These are self-made. God makes the fresh spring, man makes
the cistern.
Can our work equal God’s?
2. They are limited in supply — reservoirs, not flowing
streams.
3. They are often impure; the cistern soon gets impregnated
with
unwholesome matter.
4. They are imperfect of their kind. The cisterns are broken; what
little
unwholesome water
they have leaks away. All these
characteristics apply
to the waters men turn to in
preference to God — e.g. human religion,
philosophy, public occupation,
social distraction, pleasure; these all fail
to
slake the soul’s
thirst. “Cor
nostrum inquistum est donec requiescat in te.”
Forsaking the Fountain of Living Waters (v. 13)
I. THERE IS SUGGESTED HERE AN INCONCEIVABLE ACT OF
FOLLY. It is a thing which could be believed of no one in his
sound senses
that he would leave a fountain of living water, knowing it
to be such, and
enjoying the use of it; and be contented with a cistern
such as is here
described. A fountain is that
from which he benefits without any trouble; it
is a pure gift of grace, and all he has to do is to take up
his habitation by it.
Why, then, should he leave a fountain for a cistern, even if
the cistern were
ready-made? Still less
credible is it that he should take the trouble to make
a cistern. And the incredibility reaches its height when we are asked
to
suppose him doing all this with the end of possessing a
broken cistern that
can hold no water. Such broken cisterns the people of
known only too well. Dr. Thomson says there are thousands
such in Upper
winter; at best they are an uncertain source of supply, and
the water, when
collected, is bad in color and taste, and full of worms. The
whole action,
then, of the character here indicated is scarcely
conceivable, unless as the
expression of fear in a diseased mind. In somewhat of this
way we have
heard of men acting, who, after having made great fortunes,
have become
victims to the horrid delusion that they are paupers, and
must make some
sort of provision against utter destitution. So we might imagine the victim
of delusion, with
fountains all round him, still insisting upon having some
sort of cistern
provided. Note, moreover, that the aspect of
folly becomes
more decided when we consider that it is water which
is treated in this
way. The water which is offered so freely and continuously
in the fountain
is a thing which man needs, and yet it is for the
supply of that which is a
great and may be a painful need that he is
represented as depending on
broken cisterns
which with great toil he has constructed for himself.
(and hold no water - CY - 2023)
II. THERE IS MENTIONED AN INDISPUTABLE ACT OF DESERTION.
Israelites, stung to wrath by a charge of folly, might
reply that they had not left a
living fountain for broken cisterns. This, however, was but denying the application
of a figure; the historical fact which the prophet had connected with the figure
they
could not possibly deny. Assuredly they had forsaken
God. Not simply that at this
time they were without Him, but, having once been with Him, they
had now
left Him. Had He not taken them up when they were in the weakness,
dependence,
and waywardness
of national infancy? Had they not received all their supplies
from Him, and
gathered strength and prestige under the shelter of His
providence? They owed the land in which they lived, and the wealth
they
had heaped up, to the fulfillment of His promises, and yet
they were now
worshipping idols. Their worship was not a momentary
outbreak like the
worship of the golden calf, soon after leaving
long been living in the midst of idolaters. It was a steady settling down into
the worst excesses of an obscene and cruel worship, after long centuries
during which the Mosaic institutions had been in a place of
acknowledged
authority. What extenuations there may have been for this
apostasy are not
to be considered here. The thing insisted upon is the simple
undeniable fact
of the apostasy
itself.
III. THIS DESERTION OF JEHOVAH IS DIVINELY ASSERTED
TO
BE AN ACT OF THE
GROSSEST FOLLY. We have noticed the figure
under which this act is set forth; and if
humiliating charge, it was only by denying that God was
indeed a fountain
of living water. The figure, therefore, resolves itself
into a sort of logical
dilemma; and the fact is clearly shown that in spiritual
affairs men are
capable of a
folly which, in natural affairs, they are as
far from as possible.
Man holds within him a strange duality of contradictions. In some
directions he
may show the greatest powers of comprehension, insight,
foresight; may
advance with all the resources of nature well in hand. But in
other directions he may stumble like a blind man, while
around him on
every hand are piled up the gracious gifts of a loving and
forgiving God.
There is no special disgrace to any individual in admitting
what a fool he
may be in spiritual things. In this respect, at all events,
he is not a fool
above other fools. He may see many of the wise,
noble, and mighty of earth
who have lived and died in apparent neglect as to the
concerns of eternity
and the relation of Christ to them. Men toil to make securities and
satisfactions for themselves, but if they only clearly saw that they are
doing
no better than
making broken cisterns, their toils would be relinquished the
next moment. It is but too sadly plain how many neglect the
revelations,
offers, and
promises of God; but who can doubt that if
they could only
really see Him to
be the true Fountain of living waters, the neglect would
come to an end at once?
The People’s
Sin (v. 13)
This is the sum and substance of the charge the prophet was
called to bring
against
discords and miseries. It involved the renunciation of
their allegiance to the
God of their fathers, and in this their conduct was without a
parallel. No
instance of such
apostasy could be found elsewhere. Those
whom God had
chosen to be witnesses for Him before all the world were
put to shame in
this respect by the very heathen whom it was their mission
to enlighten and
bless. But we may regard this as the condemnation of the whole
human
race. “They have forsaken me, the fountain of
living waters, and hewed
them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Note the view
we get here:
I. OF THE BEING OF GOD AND THE RELATION HE
SUSTAINS
TOWARDS US. “The Fountain of living waters.” (see
also ch. 17:13;
and Psalm 36:9).
1. He is emphatically
the Living One. The grand distinction
of the Bible is
that it reveals “the living God.” The Name Jehovah, the mysterious and
incommunicable Name, was
expressive of this. “And God said to
Moses, I
AM THAT I AM,”(Exodus
3:14). Absolute existence — essential,
independent, necessary
being — is
the idea it conveys. The knowledge of
such a spiritual Being,
of a personality kindred with our own but absolutely
exempt from its
limitations, is our supreme need. David
did but utter forth
the insatiable longing of our
nature for its true home, its only possible
resting-place, when he cried, “My
soul thirsteth for God, yea, for the living
God.” (Psalm 42:2)We
want, not mere vague impressions of infinitude and
eternity, but an Infinite and Eternal One in whom we may trust. Not
mere abstract ideas of truth,
and beauty, and righteousness, and love,
but One of whom these are the unchanging
attributes, and to whom,
in the frailty of our nature, we can fly for refuge. “Our
heart and our
flesh cry out for
the living God.” (Psalm 84:2)
2. He is the
Giver and Sustainer of all other forms of spirit-life. The
“Fountain” of life; all other existences are dependent upon Him.
·
“The Father of
spirits;” (Hebrews 12:9)
·
“we also are His
offspring;” (Acts 17:28)
·
“in Him we live
and move and have our being.” (ibid.)
Whether our spirit-life once
given can ever become extinct again may be
a matter of doubt and
controversy, but certainly it cannot be regarded as
absolute and necessary
existence. Though God may have endowed our
nature with his own immortality,
we do not possess immortality in the
sense in which he does. “He only hath immortality dwelling
in the light.”
(II Timothy 6:16) Ours is not
self-existent being; it is dependent on Him from
whom it came — an outflow of the
“Fountain” of life.
3. He is the
Source of all that nourishes, enriches,
and gladdens this
dependent creature-life — “the Fountain of
living waters.” “Living waters”
are the Divine
satisfactions of the human soul. The
Scriptures abound with
similar figurative
representations (Genesis 2:10; Zechariah 14:8;
John 4:14; Revelation 22:1, 17).
Every age has had its witness to
the truth that MAN’S REAL SATISFACTIONS ARE ONLY TO BE
FOUND IN GOD! IN CHRIST
THAT WITNESS IS PERFECTED AND
THAT TRUTH
VERIFIED! “And this is the record, that God hath
given to us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son
hath life, and he
that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:11-12).
Here are the conditions
of infinite blessedness for every one
of us. To be separated from God in Christ, to turn
away from Him, is to
perish, to doom
yourself to the pangs of an insatiable hunger and a
quenchless thirst. “This is life
eternal, that they might know thee
the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.”
(John 17:3). This
is death eternal — not to know him, to
refuse the
knowledge of him, to dream that you can live without Him.
II. THE FOLLY AND EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF SIN., The “two
evils” here spoken
of are but two forms, two sides, of one and the same
thing. There is:
·
the self-willed departure from God, and
·
the endeavor in
that to lead a self-determined and self-sufficient life.
1. They have
forsaken me. All sin is a forsaking of God. Adam turned his
back on God when he listened to
the voice of the tempter. The prophet
rebukes here the shameful
idolatries of the people. Think what idolatry
means. It has, no doubt, its
fairer side, in which it is seen to be the ignorant
but still honest expression of
the religious sentiment in men — the blind
“feeling after God
if haply they may find Him.” (Acts
17:27-28) But think
how it arose, and what its
issues have been.
the corruption of man’s nature, and has ever
since been the Satanic means of
deepening that
corruption (see Romans 1:20-32). So is
it with
every sinful life. It begins
with a more or less intentional and deliberate
renunciation of God. The exact point of departure may not be
very
definitely marked; but as the life unfolds itself, the fact
that this is its true
meaning becomes more manifest. How marvelous a picture of this dread
reality of moral life does our
Lord’s parable of the prodigal supply! Such is
the history of
prodigal souls. Happy are they who “come
to themselves”
before it is too late to return
to the forsaken home of the Father.
2. The dream of
a self-determined and self-contained life. “They have
hewed them out
cisterns” of their own, which shall
render them, as they
think, independent of the “Fountain of living
waters.” Here is the idea of a
proud endeavor to find in one’s self and one’s own
self-willed way all
necessary good. But it
is altogether vain. The cisterns are miserably
shallow, and they are “broken.” It is true of every man,
indeed, that his
satisfactions must spring from
what he finds within rather than from his
earthly surroundings; but then
he is “satisfied from himself” only because
he has learnt to link
himself with the Divine Source of all blessedness —
the living God.
“Here
would we end our quest;
Alone are
found in thee
The life
of perfect love,
the rest
Of immortality.”
14 “Is
The speaker is evidently the prophet, who exclaims in
surprise at the view which
his prophetic insight opens to him. For
not a servant (except in the same high sense as in Isaiah
40-53., where “servant”
is virtually equivalent to “representative”), but rather in
the highest degree a free man,
for he is Jehovah’s “firstborn
son” (Exodus 4:22). How is it, then, that he is dragged
away into captivity
like a slave who has never known freedom? The view of some,
that “servant”
means “servant of Jehovah” (compare
ch.30:10), and that the
question therefore is to be answered in the affirmative, is
less natural. “Servant,” by
itself, never has this turning; and there is a precisely
similar term in the discourse at
v. 31, where the negative answer of the question does not
admit of a doubt.
A Sweet Remembrance Embittered (vs.
1-14)
or Divine delight turned by His people’s ingratitude into
Divine distress.
I. GOD GREATLY DELIGHTS IN HIS PEOPLE’S LOVE. See the
similitude He employs: “the love of thine
espousals.” It is difficult for us to
recall any period in the history of
merited by them. For it is of their love to God rather than
of His to them —
though there was never any doubt about that-that the
prophet is here
speaking. But when was
order as to deserve to be thus spoken of? It is difficult
to say. And he that
knows his own heart will be slow to credit himself with any
such ardent
affection as is spoken of here. The explanation of such language is found in
that joyous
appreciation by God of all movements of our hearts towards
Him which leads
him to speak of our poor offerings as if they were
altogether
worthy and good. Compare “Lord,
when saw we thee and hungred, or
athirst,” etc.?
(Matthew 25:44); also our Lord’s estimate of the
widow’s two mites; the cup of cold water given in His Name,
etc. Still,
whilst the believer is compelled to confess that his Lord’s
loving estimate
of his poor service and affection is an exaggerated one, it
is one which is
nevertheless founded upon a very blessed fact. There is
such a thing as the
child of God’s “first love,” when our delight in God was intense, real,
abiding; when prayer and service were prompt and frequent
and delightful.
Then we were content to leave the world, and to go out into
the dreary
wilderness if but our God led the way. Then there was not,
as now there
too often is, a wide
separation between our religious and our common life;
but, as v. 3 tells, we ourselves and all we had were
counted as holy unto
the Lord. We sought that
in whatsoever we did we might do all unto the
glory of God.
Now, such service is a delight to the heart of God. We are
shown, therefore, that we can add to or diminish the joy of
God. Such
power have we. And the Divine appreciation of such service
is shown by
His anger towards those that in anywise hurt His servants. “All
that devour
him,” (v. 3). The
Book of the Revelation is one long and awful
declaration of how the Lord God will avenge His saints.
II. BUT THIS DIVINE DELIGHT HAS BECOME DIVINE
DISTRESS.
The remembrance has become bitter. The cause of this change
is by reason
of His people having forsaken Him. As is the joy of God at
men’s hearts
yielding to Him, so is His grief at their unfaithfulness. The heart of God is
no figure of speech, but a reality. It rejoices in our
love, it mourns over our
sin. And this all the more because of the aggravation
attending such
forsaking Him. For:
1. It is in
violation of solemn vows and pledges of fidelity which, we have
given Him. The yielding of
the soul up to God is likened unto the espousal
of the soul to
God. At the time we made our surrender
we joyfully
confessed, “Thy vows are upon me, O God: O
my soul, thou hast said unto
the Lord, Thou art
my Lord.” Now, to go back from God is
to violate all
these sacred vows.
2. And whatever departures from God have taken place, they have been
without any provocation whatsoever. (v. 5) “What iniquity have your
fathers found in me?” Has He been hard with us, or impatient, or
unready to answer prayer, or
faithless to His promise? Can any who have
forsaken God charge Him so?
3. And such
forsaking of God has been an act of base and shameful
ingratitude (compare
v. 6). God had brought
polluted it, (v. 7). All
men are under a vast debt of gratitude to God,
even the heathen — so
But how much more vast is the
debt of those who have “tasted that the
Lord is gracious,” and known His redeeming love, and who yet “turn back
and walk no more
with Him!”
4. Such departures from God are characterized by most
unheard-of and
monstrous
foolishness. The prophet in contemplating it
(v. 12) calls on
the heavens to be
astonished, For such conduct was
unheard of (compare
vs. 10-11). Idolatrous nations
remained true to their gods, though they
were no gods; but
God are put to shame by those
who make no such profession at all. And it
was as monstrous as it was
unheard of (compare v. 13). It was as if any should
abandon the waters of some
bright, pure running fountain for the muddy
mixture of a tank or cistern,
which at the best is almost repulsive to one
accustomed to the fountains of
living water. And the folly of such
exchange is even exceeded, for
not only was it this foul cistern for which
the living fountains had been
forsaken, but even these
very cisterns were
flawed and fractured so that they could “hold no water.” The force of folly
could no further go. And men do
the like of this still. As, e.g., when they
forsake the faith of the Father
in heaven for the creed of the materialist, the
agnostic, the atheist; when they
choose rather the peace of mind which
contemplation of their own
correctness of conduct can afford instead of the
joyful assurance of sin forgiven and acceptance with God,
gained through
Jesus Christ our Lord;
when, in the controversy that is ever going on
between God and the world, they
decide for the world; when, reliance is
placed on a religion of
sacraments, professions and forms of worship,
instead of that sincere
surrender of the heart to God, that spiritual religion
which alone is of worth in his sight; when the lot of the people of God is
rejected in order that the
pleasures of sin may be enjoyed for a season, and
in many other such ways.
5. And the sin is
of such desperate character. For see (v. 8) how it has
mounted up and overwhelmed those
who from their profession and calling
we should have thought would
have been above it. The ministers of
religion, the priests, pastors,
teachers, have all been swept away by the
torrent of sin. When these whose lives are given to prayer, to the study
of
God’s holy Word,
and to that sacred ministry which should be a bulwark
and defense, not
only for those for whom, but also for those by whom, it is
exercised; when
these are seen to be involved in the common corruption,
then the case of such a Church, community, or nation is
hopeless indeed.
See, too, the insensibility that
such sin causes. In v. 2 Jeremiah is bidden
“Go and cry in the ears of
to the ear of one in whom the
sense of hearing was all but dead, and would
place your lips close to his
ear, and by loud, clear utterance strive to make
him hear, so had it
become necessary by reason of the insensibility which
their sin had caused, to deal
with those to whom the prophet wrote. It is
one of the awful judgments-
that overtake the hardened and impenitent,
that whereas once they would
not hear the voice of God, they at length
find they cannot. Oh,
then, let the prayer of us all be “From hardness of
heart, and
contempt of thy Word and commandment, good Lord, deliver
us”
15 “The young lions
roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land
waste: his cities
are burned without inhabitant.” A fresh figure, and a most
natural one in
Isaiah (Isaiah
5:29-30). Burned; rather, made
ruinous (compare “ruinous heaps,”
II Kings 19:25).
16 “Also the children of Noph”
- This is the climax of the calamity. Noph,
called
Moph in the Hebrew text of Hosea 9:6, is generally identified
with
Septuagint), which was called in the inscriptions Mennufr, or “the good abode,” but
may possibly be
dynasty – “and Tahapanes” - The Hebrew form is Takhpanes
or Tahhpanhhes.
This was a fortified frontier town on the Pelusiot arm of the
Daphnae (Herod., 2:20), or Taphnae
(Septuagint here) – “have broken the
crown of thy head.” - rather,
shall break, or (for the pointing in the Hebrew Bible
requires this change) shall feed off (or depasture). From
this verse onwards,
Judah is personified as a woman, as appears from the suffixes in the Hebrew.
Baldness was a great mark of disgrace (II Kings 2:23; ch.48:45). There
is a striking
parallel to this passage in
Isaiah 7:18-20, where, in punishment of the
negotiations of
Ahaz with Assyria, the prophet threatens an invasion of
by
threatened by Jeremiah is the punishment of the unhallowed coquetting with the
Egyptian power of which the Jewish rulers had been recently guilty. The
fact which
corresponds to this prediction is the defeat of Josiah at
subjugation of
17 “Hast not thou procured this unto thyself,
in that thou hast forsaken
the Lord thy God,” - rather, Is it not this that doth procure it
unto thee
(namely) that thou hast forsaken, etc.?
or, Is it not thy forsaking Jehovah
that procureth thee this? – “when He led thee by the way.” The prophet
thinks, perhaps, of the rebellion of the forefathers of
ceased to “go after”
Jehovah (compare v. 2), and whose fickleness was
imitated but too well by their descendants. This view is
favored by the
phraseology of Deuteronomy 1:33; 8:2, 15. But we may,
if we prefer it, explain
“by (or, rather, in) the
way,” on the analogy of the
promise in ch. 31:9,
“I will lead
them... in a straight way,” i.e.
I will grant them an uninterrupted
course of prosperity. The omission of the adjective
in the present passage may
be paralleled by Psalm 25:8, “Therefore will he instruct sinners in the (right) way.”
18 “And now what
hast thou to do in the way of
way to
inveighed against an Egyptian alliance. The name given by
Manasseh to his son and
successor (Amon) suggests that at
one period in his reign an Egyptian policy was
in the ascendant, which coincides with the tradition
preserved in II Chronicles 33:11,
of an Assyrian captivity of Manasseh. Jehoiakim
at a later period was a vassal of
second clause of v. 13 - “of Sihor?”
- or Shihor, occurs again in Isaiah 23:3, as a
name of the
(connected with shakhar,
the morning grey), from the color of the water. The
Septuagint has Γηών - Gaehon
-i.e. Gihon, also a name of
the
to do in the way of Assyria” - It is true that
to interfere for good or for evil, when these words were
written. But in v. 5 the
prophet has already warned us that his complaints are
partly retrospective. It would
seem that the Assyrian party from time to time gained the
upper hand over the
Egyptian in the councils of the State. Or perhaps the prophet may refer to the
Quixotic fidelity to Assyria of Josiah (see below on v. 36)
– “to drink the waters
of the river?” - i.e. the
it should be remembered, was in nominal subjection to Assyria; the
the boundary between
Assyrio-Babylonian region — on the other.
The Unreasonableness of Appealing to
Worldly Assistance
in
Spiritual
Enterprises
(v. 18)
This was the tendency of
now by those who trust to the arm of flesh, and who seek
worldly alliances
for the Church. We ought to be deterred from this when we
consider:
I. THE OPPOSITION OF THE CHARACTER AND AIMS OF
THE
WORLD TO THOSE
OF SPIRITUAL RELIGION.
II. THE UNRELIABLENESS OF THE WORLDLY.
III. THE DISHONOR AND SPIRITUAL PERIL OF SUCH ALLIANCES.
19 “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee,” - - rather, chastise...
punish.
It is a constantly renewed punishment which follows the
ever-repeated offence.
“and thy backslidings shall
reprove thee: know therefore and see
that it is
an evil thing and bitter,
that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that
my fear is not in
thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.”
The Divine Ideal, How Lost and
Regained (vs. 14-19)
The prophet has in his mind what was God’s original thought
for
Divine ideal concerning him; and along with that the
mournful and utter
contrast of his actual condition. An indignant “No” is the
answer which
rises to the prophet’s lips as the questions, “Is
born slave?” are
asked. He thinks of God’s words (Exodus 4:22). But
then there stares him in the face the most distressing but
yet most
unanswerable fact that
spoiled; the young lions roar over him,” (v. 15). Applying the story
of
I. THE DIGNITY AND GLORY WHICH GOD DESIGNED
FOR HIS
REDEEMED. They were to be as His sons (compare John 1:12, and
parallels). Think of the ideas which we associate with the
relationship of
sons. Take the story of Abraham and Isaac as setting forth
in human form
what these relationships are. What affection, what confidence, what
sympathy, what
affluence, what honor, were Isaac’s because he was
Abraham’s son! All that appertained to him no doubt manifested his happy
consciousness of the place he held in his father’s love.
His looks, his tones,
his dress, his demeanor, the respect paid to him, the
freedom of his
intercourse with Abraham, the influence he had with him,
wall made
manifest his honored and his happy position. Now, all that which
was
Isaac’s because he was Abraham’s son, God purposes
should be ours
because we are
His. Were the Divine ideal fulfilled, all
that appertains to us
would reveal the terms on which we stand towards God. Our look, our
voice, our
demeanor, our freedom from care, the general brightness of our
life, — all
would show our happy consciousness that we were the “sons”
of our Father in
heaven. The delight that Isaac had in
Abraham, the delight
that children have in their parents (Proverbs 17:6), above
all, as the
supreme example of true sonship, the delight that
Jesus had in God, we
should increasingly realize. Such is God’s ideal for His redeemed.
II. THE SAD CONTRAST WHICH ACTUAL FACTS TOO
OFTEN
PRESENT TO THIS
IDEAL. This contrast Jeremiah presents in
a series of
vivid similitudes.
1.
honored, and free in his
father’s affluent home, is made a prey of, bound,
beaten, abused, carried off as a
slave.
2. Next he is likened to some unhappy traveler who, passing by
a lion’s
lair, has fallen a victim. The
beast’s talons are fastened in his quivering
flesh as he lies prostrate on
the ground, and its fierce, exultant yells over
him make the forest ring again.
3. The next is that of a wasted land, the desolated
homesteads, the stripped
fields, the torn-down vineyards,
the flocks and herds all driven away.
4. The next, that of once goodly cities, their buildings now a
heap of
smoldering ruins.
5. And last, that
of mocked and insulted captives in
have inflicted on them the
indignity, so terrible in the eyes of a Hebrew, of
shaving off their hair; the
words “broken the crown of thy head” rather
meaning “shorn the crown of thy
head.” Now, all these pictures which
would call up vivid ideas of
humiliation and suffering before the minds of
contrast between what God proposed
for
which he had now
fallen. But that which was true of
once and again, of those who should have continued as God’s sons. Does
not that verse “Where is the
happiness I knew?” etc., and the whole tone of
that well-known hymn, describe a
spiritual condition all too common? Our
very familiarity with it shows how often there has been the sad experience
of which it tells. One reason why we love the Psalms so much is that they
clothe our own thoughts in the very words we need; they
say what our
hearts have often said, and not least do they thus speak
for us when, as
they so often do, they confess the smart, the shame, the
pain, and the
manifold distress which our sin has brought upon us.
III. THE CAUSE OF ITS CONTRAST. (v. 17.) Did not thy forsaking
of Jehovah thy God procure thee this? Let conscience
confess if this be not
the true explanation of v. 19. Let us beware of explaining
away the true
cause, and sheltering our sin beneath some convenient
excuse.
IV. THE REMEDY FOR THIS CONDITION OF THINGS.
1. There must be the clear perception of its true cause. v.
19, “Know
therefore and see that,” etc. To further this most salutary knowledge was
the reason of so many distresses coming upon
reason God will not suffer sin to be only pleasant, nor
the cup of iniquity to
be free from bitterness. To the riot and gaiety of the prodigal in the “far
country,” God added on the poverty, the swine-feeding, the rags and
wretchedness, the husks for
food, and the desertion by all his so-called
friends, — all that misery that
he might “come to himself,” which whilst his
riches and riot
lasted he never would. And this is
God’s way still. He
would have us know and see that it is an evil thing and
hitter to forsake
the Lord.
2. And when this has been thus known and seen, would we regain
what we
have lost, we must have
done “with the way of
Sihor,” that is, we
must resolutely abandon those forbidden ways in which
we have hitherto been walking.
V. 18 is an earnest expostulation with
such as have wandered from God.
It seems to say to such, “What hast thou
to do to be going after the world’s sinful ways, or to be
looking for help
from her Sihor-like, her foul
dark, waters? Oh, have not her ways harmed
thee sufficiently already? will
not the burnt child dread the fire? Wilt thou
again belie thy name, and live
rather as the devil’s slave than as God’s
child? Was the one sorrow and
shame which thy sin heaped upon thy
Savior not sufficient, that thou
must crucify the Son of God afresh, and put
Him anew to open shame? Shall
the dove vie with the vulture in greed for
foul food, or the lamb find
satisfaction in the trough of the swine? As soon
shouldest thou, child of God, love sin and its evil ways.” Let us
remember
for our great comfort, when
well-nigh despairing of deliverance from the
dread power of sin, that Christ has as certainly promised to deliver us from
this, the power of sin,
as He has from its guilt. The earnest look of trust to
Him, pleading His promise
herein, — this repeated day by day, and
especially when we know that “sin
is nigh,” will break its mastery, and win
for us the freedom we need.
Sin Self-Corrected (v. 19)
ü Sin reveals its evil
character as it comes into existence.
The wicked
action which looks
attractive in desire is repulsive to reflect upon.
The very sight and thought
and memory of sin are bitter. The burden
of guilt, the shame of an
evil memory, the sin itself is thus its own
chastisement.
ü Sin naturally produces
its punishment. Punishment is the
natural fruit
of sin. It is reaping what
we have sown (Galatians 6:7-8). This fruit
the guilty man must eat as his bread of
sorrows (Proverbs 1:31).
Thus intemperance naturally breeds
disease, mental degradation,
poverty, and dishonor.
Greedy selfishness brings upon a man dislike
and provokes retaliation. Unfaithfulness to God
deprives us of the
communion of His Spirit and
the
protection of His providence.
We have to wait for no
formal sentence, no
executioner. The law
within us carries its own
sentence, and is its own executioner, and even
as we do wrong we begin to
bring upon ourselves the penalty
of our
conduct.
The headache of the
morning is a warning to the drunkard not to repeat the
debauch of the night.
ü Chastisement corrects
by bringing us to our right mind. It sobers a
man, and thus helps him to look
at his life in a true light.
ü Chastisement corrects
by revealing the true character of sin. Its
charms are all torn off, and
the hideous monster is revealed in its
naturally hateful shape.
Then we see that all sin involves
our
forsaking God, and is due to the loss of respect
for His will —
the loss of the “fear of God” according to the Old Testament
view,
the loss of love to God
according to the Christian view. (Can it
not
be accurately said of our
culture “there is
no fear of God before
their
eyes.” [Romans
3:18] – CY – 2011)
·
IT IS NOT WELL TO WAIT FOR THE CORRECTIVE
INFLUENCE OF CHASTISEMENT BEFORE REPENTING OF SIN.
ü
The chastisement may
be a terrible experience from which we would fain
shrink if we knew the nature of
it.
ü
Sin is evil in itself,
and the sooner we stay our hand from it the better for
ourselves, for the world, and
for the honor of God. It is better not to fall
than to fall and be restored.
ü
God has provided a
higher means than chastisement for delivering us
from sin. This is an exercise of
His goodness to lead us to repentance
(Romans 2:4). The gospel shows
us how Christ can save us from our
sins by drawing us to Himself
and constraining us by His love to walk
in His footsteps of holiness.
God’s Method of Punishing
Apostasy (v. 19)
I. ITS OWN SIN IS TO FIND IT OUT.
II. THAT THE TRUE CHARACTER OF ITS ACTIONS AND
THE
BITTER FRUITS OF ITS SIN MAY APPEAR.
20 Here a new section begins. “For of old time
I have broken thy yoke,and
burst thy bands;” - Bands (see on ch. 5:5; Psalm 2:1-4).
This is, grammatically, a
possible rendering, but
inconsistent with the second person in “and thou saidst,
This does not, strictly speaking, imply a new reading of
the text, for ti was the old
form of the suffix of the 2nd pers. fem, sing.; there is a precisely similar case in
Micah 4:13. It is a true description of the history of
almost seem as if there was a fusion of two races among the
Israelites, and that the
smaller but nobler stock supplied all the great men in the
sphere of religion; -
“I will not transgress;” -
This is the translation of the
marginal reading in the
Hebrew Bible, which, though implied also in the Targum, is probably a
conjecture of the Jewish critics. The text reading (also
that of the
Septuagint and the Syriac) is, “I will not serve,” (equivalent to “I will not
be a slave any
longer”). Obviously this does not
harmonize with the
rendering “I have broken,” etc., in the first clause unless
we explain “I will not serve”
as virtually equivalent to “I will still serve my idol-gods”); hence the Jewish critics,
by just adding a κέραια – kerahia – tittle - (Matthew
5:18), changed “serve” into
“transgress.” They did not venture
to alter the next clause, which, quite as much as
the first, presupposes the reading “serve” (see next note)
– “when upon every high
hill” – Bare, treeless heights were favorite spots for
sacrifices, especially for Baal;
groves, and leafy trees, in general, for the lascivious
rites of Asherah and Ashtoreth.
The apparently extreme statement of the prophet is not to
be minimized. Travelers
still tell us of vestiges of ancient and doubtless
pro-Christian idolaters worship still
visible on almost every attractive spot in the open country
in
every green tree” - We have no single word to convey the “fluid”
meaning of this
expressive word. It combines, in fact, the senses of
pliant, sappy, leafy (compare
note on ch. 11:16) – “thou wanderest, playing the harlot.” - rather, thou wast
stretching thyself out.
21 “Yet I had
planted thee a noble vine,” - Jeremiah means the choicest kind
of Oriental vine, called sorek
(from the dark-red color of its grapes), and mentioned
again in Isaiah 5:2. The figure of the vine is one endeared
to us by its association
especially with our Lord; it was endeared to the Jews by
the annual festivities of the
vintage. The sacred writers are never afraid of its palling
on the ear by repetition
(compare ch. 6:9; 12:10; Isaiah
5:1-7; 27:2-3; Ezekiel 17:6; Psalm 80:8-16) –
“wholly a right seed:”
- i.e. a vine-shoot of
the genuine sort. “Seed” for “shoot,”
as in Isaiah 17:10-11; – “how then art thou turned into
the degenerate plant
of a strange vine unto me?” - rather, degenerate
shoots.
22 “For
though thou wash thee with nitre,” - Nitre does not mean the substance
which now bears that name, but “natron,”
a mineral alkali, deposited on the shores
and on the bed of certain lakes in
ancient Nitria, whence came so
large a store of precious Syriac manuscripts). In
ancient times, this natron was
collected to make lye from for washing purposes
(compare Proverbs 25:20) -
“and take thee much soap,” - rather, potash; the
corresponding vegetable alkali (compare Isaiah 1:25) – “yet
thine iniquity is
marked before me, saith the Lord
God.” – thine iniquity is marked -
stained, i.e.
filthy. The word is in the participle,
to indicate the permanence
of the state. Compare
with the obsession of personal hygiene of today
at the expense of the neglect of
the soul/spirit. (CY - 2011)
The Stains
of Sin (v. 22)
I. SIN STAINS THE CHARACTER AND LIFE OF MEN.
1. Sin leaves stains
behind it. No man can have clean hands
after touching
it. These stains are of two
classes:
(a) internal — the soiled imagination, the corrupted
will, the vitiated habit
which a single
act of sin tends to produce; and
(b) external, in the form of guilt before God, and
lowered reputation in the
sight of men.
2. The stains of sin
are not natural. They are no part
of the true color of a
man’s character. They are all
contracted by experience.
3. These stains are
all evil things. They are not like
marks of immature
development or of the necessary
imperfection of humanity. They are
products of corruption.
II. NO MAN CAN WASH THE GUILT OF SIN FROM HIS
CHARACTER.
(ch. 13:23.) The Jews were
attempting this by denying the offences charged against
them or excusing them. They would not admit their apostasy;
but in vain.
1. Sin cannot be undone. We cannot recall the past. History is
unchangeable. What we have done
we have done.
2. Sin cannot be hidden. We can never hide it from God, who searches the
heart (1 John 3:20). We cannot
long or perfectly hide it from man. It
will color our lives and reveal
itself in action, in conversation, in
countenance.
3. Sin cannot be
excused. We may point to our training, our
temptations,
our natural weakness, our
ignorance; and no doubt these facts are
important as determining the
degree of our guilt (Luke 23:34). But the
sin itself, greater or less as
it may be, cannot be explained away. Our sins
are our own or they would not be
sins.
4. Sin cannot be
expiated by us. Sacrifice is of no
real avail. That was only
acceptable as a symbol and type
of God’s
method of cleansing sin. Penance
could only act as discipline for
the future; for the past it is no better than a
fruitless sacrifice. Future goodness
cannot atone for the past; for that is
required on its own account, and
if it were perfect it would be no more
than it ought to be — we should
still be “unprofitable servants.”
III. NO MAN CAN WASH THE STAIN OF INDWELLING SIN
FROM
HIS LIFE. Men have tried all methods; but in vain.
1. Simple determination to
conquer it. But he who commits sin
is the slave
of sin (John 8:34), and a slave who cannot emancipate himself. The
worst effect of sin is seen in the corruption of the
will. Hence
we have not
the power to reform until our will is renewed, i.e. until, in New Testament
language, we are “born again.”
2. Charge of external
circumstances. This is a helpful accessory of more
effectual means, but it is not
sufficient in itself, because SIN IS
INTERNAL,
and no change of scene will
effect a change of heart. A man may cross the
Atlantic, but he will be the
same being in
He may be lifted from the
dunghill to a throne, but if he had a vicious
nature in his low condition he
will carry that with him to his new sphere.
Base metal does not become gold
by receiving the coin mint stamp.
Sanitary arrangements,
education, reforming influences, etc., are all helpful,
but none are fundamental enough
to effect the complete change. The stains
are too
ingrained for any such washing to remove them.
IV. IN THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST WE MAY SEE THE
MEANS FOR
CLEANSING BOTH
THE GUILT OF CHARACTER AND THE STAIN
OF INDWELLING
SIN.
1. Guilt is shown to be
removed by the free forgiveness of God in Christ,
for no merits of our own, but for the sake of His work and
sacrifice; by no
effort of ours, but on condition of repentance and the
faith which trusts Him
as our Savior, and submits to Him as our Lord (Acts 10:43).
2. The stain of
indwelling sin is shown to be removed by the renewal of
our nature, so that we are born “from above” and “of
the Spirit” (John
3:3-8), and become new creatures in Christ by means of the
same faith of
trust and submission (II Corinthians 5:17).
The Sinner’s Attempt to Wash Away
His Sin (v. 22)
I. WHEREFORE HE MAKES THE ATTEMPT. Sometimes it is that:
(1) conscience is aroused; or
(2) the Word of God is too plainly against him; or
(3) Divine providence threatens ominously; or
(4) like Felix, he trembles as some Paul preaches.
II. THE MANNER IN WHICH HE PROCEEDS.
1. He partially abandons known sin, as Pharaoh,
Josiah’s reformation, Herod.
2. Multiplies religious services.
3. Is ready with good resolves.
4. There is some stir of religious feeling. Tears are shed,
the emotional
nature is excited, and there is
some temporary tenderness of conscience.
Added to all this there may be:
5. Self-inflicted punishments, bodily mortifications. Such is
the washing
with nitre
and the taking of much soap which the prophet describes.
III. ITS USELESSNESS. The stain of the iniquity is there still (v. 22).
How powerfully is this confessed in the great tragedy of ‘ Macbeth’! After
his dread crime, the conscience-stricken wretch thus
speaks:
“How is’t with me, when every noise appals
me?
What hands
are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes!
Will all
great
Clean from
my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The
multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the
green — one red.”
IV. THE TRUE CLEANSING WHICH IT SUGGESTS AND
INVITES
US TO. Isaiah 1:18, “Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as
snow; though they be
red like crimson, the shall be as wool.”
23 “How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I
have not gone after Baalim?”
This is not a mere rhetorical fiction equivalent to “or if
thou shouldst perhaps say,”
but probably represents an
objection really made by the inhabitants of the
in His appointed temple, but in super-adding to this,
idolatrous rites inconsistent with
the spiritual religion taught by Jeremiah. The people did
not, it seems, regard
this as tantamount to “following
Baalim,” just as some converts to Christianity in
our own foreign missions might exclaim against being
accused of apostasy, because
they secretly carry on certain heathen practices. The
prophet, however, applies a
more rigorous test to their conduct. Baalim; the plural of Baal, used for “other gods”
(ch.1:16; compare on v. 8) – “see thy way in the
valley,” - The valley in this
context can only be that of Hinnom
(see on ch. 7:31), which from the time of Ahaz
had been defiled with the rites of “Moloch, horrid king”
(see ‘Paradise Lost,’
1:392-396) – “know what thou hast done? thou art a swift dromedary” –
Swift dromedary is,
properly speaking, in the vocative. The ardor
of the people for idolatry is expressed by the comparison
of it to the
uncontrollable instinct of brute beasts. The word rendered “dromedary”
is
in the feminine gender; it means strictly the young she-camel
which has not
yet had a foal – “traversing her ways;” - rather, interlacing her ways; i.e.
running backwards and forwards at the impulse of passion
(in heat).
24 “A wild ass used to the wilderness,” - The
type of wildness and independence
(compare Genesis 16:12; Job 39:5-8) – “that snuffeth up the wind at her
pleasure;” – to cool
the heat of her passion – “in her occasion who can turn her
away? All they that
seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they
shall find her.” - i.e. at the pairing-time.
Human sexual
behavior likened to that of camels, donkeys, dogs and skunks.
People were designed
differently. There is a tremendous the
culture clash today
over monogamous or
promiscuous relationships. Why would one relish the seventh
commandment when
involved deeply in adultery? (CY - 2011)
25 “Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and
thy throat from thirst:”
God the true husband exhorts
like a shameless adulteress, after strangers – “but thou
saidst, There is no hope:
no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” The exhortation
is in vain (so
ch.18:12).
A Dread
Snare of the Devil (v. 25)
hope.”
II. ITS TERRIBLE CHARACTER. It leads the sinner to excuse himself in
his sin by the false belief that he is delivered to do all
his abominations. It
encourages him to go on in his sin, instead of resolutely
breaking away from it
III. HOW MEN FALL INTO IT. By letting sin become the habit of their
lives; the constant repetition of separate sinful acts
forges the chain of
habit, which it is hard indeed for any to break through.
The chains of habit are too light to be felt
until they
are too strong to be broken.
(Samuel Johnson)
IV. HOW MEN MAY GET OUT OF IT.
1. By prayerful pondering of the many proofs which show that this
suggestion of Satan, that “there is no hope,”
is one of his own lies. These
proofs are to be found in the
plain statements, and in the many examples of
the Word of God, which tell of God’s grace to the very
chief of sinners.
They are to be found also in the
recorded biographies and observed lives of
many of the people of God. And
also in our own experience of God in the
past.
2. By then and there committing our souls into the hands of
the Lord Jesus
Christ for pardon, for
restoration, and for safe keeping for the future.
3. By renewing this self-surrender day by day, and especially
when we are
conscious that danger is near.
So shall we be able to say, “My soul is
escaped as
a bird out of the snare of the fowler.” (Psalm 124:7-8)
26 “As the thief is ashamed when he is found,
so is the house of
ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their
priests, and their
prophets,” - It is the perfect of prophetic certitude, (the
speaking of something
in the future as if it was already past! JUST AS CERTAIN - Someday,
playwrights, movie
directors, college professors, Supreme Court, federal
and state jurists,
lawyers, political leaders and many of the lay public will
BE ASHAMED who
have undermined or sought to
undermine, THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA and
her dependence upon GOD, OUR FATHER! -
REMEMBER – Matthew 18:6 - CY
– 2011)
A Shame to be Ashamed of
(v. 26)
There is, as Paul tells us (II Corinthians 7.), a godly
sorrow and a sorrow of
the world:
·
a godly sorrow working
out a repentance never to be regretted, and
·
a sorrow of the world
which works out death.
So there is a shame and humiliation which is profitable in
the right way and to
the highest degree, when a man comes into all the horrors
of self-discovery, and
is ready to declare himself, feeling it no exaggeration, as
the chief of sinners. Such
a shame is indeed
the highest of blessings, since it gives something like a
complete understanding of what human nature owes to THE CLEANSING
BLOO OF CHRIST, and to the
renewing power of the Spirit. But there is
also
shame and humiliation such as the jailer at
suspected his prisoners were gone, and degradation was
impending over him at
the hand of his masters. It is to such a shame that our
attention is directed here.
The shame of a thief, not for the wrong he has done, but
because he is detected
in the doing of it.
Already the nation which God had so favored, and from which
He had
expected so much, has been spoken of as lower than an
idolater. And now
it is likened to the thief in the moment when his knavery
is discovered.
Consider, then, as here suggested:
I. WHY THE SINNER SHOULD BE ASHAMED. The thief, of course,
ought to be ashamed, and ashamed whether he is caught or
not. He ought
to come into such a state of mind as to acknowledge his
offence and make
restitution, even when otherwise his offence might remain
undiscovered.
He should be
ashamed because he has done wrong; because he has broken
a commandment
of God; because he lives on what has been won by the
industry and
toil of his neighbors; because, in addition, he is robbing his
neighbors of
what benefit should have come to them from his own industry
and toil. Some have enough to make them bow their heads in despair of
ever being able to make restitution; and it is just when we
thus begin to
estimate the sense of shame that should fill the thoughts
of the thief that we
also come to have a clear idea of what a universal
feeling amongst mankind
shame should be.
“The thief should be thoroughly ashamed of himself, you
say, in all possible ways. True, he ought. But now take to
mind the pressing
home of thewords of the apostle, “Wherein
thou judgest another, thou
condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest
doest the same things”
(Romans 2:1). Nay, there may be more to be said for the
thief than for
thee. Only too often he has a bad start, and no real chance
of getting out of
bad associations. He may get so hemmed in with temptations
as to find it
very difficult to resist. And in any case, the thief has no more
cause to Be
ashamed of his
theft than any other sinner for his own particular mode of
self-indulgence.
God does not draw the distinctions which
we are
compelled to do, between wrongs that are crimes and wrongs
that are not
crimes. His distinctions are made on altogether different
principles —
principles which abide. If the thief has wronged his
neighbor in one way, be
sure of this, that you have wronged him in another. If the
thief has sinned
against God in one way, you have sinned against Him in
another. You may
go through the world without the slightest fear of anything
leaping to the
light such as will bring the detective’s tap upon your
shoulder, and
nevertheless you have yet to be bowed in unspeakable
bitterness of shame
because you have been defrauding God and missing the great
end of life.
What is wanted is that all of us should come to ourselves
— being guided
by that unerring Spirit which guides into all truth, and self being revealed
by the light of the
cross and of ETERNITY!
II. WHY THE SINNER ACTUALLY IS ASHAMED. Discovery is what
he dreads; discovery puts him in utter confusion. Discovery
is disgrace and
ruin, so far as his future relation to men is concerned.
Henceforth he passes
into a suspected and avoided class; he has test the mark of
respectability
and confidence. The sad thing is that, in the eyes of a
large part of
mankind, discovery seems to make all the difference. One may do a great
deal of wrong with social impunity, if only there is
cleverness enough to
keep on the hither boundary of what is reckoned criminal. Those who are
most serenely indifferent to the Law of God will fall into
all sorts of sins,
real and far-reaching evils, rather than transgress a
certain social code. It is
not so long ago since the duel ceased to be a part of the
social code of
practice! There are countries still where a man is
disgraced if he refuses to
fight; if he fights and kills his man it is reckoned no
shame at all. The most
immoral and debauched of men are yet curiously sensitive to what they
choose to consider points of honor. People
will plunge over head and ears
into debt, and run into the wildest extravagance, that they
may flourish a
little longer in the social splendor which they know they
have not the
honest means to maintain. They feel it is a greater disgrace to sink
in the
world than to
he unable to pay their debts. How needful
it is for the
Christian to take up all positions which he feels to be
right — right
according to the Divine will, no matter how much he may be
exposed to
the reproach of folly, Quixotism,
and fanaticism! Let us pray that we may
ever have a godly shame when the light of heaven is thrown
on us, and we
are contrasted
with God in His holiness and Jesus in his perfect manhood.
Let us equally pray that we may never be ashamed of Jesus.
It is a harder
thing than many seem to think, even though they are
constantly
acknowledging in hymn and prayer what they owe to Jesus in
the way of
gratitude and service.
27 “Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and
to a stone, (Stone (‘ebhen)
is feminine in Hebrew, and therefore addressed as the
mother) Thou
hast
brought me
forth: for they have turned their back
unto me, and not
their face: but in the time of their trouble they will
say, Arise, and
save us.”
28 “But where are thy gods that thou hast made
thee? Let them
arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy
trouble: for according to
the number of thy cities, are thy gods, O Judah.” A remarkable
statement, and one that well illustrates the superficial
character of
Hezekiah’s reformation. True, Manasseh’s reactionary reign
had
intervened, but his counter-movement would not have been so
successful
had it not been attended by the good wishes of the people; (compare
ch.
5:31 – “my
people love to have it so”) and besides,
the last years of
Manasseh, according to the tradition in II Chronicles
33:12-16 were devoted
to undoing the mischief of his former life. The force of the prophet’s words is
strikingly brought out by M. Renan
(he led an expedition to
shown that every district and every town had a cultus of its own, which often only
differed from the neighboring cultus
by words and titles: i.e. Baal-Hamon, Baal-Hazor,
- When every city has its special deity, surely among so many there might be
found one able to help his worshippers – thus the argument of Jeremiah.
The Shameless Shame of Idolatry
(vs. 20-28)
I. ITS DEGRADING INFLUENCE. It violates all morality. It is repeatedly
affronted by the discoveries which are made of its
wickedness and folly. It
affects the whole nation from the highest and the best. The
reason is
debased and set at naught.
II. CALAMITY IS THE TEST OF ITS PRETENSIONS. Whilst things
go well with the idolater he forgets God or consciously
dishonors Him. But
when he is overtaken with the consequences of his evil
deeds he is not
ashamed to call upon God. The unreasonableness and
inconsistency of this
conduct are no barrier to it. Beneath the unbelief and
worldliness of men
there is a tacit belief in the goodness and power of God. In prosperity
they
are idolaters,
in adversity they find their way back to the God they had
despised. This
is the universal and permanent inconsistency of the world
life.
Lords Many and gods Many
( v. 28)
The multiplicity of idols contrasts with the unity of the
true God. It
involves inconsistency and spiritual confusion. But here the argument is:
I. THAT IDOLATRY IS A LOCAL, EXCLUSIVE, AND
SEPARATIVE
PRINCIPLE.
II. IT IS THUS THE CREATURE AND THE OCCASION OF
IGNORANCE,
PREJUDICE, AND DISCORD.
III. IT IS THEREFORE BOUND TO DISAPPEAR BEFORE THE
LIGHT AND
PROGRESS OF HUMANITY.
29 “Wherefore will ye plead with me?” - How can ye be so brazen-faced
as to attempt to justify yourselves? “Ye
all have transgressed against
me, saith the Lord.”
30 “In vain have I smitten your children;” - The
cities and towns of
are represented as so many mothers, and the populations as
their children.
It would, no doubt, be more natural to take “children” literally; but then we
must read the verb in the next clause, “Ye have received,” as the
Septuagint actually renders. In the former case the “smiting” will refer to
all God’s “sore judgments” —sword, drought, famine,
pestilence; in the
latter, to the loss of life in battle – “they received no correction: our own
sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying
lion.” -
(compare
II Chronicles 24:21; II Kings 21:16). Manasseh’s persecution
(which extended,
according to Josephus, especially to the prophets)
may account for the
preponderance of “false prophets”
referred to in v. 8 (cf. Matthew 23:29).
“received no correction” - incorrigible –
the worse thing that can be said
of an athlete is
that he is uncoachable. For a child, he is unteachable!
(CY - 2011)
Rejecting the Chastisements of God
(v. 30)
The spiritual benefits of pain, calamity, etc., are
contingent for the most
part upon their being received in a right way — as from
God, and not by
accident. They are intended to discover our sins to us, and to lead us
to the
love and righteousness of God. Where this result is not effected,
“chastisement is not accepted.”
I. THE POSSIBILITY OF REFUSING CHASTISEMENT.
II. MISERY AND PAIN ARE NOT OF THEMSELVES
MINISTERS OF GRACE.
III. RIGHTLY RECEIVED, OUR GREATEST GRIEFS MAY BECOME
OUR
GREATEST
MERCIES.
31 “O generation, see ye the word of the
Lord.” - It is doubtful whether
generation here means
“contemporaries” (equivalent to “men of this generation”),
or, like γενεά
- ghen-eh-ah’; - age, generation, nation, time
sometimes in the
New Testament, a class of men united by moral affinity (compare Psalm 14:5;
78:8).
In the latter case we should
rather attach the
pronoun in “see ye” to
“O generation,” and
render “O (evil) generation that ye are!” – “Have I been a
wilderness unto
to my people, and of
all temporal
blessings?” (compare ch.
2:6). So the Divine
speaker in Isaiah 45:19, “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye
me in vain,”
or more literally, “in chaos” (same word
as in Genesis 1:2); “chaos” and
“the wilderness” are both images of that which is utterly unremunerative – “a
land of darkness? This is, of course, not literally accurate as
a description
of the
Cloud and rain occupy precisely opposite places in the
estimation of
nomadic and agricultural peoples respectively. “The
Bedouins,” says an
Arabic scholast, “always follow
the rain and the places where raindrops
fall;” whereas a townsman of
Indra and Varuna, originally belonging
to the cloudy and rainy sky, are in
the Vedic hymns endowed with solar traits. It should be
added here that it
is an old problem, and too difficult a one for us to
investigate, whether we
should render “the
darkness of Jah” (Jehovah) or (as Authorized
Version)
simply “darkness.”
The former rendering will mean very great darkness,
such as Jehovah sends in judgment (e.g. to the Egyptians,
Exodus 10:21-23).
“Wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no
more unto
thee? - rather, we
have broken loose. It is, however, a difficult word,
which only occurs elsewhere in Genesis 26:40; Hosea 12:1; Psalm 55:3.
32 “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a
bride her attire? The prophet
perhaps means the magnificently adorned girdle which the
bride wore on her
wedding day (compare Isaiah 49:18). But the word only
occurs again in Ibid.
3:20 (where in a very negative sense – CY – 2011), and its
precise signification
is uncertain – “Yet
my people have forgotten me days without number.”
33 “Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? -
rather - How well thou
contrivest thy way? –
“therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones
thy ways.” The meaning which floated before our
translators seems to be this:
“so utterly immoral is thy course of
life, that even the worst of women
[‘wicked ones’ is in the feminine –
{compare Isaiah 3:16-24 – CY – 2011]
have been able to
learn something from thee”. But a more natural rendering
is,“Therefore [i.e. to gain thine ends] thou hast accustomed thy ways to those
evil things.” Nemo repente fuit tupissimus
(no one ever becomes bad at once) -
It required a deliberate “accustoming,”
or “training” (such is the literal meaning
of limad), to produce such a habit (ἕξις - exis – habit; use) as is here rebuked.
It is wrong to be more
interested in personal appearance than a clean
heart –
I Peter 3:3-4 (CY -
2011)
34 “Also in thy skirts is found” - or, there
is even found in thy skirts
(or, perhaps, in thy sleeves — the wide sleeves of
an Eastern mantle). The
fact which follows is adduced as the crowning evidence of wickedness.
“the blood of the souls of the innocents:” - is
explained by the statement
in Leviticus 17:11, “The
soul of the flesh [i.e. of the body] is
in the blood;”
hence the importance of the blood in the Mosaic sacrifices.
The historical reference
of this passage of Jeremiah may well be to the persecution
of Manasseh,
who is said to have “shed
innocent blood very much” (II Kings 21:16).
It is
the “solidarity” of king and people (analogous to that of a
forefather and
his posterity); Manasseh, moreover, probably had the support of a large
section of the population, at any rate in so far as he favored the inveterate
cultus of the high places or local sanctuaries. “I have not
found it by
secret search,” - rather, thou hast not found them breaking
through
(houses). The phraseology agrees with that of Exodus
22:2, the law
against “breaking through;”
it suggests that the houses of all but the
highest class in ancient as well as often in modern
mere sun-dried brick, which could be easily “dug into”
(compare Ezekiel
12:5; Matthew 6:19-20, in the Greek). In hilly districts of
of the villages are built of stone, but simply taken from
the ruins of the ancient towns.
Burglars caught in the act might be killed (Exodus 22:2),
but the innocent victims of
persecution could not be brought under this category, and
hence those who slew
them were really guilty of murder - “but upon all
these.” - rather, but because
of all these things; i.e. not for any crime, but because of thine things,” as in
ch.
3:7).
35 “Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely His anger” - This
“because” is misleading; there is no argument, but the statement of a
supposed fact.
The particle so rendered merely serves to introduce the
speech of the Jews (like ὅτι
- oti - because) - “shall turn from me.” - rather, hath turned.
been undisturbed by any foreign power, that the people
fancied the promises of
Deuteronomy were
being fulfilled, and that they, on their part, had pleased
God by their
formal obedience (compare II Kings 22:17).
“Behold, I will plead
with thee, because thou sayest, I
have not sinned.” Here, as in some other
passages (e.g. Isaiah 66:16; Ezekiel 38:22), the word
includes the sense of punishing.
The Plea of Innocence a
Culminating Sin (v. 35)
We do not know to which particular charge this reply is
given. Perhaps the
key is contained in II Kings 23:26. An external reformation
was
considered enough in the reign of Josiah, and it was
assumed that the anger
of God was thereby turned away. The prophet assures them
that this was a
mistake, and more than this, a sin in itself.
I. DEADLY SIN MAY EXIST IN THE MIND WHICH IS NOT
SPECIALLY
CONSCIOUS OF IT.
II. SUCH UNCONSCIOUSNESS EXHIBITS PERVERTED
MORAL
NATURE AND
CALLOUSNESS OF HEART.
III. IT PROVOKES THE MORE SEVERE JUDGMENT FROM GOD.
36 “Why gaddest thou about so much” - many render, Why runnest
thou so
quickly; but the verb simply means to go, and it is enough to
refer to foreign
embassies, such as are alluded to in this very chapter (v.
18) – “to change thy
way?” - The “way”
or policy of
in power favored an Egyptian
or an Assyrian alliance. “Thou also shalt
be
ashamed of
“as thou wast ashamed of
of Josiah it would appear that the political
connection with
Is it possible that Jeremiah, in these words, has in
view rather the circumstances
of Jehoiakim than those of
Josiah? Does he not appear to look back upon
And to what event can this expression refer but to the
overthrow of Josiah
at
37 “Yea, thou shalt
go forth from him,” - i.e.
from
man (so whenever a people is referred to; a land is represented
as a woman).
was, in fact, the only great power capable of assisting
thy confidences (i.e. the objects of thy
confidence). As a matter of fact, “the
King
of
defeat at Carehemish (II Kings
24:7; compare ch.37:5) – “and thine hands upon
thy head: for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences,
and thou shalt not
prosper in them.”
Jehovah’s Indictment
against
Note:
I. ITS MANY COUNTS.
1. Their sin of
outrageous character. It is spoken of
as in v. 20, because
it so commonly involved the
grossest fleshly sins, and because it involved
shameful denial of God. Compare
v. 27, “Saying to a stock, Thou art my
father,” etc. And it was chargeable with numerous and shameful
murders
(v. 30). Killing the prophets of
God; v. 34, “In thy skirts is found the
blood of the souls
of the poor innocents,” (In modern
nomenclature
“Abortion on
Demand” - CY - 2023)
2. Of long
standing. V. 20, “Of old time thou hast broken thy yoke”
(see
exegesis for true translation), “and saidst, I will not serve.”
3. In no wise
chargeable to God. V. 21, “Yet I
had planted thee a noble
vine,” etc.
4. Was ingrained
into their very nature (v. 22). All manner of endeavor
had been made to cleanse away
the defilement, but its stain remained in
them still.
5. Was fiercely and
determinately pursued after (vs. 23-24, 33; see
exegesis). They “worked
all uncleanness with greediness.”
6. And this in spite of all that might have taught them
better.
(a) Warnings (v. 25, where they are entreated to have
done with such
wickedness).
(b) Miserable
results of their idolatry in the past (vs. 26-28).
(c) Divine
chastisements (v. 30).
(d) God’s
great mercy in the past
(v. 31). God had not been to them as a
wilderness.
(e) The
honor and glory God was ready to place upon them (v. 32), like
as a husband would
adorn his bride with jewels.
7. And their sin is
aggravated by
(a) their
shameless assertion of innocence (vs. 23, 35);
(b) their
persistence in sin (v
36), “gadding
about to change their way,”
going from one
idolatry to another, one heathen alliance to another.
II. THE MISERABLE DEFENSE OFFERED. It consisted simply in
denial (vs. 23, 35). It augmented their guilt and
condemnation (v. 37).
III. THE INSTRUCTION FROM ALL THIS FOR OUR OWN DAY
AND FOR OUR OWN
LIVES.
1. It shows us the terrible nature of sin.
(a) The
lengths it will go.
(b) The
gracious barriers it will break through.
(c) The condemnation it will surely meet.
2. It bids us not trust to any early advantages.
vine, wholly a
right seed,”
3. The folly and guilt of denying our sin (compare 1 John 1:8,
“If
we say
that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”).
4. The needs be
there is for us all of the pardoning and preserving grace of
our Lord Jesus
Christ.
False
Confidence (vs. 35-37)
I. THE GROUNDS OF FALSE CONFIDENCE.
1. Assumed
innocence.
This assumption may result from
(a) self-deception, or
(b) hypocrisy.
2. A claim to be favored by God.
from me.” Present peace is taken as a warrant for expecting continued
security, so that the very
forbearance of God is converted into an
excuse
for presumption and indifference. Perhaps, too, pride comes in and aids the
assumption that the guilty
people are special favorites of Heaven and will
be protected, whatever wrong
they do. This was the mistake of the
contemporaries of our Lord when
they relied on the mere fact that they
were Abraham’s children (John
8:39).
3. Trust in
human aid.
men look to worldly associations
for security in trouble.
4. Reliance on
diplomatic skill.
the former power failed and the
latter was in the ascendancy. Men think to
protect themselves by their own ingenuity.
II. THE FAILURE OF FALSE CONFIDENCE. The reasons of this may
be noted:
1. The reality of
sin.
This is not the less real because it is denied. God still
sees it. It still bears its
necessary fruits.
2. The rejection of
God.
he expect God’s continued
protection?
3. Lack of
principle.
no settled policy. When expediency
is the sole guide of conduct we are
sure to be landed in ultimate failure.
4. The character
and fate of the human objects of confidence. These were
rejected by God. They who trust
them must share their doom. It is always
vain to “put confidence in princes” (Psalm
118:9). But when these are
bad men, godless men, rejected
by God, the
consequences of trust in them
will be fatal. We are
always involved in the fate of what we trust ourselves
to. If we
trust to the world, to human aid, to errors and falsehoods, to evil
things, the certain overthrow of these MUST INVOLVE US IN ITS RUIN
The Restlessness of Sin
(vs. 36-37)
“Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?”
I. THIS IS A COMMON COURSE OF CONDUCT IN SINFUL
MEN.
II. THE REASONS FOR ADOPTING IT ARE OF VARIOUS
KINDS.
1. Hope of larger gain.
2. Prospects of increased pleasure.
3. Disappointment with the way that has hitherto been tried.
4. Conscience will not be quiet in continuing the present
way, etc.
III. BUT IT IS ALL OF NO AVAIL. The same wretched result is reached
whichever way is taken (vs. 36-37).
IV. GOD IN ALL THIS IS SAYING, “Let the wicked
forsake his way,
and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and He will have mercy
upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon.” (Isaiah 55:7)
.My commentary said
the way or policy of
in power - translate
that to political parties and their policies today -one liberal -
looking out for old
# 1, self fulfillment, gratification
of desires, no rules - no limits -
devil may care - to hell with tomorrow attitude. One
conservative - with all the
baggage and
temptations of the other - yet trying to discipline self and community
to prolong its days
and influence. (CY - 2011; 2023)
Why the Confidences of Men do not Prosper
(v. 37)
The people of
as having multiplied and extended their confidences; and
yet it could not be
said that they were prospering. Men with
the religious element in their
nature strongly clamoring for satisfaction, had turned to
the gods of
neighboring nations, and multiplied these objects of
worship until it could
be said, “According
to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.”
God compares them to thirsty people who, with a copious
fountain in their
midst, work and toil to make cisterns, only to find that
the end of their
labor is in broken cisterns which can hold no water. And
then, when their
broken cisterns had proved quite unavailing, they fly to
drink of
continuance and increase of adversity was threatened, the cause of it all
being that their confidences were such as God, in His
righteousness and
majesty, must inevitably reject. Consider:
I. WHY THIS QUESTION AS TO THE SUFFICIENCY OF
HUMAN
CONFIDENCES IS SO
IMPORTANT. The answer is that men cannot
do
without confidences. The events of a single day of life
might be registered
in such an aspect as to show what a confiding creature man
is. Faith has
become so much a habit with him as to be almost a second nature.
Hence,
even in the great concerns of life, we find many
reposing trust with very
little inquiry. Looking at others, we find their lives proving the need of
confidence by the very frequency of doubt and irresolution
in them. They
are ever asking the question, yet never quite able to
answer it, “What is the
best thing for me to do?” And then, as so often happens,
the end of
hesitation and perplexity is, that they seem to have no
choice at all, and go
submissively towards the confidence that happens to be
most inviting at the
moment. Seeing,
therefore, that we are compelled to have confidences, it is
of the first
importance to discover in what sort of confidences prosperity
will alone be
found.
II. MANY ACTUAL CONFIDENCES OF MEN PROVE
FAILURES IN
THE END. They approach men invitingly, they seem to stand well in
the
judgment of past generations, they may be the objects of
very general
approval, and yet, when they are searched into, when the
truth concerning
them is got from the bottom of the proverbial well, that
truth is seen to Be
well expressed in the words which say men have not
prospered in them.
There is, for instance, a very plausible appearance of
prosperity in worldly
wealth. Many
fail to acquire it, and when they acquire it,
fail to keep it; but
this is held to come in the majority of cases from some
fault in the man,
and not in the stability of his possessions. To say that a
possession is as
safe as the Bank of England is to utter the strongest conviction
as to its
stability and security; and yet such confidences fail
because they are not
enough for the whole man. It is just one of
the perils of wealth that man
should let his
whole heart rest upon it; should come to
let the comforts,
occupations, and hopes of life depend upon external
possessions. There is
failure also when men put confidence in self, confidence in present views of
life, present feelings, present vigor of body and mind, in
natural qualities,
such as shrewdness, self-control, presence of mind, and in
habits of
attention, industry, and promptitude, that have been
cultivated. What
manifest failure also often comes from too much confidence
in the
judgment of man! The counsels of the wisest, most
experienced, most
successful of men, must be listened to with discretion.
III. THE REASON WHY SUCH CONFIDENCES DO NOT BRING
PROSPERITY IS
MADE PLAIN. They are not confidences after God’s
own heart. They
are an ungodly waste of affections and energies given for
higher purposes
and more durable occupations. The
practical lesson is that
we should reject all confidences if we are not made quite
certain that God
approves them. Blessed is that man who has found his way,
it may be
through many losses and agonizing pains, to the truth that the
unseen is
more trustworthy
than the seen, the eternal than the temporal. One who
has thus risen into the sphere of Divine realities may have
his confidences
rejected and despised of men. What do these rejections
matter? He
who
has firm hold of
God Himself need not to care for contemptuous words.
The hard words
of worldly men CANNOT DESTROY SPIRITUAL
PROSPERITY!
I wonder
who in the world is ignorant of Titus 2:4-5?
(CY - 2011)
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