Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.
Parallel Translations
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Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.
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O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
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Though our iniquities testify against us, O LORD, work Thou for Thy name's sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against Thee.
Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 14:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 25:11 For your name’s sake, Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
- Jeremiah 14:20-21 We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us.
- Hosea 5:5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity. Judah also will stumble with them.
- Isaiah 59:12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
- Jeremiah 5:6 Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.
- Jeremiah 2:19 “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
- Daniel 9:5-16 we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances. We haven’t listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. “Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you. Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him. We haven’t obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice. “Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth. Therefore Yahweh has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice. “Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten yourself renown, as it is today; we have sinned. We have done wickedly. Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us.
- Nehemiah 9:33-34 However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly. Also our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.
- Psalms 115:1 Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth’s sake.
- Ezekiel 20:22 Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
- Daniel 9:18-19 My God, turn your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake. Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
- Hosea 7:10 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven’t returned to Yahweh their God, nor sought him, for all this.
- Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
- Ephesians 1:12 to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
- Joshua 7:9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?”
- Ezra 9:6-7 and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers we have been exceedingly guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
- Ezra 9:15 Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”
- Ezekiel 20:14 But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
- Deuteronomy 32:27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.’ ”
- Jeremiah 3:6 Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.
- Jeremiah 8:14 “Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 20:9 But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet, no doubt, intended here to exhort the…
The Prophet, no doubt, intended here to exhort the Jews by his own example to seek pardon; nor does he so assume the character of others, as though he was free himself from guilt; for he was not more righteous than Daniel, who, as we find, testified that he confessed before God, not only the sins of the people, but also his own sins. (Daniel 9:4, 5) And Jeremiah, though not one of God’s despisers, nor of the profane, who had provoked God’s wrath, was yet one of the people; and here he connects himself with them; and he did this in sincerity and not in dissimulation. But he might have prayed silently at home; why then did he make public his prayer? What was his purpose in consigning it to writing? It was that he might rouse the people, as I have already said, by his example, so that they might flee as suppliants to God’s mercy, and seek forgiveness for their sins. This then was the Prophet’s object. Thus we see that the prophecy concerning the scarcity and the famine was announced, that the people might through repentance escape the wrath of God; for we know that when God has even taken his sword he may possibly be pacified, as he is in his nature merciful: and besides, the design of all such predictions is, that men, conscious of their sins, may by faith and repentance escape the destruction that awaits them. We now then understand the design of the Prophet in this passage.
He says first, Even though our iniquities testify, etc. The verb ענה, one, properly means to answer; but it means also to testify, as in this place. O Jehovah, he says, there is no reason now to contend with thee, or to expostulate, or to ask why thou denlest so severely with us; let all such excuses be dismissed, for our sins testify against us; that is, “Were there no angels nor men to accuse us, our own conscience is sufficient to condemn us.” But when do our iniquities testify against us? Even when we know that we are exposed to God’s judgment and are held guilty by him. As to the reprobate, their iniquities cry to heaven, as it is said of Sodom. (Genesis 18:20, 21) But the Prophet seems here to express something more, — that the Jews could not make evasions, but must confess that they were worthy of death.
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For he says, For thy name’s sake deal with us. We see that the Prophet first condemns himself and the whole people; as though he had said, “If thou, Lord, summonest us to plead our own cause, we can expect nothing better than to be condemned by our own mouths, for our iniquities are sufficient to condemn us. What then remains for us?” The Prophet takes it as granted that there was but one remedy, — that God would save his people for his own name’s sake; as though he had said, “In ourselves we find nothing but reasons for condemnation; seek then in thyself a reason for forgiving us: for as long as thou regardest us, thou must necessarily hate us and be thus a rigid Judge; cease then to seek anything in us or to call us to an account, but seek from thyself a reason for sparing us.” He then adds, For multiplied have our defections, and against thee have we done wickedly By these words the Prophet shews that he did not formally, like hypocrites, confess sins, but really acknowledged that the Jews would have been found in various ways guilty had God dealt with them according to justice.
As we now perceive the import of the words, let us learn from this passage, that there is no other way of being reconciled to God than by having him to be propitious to us for his name’s sake. And by this truth is refuted everything that has been invented by the Papists, not less foolishly than rashly, respecting their own satisfactions. They indeed know that they stand in need of God’s mercy; for no one is so blinded under the Papacy, who does not feel the secret misgivings of his own conscience: so the saintlings, who lay claim to angelic perfection, are yet self — convicted, and are by necessity urged to seek pardon; but in the mean time they obtrude on God their satisfactions and works of supererogation, by which they compensate for their sins, and thus deliver themselves from the hand of God. Now this is a remarkable passage to confute such a diabolical delirium, for the Prophet brings forward the name of God; as though he had said, “This is the only way by which we can return to God’s favor and obtain reconciliation with him, even by having him to deal with us for his name’s sake, so that he may seek the cause of his mercy in himself, for in us he can find none.” If Jeremiah said this of himself, and not feignedly, what madness is it for us to arrogate so much to ourselves, as to bring anything before God by which he may be induced to shew mercy? Let us then know that God forgives our sins, not from a regard to any compensation, but only on account of a sufficient reason within himself, that he may glorify his own name. Now follows a clearer explanation and a confirmation of this verse.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He showeth the only way to remedy to God’s…
He showeth the only way to remedy to God’s plagues, which is by unfeigned confession of our sins, and returning to him by repentance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against…
Jer 14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou [it] for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
Ver. 7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us.] Though our guilty consciences bring in large rolls of indictment written against us within and without, and spread before thee.
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Do it for thy name’s sake.] Heb., Do. A short but pithy petition. So Jer 14:9, "Leave us not."
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The prophet having described their misery, both in the…
The prophet having described their misery, both in the cause of it, the drought for want of rain, and the effects of it, he applieth himself to that God who he knew was he who alone could give the former and the latter rain; confessing that their sins and backslidings were very many, and testified against them that they had deserved God’s severe scourge, and God was righteous in what of this nature he had done against them. But yet, saith he,
do thou it; that is, do thou what we desire, and what we stand in need of; give us rain; though not for our sake, we deserve no such kindness from thee, yet for
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thy name’s sake, thy word, or promise; or rather, hear for thine honour and glory’ sake. Isa 43:25; 48:11, where God promiseth them to show them kindness for his name’s sake; so as Jeremiah’s prayer is but a pleading of God’s promises, that he would fulfil his word.
For our backslidings are many; for here signifies though, and might have been better so interpreted.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us,.... That…
O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us,.... That we deserve such judgments to be inflicted on us; and that God is righteous in bringing them; and we are altogether undeserving of the favour now about to be asked. These are the words of the prophet interceding for his people, and confessing their sins and his own:
do thou it for thy name's sake; that is, give rain; which was the thing wanted, and which none but God could give, Jer 14:22 though we are not worthy to have it done for our sakes, do it for thine own sake; for the honour and glory of thy name, of thy goodness, power, and faithfulness:
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for our backslidings are many; and so had many witnesses against them; and which shows how unworthy they were, and that they had no reason to expect the mercy on their own account; and especially as it follows:
we have sinned against thee; as all sin is against God, contrary to his nature and will, and a transgression of his law; and what aggravates it is, that it is against him as a God of goodness, grace, and mercy.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Testify - That thou art righteous in what thou…
Testify - That thou art righteous in what thou hast done. Do thou it - Do thou what we stand in need of; give us rain, though not for our sake, we deserve no such kindness from thee, yet for thy names sake: thy promise, or for thine honour and glory.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against…
Verse 7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us] We deeply acknowledge that we have sinned, and deserve nothing but death. Yet act for thy name's sake-work in our behalf, that we perish not.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 14:7. O Lord, &c. — The prophet, having…
Jer 14:7. O Lord, &c. — The prophet, having described their misery both in its cause, the drought, and the effects produced thereby, here applies himself to God, who alone could remove it, confessing that their many and great sins and backslidings had well deserved to be thus severely scourged. Though our iniquities testify against us — That thou art righteous in what thou hast done, and make it evident that we have merited the most dreadful judgments thy wrath can inflict; yet do thou it — Do thou what we stand in need of; give us rain, though not for our sake, we deserve no such kindness from thee, yet for thy name’s sake; for the sake of thy word and promise, by which thou engagest to hear the prayers of thy people in their distress, Psa 50:15, and for thine honour and glory.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Do thou it - Rather, “deal thou, act thou…
Do thou it - Rather, “deal thou, act thou for Thy Name’s sake, i. e., not according to the strict measure of right and wrong, but as a God merciful and gracious.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Sake. We have the honour to be called thy…
Sake. We have the honour to be called thy people. We urge no merit of our own.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain do thou it--what we beg of Thee; interpose to…
do thou it--what we beg of Thee; interpose to remove the drought. Jeremiah pleads in the name of his nation (Psa 109:21). So "work for us," absolutely used (Sa1 14:6).
for thy name's sake--"for our backslidings are so many" that we cannot urge Thee for the sake of our doings, but for the glory of Thy name; lest, if Thou give us not aid, it should be said it was owing to Thy want of power (Jos 7:9; Psa 79:9; Psa 106:8; Isa 48:9; Eze 20:44). The same appeal to God's mercy, "for His name's sake," as our only hope, since our sin precludes trust in ourselves, occurs in Psa 25:11.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE PROPHET’S PRAYER, Jer_14:7-9, Jer_14:19-22.
THE PROPHET’S PRAYER, Jer_14:7-9, Jer_14:19-22.
7. Thus far the historical background of the picture: now we have the prophet’s prayer in the people’s behalf. All petitions for mercy must, in fact if not in form, open with confession; and so does this.
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Thy name’s sake — Namely, Jehovah, which implies that he is the Friend and Saviour of his people. See Exo_34:6. This name is the one all-comprehending promise of good to his people. And so the prayer is, Do not belie thine own name and the hope of thy people, but interfere for our relief.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. for thy name’s sake] either (a) as the…
7. for thy name’s sake] either (a) as the covenant God of Israel, as implied by the language of Jer_14:8-9; cp. Exo_34:6, or (b) for Thy honour, that the heathen may behold Thy might and faithfulness. This latter is much the more usual sense of the phrase. See Psa_79:9; Psa_106:8; Isa_48:9; Eze_20:9; Eze_20:14; Eze_20:22; also Jos_7:7-9.
7–10. See summary at commencement of the section. Is the intercession (a) the prophet’s own, or (b) put by him into the mouth of the people? Co. supports (b) as indicated by Jer_14:10, where the Lord’s reply is addressed to them. It is true that Jer_14:11 implies (a), but see note there. Du. on the other hand supports (a) but holds that the words are an ironical attack on the people’s obstinate confidence in Jehovah’s goodwill, while Erbt goes so far as to maintain that the prophet here bitterly parodies the words of the people assembled on a day of humiliation and prayer because of the drought. But the words are probably uttered in all seriousness, and ch. Jer_15:1 supports this view. Cp. for the earnest language of the confession Neh_1:5 ff.; Dan_9:4 ff.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7) O Lord . . .—From the picture of…
(7) O Lord . . .—From the picture of suffering the prophet turns to a prayer for pardon and a confession of sins. He is sure that the drought has not come without cause, and that it calls men to repentance.
Do thou it.—Better, more generally, act thou, not according to the rigour of inexorable justice, but according to the Name which witnesses of mercy and long-suffering (Exo_34:6).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The intercession of Jeremiah begins. Do thou it; a…
The intercession of Jeremiah begins. Do thou it; a pregnant expression, equivalent to "act gloriously"; (as Psa_22:31 Isa_44:23) For thy name"s sake. Jehovah s" Name pledges him to be merciful to his people, and not to make a full end of them, even when they have offended. (comp." Our Redeemer was thy name from of old" Isa_63:16)
A plea for mercy in spite of grout.
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I WE CAN ONLY PLEAD FOR GOD"S MERCY AFTER A FRANK ADMISSION OF OUR OWN GUILT. The common habit of people is to take the opposite course to excuse themselves, extenuate their faults, or ignore, or even deny them. But this is vain before God, and while persisted in it shuts the door against forgiveness. God can only forgive sin that is confessed, can only have mercy on the humble and penitent. This confession must be frank and full. Such a confession is contained in the prayer of Jeremiah.
1. Personal guilt is admitted iniquities.
2. The shame of increasing guilt is admitted backslidings." If we feel we are better than we once were, we excuse our present imperfection on the ground that it is at least an improvement on the past. It requires a genuine penitence to admit that we have been growing worse.
3. Sin is seen to be an offence against God have sinned against thee." It is not a mere fault in ourselves; it is a direct act of warfare with Heaven. David said this; (Psa_51:4) so did the prodigal son. (Luk_15:18)
4. Sin is recognized as abundantOur backslidings are many." It is vain to confess some sins whilst denying others, or to attempt to represent them as leas numerous than they really are. This keeping back of part of the confession mars the whole of it.
5. Guilt is acknowledged to be open before GodOur sins testify.
6. It is seen to be a bar to our claim of simple right they testify "against us." Condemnation, therefore, may justly follow the plain evidence of guilt. Our own sins are witnesses to oppose any plea we may found on our personal deserts.
II OUR OWN GUILT, WHEN FRANKLY ADMITTED, IS NO HINDRANCE TO THE MERCY OF GOD. The only hindrance is impenitence. The ground of God"s mercy is not our desert, but Iris goodness. If there is anything in us which predisposes him to be gracious, this is not our worth, but our want. The more wretched the condition to which our sin has brought us, the more urgent the call to his pity. The one plea is" for his Name"s sake.
1. For the sake of God"s character. His Name expresses what he is. His highest name is "Love." By this name we plead for mercy. Because of what he is, because of his inherent goodness, love, and pity, we implore his help.
2. For the sake of God"s honor. He has promised to have mercy on the penitent. (e.g. Deu_30:1-10) Thus he has pledged his Name, bound himself by his own certain faithfulness.
3. For the sake of God"s glory. His highest glory is his goodness. When he delivers his children his own Name is glorified. Redemption honors God more than creation. The song of the redeemed at the end of the world will be more sweet and more noble than the song of the sons of the morning at the dawn of creation. As Christians we see these truths more clearly revealed in Christ. He is the "Word" incarnate, the "Name," the highest manifestation of the character of God, the fulfillment of his greatest promises, the expression of his brightest glory. For us to pray "for Christ"s sake" is the same as praying "for God"s Name"s sake.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 7, 9. A prayer for God"s people in time of his judgments.
The prophet"s words, as he intuitively places himself in the position of those who are about to be afflicted. Not, therefore, to be regarded as an ideal prayer, but a true representation of the spiritual state of those who are conscious of their sin and their need of salvation. They explain the lack of apparent answer to prayer, and truthfully interpret the spiritual condition of the awakened sinner.
I PRAYER IS AN INDEX OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. Here we have the oscillation between fear and hope, doubt and faith, vividly portrayed. There is a flitting to and fro of the soul between the extremes of dejection and of confidence. All real prayer ought thus faithfully to represent the mind of the petitioner. It is a laying bare of secret thoughts and moral convictions; an unconscious as well as a conscious confession. Whilst it may be said that a man"s inner being is revealed in his prayer, he is not to be judged by it by his fellow men. It is only God who can truly understand the indications which it affords, and only he who has a right to interpret them. There is a rising, a falling, and a rising again in the course of the prayer. It is the Name of God which serves as a reminder and spiritual confirmation.
II PRAYER IS A SPIRITUAL EXERCISE AND A MEANS OF GRACE. There is evident in this utterance a wrestling with unbelief. Memories of evil crowd upon the soul and seem to darken the horizon. The sinful nation confesses that in itself there is no hope, but as that conviction is arrived at, another asserts itself, namely, that God is the Hope of Israel, and that in his name or character there is the promise and potency of restoration. It is in spiritual transitions like these that the soul is lost and found again. Temptation is anticipated and overcome, sin is cast away, and God is throned in the heart, It is better to make such honest discovery of ourselves to God, even in our weakness and lack of faith, than that we should carry these into the conduct of life. It is in these transitions of despair and hope reaching to and resting in restored faith and settled purpose of righteousness, that the overcoming of the world is already accomplished.
III THE PRAYER THAT SEEMS TO BE REJECTED NOW MAY YET PROVE A CONDITION OF ACCEPTANCE. Had Israel herself really adopted the words of this her representative mediator, she would have escaped the awful abyss that yawned before her, but she knew not the day of her opportunity. By slow stages of recovery, marked by many relapses, was she to climb to the great truth from which she had fallen, that the Name of God was her salvation and hope. So it is that many a prayer uttered without apparent answer supplies in itself a spiritual condition of ultimate blessing. Its answer is really begun in the change of attitude assumed, and the spiritual truth laid hold of. By-and-by irresolution and uncertainty will give place to faith, and the windows of heaven will be opened. M.
Vers. 7-9. An absent God deplored.
The dearth told of in foregoing verses and the misery caused thereby led to the conviction that God had abandoned his people. In these verses and throughout this section down to Jer_15:9 we find the prophet pleading with God to return. In these verses we are shown
I THE CAUSES WHICH HAD BROUGHT ABOUT THE DIVINE WITHDRAWAL FROM THEM. Their "iniquities," "backslidings," "sins" (Ver. 7). Nothing else has such power; sin only can shut out God, but it always will and does.
II THE HAPPY MEMORIES WHICH MADE IT SO BITTER. God had revealed himself to them in such endearing manner. He had been ever "the Hope of Israel." He had inspired, maintained, and justified that hope again and again. And he had become the Hope of Israel through having shown himself so perpetually "the Savior thereof in the time of trouble." The memory of God"s servants was stored with recollections of such deliverances, national and individual, from troubles temporal and spiritual; vouchsafed, too, not because of Israel"s deserving, but out of God"s pure bounty. Now, it was these happy memories which made God"s present dealings with them so terrible to bear.
III THE SAD CONTRAST BETWEEN THE DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS NOW AND OF OLD. We have seen what he had been to Israel, but now, the prophet complains, he is to them very far from what he was then. He is "as a stranger," "a wayfaring man," as one "taken by surprise," as one strong but yet unable to help. Their enemies would taunt them with the reproach that either God was as a stranger, and therefore did not care for them; or, if they denied that, then it must be that there was a stronger than he, who had taken him by surprise and prevented his rendering help to his afflicted people. Either he would not or he could not on one of the horns of this dilemma they by the force of their present circumstances were thrown. And there can be no doubt that the great mystery of life, its sins and sorrows, do often force perplexed and troubled minds perilously near to one or other of these "conclusions, which nevertheless faith affirms to be alike false, and will never admit for one moment.
IV THE SOURCES OF HOPE UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE THESE. They are:
1. The Name of God. This the prophet pleads (Ver. 7). He confesses that all their own conduct is altogether against them. They can have no hope in themselves. But the Name of God remains to be urged in his pleading, and therefore it is this Name that he does urge. "Do thou it for thy Name"s sake." Here is a fact which cannot change. When driven out of all hope in ourselves by reason of our sins, we may yet hope in God, and plead the grace and goodness that are evermore in him.
2. The presence of his appointed ordinances and his chosen dwelling-place in their midst. This is the meaning of Ver. 9, "Yet thou art in the midst of us," The temple, the altar, the sacrifice, the priests, the ark, were all there; the appointed channels of communication between God and his people. And so long as we may go unto his footstool, and the throne of grace is open to us, there is hope in that. God will come to us again in the way of his holy and appointed ordinances, if we will go along that way to seek him.
3. They were the objects of history. We are called by thy Name." Israel was so. God had chosen them at the first. "When Israel was a child, then I loved him." And it is because of that undying love of God, they who for their sins have lost his presence may yet win it back again.
V THE PRESENT DUTY. Prayer. The prophet betook himself hereto. "Leave us not," he cries (Ver. 9). And nothing barred the success of this prayer but that the people for whom he prayed had no heart in it. God stood ready to forgive and restore. The prophet"s prayer was fully answered on the part of God. But those for whom he prayed were not ready, and so their judgment went on. But for ourselves, if we deplore an absent God, let us betake ourselves to these potent arms of all-prevailing prayer, and God shall ere long be again known to us as of old as our Hope and our Savior in time of trouble. C.
Vers. 7-9. An appeal out of the depths of separation from God.
I THE APPEAL OF THOSE WHO ADMIT THAT IN THEMSELVES THEY HAVE NO CLAIM UPON GOD. They have no record of faithful service to present; no array of good deeds goes before them to plead for acceptance and approval. It is all the other way. Their iniquities testify against them; they have backslidden; they have sinned against Jehovah; at least, so they say. There is the appearance of having come to themselves. It might seem as if the prodigal nation, so long spending its substance in riotous living, had been brought to a full stop and a place for repentance amid the privations of a waterless land. Why, indeed, should there be any suspicion as to a genuine confession of great iniquities, a genuine and swift submission to Jehovah? Notice that the confession is correct enough as far as the mere words are concerned. But after all, these words were not unlike the statements extorted by the pains of the Inquisition. Confessions and professions have been made by tortured men in their agonies which had no value as genuine utterances of the heart. It is needless to say that, as far as purpose is concerned, no resemblance is to be found between Jehovah depriving Judah of its water and Rome torturing heretics to make them recant. There may be different purposes where there are similar results. This cry of the people showed the severity with which they had been smitten; it did not of necessity show the state of their hearts. All that they said was true; their iniquities did testify against them; they were apostates; they had sinned against Jehovah. Only when we look at past confessions of the like sort, we see how little they meant. (Num_14:40 Num_21:7 Jud_1:10:10 1Sa_7:6) It was the parched tongue and not the broken heart that made them speak. And therefore it is that their appeal has to be met with a refusal. Earnestly as they cried, the cessation of chastisement would not have been followed by the renewal of a true obedience.
II THE APPEAL OF THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME CONSCIOUS OF THEIR OWN HELPLESSNESS APART FROM JEHOVAH. They want water, and there is no way of getting it apart from the mercy of an all-powerful God. The very way in which they speak shows how vain they feel all resources to be save one. But if other resources had been possible, assuredly they would have tried them. They come to God"s door, not because it is the right one, but because it is the only one left to try. So passengers begin to think of God and eternity when the captain says the tempest-beaten ship cannot be saved. So sick people send for a minister of religion when the doctor says the disease is mortal. So the doomed criminal makes a fashion of giving all his attention to the chaplain when the plea for mitigation is rejected. What a humiliating position men take in making an appearance of coming to God only when they can get nowhere else! What wonder is it that, under such circumstances, they fail to get a right relation established between God and themselves! Prayers in such circumstances, whatever the language employed, may prove no more than the incoherent shriek of despair, a cry without any real turning to God, without any real trust in him.
III THE APPEAL OF THOSE WHO CAN CALL TO MIND GOD"S CHARACTER AS ALREADY REVEALED. The description of God in his deeds and disposition had ample warrant from the history of his past dealings. He had been in the midst of his people, " the Hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble," as a mighty man showing himself able to save in the greatest danger. He who now fastened up the clouds and the springs had given waters in the wilderness. He who now made the earth fruitless had given manna which needed neither sowing nor reaping. Jehovah had been behind all the visible agents towards deliverance, victory, and possession of the promised inheritance. His tabernacle had been in the midst of his people, and his glory in the midst of his tabernacle. How easy it is to remember, when necessary, that which, when convenient, it seems just as easy to forget! The clouds of heaven and the mountains in whose secret depths he had wrought at the water-springs had been suffered to hide God; but now that his gracious works are vanished for a while, men suddenly and painfully miss the worker. They can flatter him whom they have not even despised, but rather simply ignored. When the cisterns are empty, when the land is chapped, when there is no water anywhere for man and beast, then they can talk effusively concerning "the Hope of Israel, and the Savior thereof in time of trouble." What self-accusation is implied in this appeal! It was not in ignorance of Jehovah"s claims that they had sinned against him. His past dealings were known and could be recollected under stress of need. If God could speak to Jeremiah as one familiar with the deeds of Moses and Samuel, (Jer_15:1) then we may be sure the God connected with those deeds was also known in his historical manifestations known to some extent at least to the great bulk of the people.
IV THE APPEAL OF THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME KEENLY SENSITIVE TO GOD"S SEPARATION FROM THEM. This is set forth by two figures. He has become as a stranger in the land, as a wayfarer pitching his tent for the night. The people profess to wonder why it is so, and yet they need not wonder. He who has been in their midst because, first of all, he has gathered them around him as the recipients of measureless privileges, finds rivals raised on every high place and in every grove. His special commands are shut out from influence on the conduct of daily life. His messenger is scorned by rulers and conspired against by his own kinsfolk. What is all this but to become even worse than a stranger? A stranger may advance through successive grades of acquaintanceship into bosom affection and trust; but if he who is and ought to remain the center gets pushed out little by little, even beyond the circumference, what force is there potent and exact enough to bring the former relation back? God had told these people how to treat the stranger, but instead of attending to his commands they had ended by making God himself a stranger. Needless, then, was it to ask the question, "Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land?" As well might the ebbing sea ask the rock round which it rolled at flood, why it had forsaken it. Jehovah had remained the same in truth, in love, and in purpose. It was the people who had failed, and flowed further and further away from him. They talked of him as a mere wanderer among them, whereas they were the real wanderers, wandering in heart, drifting about from one temporary satisfaction to another. Y. (Exo_22:21 Lev_19:9, Lev_19:10, 33 Mat_25:35 Heb_13:2)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do…
Jer_14:7-9
O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy names sake.
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The prayer of contrite Israel
I. A mournful fact acknowledged.
1. Even in the case of Gods own people, sin does not pass away and die after it is committed, no, nor even after it is pardoned.
2. The sins of Gods people bear testimony against them, an open and public testimony.
(1) They witness against them before God.
(2) They witness against them to others. They proclaim them to the whole spiritual world to be vile, guilty creatures, undeserving of any one of the many blessings they are receiving; yea, deserving of nothing but Jehovahs utmost abhorrence and displeasure.
(3) And our sins, the prophet intimates, testify against us at times to ourselves also. And this appears to be the leading idea in the prophets words.
3. Our sins are peculiarly apt to bear this secret testimony against us, when we attempt to draw near to God. A sense of guilt, shame, and self-loathing, takes possession of us, and sometimes well-nigh breaks our hearts.
II. A petition offered.
1. Its humble boldness. Under other circumstances there would be nothing remarkable in this, but we have here a prayer offered up while sin is accusing and conscience smiting. When our iniquities testify loudly against us, when we feel sin brought home powerfully by the Holy Spirit to our consciences, There is an end to prayer, we are tempted to say: with all this guilt and pollution upon us, we must not attempt to go into Gods presence. Now one of the hardest lessons we have to learn in Christs school, is to overcome this tendency in sin to drive us from the Lord. God, as He is revealed to us in the Gospel, is the sinners God, and what the sinner has to learn in the Gospel is, that as a sinner he may draw near to Him, and find favour with Him, and be accepted by Him, and pardoned, and loved. If your iniquities are testifying against you, do not aim to silence their voice; let no one ever make you believe that God does not hear the witness they bear, and that you need not heed it; but aim at this--to believe all that your sins say against you, and yet in spite of it all to seek Gods mercy and trust in it.
2. The lowly submission it manifests. It stands in the original simply, Do Thou. There can be no doubt but that next to the pardon of her sin, deliverance from her troubles was the blessing the afflicted Church most desired at this time; but she does not ask for it. Her mouth seems suddenly stopped as she is about to ask for it. She feels as though in her situation, with her enormous sins crying out so loudly against her, she must not dare to choose for herself any blessing. All she says is, Do Thou. Do Thou something for us. Interfere for us. Give us not up. We will bless Thee for anything Thou doest, so that Thou wilt not abandon us. And in a manner like this does every soul pray, that is deeply contrite. It has boldness enough amidst all its guilt to come to Gods throne and to keep there, but beyond this it has sometimes no boldness at all. It leaves God to show mercy to it in His own way, and to deal with it after His own will. All it desires is to be treated as His child, and then come what may, it will bless Him for it.
III. The plea the prophet urges in support of his prayer. It is the name or glory of God; O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy names sake. This prayer then, you perceive, is more than a simple prayer for mercy. The publicans prayer in the temple was that. Any really contrite sinner may offer it; he will offer it and offer it often even to his dying hour. But the prayer before us implies a considerable degree of spiritual knowledge, as well as deep contrition. No man will offer it, till he is become well acquainted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; till he has discovered the wisdom and glory, as well as the grace, of it, and imbibed something of its spirit. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Mans iniquities testifying against him
I. What it is for a man to find his iniquities testify against him in his addresses to God.
1. Sin is not dead when it is committed. The act is transient, but the guilt is of a permanent nature.
2. When the man draws near to God in the exercise of His worship, sin meets him there; appears to him as a terrible ghost (Isa_59:11-13).
3. Sin testifies two things for God against the man.
(1) Their unworthiness of any favour from the Lord.
(2) Their liableness to punishment, yea, to a curse instead of a blessing, so that the soul is often made to fear some remarkable judgment.
4. This witness is convincing. So, in the text, we find the panel denies not the testimony, but pleads for mercy.
5. Upon this, the gracious soul is filled with holy shame and self-loathing.
6. He is damped, and his confidence before the Lord is marred as to any access to Him, or obtaining favour at His hand.
II. How comes it that sin is found thus testifying against men?
1. It flows from the nature of sin and guilt upon an enlightened conscience.
2. It is a punishment from the Lord for former backslidings and miscarriages.
3. God so orders it, that it may be a mean to humble them, and make them more watchful against sin for the time to come.
III. The plea. For Thy names sake.
1. We must plead with Him for His Christs sake; and when guilt stares us in the face, we must look to God through the veil of Christs flesh.
2. We must plead with Him for His glorys sake. Punishing of sin glorifies God much, but pardoning of sin glorifies Him more. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Sin should be fully confessed
I warrant thee thou shalt never go beyond the truth in stating thy sin, for that were quite impossible. A man lying on the field of battle wounded, when the surgeon comes round, or the soldiers with the ambulance, does not say, Oh, mine is a little wound, for he knows that then they would let him lie; but he cries out, I have been bleeding here for hours, and am nearly dead with a terrible wound, for he thinks that then he will gain speedier relief; and when he gets into the hospital he does not say to the nurse, Mine is a small affair; I shall soon get over it; but he tells the truth to the surgeon in the hope that he may set the hone at once, and that double care may be taken. Ah, sinner, do thou so with God. The right way to plead is to plead thy misery, thine impotence, thy danger, thy sin. Lay bare thy wounds before the Lord, and as Hezekiah spread Sennacheribs letter before the Lord, spread thy sins before Him with many a tear and many a cry, and say, Lord, save me from all these; save me from these black and foul things, for Thy infinite mercys sake. Confess thy sin; wisdom dictates that thou shouldest do so, since salvation is of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jeremiah a wrestler with the Lord in prayer
I. In what the Lord is strong against the prophet. The sin of the people.
II. In what the prophet is strong against the Lord. The name of the Lord.
1. In itself, Gods name compels Him to show He is not a desperate hero, a giant who cannot save.
2. In that His name is borne by Israel. (Heim.)
Prayer has within itself its own reward
I. Confession. This fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is against God Himself. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it,--takes off the power of accusation.
II. Petition. For Thy names sake. This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same, and has always the same force. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of. (T. Leighton.)
Pleas for mercy
How many there are who pray after a fashion in times of great distress. When they are brought to deaths door, then they say, Send for someone that will come and pray at our side. What a wretched position is this, that we should only be willing to think of God when we are in our direst need! At the same time, notice what a great mercy it is that God does hear real prayer even if it be presented to Him only because we are in distress. He giveth liberally, and upbraideth not.
I. I speak to the church of God at large wherever it has backslidden and to each believer in particular who may have departed from the living God in any measure. Note, there are here pleaders guilty. The pleaders seem to say, Guilty, ay, guilty, for there is no denying it. Our iniquities testify against us. I would that every child of God felt this whenever he has gone astray. In addition to there being no denying it there is no excusing it, for our backslidings are many. If we could have excused ourselves for our first faults, if possibly we might have offered some extenuation for the fickleness of our youth, yet what are we to say of the transgressions of our riper years? Not only is our guilt past denying and past excusing, but also it is past computation. We cannot measure how great have been our transgressions, and the next sentence may well imply it: We have sinned against Thee. Well, now, next to this plea of guilty, what do the culprits say? What plea do they make why they should obtain mercy? I observe, first, that they bring no plea whatever which has fallen from themselves in any degree. They do not plead before God, that if He will have mercy they will be better. But still, there is a plea. Oh, blessed plea l the master plea of all: Though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy names sake. Now, here is a prayer which will avail for us when the night is darkest and not a star is to be seen. The first name which the backsliding Church here gives to God has a blessing--O the hope of Israel. Next, observe the Church of God pleads His next merit: The Saviour thereof in time of trouble. God has saved His people, and the name of God is the Saviour in the time of trouble. Then, next, she does not mention the name that is implied in the words. She says, Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land?--one, that is, merely travelling through, who takes little notice of the trouble because He is not a citizen of the country; one that merely puts up for a night in the house, and therefore does not enter into the cares and trials of the family. She does as good as call Him the Master of the house, Lord of the house. But, then, she goes a little further than that, and the plea is this: that He was, whatever they might be, their God. Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name. The Church says, Lord, if Thou dost not help us now, the men of the world will say, God could not help them, they were brought into such a condition at last that their faith was of no use to them. Why shouldest Thou be as a mighty man that cannot help?
II. I want to speak to poor troubled hearts who do not know the Lord. I cannot take the whole of my text for them, but only a part, and say to them, I am right glad that you want to find peace with God; right glad that you are unhappy and distressed in soul. You say, I want peace. Well, take heed that you do not get a false peace. So begin by confessing your guilt. When you have done that, I charge you next, do not try to invent any kind of plea; do not sit down and try to make out that the case was not so bad, or that your bringings up might excuse you, or that your constitutional temperament might make some apology for you. No; have done with that and come with this one plea: Do it for Thy names sake. Lord, I cannot blot out my sins; I cannot change my nature; do Thou it. I have no reason why I should hope that Thou wilt do it; but for Thy names sake. This is the master key that unlocks every door. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Triumphant prayer
I. The mysterious contradiction between the ideal of Israel and the actual condition of things. The ancient charter of Israels existence was that God should dwell in their midst; but things are as if the perennial presence promised had been changed into visits, short and far between. Two ideas conveyed: the brief transitory visits, with long dreary stretches of absence between them; and the indifference of the visitant, as a man who pitches his tent for a night, caring little for the people among whom he tarries the while. More: instead of the perpetual energy of the Divine aid promised to Israel, it looks as if Thou art a mighty man astonied, etc.,--a Samson with locks shorn.
II. Our low and evil condition should lead to earnest inquiry as to its cause.
1. The reason is not in any variableness of that unalterable, uniform, ever-present, ever-full Divine gift of Gods Spirit to His Church.
2. Nor in the failure of adaptation in Gods Word and ordinances for the great work they had to do.
3. The fault lies here only: O Lord, our iniquities testify against us, etc. We have to prayerfully, patiently, and honestly search after this cause, and not to look to possible variations and improvements in order and machinery, etc.
III. This consciousness of our evil condition and knowledge of the cause lead on to lowly penitence and confession. We err in being more ready, when awakened to a sense of wrong, to originate new methods of work, to begin with new zeal to gather in the outcasts into the fold; instead of beginning with ourselves, deepening our own Christian character, purifying our own hearts, and getting more of the life of God into our own spirits. Begin with lowly abasement at His footstool.
IV. The triumphant confidence of believing prayer.
1. Look at the substance of His petition. He does not prescribe what should be done, nor ask that calamity be taken away, but simply for the continual Divine presence and power.
2. Look at these pleas with God as grounds of confidence for ourselves.
(1) The name: all the ancient manifestations of Thy character. Thy memorial with all generations.
(2) Israels hope: the confidence of the Church is fixed upon Thee; and Thou who hast given us Thy name hast become our hope.
(3) The perennial and essential relationship of God to His Church: we belong to Thee, and Thou hast not ceased Thy care for us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The sinners plea
I. The sinners acknowledgment.
1. The prophets confession is precisely such as befits the world at large.
2. With too great reason, also, may it be adopted, even by the best of men.
II. The sinners plea.
1. Open to all. Never urged in vain.
Application--
1. What should be the effect of sin upon the soul? Conviction of sin should not keep us from, but bring us to God. Sin is a just ground for humiliation, but not for discouragement.
2. What shall surely be effectual to remove it from the soul? Prayer: penitential weeping; humble and contrite, fervent and persevering; offered in dependence on Gods promised mercies in Christ. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The name of the Lord a plea for temporal blessings
I. We begin with temporal good things. None indeed are particularised by Jeremiah. All that he asks is comprised in these words, Do Thou. But anyone who observes the context may see what the prophet would have. He would have dew, and rain, and fruitful seasons, for the preservation of man and beast.
1. Temporal good things pertain to the present life. In heaven we shall neither hunger nor thirst, and since we look for a body without animal appetites, duty, interest, and honour call on us to keep these appetites of our present body under subjection.
2. In the present life temporal good things are necessary. Without a competent portion of these men cannot live. The body, which is the workmanship of God, must be fed and clothed; and how great is His goodness in providing for it things that are needful! Let heaven, and earth, and seas, praise the Lord.
3. Temporal good things are promised. Till the purpose of God be accomplished, the present frame of the world, in the riches of His goodness, and long-suffering, must be upheld; and promises of upholding, and of the means of upholding it, are made to Christ, for the sake of His body, the redeemed (Isa_49:8; Hos_2:22-23).
4. Temporal good things are produced by the power and goodness of God, operating in material and secondary causes. The heavens and the earth, the sun, the rain, the dew, and the air, have not the power of vegetation and fertility in themselves. They are merely instruments by which the power of God is exerted.
5. Temporal good things are turned away by our iniquities (Jer_3:2-3; Jer_5:24-26).
6. Temporal good things are benefits for which intercession and prayer should be made. In the prayer which our Lord taught the disciples a petition for these appears: Give us this day our daily bread.
II. The plea which appears in the text for temporal good things. It is, you observe, the name of the Lord: O Lord,--do Thou for Thy names sake.
1. An honourable plea, and worthy of God, before whom and concerning whom it is used. The glory of His name is the end, and the motive, and the reason of His works; and in doing for it the works like Himself, and independent of considerations of worth in creatures. In the name of the Lord our God every ray of essential and revealed glory meets, and shines forth; and to make this glory the supreme end of His operations and communications, is a perfection which He cannot deny nor give away. This supreme motive He avows, and holds up to the adoration of His people, and jealousy for it is His praise and His honour (Eze_36:22; Isa_48:9-11; Psa_115:1).
2. A prevailing plea. For His names sake great and marvellous works have been wrought (Eze_20:9; Eze_20:14; Eze_20:22; Eze_20:44). When the motive in the heart of the Sovereign is the plea in the mouth of the supplicant, confidence of being accepted and heard, confidence modest, humble, reverential, and submissive, imparts joy to the heart of the petitioner, raises in his soul the expectation of hope, and makes his face to shine as if it were anointed with fresh oil.
3. A continual plea, and good throughout all generations, under all dispensations, among all nations, and in all extremities (1Ch_17:21; Isa_63:11-16).
4. The supreme plea under which every other plea is subordinated. In the prayers and intercessions of holy men other considerations often appear. Poverty, reproach, affliction, persecution, necessity, and other things, have been pied at the throne of grace. But the name, or glory, of the Lord our God is the supreme and ruling consideration into which other pleas are to be resolved.
III. Our pleading the name of the Lord for temporal good things in the face of iniquity, or when it is testifying against us. In such discouraging circumstances Jeremiah pleaded. The whole body of national evil stood before him; and, with this monster appearing to his eye, and its voice roaring in his ear, he cried, Do Thou for Thy names sake.
1. A sense of sin strongly affects the heart and conscience before the Lord. Jeremiah is the mouth of the kingdom, and speaks like a man of feeling. He felt the weight of the public guilt, heard it crying for vengeance, and believed that the Lord was justly offended because the land was greatly defiled. This feeling is not common and natural to man. There were but few in Judah who were suitably affected with the national iniquities, and among ourselves the number of mourners is either diminished or else they are hid in corners and chambers, out of the sight of the public eye and the knowledge of one another.
2. The righteousness of the Lord, in turning away temporal good things because of iniquity, is believed and acknowledged. Of this Jeremiah was persuaded himself, and of this no mean was neglected to persuade the nation. In withering seasons, professions of the equity and justice of Providence are in every mouth; but in the lives of many who make these professions, fruit of the lips doth not appear. Fruit of this kind is found only on a few trees of righteousness, which are grafted in Christ, and raised and trained up by the spirit of holiness.
3. The iniquities which provoke the Most High to withhold, or turn away, temporal good things are acknowledged with humiliation and sorrow of heart. Concerning these Jeremiah is not silent. In his intercessory prayer confession holds a distinguished place. His exercise is exemplary, and in similar circumstances should be followed. Reigning and crying sins breaking out, whether in the higher or lower ranks of society, or in both, ought to be acknowledged to be what they are, provocations of wrath and causes of calamity. But to bring men to this reasonable duty is extremely difficult. Confession gives such a stab to self-righteousness, and such a blow to natural pride, that nothing can bring us effectually to submit to it, except the Spirit of God working by His Word in us mightily.
4. The covenant of grace is apprehended, truly and distinctly, in the light of the Word. To this covenant temporal good things are annexed, and in its administration, promises of these are performed. By the obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ, the condition is fulfilled; and in performing the promises and bestowing the blessings, both of the life which now is and of that which is to come, the justice and holiness of God glorify themselves in the highest.
5. Considerations of the obedience, blood, and intercession of Christ, are presented to the Lord, and opposed to prevailing iniquities.
6. Submission to the will and good pleasure of the Lord of all. Creatures, far less sinners, should never be peremptory in their supplications, nor prescribe to the Sovereign. Pleas for the removal of distress are furnished to us by the Word, and instructions given to use these with reverence and importunity. But beware of limiting the Sovereign, who, by calamity no less than by deliverance, can magnify Himself.
IV. Exhortation and instruction. Unto men of prayer we address ourselves in the hearing of all, and through the blessing of God and the working of His Spirit, all will be corrected and instructed.
1. In your exercise and practice let a true sense of sin appear. It is not calling sin names, or fixing upon it the epithets, bagful and abominable, but hating and abhorring it, which the Lord requires.
2. Acknowledge the righteousness of God in withholding some temporal good things, which in the ordinary course of His Providence we looked for at this season. Why doth the Sovereign send upon us hail for rain, and heaps of snow instead of clouds of dew? Why doth He draw out winter to an unusual length, and fill our ear with the howling of shepherds, instead of the singing of birds? Why do not applications to His goodness prevail? Hath He forgotten to be gracious? No. Doth His promise fail? No. Is His hand shortened, that it cannot save? No. Is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? No. But our iniquities, let it be preached in the valleys, proclaimed in the mountains, and sounded in the dwelling places of atheism and irreligion--Our iniquities have separated between us and our God, and our sins have hid His face from us, that He will not hear.
3. Confess unto the Lord these trespasses which are committed against Him in the midst of the land, which provoke Him to withhold good things, and which cause Him to send upon us evil things. Acknowledgment of sin, and supplication for pardon, are always mixed with the prayers and intercessions of His people for temporal good things.
4. In pleading, when iniquities testify against you, keep before you the covenant of peace, to which temporal good things are added. Unless your eye be kept upon this covenant, it will be impossible to understand how God, whose right hand is full of righteousness, glorifies Himself in accepting your persons, sustaining your pleas, fulfilling your petitions, and blessing you with good things. But if the covenant, with its condition, promises, and administration, be considered, and the place which temporal good things possess observed, every seemingly interfering interest, with respect to the perfections and glory of God, will appear to be adjusted and consolidated upon the clearest and firmest principles.
5. With the plea, and every form of the plea, for the benefits of the covenant, introduce the name and office of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having fulfilled the condition, in His obedience unto death, He is constituted, by wisdom and grace, heir, administrator, and dispenser of the blessings.
6. Be submissive and modest in pleading for temporal good things. Of the ways of the Lord we are incompetent judges; and, in all applications upon the name, should submit ourselves to His wisdom and righteousness, and leave to His good pleasure what is to be done. (A. Shanks.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Jer 14:7 - Jer 14:9.
Jeremiah
TRIUMPHANT PRAYER
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Jer 14:7 - Jer 14:9.
My purpose now carries me very far away from the immediate occasion of these words; yet I cannot refrain from a passing reference to the wonderful pathos and picturesque power with which the long-forgotten calamity that evoked them is portrayed in the context. A terrible drought has fallen upon the land, and the prophet’s picture of it is, if one might say so, like some of Dante’s in its realism, in its tenderness, and in its terror. In the presence of a common calamity all distinctions of class have vanished, and the nobles send their little ones to the well, and they come back with empty vessels and drooping heads instead of with the gladness that used to be heard in the place of drawing of water. The ploughmen are standing among the cracked furrows, gazing with despair on the brown chapped earth, and in the field the very dumb creatures are sharing in the common sorrow, and the imperious law of self-preservation overpowers and crushes the maternal instincts. ‘Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.’ And on every little hilltop where cooler air might be found, the once untamable wild asses are standing with open nostrils panting for the breeze, their filmy eyes failing them, gazing for the rain that will not come. And then, from contemplating all that sorrow, the prophet turns to God with a wondrous burst of strangely blended confidence and abasement, penitence and trust, and fuses together the acknowledgment of sin and reliance upon the established and perpetual relation between Israel and God, pleading with Him about His judgments, presenting before Him the mysterious contradiction that such a calamity should fall on those with whom God dwelt, and casting himself lowly before the throne, and pleading the ancient name: ‘Do Thou it! Leave us not.’
It is to the wonderful fulness and richness of this prayer that I ask your attention in these few remarks. Expositors have differed as to whether the drought that forms its basis was a literal one, or is the prophet’s way of putting the sore calamities that had fallen on Israel. Be that as it may, I need not remind you how often in Scripture that metaphor of the ‘rain that cometh down from heaven and watereth the earth’ is the symbol for God’s divine gift of His Spirit, and how, on the other hand, the picture of the ‘dry and thirsty land where no water is’ is the appropriate figure for the condition of the soul or of the Church void of the divine presence. And I think I shall not mistake if I say that though we have much to make us thankful, yet you and I, dear brethren, and all our Churches and congregations, are suffering under this drought, and the merciful ‘rain, wherewith Thou dost confirm Thine inheritance when it is weary’ has not yet come as we would have it. May we find in these words some gospel for the day that may help us to come to the temper of mind into which there shall descend the showers to ‘make soft the earth and bless the springing thereof!’
Glancing over these clauses, then, and trying to put them into something like order for our purpose, there are four things that I would have you note. The first is the mysterious contradiction between the ideal Israel and the actual state of things; the second is the earnest inquiry as to the cause; the third the penitent confession of our sinfulness; and the last, the triumphant confidence of believing prayer.
I. First of all, then, look at the illustration given to us by these words of the mysterious contradiction between the ideal of Israel and the actual condition of things.
Recur, for the sake of illustration, to the historical event upon which our text is based. The old prophet had said, ‘The Lord thy God giveth thee a good land, a land full of brooks and water, rivers and depths, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it’; and the startling fact is, that these men saw around them a land full of misery for want of that very gift which had been promised. The ancient charter of Israel’s existence was that God should dwell in the midst of them, and what was it that they beheld? ‘As things are,’ says the prophet, ‘it looks as if that perennial presence which Thou hast promised had been changed into visits, short and far between. Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night?’
Now, I suppose there are two ideas intended to be conveyed-the brief, transitory, interrupted visits, with long, dreary stretches of absence between them; and the indifference of the visitant, as a man who pitches his tent in some little village to-night cares very little about the people that he never saw before this afternoon’s march, and will never see after to-morrow morning. And not only is it so, but, instead of the perpetual energy of this divine aid that had been promised to Israel, as things are now, it looks as if He was a mighty man astonied, a hero that cannot save-some warrior stricken by panic fear into a paralysis of all his strength-a Samson with his locks shorn. The ideal had been so great-perpetual gifts, perpetual presence, perpetual energy; the reality is chapped ground and parched places, occasional visitations, like vanishing gleams of sunshine in a winter’s day, and a paralysis, as it would appear, of all the ancient might.
Dear Christian friends, am I exaggerating, or dealing only with one set of phenomena, and forgetting the counterpoising ones on the other side, when I say, Change the name, and the story is told about us? God be thanked we have much that shows us that He has not left us, but yet, when we think of what we are, and of what God has promised that we should be, surely we must confess that there is the most sad, and, but for one reason, the most mysterious contradiction between the divine ideal and the actual facts of the case. Need we go further to learn what God meant His Church to be, than the last words that Jesus Christ said to us-’Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world’? Need we go further than those metaphors which come from His lips as precepts, and, like all His precepts, are a commandment upon the surface, but a promise in the sweet kernel-’Ye are the salt of the earth,’ ‘ye are the light of the world’-or than the prophet’s vision of an Israel which ‘shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord’? Is that the description of what you and I are? Have not we to say, ‘We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen’? ‘Salt of the earth,’ and we can hardly keep our own souls from going putrid with the corruption that is round about us. ‘Light of the world,’ and our poor candles burnt low down into the socket, and sending up rather stench and smoke than anything like a clear flame. The words sound like irony rather than promises, like the very opposite of what we are rather than the ideals towards which our lives strive. In our lips they are presumption, and in the lips of the world, as we only too well know, they are a not undeserved scoff, to be said with curved lip, ‘The salt of the earth,’ and ‘the light of the world’!
And look at what we are doing: scarcely holding our own numerically. Here and there a man comes and declares what God has done for his soul. But what is the Church, what are the Christian men of England, with all their multifarious activities, performing? Are we leavening the national mind? Are we breathing a higher godliness into trade, a more wholesome, simple style of living into society? And as for expansion, why, the Church at home does not keep up with the actual increase of the population; and we are conquering heathendom as we might hope to drain the ocean by taking out thimblefuls at a time. Is that what the Lord meant us to do? Our Father with us; yes, but oh! as a ‘mighty man, astonied,’ as He might well be, ‘that cannot save’ for the old, old reason, ‘He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.’ No wonder that on the other side men are saying-and it is not such a very presumptuous thing to say, if you have regard only to the facts that appear on the surface-men are saying, ‘wait a little while, and all these organisations will come to nothing; these Christian churches, as they are called,’ and everything that you and I regard as distinctive of Christianity, ‘will be gone and be forgotten.’ We believe ourselves to be in possession of an eternal light; the world looks at us and sees that it is like a flickering flame in a dying lamp. Dear brethren, if I think of the lowness of our own religious characters, the small extent to which we influence the society in which we live, of the slow rate at which the Gospel progresses in our land, I can only ask the question, and pray you to lay it to heart, which the old prophet asked long ago: ‘O Thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not my words do good to them that walk uprightly?’ ‘Why shouldest Thou be as a mighty man that cannot save?’
II. Let me ask you to look at the second thought that I think may fairly be gathered from these words, namely, that this consciousness of our low and evil condition ought to lead to very earnest and serious inquiry as to its cause.
The prophet having acknowledged transgression yet asks a question, ‘Why shouldest Thou leave us? Why have all these things come upon us?’ And he asks it not as ignorant of the answer, but in order that the answer may be deepened in the consciences and perceptions of those that listen to him, and that they together may take the answer to the Throne of God. There can be no doubt in a Christian mind as to the reason, and yet there is an absolute necessity that the familiar truth as to the reason should be driven home to our own consciences, and made part of our own spiritual experience, by our own honest reiteration of it and reflection upon it.
‘Why shouldest Thou leave us?’ Now, I need not spend time by taking into consideration answers that other people might give. I suppose that none of us will say that the reason is in any variableness of that unalterable, uniform, ever present, ever full, divine gift of God’s Spirit to His children. We do not believe in any arbitrary sovereignty that withdraws that gift; we do not believe that that gift rises and falls in its fulness and its abundance. We believe that the great reservoir is always full, and that, if ever our small tanks be empty, it is because there is something choking the pipe, not because there is anything less in the centre storehouse. We believe, if I may take another illustration, that it is with the seasons and the rotation of day and night in the religious experience as it is with them in the natural world. Summer and winter come and go, not because of any variableness in the centre orb, but because of the variation in the inclination of the circling satellite; day and night come not by reason of any ‘shadow cast by turning’ from the sun that revolves not at all- but by reason of the side that is turned to his life-giving and quickening beams. We believe that all the clouds and mist that come between us and God are like the clouds and mist of the sky, not dropped upon us from the blue empyrean above, but sucked up from the undrained swamps and poisonous fens of the lower earth. That is to say, if there be any change in the fulness of our possession of the divine Spirit, the fault lies wholly within the region of the mutable and of the human, and not at all in the region of the perennial and divine.
Nor do we believe, I suppose, any of us, that we are to look for any part of the reason in failure of the adaptation of God’s work and God’s ordinances to the great work which they have to do. Other people may tell us, if they like-it will not shake our confidence-that the fire that was kindled at Pentecost has all died down to grey ashes, and that it is of no use trying to cower over the burnt-out embers any more in order to get heat out of them. They may, and do, tell us that the ‘rushing, mighty wind that filled the house’ obeys the law of cycles as the wind of the natural universe, and will calm into stillness after a while, and then set in and blow from the opposite quarter. They may tell us, and they do tell us, that the ‘river of the water of life that flows from the Throne of God and of the Lamb’ is lost in the sands of time, like the streams in the great Mongolian plateau. We do not believe that. Everything stands exactly as it always has been in regard to the perennial possession of Christ’s Spirit as the strength and resource of His Church; and the fault, dear friends, lies only here: ‘O Lord, our iniquities testify against us; our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee.’
Oh, let me urge upon you, and upon myself, that the first thing which we have to do is prayerfully and patiently and honestly to search after this cause, and not look to superficial trifles such as possible variations and improvements in order and machinery, and polity or creed, or anything else, as the means of changing and bettering the condition of things, but to recognise this as being the one sole cause that hinders-the slackness of our own hold on Christ’s hand, and the feebleness and imperfection of our own spiritual life. Dear brethren, there is no worse sign of the condition of churches than the calm indifference and complacency in the present condition of things which visits very many of us; it is like a deadly malaria wherever it is to be found, and there is no more certain precursor of a blessed change than a widespread dissatisfaction with what we are, and an honest, earnest search after the cause. The sleeper that is restless, and tosses and turns, is near awakening; and the ice that cracks, and crumbles, and groans, and heaves, is on the point of breaking up. When Christian men and women are aroused to this, the startled recognition of how far beneath the ideal-no, I should not say how far beneath, but rather how absolutely opposed to, the ideal-so much of our Christian life and work is, and when further they push the inquiry for the cause, so as to find that it lies in their own sin, then we shall be near the time, yea, the ‘set time, to favour Zion.’
III. And so let me point you, in the next place-and but a word or two on that matter-to the consideration that the consciousness of the evil condition and knowledge of its cause leads on to lowly penitence and confession.
I dwell upon that for a moment for one reason mainly. I suppose that it is a very familiar observation with us all that when, by God’s mercy, any of us individually, or as communities, are awakened to a sense of our own departure from what He would have us be, and the feebleness of all our Christian work, we are very apt to be led away upon the wrong scent altogether, and instead of seeking improvement and revivification in God’s order, we set up an order of our own, which is a great deal more pleasing to our own natural inclinations. For instance, to bring the thing to a practical illustration, suppose I were, after these remarks of mine, as a kind of corollary from them, to ask for volunteers for some new form of Christian work, I believe I should get twenty for one that I should get if I simply said, ‘Brethren, let us go together and confess our sins before God, and ask Him not to leave us.’ We are always tempted to originate some new kind of work, to manufacture a revival, to begin by bringing together the outcasts into the fold, instead of to begin by trying to deepen our own Christian character, and purifying our own hearts, and getting more and more of the life of God into our own spirits, and then to let the increase from without come as it may. The true law for us to follow is to begin with lowly abasement at His footstool, and when we have purged ourselves from faults and sins in the very act of confessing them, and of shaking them from us, then when we are fit for growth, external growth, we shall get it. But the revival of the Church is not what people fancy it to be so often nowadays, the gathering in of the unconverted into its fold-that is the consequence of the revival. The revival comes by the path of recognition of sin, and confession of sin, and forsaking of sin, and waiting before Him for His blessing and His Spirit. Let me put all that I would say about this matter into the one remark, that the law of the whole process is the old one which was exemplified on the day of Pentecost. ‘Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the people, assemble the elders; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet; let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Yea, the Lord will be zealous for His land, and will pity His people; and I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.’ Brethren, to our knees and to confessions! Let us see to it that we are right in our own inmost hearts.
IV. And so, finally, look at the wonderful way in which in this text of ours the prophet fuses together into one indistinguishable and yet not confused whole, confession, and pleading remonstrance and also the confidence of triumphant prayer.
I cannot touch upon the various points of that as I would gladly do; but I must suggest one or two of them for your consideration. Look at the substance of his petition: ‘Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake.’ ‘Leave us not.’ That is all he asks. He does not prescribe what is to be done. He does not ask for the taking away of the calamity, he simply asks for the continual presence and the operation of the divine hand, sure that God is in the midst of them, and working all things right. Let us shape our expectations in like fashion, not being careful to discover paths for Him to run in; but contented if we can realise the sweetness and the strength of His calming and purging presence, and willing to leave the manner of His working in His own hand.
Then, look at what the text suggests as pleas with God, and grounds of confidence for ourselves. ‘Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake, the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble. Thou art in the midst of us, we are called by Thy name.’ There are three grounds upon which we may base our firm confidence. The one is the name-all the ancient manifestations of Thy character, which have been from of old, and remain for our perpetual strength. ‘As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts.’ ‘That which is Thy memorial unto all generations pledges Thee to the constant reiteration and reproduction, hour by hour, according to our necessity, of all the might, and the miracles, and the mercies of the past. Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake.’
And then Jeremiah turns to the throne of God with another plea-’the hope of Israel’-and thereby fills his mouth with the argument drawn from the fact that the confidence of the Church is fixed upon Him, and that it cannot be that He will disappoint it. ‘Because Thou hast given us Thy name, and because Thy name, by Thy grace, has become, through our faith, our hope, Thou art doubly bound-bound by what Thou art, bound by what we expect-to be with us, our strength and our confidence.’
And the final plea is the appeal to the perennial and essential relationship of God to His Church. ‘We are called by Thy name’-’we belong to Thee. It were Thy concern and ours that Thy Gospel should spread in the world, and the honour of our Lord should be advanced. Thou hast not surely lost Thy hold of Thine own, or Thy care for Thine own property.’ The psalmist said, ‘Thou wilt not suffer him that is devoted to Thee to see corruption.’ And what his faith felt to be impossible in regard to the bodily life is still more unthinkable in regard to the spiritual. It cannot be that that which belongs to Him should pass and perish. ‘We are called by Thy name, and Thou, Lord, art in the midst of us’-not a Samson shorn of his locks; not a wayfaring man turning aside to delay for a night; but the abiding Presence which makes the Church glad.
Dear brethren, calm and confident expectation should be our attitude, and lowly repentance should rise to triumphant believing hope, because God is moving round about us in this day. Thanks be to His name, there is spread through us all an expectation of great things. That expectation brings its own fulfilment, and is always God’s way of preparing the path for His own large gifts, like the strange, indefinable attitude of expectation which we know filled the civilised world before the birth of Jesus Christ-like the breath of the morning that springs up before the sun rises, and says, ‘The dawn; the dawn,’ and dies away. The expectation is the precursor of the gift, and the prayer is the guarantee of the acceptance. Take an illustration. Those great lakes in Central Africa that are said to feed the Nile are filled with melting snows weeks and weeks before the water rises away down in Egypt, and brings fertility across the desert that it makes to glisten with greenness, and to rejoice and blossom as the rose. And so in silence, high up upon the mountains of God, fed by communion with Himself, the expectation rises to a flood-tide ere it flows down through all the channels of Christian organisation and activity, and blesses the valleys below. It is not for us to hurry the work of God, nor spasmodically to manufacture revivals. It is not for us, under the pretence of waiting for Him, to be cold and callous; but it is for us to question ourselves wherefore these things have come upon us, with lowly, penitent confession to turn to God, and ask Him to bless us. Oh, if we were to do this, we should not ask in vain! Let us take the prayer of our context, and say, ‘We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against Thee. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not Thou He, O Lord, our God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee.’ Be sure that the old merciful answer will come to us, ‘I will pour rivers of water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; and I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh, through the prophet Jeremiah, has just told the people about the drought.
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our iniquities testify against us
Here their "iniquities" are spoken of as if they were people who testified against them about their wrong doing. AT: "our iniquities give evidence of our wrongdoing" (See: Personification)
for the sake of your name
Here Yahweh's "name" refers to his reputation. AT: "for the sake of your reputation" or "in order that everyone can see that you are very great and keep your promises" (See: Metonymy)
Hope of Israel
This is another name for Yahweh. AT: "You are the hope of Israel" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
why will you be like a stranger in the land ... Why are you like someone who is astounded
These two question have similar meanings. They both ask if Yahweh is unconcerned with his people and unable to help them. (See: Parallelism)
why will you be like a stranger in the land, like a foreign wanderer ... just one night
This question speaks of the possibility of Yahweh being unconcerned with helping his people as if he were a stranger just travelling though a place unconcerned with those living there. (See: Simile)
who stretches out and spends just one night
Both of the phrase have the same meaning and may be combined. AT: "who stays for only one night" (See: Parallelism)
Why are you like someone who is astounded, or like a warrior who has no power to rescue
This speaks of the possibility of Yahweh being unable to help his people as if he were a confused warrior who was unable to rescue anyone. (See: Simile)
astounded
unable to understand or to think clearly
your name is called over us
This can be stated in active form. This speaks of the people being Yahweh's people by saying that his name is over them. AT: "we bear your name" or "we are your people" (See: Active or Passive and Idiom)
translationWords
iniquity
testimony
Yahweh
name
faithless
sin
hope
Israel
save
alien
preach
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 14:7-9 Although the people confessed their sins, they did…
14:7-9 Although the people confessed their sins, they did not turn from their wickedness. They tried to manipulate God into helping them by questioning his love, wisdom, and power, while still claiming the special privilege of being his people.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.