Then Yahweh said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out!
It will happen, when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “Such as are for death, to death; such as are for the sword, to the sword; such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.” ’
“I will appoint over them four kinds,” says Yahweh: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn you? Who will come to ask of your welfare?
You have rejected me,” says Yahweh. “You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of showing compassion.
I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land. I have bereaved them of children. I have destroyed my people. They didn’t return from their ways.
Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas. I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
She who has borne seven languishes. She has given up the spirit. Her sun has gone down while it was yet day. She has been disappointed and confounded. I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says Yahweh.
Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them curses me.
Yahweh said, “Most certainly I will strengthen you for good. Most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?
I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which will burn on you.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–14 God again repeats what we have before observed, —…
God again repeats what we have before observed, — that as the impieties and sins of the people had arrived at the highest pitch, there was no more room for pardon or for mercy: and though God seems to have rejected altogether the prayer of his servant, we are not yet to think that it was without any benefit. Jeremiah wished indeed to deliver the whole people from destruction; but he did not thus pray inconsiderately and uselessly; for he distinguished between the titular church, as they say, and the chosen seed, for he knew that many were become the degenerated children of Abraham: nor was he unacquainted with what is said in the Psalms,
“Who shall dwell in thy tabernacle, and who shall stand on the mount of thy holiness? He who is innocent as to his hands, and is of a pure heart.” (Psalm 15:1, 2)
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The Prophet there distinctly shews that hypocrites glory in vain, because they had a free entrance into the Temple, and sacrificed together with the faithful; for a clean heart and pure hands are required. Jeremiah no doubt fully understood this.
Though then he extended his solicitude to the whole body of the people, he yet knew that there was a chosen seed. So at this day, when we pray, we ought, according to the rule of charity, to include all, for we cannot fix on those whom God has chosen or whom he has rejected; and thus we ought, as far as we can, to promote the salvation of all; and yet we know, as a general truth, that many are reprobate for whom our prayers will avail nothing; we know this, and yet we cannot point out any one as by the finger. So then the prayer of Jeremiah was not useless; but in its very form, as they say, it was not heard, for he wished the whole people to be saved; but as God had resolved to destroy the ungodly, such as were beyond the reach of hope on account of their untamable obstinacy, Jeremiah obtained only in part what he prayed for, — that God would preserve his Church, which then was in a manner hidden.
But it is now said, If stand before me did Moses and Samuel, my soul would not be towards this people The meaning is, that though all intercessors came forth in their behalf, they could do nothing, for God had rejected them. Moses and Samuel are here mentioned, but in another place Job and Daniel are named, and for the same reason. (Ezekiel 14:14) Moses is mentioned here, because we find that he offered himself, and wished to be, an anathema for his people.
“Blot me out of the book of life, or spare this people.” (Exodus 32:32)
As then God’s wrath had been so often pacified by Moses, he is here mentioned; for when it was all over with the people, he delivered them as it were from eternal death, and this was well and commonly known to the Jews. As to Samuel, we know how celebrated he was, and that God had been often pacified by him for the preservation of the whole people; but at length, when he prayed for Saul, God did indeed restrain his immoderate zeal, and forbade him to pray any more, (1 Samuel 16:1) and yet he ceased not to pray. As then there was so great a fervor in Samuel, that he in a manner struggled with God, he is here joined with Moses: “If, then, stand before me did these two, my soul, or my heart, would be alienated from this people, for I shall be no more pacified towards them.”
But he speaks of the perverse multitude, which had so often wilfully sought their own destruction; for, as it has appeared elsewhere, the people had never been rejected; and yet we must distinguish between the chaff and the wheat. Judea was, as it were, the threshing — floor of God, on which there was a great heap of chaff, for the multitude had departed from true religion; and there were a few grains found hid in the rubbish. Hence the heart of God was not towards the people, that is, towards the degenerated children of Abraham, who were proud only of their name, while they were covenant — breakers; for they had long ago forsaken the true worship of God and all integrity. Therefore the heart of God was not towards them. At the same time he preserved, in a wonderful and in a hidden manner, a remnant.
Now this passage teaches us what James also mentions, that the prayer of the righteous avails much with God; and he brings forward the example of Elijah, who closed heaven by his prayer, so that it rained not for a long time; and who afterwards opened heaven by his prayer, so as to obtain rain from God. (James 5:16-18) He hence infers that the prayers of the righteous avail much, not only when they pray for themselves, but also when they pray for others; for Elijah had no particular regard for himself, but his object was to gain relief for the whole people. It is indeed certain that the intercession of the saints is highly appreciated by God; and hence it is that we are bidden winingly and freely to make known to one another our necessities, so that we may mutually help and pray for one another. But we must at the same time observe, that they who think themselves to be commended to God by others in their prayers, ought not on that account to become more secure; for it is certain, that as the prayers of the faithful avail the members of Christ, so they do no good to the ungodly and the hypocrites. Nor does God indeed bid us to acquiesce in the confidence, that others pray for us, but bids every one to pray, and also to join their prayers with those of all the members of the ChurJeremiah Whosoever then desires to profit by the prayers of the saints must also pray himself.
It is true, I allow, that the prayers of the saints sometimes benefit even the ungodly and aliens; for it was not in vain that Christ prayed,
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” (Luke 23:34)
nor did Stephen pray in vain when he offered up a similar prayer, (Acts 7:60) and I am disposed to agree with what Augustine says, that Paul, among others, was the effect of Stephen’s prayer. (Serm. 1, de Sanctis) But I am speaking now of what we must do when we find that we are helped by the prayers of the saints, that is, that we are strenuously to perform our part, and strive to shew for our brethren the same solicitude and care as we expect from them. It is then certain beyond a doubt, that each is not only heard when he prays for himself, but that the prayers of the saints avail in behalf of others.
But extremely ridiculous are the Papists, who apply this passage to dead saints: Moses and Samuel, they say, were dead, when God declared what is here said; it is then true that they prayed. The inference is worthy of such teachers, which is as good as the braying of an ass. There is here a supposition made, as though God did say, “If Moses and Samuel were now alive and interceded for them, I would yet remain implacable.” But Ezekiel mentions Daniel, who was then living, and he names also Job. We hence see that he makes no distinction between the dead and the living. Therefore the Papists are extremely foolish and stupid when they thus idly prate that the dead pray for the living, on the ground of what is here said of Moses and Samuel. It is not then worthwhile to refute this ignorant assertion, as it vanishes almost of itself: a brief warning, lest ally one should be deluded by such a cavil, is sufficient.
He afterwards bids the Prophet to east away the people; cast them away, or banish them, he says, from my presence He doubtless speaks here in a strong manner, “Let them be gone from me.” But yet God shews what he had commanded his Prophet; as though he had said, “Fulfil thou thine office, remember what burden I have laid on thee.” Jeremiah had been ordered to denounce exile on the people? he was the herald of divine vengeance. As then he sustained this office, it was his duty to execute the commission which God had given him. We now then apprehend what these words mean, cast them away
But we must again notice here what we have before seen, — that God commends the efficacy of prophetic doctrine, according to what has been said,
“I set thee over nations and kingdoms, to plant and to root up, to build and to destroy,” (Jeremiah 1:10)
Then God intimates, that so great a power would be in the mouth of his servant, that though the Jews mocked at his predictions, as if they were vain threatenings to frighten children, they would yet be like thunderbolts; so that Jeremiah would drive away the people, as though he was furnished with a large army and great forces, according to what Paul declares, — that he had power given him to cast down every height that exalted itself against Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) As then God claims so great an authority for his prophetic doctrine, when threatening the unbelieving with punishment, let us know that the same extends to all the promises of salvation. Therefore, whenever God offers grace to us by the gospel, and testifies that he will be propitious to us, let us know that heaven is in a manner open to us; and let us not seek any other ground of assurance than his own testimony: and why? because as to the prophets was given the power of binding and loosing, so now the same power is given to the Church, that is, to invite all to be saved who are as yet healable, and to denounce eternal ruin on the reprobate and the obstinate in their wickedness, according to what is said by Christ,
“Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19; 18:18)
For he gave his Apostles the power not only of binding, but also of loosing. And Paul, after having spoken in high terms of the former power, adds,
“When your obedience shall be accomplished,” (2 Corinthians 10:6)
as though he had said, that the gospel was not preached only for this end, to pronounce death on the reprobate, but that it was also a pledge of salvation to all the elect, to them who embraced by true faith the promises offered to them.
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 On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Meaning, that if there were any man living moved…
Meaning, that if there were any man living moved with so great zeal toward the people as were these two, yet that he would not grant this request, forasmuch as he had determined the contrary, Ezek. 14:14.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–14 Jer 15:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though…
Jer 15:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, [yet] my mind [could] not [be] toward this people: cast [them] out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Ver. 1. Then said the Lord unto me.] In answer to my prayer he replied, Thou hast well prayed, sed stat sententia, I am set, I am inexorable.
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Though Moses.] That chancellor of heaven, as one calleth him; who not only "ruled with God," but overruled. {Exo 32:11-14,Num 14:19-20}
And Samuel.] A mighty man likewise in prayer. See 1Sa 7:9, called therefore Pethuel, as some think, {Joe 1:1} that is, a God persuader. These two were famous in their generations for hearty love to, and prayers for, that rebellious people, and did much for them. But, so the case now stood, if these favourites were alive, and should intercede their utmost for them, it should avail nothing. See Eze 14:14.
Yet my mind could not be to this people.] This is spoken after the manner of men - q.d., I am implacably enraged, I am unchangeably resolved against them.
Cast them out of my sight.] Tell them that I have utterly rejected them, and I will ratify and realise thy speeches. See on Jer 1:10.
And let them go forth.] Or, Let them be gone - q.d., I am the worse to look upon them.
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 On vv1–14 We are (though in another chapter) yet in the…
We are (though in another chapter) yet in the same prophecy, or discourse betwixt God and this prophet. Jeremiah having been once denied, solicited God again, as we had it in the four last verses of the former chapter. God here replieth to that prayer; and the sum of what he saith is, that he was inexorable in their case. Though Moses, who could obtain so much of God upon their sinning, in the case of the golden calf, Exo 32:11,14, and in the case of the people’s murmuring, Num 14:19,20; and Samuel, who was so prevalent with God, 1Sa 7:9; though these two, formerly so potent and prevalent mediators for a people with me, stood before me, waited (that is) upon me, and solicited me on the behalf of this people, yet I could not favour this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth: q.d. I am not able to abide the sight of them, and therefore let them go forth.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 We scarcely find any where more pathetic expressions of…
We scarcely find any where more pathetic expressions of divine wrath against a provoking people than we have here in these verses. The prophet had prayed earnestly for them, and found some among them to join with him; and yet not so much as a reprieve was gained, nor the least mitigation of the judgment; but this answer is given to the prophet's prayers, that the decree had gone forth, was irreversible, and would shortly be executed. Observe here,
I. What the sin was upon which this severe sentence was grounded. 1. It is in remembrance of a former iniquity; it is because of Manasseh, for that which he did in Jerusalem, Jer 15:4. What that was we are told, and that it was for it that Jerusalem was destroyed, Kg2 24:3, Kg2 24:4. It was for his idolatry, and the innocent blood which he shed, which the Lord would not pardon. He is called the son of Hezekiah because his relation to so good a father was a great aggravation of his sin, so far was it from being an excuse of it. The greatest part of a generation was worn off since Manasseh's time, yet his sin is brought into the account; as in Jerusalem's last ruin God brought upon it all the righteous blood shed on the earth, to show how heavy the guilt of blood will light and lie somewhere, sooner or later, and that reprieves are not pardons. 2. It is in consideration of their present impenitence. See how their sin is described (Jer 15:6): "Thou hast forsaken me, my service and thy duty to me; thou hast gone backward into the ways of contradiction, art become the reverse of what thou shouldst have been and of what God by his law would have led thee forward to." See how the impenitence is described (Jer 15:7): They return not from their ways, the ways of their own hearts, into the ways of God's commandments again. There is mercy for those who have turned aside if they will return; but what favour can those expect that persist in their apostasy?
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II. What the sentence is. It is such as denotes no less than an utter ruin.
1. God himself abandons and abhors them: My mind cannot be towards them. How can it be thought that the holy God should have any remaining complacency in those that have such a rooted antipathy to him? It is not in a passion, but with a just and holy indignation, that he says, "Cast them out of my sight, as that which is in the highest degree odious and offensive, and let them go forth, for I will be troubled with them no more."
2. He will not admit any intercession to be made for them (Jer 15:1): "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, by prayer or sacrifice to reconcile me to them, yet I could not be prevailed with to admit them into favour." Moses and Samuel were two as great favourites of Heaven as ever were the blessings of this earth, and were particularly famed for the success of their mediation between God and his offending people; many a time they would have been destroyed if Moses had not stood before him in the breach; and to Samuel's prayers they owed their lives (Sa1 12:19); yet even their intercessions should not prevail, no, not though they were now in a state of perfection, much less Jeremiah's who was now a man subject to like passions as others. The putting of this as a case, Though they should stand before me, supposes that they do not, and is an intimation that saints in heaven are not intercessors for saints on earth. It is the prerogative of the Eternal Word to be the only Mediator in the other world, whatever Moses, and Samuel, and others were in this.
3. He condemns them all to one destroying judgment or other. When God casts them out of his presence, whither shall they go forth? Jer 15:2. Certainly nowhere to be safe or easy, but to be met by one judgment while they are pursued by another, till they find themselves surrounded with mischiefs on all hands, so that they cannot escape; Such as are for death to death. By death here is meant the pestilence (Rev 6:8), for it is death without visible means. Such as are for death to death, or for the sword to the sword; every man shall perish in that way that God has appointed: the law that appoints the malefactor's death determines what death he shall die. Or, He that is by his own choice for this judgment, let him take it, or for that, let him take it, but by the one or the other they shall all fall and none shall escape. It is a choice like that which David was put to, and was thereby put into a great strait, Sa2 24:14. Captivity is mentioned last, some think, because the sorest judgment of all, it being both a complication and continuance of miseries. That of the sword is again repeated (Jer 15:3), and is made the first of another four frightful set of destroyers, which God will appoint over them, as officers over the soldiers, to do what they please with them. As those that escape the sword shall be cut off by pestilence, famine, or captivity, so those that fall by the sword shall be cut off by divine vengeance, which pursues sinners on the other side death; there shall be dogs to tear in the field to devour. And, if there be any that think to outrun justice, they shall be made the most public monuments of it: They shall be removed into all kingdoms of the earth (Jer 15:4), like Cain, who, that he might be made a spectacle of horror to all, became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth.
4. They shall fall without being relieved. Who can do any thing to help them? for (1.) God, even their own God (so he had been) appears against them: I will stretch out my hand against thee, which denotes a deliberate determined stroke, which will reach far and wound deeply. I am weary with repenting (Jer 15:6); it is a strange expression; they had behaved so provokingly, especially by their treacherous professions of repentance, that they had put even infinite patience itself to the stretch. God had often turned away his wrath when it was ready to break forth against them; but now he will grant no more reprieves. Miserable is the case of those who have sinned so long against God's mercy that at length they have sinned it away. (2.) Their own country expels them, and is ready to spue them out, as it had done the Canaanites that were before them; for so it was threatened (Lev 18:28): I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land, in their own gates, through which they shall be scattered, or into the gates of the earth, into the cities of all the nations about them, Jer 15:7. (3.) Their own children, that should assist them when they speak with the enemy in the gate, shall be cut off from them: I will bereave them of children, so that they shall have little hopes that the next generation will retrieve their affairs, for I will destroy my people; and, when the inhabitants are slain, the land will soon be desolate. This melancholy article is enlarged upon, Jer 15:8, Jer 15:9, where we have, [1.] The destroyer brought upon them. When God has bloody work to do he will find out bloody instruments to do it with. Nebuchadnezzar is here called a spoiler at noon-day, not a thief in the night, that is afraid of being discovered, but one that without fear shall break through and destroy all the fences of rights and properties, and this in the face of the sun and in defiance of its light: I have brought against the mother a young man, a spoiler (so some read it); for Nebuchadnezzar, when he first invaded Judah, was but a young man, in the first year of his reign. We read it, I have brought upon them, even against the mother of the young men, a spoiler, that is, against Jerusalem, a mother city, that had a very numerous family of young men: or that invasion was in a particular manner terrible to those mothers who had many sons fit for war, who must now hazard their lives in the high places of the field, and, being an unequal match for the enemy, would be likely to fall there, to the inexpressible grief of their poor mothers, who had nursed them up with a great deal of tenderness. The same God that brought the spoiler upon them caused him to fall upon it, that is, upon the spoil delivered to him, suddenly and by surprise; and then terrors came upon the city. the original is very abrupt - the city and terrors. O the city! what a consternation will it then be in! O the terrors that shall then seize it! Then the city and terrors shall be brought together, that seemed at a distance from each other. I will cause to fall suddenly upon her (upon Jerusalem) a watcher and terrors; so Mr. Gataker reads it, for the word is used for a watcher (Dan 4:13, Dan 4:23), and the Chaldean soldiers were called watchers, Jer 4:16. [2.] The destruction made by this destroyer. A dreadful slaughter is here described. First, The wives are deprived of their husbands: Their widows are increased above the sand of the seas, so numerous have they now grown. It was promised that the men of Israel (for those only were numbered) should be as the sand of the sea for multitude; but now they shall be all cut off, and their widows shall be so. But observe, God says, They are increased to me. Though the husbands were cut off by the sword of his justice, their poor widows were gathered in the arms of his mercy, who has taken it among the titles of his honour to be the God of the widows. Widows are said to be taken into the number, the number of those whom God has a particular compassion and concern for. Secondly, The parents are deprived of their children: She that has borne seven sons, whom she expected to be the support and joy of her age, now languishes, when she has seen them all cut off by the sword in one day, who had been many years her burden and care. She that had many children has waxed feeble, Sa1 2:5. See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not. When the children are slain the mother gives up the ghost, for her life was bound up in theirs: Her sun has gone down while it was yet day; she is bereaved of all her comforts just when she thought herself in the midst of the enjoyment of them. She is now ashamed and confounded to think how proud she was of her sons, how fond of them, and how much she promised herself from them. Some understand, by this languishing mother, Jerusalem lamenting the death of her inhabitants as passionately as ever poor mother bewailed her children. Many are cut off already, and the residue of them, who have yet escaped, and, as was hoped, were reserved to be the seed of another generation, even these will I deliver to the sword before their enemies (as the condemned malefactor is delivered to the sheriff to be executed), saith the Lord, the Judge of heaven and earth, who, we are sure, herein judges according to truth, though the judgment seem severe.
5. They shall fall without being pitied (Jer 15:5): "For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? When thy God has cast thee out of his sight, and his compassions fail and are shut up from thee, neither thy enemies nor thy friends shall have any compassion for thee. They shall have no sympathy with thee; they shall not bemoan thee nor be sorry for thee; they shall have no concern for thee, shall not go a step out of their way to ask how thou dost." For, (1.) Their friends, who were expected to do these friendly offices, were all involved with them in the calamities, and had enough to do to bemoan themselves. (2.) It was plain to all their neighbours that they had brought all this misery upon themselves by their obstinacy in sin, and that they might easily have prevented it by repentance and reformation, which they were often in vain called to; and therefore who can pity them? O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself. Those will perish for ever unpitied that might have been saved upon such easy terms and would not. (3.) God will thus complete their misery. He will set their acquaintance, as he did Job's at a distance from them; and his hand, his righteous hand, is to be acknowledged in all the unkindnesses of our friends, as well as in all the injuries done us by our foes.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–14 Then said the Lord unto me,.... In answer to…
Then said the Lord unto me,.... In answer to his expostulations and entreaties, Jer 14:19,
though Moses and Samuel stood before me; to pray before me, as the Targum; to make intercession for the people. Standing is a prayer gesture. The Jews say there is no standing but prayer, or that is meant when it is mentioned; See Gill on Mat 6:5. Moses and Samuel were named, because they were eminent for prayer, and had success in it, for the people of Israel. Of Moses, see Exo 32:11 and of Samuel, see Sa1 7:9 and of both, Psa 99:6. The Arabic version reads "Moses and Aaron", but wrongly. The Palmists make use of this text to prove the intercession of saints in heaven for those on earth; but the words are only a supposition, and not a fact. The meaning is, that supposing that Moses and Samuel were alive, and made intercession for the people, their prayers would not be regarded; and such a supposition, as it suggests that they were not alive, so that they did not stand before him, and make intercession for Judah; wherefore this is against, and not for, the intercession of saints in heaven:
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yet my mind could not be towards this people; God could have no good will to them, no delight in them; could not be reconciled to them, or agree to it, that the favours asked for should be granted them, or that they should be continued in their own land; and therefore it was in vain for the prophet to solicit on their account; but, on the other hand, it is ordered as follows:
cast them out of my sight; or presence; as persons loathsome and abominable, not to be borne; I cannot look upon them, or have anything to say to them, in a favourable way:
and let them go forth; from my presence, from the temple, the city, and out of their own land; that is, declare that so it shall be.
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 On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 The Jews rejection, and judgments, especially of four kinds;…
The Jews rejection, and judgments, especially of four kinds; the sins which procured them, ver. 1-9. The prophet complains, that the people curse and persecute him for these prophecies; they are threatened, and he instructed and comforted, ver. 10-21.
Cast them out - I am not able to abide the sight of them, therefore let them go forth.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–13 God declares to Jeremiah that not even Moses and…
CHAPTER XV
God declares to Jeremiah that not even Moses and Samuel, whose
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prayers had been so prevalent, could divert him from his
purpose of punishing so wicked a people, 1.
Accordingly their captivity is again announced in a variety of
images so full of terror, 2-9,
that the prophet complains of his own hard fate in being
obliged to deliver such unwelcome messages, 10;
for which too he is reproved, 11-14.
Immediately he appeals to God for his sincerity, and
supplicates pardon, 15-18;
and God tempers his reproof with promising again to protect
him in the faithful discharge of his duty, 19-21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XV
Verse 1. Though Moses and Samuel] Moses had often supplicated for the people; and in consequence they were spared. See Ex 32:11 and following verses, Nu 14:13. Samuel also had prayed for the people, and God heard him, 1Sa 7:9; but if these or the most holy men were now to supplicate for this people, he would not spare them.
Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.] Do not bring them into my presence by your prayers; let them go forth into captivity.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 Jer 15:1. Then said the Lord unto me, &c.…
Jer 15:1. Then said the Lord unto me, &c. — This is the Lord’s answer to the fervent prayers of Jeremiah, contained in the last four verses of the preceding chapter. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me — By prayer or sacrifice to reconcile me to them; yet my mind could not be toward this people — Yet I could not be prevailed with to admit them into favour. “As God had forbidden Jeremiah before to intercede for them, because it would be to no purpose; so here he declares, that he would not admit the prayers of any others, though eminent favourites, in their behalf. Moses obtained pardon for the people after their sin in making the golden calf, Exo 32:34; and again, after their despising the promised land, Num 14:20. Samuel’s intercession prevailed for their deliverance out of the hands of the Philistines, 1Sa 7:9. And these two persons are mentioned together, as remarkably prevalent by their prayers, Psa 99:6; Psa 99:8. But here God says, that if these very persons were alive, and in that near attendance to him which they formerly enjoyed, (for that is the import of the phrase, To stand before him,) yet even their prayers should not avert his judgments from this people.” — Lowth. Cast them out of my sight — Declare that they shall be cast out, as that which is in the highest degree odious and offensive; or tell them to come no more to me with their supplications, but to go out of my sanctuary. A strong declaration of determined displeasure. Thus the Lord dismisses them with a severity whereof we have few examples in Scripture. See Eze 14:14; Eze 14:16.
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 On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Cast them out of my sight - Rather, “send…
Cast them out of my sight - Rather, “send them out of My presence, and let them go away.” The prophet is to dismiss them, because their mediators, Moses and Samuel, whose intercession had been accepted in old times (marginal references), would intercede now in vain.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 If. The Geneva Bible reads corruptly, "Though Moses...stood," contrary…
If. The Geneva Bible reads corruptly, "Though Moses...stood," contrary to Hebrew and Greek. (Worthington) --- And Samuel. These two had shewn a particular love for the people, Exodus xxxii., and 2 Kings xii. (Calmet) --- Ezechiel (xiv. 4.) specifies Noe[Noah], Daniel, and Job, who were eminent for sanctity. Daniel was still alive. Yet God will not grant their request; and he forbids his prophet to pray for those who were resolved not to repent, chap. xiv. 11. (Haydock) --- Their punishment was fixed, and God will not remit it at the request either of the living or of the dead. Hence it is evident, that the dead could and did sometimes make intercession, otherwise they would not here be mentioned. To evade this argument, Protestants in the Geneva Bible, suppose God’s "meaning to be, that if there were any man living, moved with so great zeal towards the people as were these two, yet he would not grant their request, for so much as he had determined the contrary." Yet surely Jeremias, Daniel, &c., had a similar zeal; and therefore the text speaks of Moses and Samuel in a state of happiness, where their charity is greater than in this life, as St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom (hom. 1. in 1 Thessalonians) and St. Gregory (Mor. ix. 12.) explain it. (Worthington) --- Jeremias had been praying earnestly for the people in the temple. But God answers his request with a severity rarely witnessed in Scripture, ordering him to drive the people out, or to announce that they should be thus treated. (Calmet)
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 4. The Second Refusal
CHAPTER 15
4. The Second Refusal
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Jer_15:1-4
1 And Jehovah said unto me:
If Moses and Samuel stood before me,
Yet my soul is not inclined towards this people:
Away with them from my presence! Out with them!
2 And if they say to thee: Out whither shall we go?—
Then say to them: Thus saith Jehovah:
He who is for death to death, he for the sword to the sword,
And he who is for famine to famine, and he for captivity to captivity.
3 And I appoint over them four kinds, saith Jehovah:
The sword to kill and the dogs to tear,
The birds of heaven and the beasts of the field to devour and to destroy.
4 And I make them a horror1 to all kingdoms of the earth,
On account of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah,
And on account of what he did at Jerusalem.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The second petition is refused with a decisiveness which allows of no repetition and the people are rejected from the presence of the Lord (Jer_15:1), but not to a definite place, for they are delivered up to destruction in the most various forms (Jer_15:2), and to destroyers of the most terrible kinds (Jer_15:3), so that their destruction will excite the horror of all nations; but all this will correspond to the seed of abomination which Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, scattered in Judah (Jer_15:4).
Jer_15:1. And Jehovah said … out with them! Moses is an intercessor, Exo_17:11 sqq.; Jer_32:11 sqq.; Num_14:13; Psa_106:23.—Samuel in 1Sa_7:8; 1Sa_8:6; 1Sa_12:16-23; 1Sa_15:11; Psa_99:6; Sir_46:16. Comp. Herzog, Real-Enc. XIII. S. 398.—Noah, Daniel and Job are mentioned in a similar manner in Eze_14:14; and in later times Jeremiah himself in 2Ma_15:14.—The object of away, according to the preceding context, and to whither shall we go? Jer_15:2, can be no other than the people.
Jer_15:2-3. And if they say … to destroy. The question, whither shall we go? presupposes the thought of a mere banishment. It is declared in what follows that far worse than this is meant.—He who is for death. A fearful destructive blow is to follow, which causes the people to be scattered and drives individuals, without selection or respect of persons, into the hands of the agents of death.—Death, with sword, famine and captivity, is evidently the relatively spontaneous death by disease or pestilence (דֶּבֶר), wherefore the latter word is also used with the other in Jer_14:12; Eze_14:21; Eze_33:27; comp. Jer_43:11.
Jer_15:3 fortifies this judgment of destruction, by declaring it in a certain measure permanent. For and I appoint declares that Israel is to be placed as it were under the jurisdiction of these four destructive forces, as also in Eze_14:21 it is expressly said that the Lord will send His “four sore judgments—the sword and the famine and the noisome beast and the pestilence,” upon Jerusalem.—Kinds, משׁפחות. Comp. דּוֹר, the four generations, Pro_30:11 sqq. Since the four instruments here mentioned correspond to the four kinds of destruction mentioned in Jer_15:2, it is evident that Jer_15:3 bears to Jer_15:2 not a logical but rhetorical relation. The sword moreover represents the judgment on the living, the three others the judgment on the dead. Comp. Jer_14:16; Deu_28:26.
Jer_15:4. And I make them … at Jerusalem. Repetition of the first half of the verse Jer_24:9; Jer_29:18; Jer_34:17. The expression is taken from Deu_28:25. Concerning Manasseh comp. 2Ki_21:1-17; 2Ki_23:26; 2Ki_24:3. The biblical accounts dismiss the long reign of this king with remarkable brevity. We obtain the impression that this is the effect of a certain reluctance to recall this name, which represents the darkest portion of the history of Judah, an epoch which is to be regarded as the concentration and end of all ungodliness.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_15:4.—Here and in Eze_23:46 זַעֲוָת is found without marginal reading, but in Isa_28:19 the older form זְוָעָה. In the other places (besides those quoted in Jeremiah also 2Ch_29:8), where Ewald (comp. § 53, b) would read זועִה (scarecrow, sport [of chance]) there is always the Keri זַעֲוָה. Except in Isa_28:19, the word occurs only as the designation of the terminus in quem after נָתַן or before הָיָה. The root זוּעַ has both in the Hebrew (it occurs in the Old Test. only in Ecc_12:3; Est_5:9; Hab_2:7) and in the dialects (comp. Dan_5:19; Dan_6:27) the meaning of violent motion, commotion. Hence זְוָעָה is commotion, quaking, horror.
5. FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE SAD FATE IMPENDING OVER THE REJECTED NATION
Jer_15:5-9
5 For who will have pity on thee, O Jerusalem?
Or who will have sympathy for thee?
Or who will turn aside to wish thee well?
6 Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah, [and] wentest backwards.2
Then I stretched out my hand against thee and destroyed thee:
I was weary of repenting.
7 And I winnowed them out with a fan
At the gates of the land;
I orphaned, I destroyed my people,—
For they had not turned them from their ways.
8 Their widows are become to me more than the sand of the sea.
I brought them over the mother of the chosen3 the spoiler at noon-day;
I caused to fall on her sudden anguish4 and terror.
9 She who bore seven is exhausted;
She breathed out her soul [expired];
Her sun went down while it was yet day;
She was ashamed and confounded [put to shame];
But the residue I will give to the sword,
Before their enemies, saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
After the definite refusal in Jer_15:1-4, the prophet can declare only that there is no further prospect of pity or succor for Jerusalem (Jer_15:5). The people having rejected the Lord, He rejects them, and will not as before retract this determination (Jer_15:6). Winnowed out of the country, Israel is bereaved of his men and sons (Jer_15:7-9 a); and the enemy will come with the sword after the fugitive remnant (Jer_15:9 b).
Jer_15:5. For who will take pity … to wish thee well. From Jer_15:1-4 it follows with absolute certainty that Jehovah will no longer help, and that therefore Israel is inevitably lost. כִּי, For, implies a reference to this thought. No longer any escape! If the Lord will not, who else will have pity on the people? (Isa_51:19; Nah_3:7). Who indeed will even ask how they are? (שׁאל לשׁלום properly = to ask after one’s good health, to greet, Gen_43:27; Exo_18:7; Jdg_18:15, etc.) The thought seems to be thus implied, that still less will any one do aught for the welfare of the people, or any longer intercede for them as the prophet has done (Jer_14:7 sqq.; Jer_14:19 sqq.).—Turn aside.סוּר is here, as frequently, to deviate from the direct, proposed way, in order to turn to some other object, with which, as here, the idea of taking trouble may be connected. Rth_4:1; 1Ki_20:39; Exo_3:3.
Jer_15:6. Thou hast rejected me … of repenting. The reason for the declaration in Jer_15:5, that Israel is irretrievably lost, is stated in Jer_15:6, and more particularly in Jer_15:7 sqq. The reason first given, in Jer_15:6 a, is objective, it being declared what Israel has done to draw upon himself such a punishment. The words then I stretched to repenting express the subjective reason, i.e., they declare what facts on the part of the speaker (i. e., of God) are presented as causæ efficientes of destruction. The præterite ואט, etc., is not strange; as the apostasy is an already accomplished fact, so also is the hostile position which God assumes towards it. The “stretched-out arm,” which is so often mentioned as Israel’s saving arm (Deu_4:34; Deu_5:15; Deu_26:8, etc.), signifies the hostile position of God towards the enemies of the people. Elsewhere the stretching out of the hand frequently designates the declaration of war, or the command to use force; 1Ki_13:4; Job_15:25; Isa_5:25; Isa_9:11; Isa_10:4; Jer_6:12; Jer_51:25; Eze_6:14; Eze_14:9; Eze_14:13, etc.—Perhaps also the assonance of וָאַט to אַתְּ is intended.—Destroyed thee is a summary intimation of the import of the gesture I was weary, etc., a more particular definition, in so far as it declares that the destruction will no longer be deferred as heretofore by a gracious “repenting.” Comp. Jer_4:28; Jer_6:11; Isa_1:14.
Jer_15:7-9. And I winnowed them … before their enemies. I do not think with Graf that שׁערי הארץ is to denote the uttermost, lands of the earth. How then could בְ be used? The preposition retains its proper meaning, if as in Nah_3:13 we understand the exits of the land. The Lord winnows so powerfully that as the chaff flies out over the threshing-floor, so Israel flies out through the exits of the land to a distance.—Had not turned, etc., is a causal sentence.—In Jer_15:8-9 the prophet uses similar colors to those in Jer_14:16-17 Comp. Jer_11:22; Jer_18:21.—The words אֵם בָּחוּר, variously interpreted by the commentators, are most easily explained by the antithesis to the subsequently mentioned יֹלֶדֶת הַשִׁבְעָה. Even the strongest women, both those who have borne distinguished warriors, and those who have had numerous sons, shall perish. Without insisting on the singular in בָּחוּר I believe that it includes the idea of quality, as שׁבעה does of quantity. (Comp. 1Sa_2:5).—[Henderson:—“By the ‘young spoiler’ [text ‘destroyer’] is meant Nebuchadnezzar II., who, when his father was old and infirm, had part of the Chaldean army committed to him, and after defeating Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish marched forward against Jerusalem and captured it. The attack being made at noon indicates the unexpectedness by which it was characterized, that being the time of day when, owing to intense heat, military operations are carried on with less vigor.”—Hitzig: “The description in Jer_15:8 points to a lost battle; and on this hypothesis all the single features of the picture in Jer_15:7-9 may be brought into one point of view, so as to present one event. The author then refers to the battle of Megiddo, the more probably (2Ki_23:29) as the figure of the sun setting in bright daylight might then be founded on the eclipse which took place in that valley 30th Sept., A. D. 610. (Vid.Thenius on 2 Ki.)”—S. R. A,]—Breathed, etc., נפחה. From Job_31:39 the meaning of the word exspirare seems plain. The rendering “to sigh” is too feeble in this connection.—Her sun, the sun of her life, and the happiness (comp. Mal. 3:20; Psa_84:12) which she had in her sons is gone down. בָּאָה as in Gen_15:17; 2Sa_2:24; Mic_3:6. בעיד ו׳, comp. the previous “at noon-day.”—And confounded.בושה ו׳. The reference to the mother is to be preferred; for the sun itself does not suffer shame, but those who by the setting of the sun are reduced from the condition of an honored mother to the wretched state of a bereaved and childless one. In Isa_24:23 it is the sun and moon themselves which must pale before a more brilliant star.—Deliver to the sword. Comp. Mic_6:14.
Footnotes:
[2]Jer_15:6.—ֹאחור תלכי. The imperfect is frequently used to designate a fact often repeated in the past. Comp. Nargelsb. Gr., § 87. f.
[3]Jer_15:8.—[A. V. “I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noon-day” Boothroyd: “against their mother city, a chosen one that spoileth,” etc. Henderson:—“The words עַל־אֵםִ בָּוּר (Jer_15:8) have been very differently construed. Nor is the difficulty which they present by any means easy of solution, however simple the words may be in themselves. LXX. ἐπὶ μητἐρα νεανίσκους. Some compare the phrase אֵס עַל בָּנִים the mother with her children [Syr., Arab., C. B. Mich., Ewald, etc.—S. R. A.] but the position of the preposition before and not after אֵם renders such construction untenable. Others take אֵם בָּחוּר to be in the construct state: the mother of the young man [Chald., Kimchi, .J. B. Mich., Hitzig, etc.—S. R. A.] or regarding the nouns as collectives: the mothers of the young men [De Wette, Maurer, Rosenmueller, etc.—S. R. A.] but neither of these affords a suitable sense. Jarchi, Capellus, Castalio, De Dieu, Doederlein, Eichhorn, Dahler, consider אֵם mother, to mean the metropolis, as 2Sa_20:19, and אַמֶּה 2Sa_8:1. The word is thus used on Phœnician coins. Comp. the Arab. בד, the Greek μήτηρ; Callin. Fragm., 112; and the Latin mater, Flor. Jer_3:7; Jer_3:18; Ammian, Jer_17:13; Gesenius, in voc. The objection of Schnurrer, that it wants the article, is of little force, as the prophets sometimes omit it for the sake of condensation. See Isa_21:12, and Nordheimer’s Gr., II. p. 13, note. This, on the whole, as the text now stands, is the preferable interpretation.”—S. R. A.]
[4]Jer_15:8—בצהרים has the meaning of unusual, unexpected. Comp. Jer_6:4; Amo_8:9.—עיר ἅπ. λεγ. radically related to צוּר, צִיר = coarctatio, angor.
SECOND MAIN DIVISION
the consequences of the refusal with respect to the person of the prophet and instructions concerning his further course (Jer_15:10 to Jer_16:9)
1. Complaint and petition of the prophet on account of the consequences of the refusal with respect to his person
Jer_15:10-18
10 Wo unto me, my mother, that thou hast borne me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land:
I have not borrowed nor lent, yet all curse me.5
11 Jehovah said: Verily, I distress thee6 for thy good,
Verily the enemy shall approach thee imploringly7
In the time of calamity and in the time of distress.
12 Will then iron break iron from the north and brass?
13 Thy substance and thy treasures will I give up for spoil, not for hire,8
But on account of all thy sins and in all thy borders.
14 And I take thee9 with thine enemies into a land that thou knowest not,
For a fire10 is kindled in my nostrils which shall burn over you.6
15 Thou knowest it, O Jehovah, remember me,
And visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors;
Sweep me not away by11 thy long suffering;
Know that for thy sake I have suffered reproach.
16 Thy words were offered and I devoured them,
And thy words12 were to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
For I bear thy name, O Jehovah, God of Zebaoth.
17 I sat not in the assembly of the joyful, nor was merry.
Before thy hand I sat solitary, for thou hast filled me with indignation.
18 Why then has my pain become perpetual,13
And my wound helpless,14 that will not heal?
Art thou then become to me as a deceitful brook,15
As precarious water?
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
After a sorrowful lament of the prophet, that without any fault of his, all curse him (Jer_15:10), follows (if Jer_15:11-14 are genuine) first a comforting assurance from the Lord, that all will accrue to his advantage and that even his enemies in their distress will turn to him as suppliants (Jer_15:11); and then a description of this distress: it comes as iron from the North which cannot be broken by other iron or brass (Jer_15:12); all wealth in all the borders of Israel will be plundered on account of their sin (Jer_15:13), and the people will be carried away into a strange land in consequence of the violent and inextinguishable anger of Jehovah (Jer_15:14). In Jer_15:15-18 follows a further address of the prophet to the Lord, which, by the words “Thou knowest it,” may possibly be connected with Jer_15:12, but may also be connected with Jer_15:10. The prophet prays the Lord for His gracious interposition, for vengeance on his enemies, for long-suffering forbearance, since he is indeed suffering for God’s sake (Jer_15:15). He grounds his petition further on his willing devotion to the Lord as His instrument (Jer_15:16), and his having walked worthy of this great honor (Jer_15:17). In conclusion another lament of the prophet: Why is there then for me no cure, no recreation? (Jer_15:18).
Jer_15:10. Wo unto me … all curse me. Had the intercession of the prophet in Jeremiah 16. been heard, his lot, in so far as it depended on his countrymen, would have been more agreeable. But now that so stern a refusal has been given he sees the whole fury of the people discharged upon his person. The mention of the calamity of the mother, Jer_15:8-9, reminds the prophet of his own mother, not however to lament on her account, but on his own, that he was ever born. Comp. Jer_20:14; Job_3:3; 1Ma_2:7.—Lending and borrowing cause most law-suits. The prophet neither receives loans from others (נָשָׁה, Isa_24:2), which as a bad debtor he did not repay, nor does he himself lend money (נָשָׁה בְּ, Deu_24:11, נָשֵׁהcreditor, exactor, Psa_109:11), which as a stern creditor he calls in with rigor.—Observe the contrast between the accusations, which according to Jer_15:10 were universally raised against the prophet, and the touching petitions, which he, Jer_14:7-19, offers for his people. He thus gives a reply to those accusations, which causes their unrighteousness most distinctly to appear.
Jer_15:11. Jehovah said … in time of distress. The formula Jehovah said (אָמַר י׳) thus prefixed is found besides only in Jer_46:25, and in no other prophet. I cannot agree with Graf, who in Jer_46:25 would attach it to the preceding context. (Comp. הִנְנִי פקֵר). We cannot then say that this position of the formula is a proof of the spuriousness or corruption of the text.—The Lord presents to the prophet’s view a second pleasing turn in his affairs: even his opponents, who now press him in a hostile way, shall then be brought to press him with supplications, because they perceive their only salvation to be in his intercession. This is more particularly explained in Jer_15:12.
Jer_15:12. Will then iron … brass? The words are very variously construed. The most simple construction, which agrees well with the context, is to take the first iron, ברזל, as the nominative, and the two following as in the objective case. Will then iron, i.e. any other iron, brought by men, break the northern iron or brass? That the northern iron is the northern empire (Jer_13:20) is clear. The most celebrated iron and steel manufacture among the ancients was that of the Chalybeans in Pontus, of whom Strabo says, οἱ δὲ νῦν Χαλδαῖοι Χάλνβες τὸ παλαιὸν ὠνομάζοντο, XII. p. 826. Comp. J. D. Michaelis. Observv. phil. et crit., in Jer., Ed. Schleusner, p. 136. [Comp. Winer, R.-W.-B., II. S. 512; Smith. Bibl. Dict., II. p. 1376.—S. R. A.]. It is accordingly quite suitable to represent this northern nation itself under the figure of the strongest iron. The connection with the preceding is this: thine enemies among the people will yet turn to thee as their only refuge, when they have learned their inability to master the northern iron. For the fulfilment see Jer_37:3; Jer_42:2 sqq.
Jer_15:13-14. Thy substance … burn over you. These verses are evidently intended to give a plainer description of the distress, merely intimated in Jer_15:11, and briefly and obscurely described in Jer_15:12. The words are, however, taken from Jer_17:3-4, where they are found in the more original form and proper connection.—Not for hire. The thought occurs similarly only in Psa_44:12. In this passage, however, it is the selling of the people, not of their property and treasures, which is spoken of. It is also a question whether in Psa_44:12 the selling is to be understood in a literal sense=thou causest thy people to be sold into slavery by their conquerors at a mean price (comp. Joe_3:8; Joe_3:11-12; Vaihinger on Psa_44:12). Since now it is doubtful whether the thought that God sells His people for nothing or without return is biblical, and still more doubtful whether it may be said God sells the treasures of His people for nothing, the view gains in probability that there is here a corruption of the text. Comp. the Textual Note 4.
Verses 11 and 12 contain in themselves nothing to lead us to doubt their integrity, nor do they in the connection form an incongruous element. Jer_15:11 contains a preliminary tranquilization of the prophet, Jer_15:12 a more particular characterization of the distress intimated in Jer_15:11, and the reason of approach imploringly, etc.—Thou knowest, in Jer_15:15, may be connected with Jer_15:12, in the sense: I cannot indeed conceive how that is possible, but Thou Lord knowest it. For since Jer_15:11-12 contain the words of the Lord to the prophet, “Thou knowest it” cannot be an appeal by the prophet to the divine testimony, but only for the purpose of self-tranquilization. But on the other hand it cannot be denied, that this interruption in the prophet’s lament is the more remarkable, as Jeremiah afterwards continues in Jer_15:15 as though he hid received no consolation (comp. especially Jer_15:18) and the consolatory statements of Jer_15:11 recur in Jer_15:19 sqq. For these verses also declare that the affliction will accrue to the honor and welfare of the prophet and that the enemies will yet be compelled to apply to him. This is also favored by the perfect appropriateness with which Jer_15:15 is connected with Jer_15:10. The prophet had in Jer_15:10 protested his innocence, for which in Jer_15:15 he appeals to the Omniscient as a witness. Verses 13 and 14 bear in a much higher degree the stamp of spuriousness. For 1. They prolong in an unnecessary manner (as mere filling out of the portrayal of the previously intimated distress) the interruption of the connection; 2. They are a mere quotation from Jer_17:3-4 and textually corrupt, with which it accords, that they contain an address to the people which does not suit the connection; 3. The words Thou knowest, Jer_15:15, are then disconnected, for neither can they be referred to the close of Jer_15:14 nor to Jer_15:13-14 together, since these verses contain neither the words of the prophet, nor anything which appeared incredible to the prophet.
Jer_15:15 a. Thou knowest it … thy long-suffering. On thou knowest itvid. supra; comp. Psa_40:10; Eze_37:3.—And visit me, פָקַד is frequently used of a gracious visitation of God after a period of disfavor: Gen_21:1; Exo_3:16; Exo_4:31; Rth_1:16; Psa_8:5-6; Isa_23:17, etc. Comp. Psa_106:4.—Avenge, etc.והנקם לי מ׳ properly=avenge Thee for my good upon my enemies. This construction here only. Comp. 1Sa_24:13; Num_31:2.—By thy long-suffering. Since the prophet is not himself conscious of having deserved the divine anger, the long-suffering can be referred only to the enemies: “Suffer not that in consequence of the delay of Thy vengeance I be swept away of my enemies.”
Jer_15:15 b–17. Know that … filled with indignation. In these words the prophet presents the grounds on which he expects help from the Lord. He first prays the Lord to consider that he is suffering for His (the Lord’s) sake. Comp. Psa_69:8 (Zep_3:18)., He then appeals to the willingness with which he offered himself as the Lord’s organ, and his life in accordance with his high calling.—Thy words, etc. The prophet did not excogitate what he was to proclaim but found it, it was offered to him. The found is according to Old Test, usage frequently that which is present of itself in opposition to that which one has produced or procured by his own activity. Comp. Gen_19:15; 1Sa_21:4; 1Sa_25:8.—Devoured. As in Eze_2:8; Eze_3:3 coll. Rev_10:9-10, he designates by eating the eager complete reception of them into the mind. The commentators refer to Plautus, Aulul. III. 6, 1, nimium lubenter edi sermonem tuum.—For I bear, etc. The word of the Lord may then have become the joy of his heart because it effected that “the name of Jehovah was named over him” (comp. rems. on Jer_7:10), i. e. that he was designated as a prophet of Jehovah in opposition to the prophets of the idols (comp. the prophets of Baal, 1Ki_18:19; 2Ki_10:19). This designation was to him an honorary title of the highest value. But by this it is not excluded that the word of the Lord in itself was already a cause of rejoicing to him.—I sat not. The prophet here describes how his life externally had been spent in accordance with the prophetic calling. He had avoided the society of idle, pleasure-seeking men, he had sat in solitude, the feeling of being divinely possessed as well as the sorrow caused by the predominant objects of his vision, viz. human sin and divine punishment, rendering him incapable of taking part in the proceedings of the merry.—Before thy hand. The expression “hand” designates the divine operation as immediate and irresistible. Comp. Isa_8:11; Eze_3:14; Eze_8:1; Eze_11:5; Eze_37:1, etc.—For thou hast filled me, etc. The prophet is filled with indignation and anger by what he beholds in consequence of the divine operation. He cannot possibly be angry with God. Rather is he full of the divine wrath (Jer_6:11) at the sin of men and at the necessity of punishing them. Moreover we see from Jer_15:16 that indignation is not the only feeling of the prophet, nor the only reason which detained him from the society of men. He was in part too divinely troubled, in part too joyful in God, to feel at home in such society. [Henderson: “The hilarity which the prophet had experienced was not that of the ungodly, who at their festive meetings treated divine things with scorn. With these he had had no fellowship, but because of the faithful communication of his inspired messages he had been expelled from society and made the object of their fiercest indignation. The occurrence of “indignation” with “hand” in this verse has generally induced the supposition that by the latter the afflicting power of God is intended; but it seems more in accordance with the bearing of the connection to regard the expression as designed to convey the idea of powerful divine impulse or prophetical inspiration. Comp. Eze_1:3; Eze_3:14, and frequently. Thus Vatablus, Clarius.”—S. R. A.]
Jer_15:18. Why then … precarious water. The prophet concludes with an exclamation of hopelessness. After what he could declare of himself in Jer_15:16-17 he thought he had some claim for protection and consolation. But there is no prospect of this. As in despair he therefore inquires, Why is this?—According to the sense the whole verse must be rendered as a question, and why therefore be referred to the second section of the verse.—Precarious. Comp. Isa_33:16. [“On Tindal’s objections to this passage, see Waterland, Scripture Vindicated, p. 245.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
Footnotes:
[5]Jer_15:10.—כלה מקללוני. This wholly abnormal form (comp. Olsh., § 206 b) which as forma mixta has been variously explained, is evidently due, as J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, Graf, Meier have recognized, to a wrong division. It should read כֻּלְּהֶם קִלִלוּנִי. The attraction of the ם to the following word may have been occasioned by the circumstance that the form ending with it is not found elsewhere (similar formation בֻּלֻּבֶם Deu_1:22. Comp. אוֹתְהֶם Eze_23:45; Eze_23:47; אֶתְהֶם Gen_32:1; Gen_19:8). The 1st Pers. בֻּלָּֽהֵם however is found in 2Sa_23:6.
[6]Jer_15:11.—אם לא שׁרוֹתךָ. The Chethibh may be read שָׁרוֹתךָ (who attack thee, anomalous inf. Kal. from שָׁרַר, as Hitzig), שְׁרוֹתְךָ (solvendo te, Rosenmueller), שֵׁרוּתְךָ (initium tuum, Gesen.), שְׁרוּתְדָ solutio tua sc. erit, Winer), שָׁרוּתְדָ (in different meanings: confirmabo te or exhilarabo te, J. D. Michaelis; firmabo te, Maurer, Ewald; I do thee injury, I oppress thee, Gesen., Thesaur., Meier). The Keri is שֵׁרִיתִיךָ Piel from שָׁרָה, which verb occurs besides only in Job_37:3 (disputed in the latter place) and is said to signify to loosen like the Aram. שְׁרָא (comp. Dan_2:22; Dan_3:25; Ezr_5:2). [So Henderson.—S. R. A.] The old translators vacillate and alter arbitrarily. Vulg., Targ., Raschi, Kimchi read שֵׁרִיתְךָ for שְׁאֵריתְךָ (comp. 1Ch_12:38; Olsh., S. 70 and 412), which they regard as = reliquiæ tuæ or finis tuus thy remnant, thy exit, for which however אַֽהֲרִית always stands elsewhere. [A. V.: it shall be well with thy remnant]. I agree with Gesenius in his Thesaurus and Meier. The scriptio defect. is no objection. Comp. ex. gr. ענִּתִךְ Nah_1:12; לִבַּבְתּנִי Son_4:9. שָׁרַר means torsit, contorsit. Hence שֹׁררֵ, oppressor (Psa_8:3; Psa_27:11; Psa_54:7), שֹׁר cloud (contortum) שֵׁרָה torques, שַׁרְשְׁרָה catena. The Lord tells the prophet for his consolation that the oppression will eventuate in favor of his best interests. Comp. Jer_15:19 sqq., לְטוֹב besides only in Jer_32:39. Elsewhere לְטוֹבָה (Jer_14:11; Jer_21:10; Jer_24:5-6; Jer_39:16; Jer_44:27).
[7]Jer_15:11.—פָנַע בְּ .הפגעתי ו׳ signifies in Jer_7:16; Jer_27:18; Job_21:15; Rth_1:16 to apply to one, press one with petitions. Accordingly Hiphil here quite regularly = to cause such application, urging, although the Hiph. is elsewhere used in the sense of the Kal. (Isa_53:12; Isa_59:16; Jer_36:25).
[8]Jer_15:13.—לֹא בִמְחִיר. There is probably here a corruption of the text. In the parallel passage Jer_17:3 we read after אתן the words במתיך בהטאת בכל־גבוליך. Since now במתיך might very easily become במחיר, especially if we consider the difficulty of this word, it is very natural to perceive in the latter a corruption of the former. The unmeaningness of the sentence then led to the addition of לאֹ which is wanting in the LXX. The author of the gloss might also have had in mind passages like Isa_45:13; Isa_52:3; Isa_55:1. What occasioned the deviation from Jer_17:3 it is difficult to tell. At any rate, if the words are to yield any sense, the first ו must be rendered by “and indeed” (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 111, 1), and ובבל־גבוליך be referred to the first section of the verse.
[9]Jer_15:14.—והעברתי. In Jer_17:4 we have והעבדתיך, which is also given by the LXX., Syr., Chald. The Hiphil from עבר is evidently a corruption, but in the gloss the genuine text, and therefore to be retained, although no commentator has yet been able to give a satisfactory explanation of it. From לא ידעת we see that the people (at any rate with the previously mentioned treasures) is regarded as the object.—Comp. Jer_9:15.
[10]Jer_15:14.—כִּי־אֵש, etc. The words are taken verbatim, from Deu_32:22, while in Jer_17:4 we have קְדַחְתֶּם (transit. as in Isa_1:11; Isa_64:1). For עֲלֵיכֶם we find in Jer_17:4 more appropriately עַד עוֹלָם.
[11]Jer_15:15.—לְ as in לֶאֱמוּנָה, Jer_9:2; לַמִּשְׁפָט, Jer_30:11. Comp. Isa_11:3; Isa_32:1.
[12]Jer_15:16.—דבריך. The Chethibh דְבָֽרְךָ is quite impertinent. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 105, 4 b, 3.
[13]Jer_15:18.—נֶצַח: Subst. (comp. Psa_74:3; 1Ch_29:11) = perpetuitas. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 74.
[14]Jer_15:18.—אֲנוּשָׁה, comp. Jer_30:15; Isa_17:11; Mic_1:9.
[15]Jer_15:18.—אַכְזָב. Comp. Mic_1:14. It is the opposite of נַחַל אֵיתָן, Deu_21:4; Amo_5:24. Comp. Exo_14:27.
2. THE LORD’S TRANQUILIZING AND CONSOLATORY ANSWER
Jer_15:19-21
19 Therefore thus saith Jehovah:
If thou return, I will cause thee again to stand before me;16
And if thou bring forth the precious without the base, thou shalt be as my mouth.17
They shall return to thee, but thou shalt not return to them.
20 And I will make thee to this people a brazen wall, a strong one;
And they will contend against thee, but not prevail over thee;
For I am with thee to deliver
And to preserve thee, saith Jehovah.
21 And I preserve thee from the hand of the wicked,
And redeem thee from the might of the violent.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Lord answers the prophet by promising him anew, together with a mild correction and on the condition of blameless purity, the honor of being permitted to serve Him as His organ (Jer_15:19 a). He then promises the return to him of his enemies (Jer_15:19 b), inexpugnable firmness (Jer_15:20), protection and deliverance from all dangers (Jer_15:21).
Jer_15:19. Therefore thus … return to them.—If thou return. In these words there is evidently a gentle reproof. In the preceding context, especially Jer_15:18, the prophet had allowed himself to be carried away into doubt of the fidelity and trustworthiness of the Lord. In this there was an element of alienation from the Lord. Without entering on a confutation or accusing the prophet directly of his departure, he gives him to understand that such a departure has taken place only by the conditional sentence, “If thou return.” For turning back presupposes a turning away. Comp. Jer_4:1.—To stand before me, in the sense of mediatorship, which at the same time includes the honor of a servant and of one who stands very near his Lord: Jer_15:1; Jer_18:20; Jer_35:19; Jer_40:10.—Bring forth, etc. From the context such a bringing forth only can be spoken of as on the one hand is opposed to the blameworthy utterances of the prophet in Jer_15:18, and as on the other hand qualifies him to be the Lord’s mouth. הוציא is therefore to be taken in the sense in which it occurs, ex. gr. in Job_15:13, which passage has in general a remarkable resemblance to the present. Then מִן is away from, far from, without. Comp. Jer_10:14; Job_11:15; Job_21:9. Vid.Naegelsb. Gr. § 112, 5 d.—On the subject-matter comp. Exo_4:16.—They, etc. The triumph of a witness of the truth consists in this that his opponents finally agree to his testimony. Comp. Pro_16:7.
Jer_15:20-21. And I will … violent. The Lord confirms the prophet in his office and His promise in the same words in which He had assured him of both in the beginning, Jer_1:18-19.—Brazen wall. [“The Roman Poet felt something of the great truth contained in these divine words, when he said,
‘Hicmurus aheneusesto,
Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa.’
(Horat. I. Epist. 1:60).” Wordsworth.—S. E. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer_14:7. “Medicina erranti confessio, qua de re Psa_32:3-4 et Ambrosius eleganter: Confessio verecunda suffragatur Deo, et pœnam, quam defensione vitare non possumus, pudore revelamus (lib. de Joseph., c. 36), et alibi idem: Cessat vindicta divina, si confessio præcurat humana. Etsi enim confessio non est causa meritoria remissionis peccatorum, est tamen necessarium quoddam antecedens.” Förster.
2. “In earnest and hearty prayer there is a conflict between the spirit and the flesh. The flesh regards the greatness of the sins, and conceives of God as a severe Judge and morose being, who either will not help further or cannot. The spirit, on the other hand, adheres to the name of God, i. e., to His promise; he apprehends God by faith as his true comfort and aid, and depends upon Him.” Cramer.
3. On Jer_14:9 a. “Ideo non vult Deus cito dare, ut discas ardentius orare.” Augustine.
4. On Jer_14:9 b. “Quia in baptismo nomen Domini, i. e., totius SS. et individuæ Trinitatis super nos quoque invocatum est, eo et ipso nos in fœdus Dei recepti sumus et inde populus Dei salutamur.” Förster.
5. On Jer_14:10. “So long as the sinner remains unchanged and uncontrite God cannot remove the punishment of the sin (Jer_26:13).” Starke.—“Quotidie crescit pœna, quia quotidie crescit et culpa.” Augustine.
6. On Jer_14:11-12. [“We further gather from this passage that fasting is not in itself a religious duty or exercise, but that it refers to another end. Except then they who fast have a regard to what is thereby intended—that there may be a greater alacrity in prayer—that it may be an evidence of humility in confessing their sins,—and that they may also strive to subdue all their lusts;—except these things be regarded, fasting becomes a frivolous exercise, nay, a profanation of God’s worship, it being only superstitious. We hence see that fastings are not only without benefit except when prayers are added, and those objects which I have stated are regarded, but that they provoke the wrath of God as all superstitions do, for His worship is polluted.” Calvin.—S. R. A.] “Unbelief is a mortal sin, so that by it the good is turned into evil. For fasting or praying is good; but when the man who does it has no faith it becomes sin (Psa_109:7).” Cramer.
7. On Jer_14:14. “He who would be a preacher must have a regular appointment. In like form for all parts of divine worship we must have God’s word and command for our support. If we have it not all is lost.” Cramer.
8. On Jer_14:14 (I have not sent them). “This does not come at all into the account now-a-days; and I do not know, whether to such a preacher, let him have obtained his office as he may, in preaching, absolution, marrying and exorcising, or on any other occasion, when he appeals to his calling before the congregation or against the devil, the thought once occurs, whether he is truly sent by God. Thus the example of the sons of Sceva (Act_19:14; Act_19:16) is no longer considered, and it appears that the devil is not yet disposed by such frightful occurrences to interrupt the atheistical carelessness of the teachers.” Zinzendorf.
9. On Jer_14:15. “The example of Pashur and others shortly afterwards confirms this discourse. This is an important point. One should however, with that modesty and prudence, which Dr. Wiesmann (Prof. of Theol. in Tübingen), who seems called of God to be a writer of church history, in his Introd. in Memorabilia historiæ sacræ N. T. (1731 and 1745) which I could wish were in the hands of all teachers, repeatedly recommends, have regard to this also, when so-called judgments on the wicked are spoken of, that when the Lord in His wisdom and omnipotence exercises justice on such transgressors by temporal judgments, these are often a blessing to them and the yet remaining means of their salvation. It is related that a certain clergyman in a Saxon village, about the year 1730, felt such a judgment upon himself and his careless ministry, and after happy and humble preparation on a usual day of fasting and prayer, presented himself before his church as an example, and exercised on himself what is called church discipline, whereupon he is said to have fallen down dead with the words,
‘My sin is deep and very great,
And fills my heart with grief.
O for thy agony and death,
Grant me, I pray, relief.’
He is no doubt more blessed, and his remembrance more honorable, than thousands of others, who are praised by their colleagues in funeral discourses as faithful pastors, and at the same time, or already before, are condemned in the first but invisible judgment as dumb dogs, wolves or hirelings.” Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer_14:16. “Although preachers lead their hearers astray, yet the hearers are not thus excused. But when they allow themselves to be led astray, the blind and those who guide them fall together into the ditch (Luk_6:39).” Cramer. [“When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble, they must in it see their own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the false prophets and the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to another.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
11. On Jer_14:19. Chrysostom refers to Rom_11:1 sqq., where the answer to the prophet’s question is to be found.
12. On Jer_14:21. “Satan has his seat here and there (Rev_2:13). I should like to know why the Saviour may not also have His cathedral. Assuredly He has, and where one stands He knows how to maintain it, and to preserve the honor of the academy.” Zinzendorf.
[“Good men lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world, nearer their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched from thence, and great supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne of His glory, on earth; nor will He eclipse the glory of His throne by one providence, without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly than before, by another. God will be no loser in His honor in the long run.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_14:22. “Testimony to the omnipotence of God, for His are both counsel and deed (Pro_8:14). Use it for consolation in every distress and for the true apodictica [demonstration] of all articles of Christian faith, however impossible they may appear.” Cramer.—[“The sovereignty of God should engage, and His all-sufficiency encourage, our attendance on Him, and our expectations from Him, at all times.” Henry.—“Hence may be learned a useful doctrine—that there is no reason why punishments, which are signs of God’s wrath, should discourage us so as to prevent us from venturing to seek pardon from Him; but on the contrary a form of prayer is here prescribed for us; for if we are convinced that we have been chastised by God’s hand, we are on this very account encouraged to hope for salvation; for it belongs to Him who wounds to heal, and to Him who kills to restore to life.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
14. On Jer_15:1. On the part of the Catholics it is maintained that “hoc loco refellitur hæreticorum error … orationes defunctorum sanctorum nihil prodesse vivis. Contrarium enim potius ex hisce arguendum suggeritur, nempe istiusmodi sanctorum mortuorum orationes et fieri coram Deo solere pro viventibus, et quando viventes ipsi non posuerint ex semet obicem, illas esse iis maxime proficuas. Ghisl. Tom. II. p. 296). To this it is replied on the part of the Protestants. 1. Enuntiatio isthæc plane est hypothetica. 2. Eo tantum spectat, ut si Moses et Samuel in vivis adhuc essent, adeoque in his terris pro populo preces interponerent suas, perinde ut ille, Exodus 32. hic vero 1 Samuel 7. (Förster, S. 86).” He also adds two testimonies of the fathers against the invocation of saints. One from Augustine, who (contra Maximin., L. 1), calls such invocation sacrilegium, the other from Epiphanius who (Hæres 2) names it an error seductorum, and adds “non sanctos colimus, sed sanctorum dominum.”—That the intercession of the living for each other is effective, Cramer testifies, saying “Intercession is powerful, and is not without fruit, when he who prays and he for whom he prays are of like spirit.” Comp. Rom_15:30; 2Co_1:11; Eph_6:18-19; 1Ti_2:1-2; 1Jn_5:16. [To the same effect also Calvin and Henry.—S. R. A.]
15. On Jer_15:4 b. “Scilicet in vulgus manant exempla regentum, utque ducum lituos, sic mores castra sequuntur.”—“Non sic inflectere sensus humanos edicta valent ut vita regentum.”—“Qualis rex talis grex.” Förster.
16. “God keeps an exact protocol [register] of sins, and visits them to the third and fourth generation.” Cramer. [“See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not.” Henry.—S. R. A]
17. On Jer_15:5. “When God abandons us we are abandoned also by the holy angels, and all creatures. For as at court when two eyes are turned away the whole court turns away; so when the Lord turns away all His hosts turn away also.” Cramer.
18. On Jer_15:7. “God as a faithful husbandman has all kinds of instruments for cleaning His grain. He has two kinds of besoms and two kinds of winnowing-fan. With one He cleanses, winnows the grain and sweeps the floor, so that the chaff may be separated from the good wheat. This is done by the Fatherly cross. But if this does not avail He takes in hand the besom of destruction.” Cramer.
19. On Jer_15:10. “The witnesses of Jesus have the name among others of being hard and rough people, from whom they cannot escape without quarreling. It is not only a reproach which Ahab and such like make to Elijah, ‘Art thou he that troubleth Israel?’ (1Ki_19:17). But even true-hearted people like Obadiah do not thoroughly trust to them; every one has the thought, if they would only behave more gently it would be just as well and make less noise. Meanwhile the poor Elijah is sitting there, knowing not what to do; a Jeremiah laments the day of his birth … why am I then such a monster? Why such an apple of discord? What manner have I? How do I speak? ‘For when I speak, they are for war’ (Psa_120:7). He does not at once remember that they called the master Beelzebub, and persecuted all the prophets before him; that his greatest sin is that he cares for the interests of Jesus in opposition to Satan.” Zinzendorf. [“Even those who are most quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one side of the bargain, and therefore can but, as much as in us lies, live peaceably.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
20. On Jer_15:10 b. (I have neither lent nor borrowed at usury). “My dear Jeremiah! Thou mightest have done that; that is according to the custom of the country, there would be no such noise about that. There is no instance of a preacher being persecuted because he cared for his household. But to take payment in such natural products as human souls, that is ground of distrust, that is going too far, that thou carriest too high, and thou must be more remiss therein, otherwise all will rise up against thee; thou wilt be suspended, removed, imprisoned or in some way made an end of, for that is pure disorder and innovation, that smacks of spiritual revolutionary movements.” Zinzendorf.
21. On Jer_15:15 a. (Thou knowest that for thy sake I have suffered reproach). “This is the only thing that a servant of the Lamb of God should care for, that he does indeed suffer not the least in that he has disguised and disfigured the doctrine of God and his Saviour. … It might be wished that no servant of the Lord, especially in small cities and villages, would now and then make a quarrel to relieve the tedium, which will occupy the half of his life, and of which it may be said in the end: vinco vel vincor, semper ego maculor.” Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer_15:16. “The sovereign sign of a little flock depending on Christ is such a hearty, spiritual tender disposition towards the Holy Scriptures, that they find no greater pleasure than in their simple but heart-searching truths. I, poor child, if I but look into the Bible, am happy for several hours after. I know not what misery I could not alleviate at once with a little Scripture.” Zinzendorf. [On Jer_17:17. “It is the folly and infirmity of some good people that they lose much of the pleasantness of their religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they humor and indulge instead of mortifying it.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
23. On Jer_15:19, a. (And thou shalt stand before me: [Luther: thou shalt remain my preacher]) “Hear ye this, ye servants of the Lord! Ye may be suspended, removed, lose your income and your office, suffer loss of house and home, but ye will again be preachers. This is the word of promise. * * * And if one is dismissed from twelve places, and again gets a new place, he is a preacher to thirteen congregations. For in all the preceding his innocence, his cross, his faith preach more powerfully than if he himself were there.” Zinzendorf.
Note.—On this it may be remarked that in order to be the mouth of the Lord it is not necessary to have a church.
24. On Jer_15:19 b. (Before thou return to them) “We can get no better comfort than this, that our faithful Lord Himself assures us against ourselves. I will make thee so steady, so discreet, so well-founded, so immovable, that, hard as the human heart is, and dead and opposed, yet it will be rather possible that they all yield to thee, than that thou shouldest be feeble or slack and go over to them.” Zinzendorf.
25. On Jer_15:20. “A preacher must be like a bone, outwardly hard, inwardly full of marrow.” Förster. [“Ministers must take those whom they see to be precious into their bosoms, and not sit alone, as Jeremiah did, but keep up conversation with those they do good to, and get good by.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
26. On Jer_16:2. “It is well-known that in no condition is celibacy attended by so many evils as in that of the clergy and that this condition entails in a certain measure a present necessity of marrying. For if any one needs a helpmeet to be by his side, it is the man who must be sacrificed to so many different men of all classes. But all this must be arranged according to circumstances. Ye preachers! Is it made out that ye marry only for Jesus? … that you have the church alone as your object? and that you subject yourselves to all the hardships of this condition with its tribulations only for the profit of many? First, then, examine maturely in your offices, whether there is no word of the Lord, whether circumstances do not show, whether there is not an exception from the rule in your case, that you are to take no wife; whether Paul does not call to you in spirit, ‘I would that thou wert as I.’ May it not sometimes be said? ‘Take no wife at this time or at this place!’ or ‘Take not another!’ How does the matter look on closer examination? The rather, as it is known to the servants of Christ to be no hyperbolical speech, when it is said, ‘The minister has slain his thousands, but the minister’s wife her ten thousands.’ He that loves anything more than Christ is not worthy of Him. If it cannot be cured endure it. But see to it the more, that those who have wives be as those who have them not (1Co_7:29). Lead your wife in prayer diligently and plainly, as Moses with Zipporah (Exo_4:25, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me). If they would not have you dead they must leave you your Lord. I know not when anything was so pleasing to me as when I saw a certain minister’s wife weeping sorely from apprehension that her husband would not endure a certain trial. She saw clearly that he would retain his charge, but she feared the Saviour would make it hard to him.”Zinzendorf.
27. On Jer_16:2. “Ridiculi sunt Papicolæ, qui ex hoc typo articulum religionis suæ de cœlibatu saceraotum exstruere conantur. Nam. 1. tota hæc res fuit typica. Typica autem et symbolica theologia non est argumentativa juxta axioma Thomæ. 2. Non simpliciter interdicitur conjugium prophetæ in omni loco, sed tantum in hoc loco.” Förster.
28. On Jer_16:7. This passage (as also Isa_58:7) is used by the Lutheran theologians to prove that panem frangere may be equivalent to panem distribuere, as also Luther translates: “They will not distribute bread among them.” This is admitted by the Reformed, who, however, remark that it does not follow from this that frangere et distribuere also “in Sacramento æquipollere, quod esset a particulari ad particulare argumentari.” Comp. Turretin., Inst. Theol. Elencht. Tom. III., p. 499.
29. On Jer_16:8. “When people are desperately bad and will not be told so, they must be regarded as heathen and publicans (Mat_17:18; Tit_3:10; 1Co_5:9).” Cramer.
30. On Jer_16:19. “The calling of the heathen is very consolatory. For as children are rejoiced at heart when they see that their parents are greatly honored and obtain renown and praise in all lands, so do all true children of God rejoice when they see that God’s name is honored and His glory more widely extended.” Cramer.—This passage is one of those which predict the extension of the true religion among all nations, and are therefore significant as giving impulse and comfort in the work of missions. Comp. Deu_32:21; Hos. 2:1, 25; Joe_3:5; Isa_49:6; Isa_65:1; Rom_10:12 sqq.
31. On Jer_16:21. “Nothing can be learned from God without God. God instructs the people by His mouth and His hand, verbis et verberibus.” Cramer.
32. On Jer_17:1. “Scripta est et fides tua, scripta est et culpa tua, sicut Jeremias dixit: scripta est Juda culpa tua graphio ferreo et ungue adamantino. Et scripta est, inquit, in pectore et in corde tuo. Ibi igitur culpa est ubi gratia; sed culpa graphio scribitur, gratia spiritu designatur.” Ambros. de Sp. s. III. 2.
33. On Jer_17:1. “The devil is God’s ape. For when he sees that God by the writing of His prophets and apostles propagates His works and wonders to posterity, he sets his own pulpiteers to work, who labor with still greater zeal, and write not only with pens and ink, but also with diamonds, that such false religion may have the greater respect and not go down.” Cramer.
34. On Jer_17:5.
“O man in human help and favor
Trust not, for all is vanity,
The curse is on it,—happy he,
Who trusts alone in Christ the Saviour.”
[“When water is blended with fire, both perish; so when one seeks in part to trust in God and in part to trust in men, it is the same as though he wished to mix heaven and earth together, and to throw all things into confusion. It is then to confound the order of nature, when men imagine that they have two objects of trust, and ascribe half their salvation to God and the other half to themselves or to other men.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
35. On Jer_17:5. “A teacher is commanded to be the first to honor the authorities, to pray for them and be subject to them as God’s servants… But since the authorities, in all which pertains to the concerns of the soul, have part only as members, there is great occasion for this cursed dependence on flesh … when one from the hope of good personal protection … gives up the work of the Lord to the powers of the earth. … It is true the church is to have foster-parents who are kings. But nevertheless neither kings nor princes are its tutelar deities, much less lords and commanders of the church, but one is our Master, one our Judge, one our King, the Crucified.” Zinzendorf.
36. On Jer_17:5. Reformed theologians, ex. gr., Lambertus Danæus (ob. 1596) have applied this passage in the sense of Joh_6:63, in their controversies against the Lutheran doctrine of the Supper. But as Calvin declared, it is not the flesh of Christ, but only earthly flesh and that per contemtum which is here spoken of Comp. Förster, S. 97.
37. On Jer_17:7. “Blessed are those teachers, who have betaken themselves, to His protection, who once promised His Church, that even the gates of hell should not prevail against it …… Who has ever been put to shame who trusted in Him?” Zinzendorf.
38. On Jer_17:9. “This is a spiritual anatomy of the heart. Examples: Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33.); Hezekiah (38:39); the children of Israel (Numbers 14.). Alii sumus dum lætamur et omnia in vita nobis secundo vento succedunt; alii vero in temporibus calamitosis, ubi quid præter sententiam acciderit. Comp. Ser. Jer 11:27.” (MS. note in my copy of Cramer’s Bibel).
39. On Jer_17:9. Νᾶφε καὶ μέμνασο ἀπιστεῖν. This applies with respect to ourselves and others. For the defiant it avails as an extinguisher (Rom_12:3); but the despairing may be reassured by it (1Jn_3:19-20).
40. On Jer_17:14. (Thou art my praise)…… “When a teacher confines himself to the praise of the cross and lets all other matters of praise go, which might adorn a theologian of these times, and adheres immovably to this: ‘I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ the crucified’ (1Co_2:2),—amid all the shame of His cross He is victorious over the rest.” Zinzendorf.
41. On Jer_17:16. (That which I have preached was right before thee). “It is not difficult to know in these times what is right before the Lord. There is His word; he who adheres to this strictly, knows in thesi that he is right …… In all this it is the teacher’s chief maxim, not to make use of the application without need, but to make the truth so plain in his public discourse, that the hearers must necessarily make the application to themselves. … ‘Thus saying, thou reproachest us also,’ said the lawyer (Luk_11:45).… Others went away convicted in their consciences.” Zinzendorf.
42. On Jer_17:17. “That is a period which straitens the hearts of witnesses, when their rock, their protection, their consolation, their trust is a terror to them. But under this we must bow and faithfully endure, and we shall have a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Discipline always ends gloriously.” Zinzendorf.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
On Jer_14:7-9. Jeremiah a second Israel, who wrestles with the Lord in prayer. 1. In what the Lord is strong against the prophet: the sin of the people. 2. In what the prophet is strong against the Lord: the Name of the Lord (a) in itself. This compels him to show that He is not a desperate hero, or giant, who cannot help; (b) in that His name is borne by Israel. Thus the Lord is bound to show Himself as He who is in Israel (not a guest or stranger), and consequently the Comforter and Helper of Israel.—Heim und Hoffmann, The Major Prophets (Winnenden, 1839). As Daniel (Jer_9:6) prayed, We have sinned and committed iniquity, etc., so Jeremiah took his share in the sin and guilt of his people.—This is true penitence, when one no longer wishes to contend with God in tribulation, but confesses his sin and condemnation, when he sees that if God should treat us according to our misdeeds, He could find no ground for grace. But for His name’s sake He can show us favor. He Himself is the cause of the forgiveness of sin.—Calwer Handbuch [Manual]. Notwithstanding the ungodliness of the people the prophet may still say, “Thou art among us,” because the temple of the Lord and His word were still in the land, and the pious have never all died out. [On Jer_14:7-9. “Prayer hath within itself its own reward. The prayer of the prophet consists of confession and petition. 1. Confession fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is against God. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it, takes off the power of accusation, etc. 2. Petition: For Thy name’s sake. This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same and hath always the same force. The children of God are much beholden to their troubles for clear experiences of themselves and God. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of.” Leighton.—S. R. A.]
2. On Jer_14:13-16. Against false prophets. 1. They tell the world what it likes to hear (Jer_17:13); 2. The Lord denies them (Jer_17:14); 3. The Lord punishes them (Jer_17:15); 4. The Lord also punishes those who allow themselves to be deceived by them (Jer_17:16).—Tüb. Bibelw.: To enter the preacher’s office without divine calling, what an abomination is that! But mark this, ye hirelings! the sentence of condemnation is already pronounced over you (Jer_23:21; Mat_7:15).—Osiander Bibl.: God avenges the deception of false teachers most severely, if not in this world in the next (Act_13:10-11).—Starke: God punishes both deceivers and deceived, the latter cannot then lay all the guilt on the former (Jer 27:45).
3. On Jer_14:19-22. The church’s distress and consolation. 1. The distress is (a) outward (Jer_17:19), (b) inward (Jer_17:20, the reason of the outward, confession). 2. The consolation (a). The Lord’s Name, [α] It is called and is One (Jer_17:22): [β] His glory and that of the church (throne of glory) are one; (b) the Lord’s covenant (Jer_17:21).—What in the present circumstances should be our position towards God? 1. The divine providence, in which we are at present: 2. Our confession, which we make before God: 3. Our petition, which we should address to Him. Voelter in Palmer’s Ev. Casual-Reden. [Occasional Discourses], 4th Ed., 1865.
4. On Jer_15:16. Sermon on a Reformation or Bible-Anniversary. The candlestick of the Gospel has been rejected by more than one church. We therefore pray: Preserve to us Thy word (Ps. 109:43). 1. Why we thus pray (Thy Word is our hearts’ joy and comfort); 2. Why we hope to be heard (for we are named by Thy name).
5. On Jer_15:19. Caspari (Installation-sermon at Munich, Adv., 1855). These words treat; 1, of the firm endurance; 2, of the holy zeal; 3, of the joyful confidence, with which a preacher of God must come to an evangelical church.
6. Homilies of Origen are extant on Jer_15:5-6; (Hom. XII., Ed. Lommatzsch); Jer_15:10-19 (Hom. XIV.); Jer_15:10; Jer_17:5 (Hom. XV.). [On Jer_15:20. “I. God’s qualification to be an overseer of the church. The metaphor of a wall implies, (1) courage, (2) innocence and integrity, (3) authority. II. The opposition a church-governor will be sure to meet with, (1) by seditious preaching and praying, (2) by railing and libels; (3) perhaps by open force. III. The issue and success of such opposition (they shall not prevail).” South.—S. R. A.]
7. On Jer_16:19-21. Missionary Sermon. The true knowledge of God. 1. It is to be had in Christianity (Jer_17:19, a). 2. It will also make its way to the heathen, for (a) It is God’s will that they should be instructed (Jer_17:21); (b) they are ready to be instructed (Jer_17:19 b. 20).
8. On Jer_17:5-8. The blessing of faith and the curse of unbelief (comp. Ebal und Gerizim). 1. Why does the curse come upon the unbeliever? (He departs in his heart from the Lord). 2. Wherein this curse consists (Jer_17:6). 3. Why must blessing be the portion of the believer? (Jer_17:7). 4. Wherein this blessing consists (Jer_17:8).
9. On Jer_17:5-8, and Jer_18:7-10. Schleiermacher (Sermon on 28 Mar., 1813, in Berlin): We regard the great change (brought about by the events of the period) on the side of our worthiness before God. 1. What in this respect is its peculiar import and true nature. 2. To what we must then feel ourselves summoned.
10. On Jer_17:9-10. The human heart and its Judges 1. The antithesis in the human heart. 2. The impossibility of fathoming it with human eyes. 3. The omniscient God alone sees through it; and 4, judges it with justice. [“The heart is deceitful—it always has some trick or other by which to shuffle off conviction.” Henry.—“It is extremely difficult for sinners to know their hearts. I. What is implied in their knowing their own hearts. 1. It implies a knowledge of their selfishness. 2. Of their desperate incurable wickedness. 3. Of their extreme deceitfulness. II. Why it is so extremely difficult for them to know their own hearts. 1. They are unwilling to know them. 2. Because of the deceitfulness of sin. They love or hate, as they appear friendly or unfriendly to them: (a) God, (b) Christ, (c) good men, (d) one another, (e) the world, (f) their own hearts, (g) the means of grace, (h) their convictions, (i) heaven—Improvement. The only way to know the heart is to inquire whether it loves God or not, etc. 2. Saints can more easily ascertain their true character than sinners Song of Solomon 3. All changes in life are trials of the heart,” etc., etc. Emmons.—“I. The human heart exhibits great fraud and treachery. 1. We are changeable by that connection which the soul has with the body. 2. By its connection with external objects by our senses. 3. By its love of novelty and variety. 4. By its hasty resolutions. 5. By its self-love. II. Its excessive malice is seen in history and experience. III. Its deep dissimulation and hypocrisy render it inscrutable. Inferences: 1. We should entertain a sober diffidence of ourselves. 2. We should not be surprised when men use us ill or disappoint us. 3. We should take care and give good principles and a good example to those young persons under our guidance. 4. We should be ready to confess our offences to God. 5. We should bear in mind that we are under the inspection of one who searcheth the hearts,” etc. Jortin.—See also two Sermons by Jer. Taylor.—S. R. A.].
11. Rud. Kœgel (Court and Cathedral preacher at Berlin, 1865). Sermon on Jer_17:9; Jer_17:19, and Heb_13:9 : Two pictures: 1, the unregenerate; 2, the regenerate heart.
12. On Jer_17:12-13. Sermon for the dedication of a church, the anniversary of the Reformation, or on Whitsunday. The church of the Lord. 1. What it is in itself (place of sanctuary, throne of divine glory, house of Him, who is Israel’s hope). 2. What it will be (it will ever remain firm, Mat_16:18): 3. What they find who forsake it (Jer_17:19).
13. On Jer_17:14-18. Cry for help of a preacher tempted on account of the truth. 1. The temptation (Jer_17:15). 2. The demonstration of innocence (Jer_17:16). 3. The cry for help, (a) negative (Jer_17:17-18), (b) positive (Jer_17:19). [On Jer_17:14. The penitent’s prayer. 1. The words express an earnest desire for salvation. 2. He applies to Almighty God for it. 3. Through the medium of prayer. 4. With confidence that he will be heard. Dr. A. Thomson of Edinburgh.—S. R. A.].
Footnotes:
[16]Jer_15:19.—ואשׁיבך, etc. The construction is like לֹא תֹסִיפִי יִקְרְאוּ לָךְ, Isa_47:1; Isa_47:5. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 95, g, Anm.
[17]Jer_15:19.—בְּפִי, Kaph veritatis. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 112, 5 c.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–14 death--deadly plague (Jer 18:21; Jer 43:11; Eze 5:2, Eze…
death--deadly plague (Jer 18:21; Jer 43:11; Eze 5:2, Eze 5:12; Zac 11:9).
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 JEREMIAH’S PRAYER REFUSED, Jer_15:1-9.
JEREMIAH’S PRAYER REFUSED, Jer_15:1-9.
Here again we have an example of unfortunate chapter division. The connexion between the last verses of the preceding chapter and the opening portion of the present chapter is most intimate. To break it by one of the great chapter divisions is misleading. In the concluding portion of the preceding chapter the prophet’s prayer is urgent and importunate; here we have a still more emphatic refusal.
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1. Though Moses and Samuel — By their intercessions they had repeatedly saved the people from impending danger, (Exo_32:11-14; Exo_17:11; Num_14:13, etc.; 1Sa_7:9; 1Sa_12:17; Psa_99:4,) but now even such holy men as these would not succeed.
Cast them out of my sight — As if they had come along with their representative, the prophet, and were waiting without while he had gone into the holy place to plead for them.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Jer_15:1. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me] No…
Jer_15:1. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me] No advocate, however powerful his intercession, could now prevail with Me. For Moses see Exo_33:11-14; Num_14:13-20; Deu_9:18-20; Deu_9:25-29, and for Samuel 1Sa_7:9; 1Sa_12:23; cp. these two united in a similar connexion of thought in Psa_99:6.
stood before] For the phrase in this sense of intercession cp. Jer_18:20, Gen_18:22; Gen_19:27. For a different sense see on Jer_15:19.
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my mind could not be toward] I could not incline with favour towards.
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 On vv1–14 (1) Then said the Lord unto me.—With a bold…
XV.
(1) Then said the Lord unto me.—With a bold and terrible anthropomorphism, the prophet again speaks as if he heard the voice of Jehovah rejecting all intercession for the apostate people. The passage reminds us of the mention of Noah, Daniel, and Job, in Eze_14:14, as “able to deliver their own souls only by their righteousness.” Here Moses (Exo_32:11; Num_14:13-20) and Samuel (1Sa_7:9; 1Sa_12:23) are named as having been conspicuous examples of the power of the prayer of intercession.
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Cast them out of my sight.—i.e., from my presence, from the courts of the Temple which they profane. That would be the answer of Jehovah, even if Moses and Samuel “stood before Him” (the phrase, as in Jer_35:19, has a distinctly liturgical meaning), ministering in the Courts of the Temple.
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 On vv1–13 Vers. 1-9. Second rejection of Jeremiah"s intercession; awfulness of…
Vers. 1-9. Second rejection of Jeremiah"s intercession; awfulness of the impending judgment.
Though Moses and Samuel, etc. It is a mere supposition which is here made; there is no allusion to any popular view of the intercession of saints. (see my note on Isa_63:16) If even a Moses or a Samuel would intercede in vain, the ease of the Judahites must indeed be desperate. For these were the nearest of all the prophets to Jehovah, and repeatedly prayed their people out of grievous calamity. (comp. Psa_99:6) Jeremiah had already sought to intercede for his people. (see on Jer_7:16) Cast them out of my sight; rather, Dismiss them from my presence. The people are represented as praying or sacrificing in the fore courts of the temple.
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HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Ver. 1. Sins for which saintly intercession cannot avail.
Moses is spoken of as an intercessor in Exo_17:11 Exo_32:11 Num_14:13 Psa_106:23: Samuel in 1Sa_7:8 1Sa_8:6 1Sa_12:16-23 1Sa_15:11 Psa_99:6. Noah, Daniel, and Job are mentioned similarly. (Eze_14:14) It is, then, in their special intercessory character that these fathers are referred to. At the time when their intercessions took place they were the leaders and representatives of Israel, and because of their saintliness they had favor with God. But the sins for which Judah and Jerusalem are now to be punished are by this reference declared of a more heinous description than any that took place in those days, It is a mere supposition which is made, evidently no description of the normal relation of glorified saints to Jehovah, but simply a hypothetical statement as to what they, in their earthly capacity, would have failed to do.
I THE INTERCESSIONS OF RIGHTEOUS MEN AVAIL MUCH. Many a time in the wilderness had Moses stayed the impending wrath of God because of murmuring and disobedience; and this not simply because he was the civil leader of the people, but through his own saintly, high priestly character. This is a principle of God"s dealings with men. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much;" and one of the chief occupations of the Church is represented as praying for the salvation of the world and the coming of the kingdom of God. It is because such men represent the future hope of the race, being a kind of firstfruits of them that shall be saved, that they have this power. In themselves too, because of what they are, they are pleasing to God, who delights in their prayers and praises. There is something very striking and touching in this spectacle of one standing for many, and we have to think of how great has been the blessing which has been thus secured to the world through its saints. But they all appear trifling compared with that which Christ has secured through the intercession of his prayers, obedience, and sacrifice. In his case (what could scarcely be said of any saint) his intercession has a solid objective worth because of what it is in itself, and avails as a consideration with God for the cleansing of all who identify themselves with him through faith.
II BUT THERE ARE CONDITIONS WHICH DESTROY THE EFFICACY OF SUCH INTERCESSION. Their influence is but partial and imperfect, depending as it does upon their own inadequate fulfillment of the Law and will of God. If it were a question of strict account, they themselves would not be able to stand in his presence. It is of his grace that, even for a moment, they may be said to have influence for others. And it may be said that their intercession is but provisional, and, if not followed up By the obedience of those for whom they pray, it will be followed with the more condign punishment upon the transgressors. It is a great tribute to the vicarious power possible to saints that even the most eminent of them should be quoted in such a connection. But it shows how inadequate such a mediatorship would be for the general sin of man. We may do much, each of us, to avert just judgments, to secure opportunities of salvation, and to bring the grace of God to bear upon the hearts of others; but we cannot save them by any communication of our own acceptance with God to them. They must stand or fall according to their own relation to the will of God and the person of his Son. And there are degrees of guilt which far surpass any intercession of this kind. The sin of unbelief especially, if it be unrepented of, will prevent any benefit being received. The permanent position of our souls with respect to Divine grace will depend, therefore, upon their own action or belief. Even Christ cannot save if we do not believe in his Name and obey him. M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-9. Fearful aspects of the Divine character.
These verses and this whole discourse reveal to us an implacable God. He will not turn away from his wrath nor be moved:
1. By the spectacle of misery presented. (Jer 14)
2. By the remembrance of former love. (Jer_14:8)
3. By the earnest prayers of his faithful servant (Ver. 1).
4. By the prospect of more terrible miseries yet to come. (Jer_14:17-22; Jer_15:1-9) Therefore
I INQUIRE. Why is God thus? The answer is, he will not change, because the sinner will not. "To the froward he will ever show himself froward.
II LEARN. That while God"s mercy is infinite to those who turn to him, for those who refuse there is no mercy at all. C.
The limits of intercessory prayer.
"Though Moses and Samuel," etc.
1. This verse seems at first sight to be in contradiction to the many Scriptures which assure us that the "effectual fervent prayers of righteous men avail much." The Bible teems with promises that God will hear when we call upon him. But here is a decided declaration that let even the holiest and the most eminent for their intercessions stand before God in prayer, they should not avail to secure what was denied.
2. And were there only this verse, the difficulty would not be so great. But experience is continually supplying us with fresh instances in which bleatings earnestly sought have yet beer denied.
3. And this also in regard to spiritual things. Were it only temporal blessings God refused to give although we asked him for them, we could readily understand that, though they seemed so good in our eyes, in his they might be seen to be hurtful. We know that in such things we do not know what is best. But the refusal of prayer is found in regard to things that we know are good and well pleasing to God in regard to things spiritual and eternal, e.g. in the prayers of parents for the conversion of their children, of teachers and pastors for those committed to their charge.
4. Hence from this verse and from such experience of rejected prayer, the sad conclusion has been drawn that, in spite of the most earnest intercession, the souls we pray for may be lost, our intercession be of no avail. For does it not say even to Jeremiah, who himself was an eminent intercessor with God, that there were yet greater than he such as Moses and Samuel but that if even they, etc. (cf. references for instances of their intercession).
5. And some have tried to escape the difficulty by drawing a sharp contrast between the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ and that of these men of God. They have said, had Jesus interceded, it would have been otherwise. But this is not true, for our Lord would not have interceded as Jeremiah did. He also foretold great calamities as overhanging Jerusalem and her people, but we have no record of his ever having prayed that they might not come. He sought unceasingly their eternal salvation, but he did not pray against the destruction of Jerusalem. It is not permissible, therefore, to account for the failure of such intercession as that of Jeremiah, on the ground that it is only human intercession and not that of the Son of God.
6. But before we certainly conclude that intercession for the eternal spiritual well-being of others may after all be in vain, though the intercession have been such as that of the great servants of God here spoken of, who touched the utmost limits of intercessory prayer, let us note
(1) That it was not for spiritual blessings that Jeremiah was interceding. His piteous entreaties were "concerning the dearth", that (Jer_14:1) that might be removed. It was strictly a prayer for temporal mercies and deliverances. It is, therefore, unjust to conclude that intercession for things spiritual and eternal may fail because, as we well know, it may fail for things material and temporal. Note also
(2) That the utmost limits of intercession had been reached. The prophet himself had offered no scant or insincere petition, and the intercession of these great saints of God spoken of was, we know, of the mightiest order. Before, then, we conclude that such intercession in regard to spiritual things can be of no avail, let us be sure that such intercession has been tried. Is our own such? There may be customary and too often formal prayers offered by parents, pastors, teachers, for the spiritual good of those about them. But can we say that such prayers are mighty intercessions, like those of Moses and Samuel? If we know they have not been such, let us pause before we conclude that such intercession avails not. But in order to ascertain if our intercession has been real, let us note if we are in earnest about our own soul"s salvation. If we care not for our own acceptance before God, how can we be solicitous for that of others? And are our prayers followed up by practical effort in the direction of our prayers? Do the lead us to see what can be clone to secure the ends for which we pray? Or are they substitutes for such endeavor? Hence it may very often be that we ask and have not, because we ask amiss. We do not intercede in that real, believing, earnest way which alone has a right to expect the blessing it seeks. It is by no means intercession such as that of Moses and Samuel
1. But if intercession have been such as theirs, then, though answer may be delayed, we are to believe that it will yet come. Delay is not denial.
2. Neither this verse nor experience sets aside the many promises which encourage such intercession.
3. And experience proves its worth. The Church of today is in the main the product of the intercession of the Church that has passed into the heavens. Instead of the fathers have risen up the children.
4. Learn, therefore,
(1) if God refuse us temporal blessings, it is because he knows better than we do what is best;
(2) how best to deal with transgressors God alone knows, and what his wisdom determines none may set aside;
(3) that intercession for souls is well pleasing to God and full of hope, since the beloved of God have been ever distinguished for such intercession, and, above all, God"s well-beloved Son. C.
Great intercessors.
I SUCH ARE MENTIONED HERE. Moses, Samuel, etc.. (cf. Exo_17:11 Exo_32:11 Num_14:13 Psa_106:23 1Sa_7:8 1Sa_8:6 1Sa_12:16-23 1Sa_15:11 Psa_90:6; Ecc 46:6) Noah, Daniel, and Job are mentioned in similar way, (Eze_14:14) and Jeremiah himself. (RAPC 2Ma 15:14) And there have been such oftentimes granted to nations, Churches, families (cf. Mary Queen of Scots saying that she feared John Knox"s prayers more than all her enemies). And who has not known such intercessors in connection with Christian Churches men and women whose prayers were amongst the main supports of the life, joy, and strength of those for whom they were offered?
II THEIR VALUE IS UNSPEAKABLE. Cf. Abraham praying for Sodom. Though the cities of the plain were destroyed, yet what an amount of sin God was ready to pardon in answer to his prayer, if but the conditions which should have been so easy to fulfill had been forthcoming! And "the few names even in Sardis" (Revelation 2), who can doubt that they, as all such do, warded off for long periods those visitations of God"s anger which otherwise would have come upon that Church? And it is not only the evils from which they defend a Church, but the positive good they confer. Such power with God is ever accompanied by a consistency and sanctity of character which is blessedly attractive, inspiring, contagious; and as a magnet they gather round them a band of kindred souls, like as our Lord gathered his disciples round himself. And thus a hallowed influence is sent throughout a whole community.
III THEIR QUALIFICATIONS.
1. Sympathy with God. They must see sin as God sees it as utterly hateful and wrong. There must be no weak condoning of it or any failure to behold it in its true character. If we ask God to forgive sin, indeed, if we seek forgiveness for wrong done from a fellow-man, are we likely to be acceptable in our request if we regard him who has been wronged as not having much to complain of after all? No; he who would wish God to forgive sin must see it as God sees it, and consent to his judgment concerning it.
2. Deep love for those for whom he intercedes. And this cannot be created in a moment. It must be the result of much thought, labor, and pains spent upon them. When we have thus given ourselves to them, we are sure to love them. Places, persons, things, most unattractive to others are deeply loved by those who have devoted themselves to them. And all great intercessors have been such, and must be such as become so, not on the spur of the moment or from any mere movement of pity, but as the result of long and loving labor lavished for their good.
3. Freedom from the guilt of the transgression, the pardon of which is sought. Under the Old Testament the priest first offered atonement for himself and then for the sins of the people. Not until he was purged from sin himself could he intercede for others. The intercessor must be one untainted with the guilt he prays to be removed. The prayer of the wicked can never aid.
4. Experimental knowledge both of the blessings which he craves and of the sorrows and sufferings which he intercedes against. Of our Savior, the great Intercessor, it is said, "He himself took our infirmities, and hare our diseases." He was made "in all points like unto his brethren." The joy of God"s love and also, by holy sympathy, the bitterness of the dregs of that cup of which the wicked have to drink were alike known to him. Thus, though he knew no sin, he was made sin for us. It was to him as if all the sin of those he so loved were his own, so intensely did its shame, its misery, its guilt, fill up his soul. And with human intercessors there must be like experience.
5. Faith in God, which firmly holds to the belief that his love for the sinner is deeper than his hatred of the sin. Unless we believe this we can have no hope in interceding either for ourselves or for others. Faith in the infinitude of the love of God is essential.
IV THEIR GREAT EXEMPLAR the Lord Jesus Christ. See how all the qualifications above named combine in him.
CONCLUSION.
1. To the sorrowful and sinful. You need a great intercessor. You have one in Christ. "Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead.
2. To the believer in Christ. Seek to become as Moses and Samuel, and, above all, as our Lord mighty in intercession. C.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE Ver. 1. Fruitless intercession.
These words are addressed to the prophet in his character of intercessor for the people. He had already been told to plead no longer for them, (Jer_14:11) seeing that their case was hopeless, and the Divine sentence that had gone out against them was irrevocable. Observe
I THE POWER THAT HUMAN INTERCESSION MAY HAVE WITH GOD. The fact that such intercession is declared in this case to be vain implies that, under other conditions, it might be effectual Moses and Samuel often stood before the Lord as mediators on behalf of the people whom they represented. (Num_14:13-20 1Sa_7:9 Psa_99:6) Not that they had officially any priestly function. They were not priests; their power with God lay in the elevation of their character and the intimacy of their fellowship with him. Every age has borne witness to the reality and efficacy of this power. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" on behalf of his fellowmen. Who can tell how much it is owing to such intercession that a guilty world has been saved from hopeless abandonment?
II THE LIMIT MAN S OBDURACY PUTS TO THAT POWER. There are times when no human intervention is of any avail. Even the pleading of Moses and Samuel could not have averted the threatened judgments. "My mind could not be towards this people" Why? Simply because of the obstinacy of their unbelief and irreligion. It is not that God is not merciful and gracious and ready to forgive, or that the pleadings of good and holy men nave no power with him. It is that the inveterate obduracy of men nullifies all the persuasive influence alike of Divine and human love. God"s mind cannot be towards those who with obstinate impenitence refuse his grace. There is a limit beyond which even Divine patience cannot go. The very pleading love of the great Intercessor is defeated in the case of those who will not forsake their false and evil ways. It is not so much an irrevocable Divine decree, it is their own self-willed perversity that dooms them and leaves the stern, retributive laws of God to take their course. W.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Ver. 1. The uselessness of intercession once more emphatically stated.
I A REMINDER OF GOD"S LONG-SUFFERING IN THE PAST. MOSES and Samuel had stood interceding before him, and again and again he had glorified himself in mercy and pardon. The mention of these two great historic names suggests to Jeremiah that God can appeal to all the past, confident that no man can complain of him as wanting in long-suffering with the waywardness of his people. They had wandered far and often, and often needed mercy and restoration; but when God forgave them, they soon forgot the mercy and renewed favor. Thus we are enabled to feel how very bad their condition must have become in the time of the prophet. To have listened to the plea of any intercessor would have been to show a mercy which yet was no mercy a mercy which, while doing no real good to Israel, would have done evil in confusing the boundaries of truth and falsehood. God"s mercy must ever be shown as part of his wisdom, and the time comes when severity to one or two generations may be the truest mercy to the whole world.
II THE HONOR DONE TO THE MEMORY OF THE GOOD. As servants of Jehovah, Moses and Samuel were great in many ways, but in none greater than as urgent prevailing intercessors. With regard to Moses, Exo_32:11-14, Exo_32:31, 32 Num_14:13-19. With regard to Samuel, see 1Sa_7:9 1Sa_12:23. The listenings of God to these men showed that his general will was that supplications should ever be made on behalf of all sinners. God delights in seeing his servants pitiful towards all the needs of men, especially those needs which arise from their forgetfulness of God himself. This reference was surely meant to teach Jeremiah, for one thing, that God not only permitted intercession but expected it. Further, the intercessions here referred to were those of righteous men. Moses and Samuel fully appreciated the evil-doings of those for whom they interceded. Doubtless they quite apprehended that evil-doing might on certain occasions reach such a height that intercession could not be expected to prove successful. Those who had had the opportunity of pondering God"s dealings in the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom would well understand that intercession had its limits.
III JEREMIAH WAS THUS REMINDED OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF GOD"S SERVANTS IN FORMER DAYS. Moses and Samuel were not only intercessors, they were intercessors for those who had made life largely a burden and a grief to them. It was not upon a scene where they were comparative strangers that they came in, did their interceding work, and then passed out to return no more. The success of their intercession meant the renewal of their struggles with a wayward and careless nation. If only Jeremiah considered the whole history of Moses and the whole history of Samuel, he would be led to say, "Who am I that I should complain?" These conspiracies, this bitter opposition, this feeling of solitude, were nothing new. We can only serve God in our own day and generation, and we must accept that generation with all its difficulties, only let this be remembered, that there is no servant of God, in any generation, but will need all his faith and meekness and endurance to encounter and vanquish these difficulties in a right spirit.
IV HONOR WAS PUT UPON JEREMIAH HIMSELF. His influence with God as a faithful servant was shown every whir as clearly as if he had been successful in his intercession, That influence, indeed, the people might fail to recognize; but this was a small matter if only the prophet himself was made to feel that his God respected the spirit of his prayer. God"s way of honoring us is not by making us stand well with the fickle crowd, but by his own smile shining into our hearts and making gladness there. The mention of these two great historic names lifts Jeremiah in the esteem of God to something like a level with them Y.
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 On vv1, 6, 9, 10, 12 Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My…
Jer_15:1
Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be towards this people.
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Righteousness, the strength of nations
It is of great importance that we distinguish between communities, and the individuals of which communities are composed. When the whole human race shall be gathered before the tribunal of Christ, every man will receive the recompense due to his actions whilst on earth. But nations cannot be judged or punished as nations; so if God is to mark His sense of the evil wrought by communities in their collective capacity, it must be by present retribution. Accordingly we have full testimony given from Scripture and from experience, that although, in the ordinary course of Divine judgment, individuals are not in this life dealt with according to their actions, yet communities may expect to prosper or decline according as they resist or submit to the revealed will of God. The national character must be determined by the character of the majority; and when this character is so debased that the national punishment can no longer be delayed, there may be numbers influenced by a holy and unaffected piety, and warm love of God. And can these faithful ones be instruments in averting or mitigating wrath? Or if they cannot prevail for the deliverance of others, will they not at least be saved from all share in the coming disaster? These are interesting questions; and the best answer can be drawn from the words of our text. Moses and Samuel are supposed to stand forth as pleaders for the land; they are too late--pleading is in vain. Still it is evidently implied that at a less advanced stage in national guilt the intercession would have been of avail. Then, moreover, a distinction is evidently drawn between a guilty people and such advocates as Moses and Samuel. The people are to be cast out; but we are left to infer that such as Moses and Samuel would not share to the full extent in the national disaster. Let us look more closely into these points. Call to mind that remarkable portion of Holy Writ in which Abraham is represented as pleading for Sodom. If the city would have been spared had these ten righteous lived within its walls, there is incontrovertible proof that godly men are the salt of the earth, and may often be instrumental in preserving communities from utter desolation. It was not without a very emphatic meaning that Christ styled His disciples the salt of the earth. By their mere presence in the midst of ungodly men, and yet more, by their prayers and intercessions, may the righteous often arrest vengeance and prevent the utter ruin of a country. The wicked know nothing of their obligations to the righteous. In general, they despise or hate the righteous--either accounting them fools, or galled by the reproof conveyed by their example. If they had what they wish, they would remove the righteous from amongst them, reckoning that they should then have greater freedom in pursuing their schemes, or enjoying their pleasures. And little do they think that these very objects of their scorn and dislike may be all the while their best guardians and benefactors; turning aside from them evils by which they might be otherwise rapidly overtaken, and procuring for them a lengthened portion of Divine patience and forbearance. Little do they think that the worst thing possible for their country and themselves is when there is a rapid diminution in the number of the righteous; every good man who dies and leaves no successor being as a practical withdrawal from that leaven which alone stays the progress of the universal decomposition. Now we have reached the point at which piety ceases to have power in averting evil from others. What does it, then, do for the pious themselves? Intercession time has gone--the judgment time has come; and every man must be dealt with according to his own character. But if righteousness then lose its power to avail with God for others, besides its possessors; and if on this account the righteous may well shrink from such seasons, yet it appears certain that righteousness is as acceptable as ever to God, and that therefore the righteous have nothing to fear individually for themselves. Come plague! come depopulation! if thou art indeed a devoted, consistent servant of God, they shall not touch thee till the time has come which has been fixed by thy merciful Father! A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. The funeral procession may wend often from their doors, bearing away (it is melancholy to think) those for whose salvation they have long prayed, and for whom they have daily sought a further day of grace; but they themselves shall be unassailed till the day which, in any case, God had fixed for their entry into rest; and thus shall the pestilence, whose ravages in their households did but fit them for higher glory, do only the part of common sickness in freeing them from a corruptible body. And, therefore, may those in whose hearts is the fear of the Lord, hear without trepidation what God says about bringing His sore judgments on a land. There are two very important considerations suggested by the subject we have thus endeavoured to discuss.
1. We wish you to observe that he who serves God, serves his country best.
2. We ask you to observe that whatever the advantages which a man derives from having pious relatives, there is a point at which those relatives can afford him no help. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Intercessory prayer
I. Intercessory prayer is an exercise of great value.
1. As developing our love to man. Interesting ourselves in his trials, seeking to save him from his sins.
2. As carrying out the Divine precepts. In the spirit of Christ, in the fellowship of life.
3. As following after noble examples.
4. As obtaining great blessings for others.
II. Intercessory prayer can be offered only by good men.
1. He must not be under the sin against which he prays.
2. He should know by experience the value of the blessing he craves for another.
3. He must be willing to join effort with prayer.
III. Intercessory prayer has some limitations even when offered by the best of men. This is evident--
1. From Scripture.
2. From observation.
IV. Intercessory prayer is a grand distinction and provision of the Gospel. We have--
1. The best of intercessors (Heb_7:25). In office, sympathy, work, influence.
2. Praying for the best of blessings. Salvation, preservation, comfort, glory.
3. Taking up the ease of every soul that trusts Him.
4. Always successful. (W. Whale.)
Intercession rejected
The Hebrews had justly a very high opinion of Moses. How proudly they boasted, We are the disciples of Moses! As the late Dr. R.W. Dale has pointed out, More than Luther is to Germany, more than Napoleon is to France, more than Alfred, or Elizabeth, or Cromwell, or William
III. is to England, Moses was to the Jewish people--prophet, patriot, warrior, lawgiver, all in one. Yet even so great a servant of God as Moses together with the famous seer Samuel, would avail nothing in intercession for the Jews at this time. My mind, saith the Lord, could not be toward this people.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES—For Chronology of the Chapter and…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES—For Chronology of the Chapter and Historical Facts, see on chap. Jer_10:5 in loc.
1. Personal Allusions. Jer_15:1. “Moses and Samuel,” here mentioned as having been preeminent and prevailing intercessors on behalf of their people. Comp. Exo_32:11-14; Num_14:13-20, as to Moses; and 1Sa_7:9; 1Sa_12:23, as to Samuel: confer also Psalms 99 as to both. Jer_15:4. “Manasseh, son of Hezekiah:” Hezekiah was a most devout and religious king, whose piety throws into more heinous contrast the unrestrained guiltiness of his impious son, Manasseh—the thirteenth king of Judah; reigned longer than any other monarch of the Davidic line; born (probably) cir. B.C. 710; his mother, Hephzibah, daughter of a citizen or prince of Jerusalem (2 Kings 21). He succeeded to the throne at the age of twelve; the event was the signal for complete moral and spiritual debasement of the whole nation; every form of foreign idolatry was introduced—loathsome, sensuous, barbaric—even to the Moloch fires (2Ki_16:3; Isa_30:33; Jer_7:31), while the worship of Jehovah was repudiated, the holiness of the very sanctuary defiled (2Ch_33:4), God’s prophets ruthlessly persecuted and slain (2Ki_21:16), and the Theocracy openly repudiated and contemned. In the twenty-second year of his reign (according to a Jewish tradition), Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, invaded Israel, and carried Manasseh into Babylonian captivity, from which he was released (probably, for Scripture is strangely silent respecting his career) at the death of this Assyrian monarch. He then returned to his land, and attempted a reformation of his apostate and degraded nation and the restoration of Jehovah’s worship (2Ch_33:15-16), but the impurity and impiety of the people were beyond recal. His name, notwithstanding this repentance, was long held in abhorrence among the Jews.
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2. Natural History. Jer_15:3. “Dogs to tear fowls of the heaven and beasts of the earth to devour,” &c. “Troops of hungry and semi-wild dogs wander about the fields and streets of the cities, devouring dead bodies and other offal” (Dr. W. Smith). These dogs would tear, mutilate, and partly devour the dead bodies (cf. 2Ki_9:35; 2Ki_9:37), and birds and beasts of prey, vultures, jackals, and others, would make an end of such portions as the dogs left (Keil). Jer_15:9. “Her sun is gone down while it is yet day:” Dr. Payne Smith suggests that many consider the reference here “to the battle of Megiddo, depicting the consternation of Jerusalem at that event. If so, in the sun going down while it was yet day, there will be a reference to the eclipse on Sept. 30, B.C. 610.” Thus Hitzig remarks that the prophet “refers to the battle of Megiddo, the more probably (2Ki_23:29) as the figure of the sun setting in bright daylight might then be founded on the eclipse which took place in that valley Sept. 30, B.C. 610.”
3. Manners and Customs. Jer_15:3. “I will appoint over them four kinds:” (appoint, same word as in Jer_13:21 פָּקַד): just as God had set over Israel kings, priests, prophets, and judges for the nation’s well-being, so now He placed the people under the jurisdiction of these four destructive agencies (cf. Eze_14:21). Jer_15:7. “I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land:” allusion to the winnowing process by which the chaff is driven out of the windows of the threshing-floor; in such manner would this people (mere chaff) be driven out of the openings and exits, “the gates of the land.” Jer_15:10. “Lent on usury:” the Mosaic law interdicted interest on loans to the poor (Exo_22:25), and later on discriminated between foreigners and Hebrews, permitting usury upon loans to foreigners, but repudiating it with their brethren (Deu_23:19-20). From this verse it appears that discredit was attached to any who lent on usury even so late as in Jeremiah’s days. Yet there were departures from this law, and they caused bitter “strife and contention” between money-lender and debtor. Jer_15:17. “Sat not in the assembly of the mockers:” convivial gatherings; meetings where, amid hilarity and festivity, God was ignored and sacred things ridiculed. See notes on chap. Jer_6:11. “I sat alone because of Thy hand:” either because the prophetic power so possessed his soul as to draw him apart from ordinary society and compel him to an isolated life (so Keil, Clarius, Vatablus, &c.), or “because of the faithful communication of his inspired messages he had been expelled from society, and been made the object of their fierce indignation” (Henderson).
4. Literary Criticisms. Jer_15:1. “Cast them out of My sight:” send them, or drive them, from My presence; lit., from before My face, מֵעַל־פָּנַי; the form implies (supposititiously) that the people were assembled before Jehovah within the Temple—they were to “go forth,” leave the sacred precincts; God would not be interceded for them. Jer_15:3. “four kinds:” מִשְׁפָּחוֹת, lit. families; agencies of destruction. Jer_15:4. “Cause them to be removed:” זַוֲעָה, from the root זוּעַ, tossing, violent motion, maltreatment, quaking, terror. These various shades of meaning supply different interpretations of the text: I will cause them to be tossed violently hither and thither, abused, maltreated (Keil): I will give them up to agitation; they should have no rest, but be driven from place to place (Henderson): I will make them a shuddering unto all kingdoms (Hitzig, Graf): cause them to be a terror (Payne Smith): a horror (Lange). Jer_15:5. “Pity … bemoan … go aside,” &c.: חָמַל, to feel sympathy; נוּד, to lament and deplore; סוּר, to turn out of the way—“to ask how thou doest.” לְשָׁלוֹם, to salam, salute, inquire as to one’s health. No one will cherish the people with sympathy, indeed no one will trouble themselves to inquire as to their good. Jer_15:6. “Thou hast forsaken Ms, saith the Lord.” אַתְּ נָטַשְׁתְּ אֹתִי נְאֻם־יְהוֹה; the word “forsaken” is a feeble rendering of נָטַשׁ, “thou hast cast Me out, abandoned Me.” And this emphatic repudiation of Jehovah on their part justifies God’s refusal to be interceded for them. Jer_15:7. “Gates of the land:” הָאָרֶץ. Ewald and Graf render it earth, and understand it that God would winnow them through the extremities of the earth, remotest regions; but Keil, Lange, Henderson, retain “land:” God would drive them through the gates of their own land into exile. Jer_15:8. “I have brought upon them against the mother,” &c.: Henderson: “The words עַל־אֵם בַּחוּר have been very differently construed. The LXX. επὶ μητέρα νεανίσκους. Some (Syriac, Arabic, C. B. Michaelis, and Ewald) compare the phrase אֵם עַל בָּנִים, the mother with her children, but the position of the preposition before and not after אֵם renders such construction untenable. Others (Chaldean, Kimchi, J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, Graf, and Naegelsbach) take אֵם בָּחוּר to be in the construct state: the mother of the young man, or, regarding the nouns as collectives, the mothers of the young men. Jarchi, Capellus, Castalio, Dr. Dieu. Döderlein, Eichorn, and Dahler (and Reshi) consider אֵם, mother, to mean, the metropolis (as 2Sa_20:19).” Favouring this latter rendering, Henderson reads the words thus: I have brought to them—against the mother (city)—a young spoiler (Nebuchadnezzar). But with Jerome and Kimchi, &c., both Keil and the Speaker’s Comm. coincide, and translates: I have brought upon them, even upon the mother and the young man, a spoiler, &c.—i.e., no age or sex will escape the spoiler. “I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly;” rather, caused pangs and terrors to fall upon her suddenly. Jer_15:10. “Every one doth curse me:” The Hebrew words כלה מקללוני have been wrongly divided, and should be כֻּלְחֶם קִלִלוּנִי The form כֻלְהֶם (1st pers.) is unusual, yet is found in 2Sa_23:6. Jer_15:11. “Verily it shall be well with thy remnant:” a various reading appears here: a different pointing wholly changing the sense: שֵׁרִותִךָ may be pointed thus, שָׁרוֹתְךָ, (the infinitive Kal from שָׁרַר to oppress), or שְׁרוֹתְךָ (from שָׁרַה, to loose). The latter is preferable, and agrees with the rendering given to the only other appearance of the verb in the Heb. Scriptures (Job_37:3; setteth the lightning loose). The reading of the words then is, Verily thy loosing shall be for good; or, Verily I have loosed thee for good. “Thy remnant:” these words of course disappear from the text, being included and lost in the above translation of the sentence. “Cause the enemy to entreat thee well:” הִפְגַּעְתִּי (from פָּגַע, to meet, make peace, cause to supplicate): hence, I will cause the enemy to supplicate thee in the time of evil.
Jer_15:12. “Shall iron break:” can iron (ordinary iron) break northern iron and brass? not “steel;” or, can one break iron, i.e., northern iron and brass? Jer_15:14. “I will make thee to pass with thine enemies:” for the form וְהַעֲבַרְתִּי, Henderson and Dr. Payne Smith give והַעֲבַדְתִּי, I will cause thee to serve thine enemies: they make this change of the letter (ד instead of ר) on the ground of numerous MSS., also from the authority of the parallel passage, chap. Jer_17:4. Jer_15:15. “Suffered rebuke:” reproaJer_15:18. “Pain incurable:” very sick. אֲנוּשָׁה, malignant (comp. chap. Jer_30:12; Mic_1:9; Isa_17:11). “Wilt Thou be?” = Art Thou become. “A liar:” אַכְזָב, as a deceitful (brook or stream). “And as waters that fail:” as precarious water; the opposite of the perennial stream of Amo_5:24. Jer_15:19. “Bring thee again,” &c., rather, I will cause thee again to stand before my face (see Lit. Crit. on ver., 1, supra). This was an assurance to Jeremiah, that if he returned to his unquestioning trust in God’s wisdom and ways, God would confirm him in his prophetic and vicegeral relation to Himself. It was a gentle reproof of his impatient questionings, and a pledge of the renewal of his sacred trust. “Thou shalt stand before me,” Luther renders, Thou shalt remain my preacher.
HOMILETIO OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 15
Section
Jer_15:1-9.
God’s decisive refusal of the prophet’s petitions.
Section
Jer_15:10-14.
The consequent outcry of woe answered with Divine expostulations.
Section
Jer_15:15-21.
Fretting lamentations silenced with promises.
Jer_15:1-9. GOD’S DECISIVE REFUSAL OF THE PROPHET’S PETITION
I. There may be a criminality for which no intercession can be adequate.
1. Intercessors had prevailed even in cases of appalling guilt. When Moses and Samuel interceded effectually, the condition of Israel was most iniquitous and provocative of Divine wrath; yet they prevailed in prayer. Such “effectual fervent prayers of righteous men avail much.” It would almost seem that nothing could transcend the reach of mediatorial pleadings.
2. Yet there is a bound to the prevalency of intercession. Even Moses and Samuel would now find their mediation fail. For (1) God could not be reconciled to such a people. His “mind” was irremediably averted from them. (2) He had irrevocably determined their banishment; could not endure or permit their remaining within His sight. Persistent and defiant criminality can effectually alienate God. “There is a sin which is unto death; I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
3. Nevertheless, in these times of grace, through Christ, it appears impossible to exceed Divine clemency. What Moses and Samuel and Jeremiah could not do, Jesus can! “What the law (of Moses) could not do,” &c. (Rom_8:3). “Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him,” &c. (Heb_7:25).
II. Destructive agencies are in readiness for sinners abandoned to judgment.
1. A discriminating consignment to various forms of doom. All will not experience similar and equal judgment. A different form of punishment is allotted to each. Yet this “going forth” is not merely to banishment, but to execution. “These shall go away to everlasting destruction.”
2. Ruthless agencies of execution await their opportunity to destroy. So long as God shielded this people and retained them “before His face,” they were secure. So long as we are shielded by His mercy, ruin cannot reach us, however we may merit the ruin. But instantly God sent them “out of His sight,” away from His befriending, lo! “death, the sword, famine, and captivity,” all rushed upon them. Cast away from God’s presence, we shall find executioners vigilant.
3. Abandoned spiritual apostasy is the unpardonable offence with God. (See Personal Allusions on Jer_15:4, “Manasseh.”) The horrifying indulgences, sacriligeous debasements, foul practices, defiance and defilement of God’s holiness and holy place: these were the people’s crimes under Manasseh. He did but let loose their cherished apostasy. Himself vile, the nation rushed into and revelled in vileness and villany. This is “the sin unto death.”
III. Flagrant wickedness ultimately alienates all commiseration or compassion.
1. Human pity is estranged (Jer_15:5). No one will sympathise with their misery, lament their ruin, or inquire for their condition.
2. Divine relenting is exhausted (Jer_15:6). God was “weary with repenting,” and would now inexorably punish.
3. Justice effectually avenges impenitence. “They return not from their ways” (Jer_15:7). That justifies their final and severe doom. (1) From their land driven forth (Jer_15:7). (2) Their holy city desolated (Jer_15:8). (3) Death and doom overtaking all, irrespective of sex or age (Jer_15:9, see Lit. Crit. on verse).
NOTE: “Pity” is slow to die, even from the human heart; it survives, and asserts itself even when all affection is dead. Far more slowly does God’s pity die. Yet heinous, determined, ostentatious, and persistent guilt will eventually destroy all pity for the wicked. Then only terrible and implacable miseries can ensue.
Jer_15:10-14. THE OUTCRY OF WOE ANSWERED WITH EXPOSTULATIONS
Seeing that he availed nothing by prayer, the prophet raised his lament. Into his cry enter both personal disappointment and patriotic dismay.
I. He bemoans his troubled prophetic career, since it accomplished no national good.
He repines over: 1. His personal hardships. 2. His prophetic calling and commission, for these had been fruitful of grief, suffering, and calumny. And 3. The hostility he encounters: “Every one doth curse me;” his experiences are as distressing as if he had himself been “a man of strife and contention,” and as if his occupation had been that of the hated usurer! Observe how he gives prominence to the comfortless aspects of his career,—how he thrusts his own troubles forward, almost ignoring the wisdom and benignity of the Divine purpose in commissioning him to prophetic duties. What were his sufferings and discomforts as compared with the opportunities and persuasives to salvation God had sent to the nation through him? He betrays:
i. Grief for apparent failure in his work and prayers. “He felt angry that he effected less than he wished” (Calvin). All ministers could alike complain.
ii. Regret for the hardships his ministry had entailed. Sinners are apt to judge and slander faithful preachers as contentious disturbers of their peace.
iii. Trouble for the irrevocable ruin of his nation. The hearts of his people were unmoved, unchanged. And, his preachings and prayers notwithstanding, Judah was doomed!
II. With mingled promises and threatenings God answers the prophet’s complaint. Jehovah meets the outcry thus:—
1. He assures him of ameliorating mercies amid the coming distress (Jer_15:11). He should be exempt from the national woe, and be treated with forbearance.
2. Explains the prophet’s impotency in intercession. His prayers are but as “iron,” stout and determined indeed; yet God’s purpose to send Judah into exile is inflexible as “northern iron and steel,” or, the Assyrian invasion cannot be repelled now by your prayers (Jer_15:12).
3. Justifies the severe judgments He had determined upon Judah. Her prevalent “sins” (Jer_15:13) necessitated punishment.
4. Avows Himself moved to a fiery anger which should consume the hardened nation. God was wroth, justly and resolutely angry; and such righteous anger could not be restrained, as if it were fitful, by even His prophet’s cries. Personal feeling must bow to Divine equity.
Jer_15:15-21. FRETTING LAMENTATIONS SILENCED WITH PROMISES
In the strophe (Jer_15:15-18), the prophet, though recognising that the fall of Judah is inevitable, as shown in Jer_15:12-14, and that he cannot escape the hard lot of having to predict the ruin of his country as a purpose absolutely determined, yet offers unto God a last expostulation, and that in a tone of reproach, as if the promises made in chap. Jer_1:18 had not been fulfilled.
His words are full of meaning:
I. He appeals to God the all-knowing (who was acquainted, therefore, with the manner of his call, the promises made him, the hopes with which he had accepted his office, his disappointment, his dangers, the opposition he had met with, and his perseverance when in despair) to show that He remembered him by visiting him, i.e., by interfering in some marked manner in his behalf and punishing his persecutors.
To the prophet God’s long-suffering towards the wicked seemed to be the abandonment of himself to death, and justice itself required that one who was suffering contumely for God’s sake should be delivered.
II. He contrasts the joy with which he had accepted his office (Jer_15:16), when he received God’s words and “did eat them,” with—
III. The present revulsion of his feelings (Jer_15:17): the intense “indignation” with which he regarded the sins of the people, which were heinous in themselves, grievous offences against God, and involved the ruin of His Church. Then
IV. Prays for more evident help (Jer_15:19). It is the prayer of a man in bitter grief, whose human nature cannot at present submit to the Divine will.
V. Laments that the delivery of God’s message availed nothing. His labours were in vain. This made his “pain perpetual,” &c. Nothing he did had in aught changed the miserable state of things around him. Jeremiah had expected that, called to so high an office, there would be perpetual interference of Providence in his behalf, instead whereof, things seemed to take only their natural course God seemed “as a deceitful stream” to him.
To all this God made a reply full of forbearance and graciousness, although comfort is blended with rebuke.
I. Solemn conditions are specified. These were imperative to the prophet’s reinstatement in official dignity and service (Jer_15:19).
1. Personal “return.” Jeremiah had, as in chap. 12, questioned God’s righteousness; he is told he must “return,” must repent him of his doubts, and think only of his duty.
2. Separation in himself of what was divine and holy from the dross of human passion (Maurer): let the “precious” metal be distinct from the “vile.”
II. Gracious assurances are given.
1. The restoration of Jeremiah to the prophetic office: “I will cause thee again to stand before me” (see Lit. Crit. on verse). To stand before a person means to be his chief officer or viceregent, and is said of Elijah (1Ki_17:1), and Elisha (2Ki_3:14), as God’s prophets; of David as Saul’s minister (1Sa_16:21-22), of Nebuzar-adan as commander-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar’s arms (Jer_52:12, margin).
2. He should be again the organ by which God would speak: “Thou shalt be as My mouth.” Here is supplied a principle for regulating the prophet’s conduct:—“Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them:” concede not to the people—a flattering prophet perishes with the people whom his soft speeches have confirmed in their sin; but the truthful speaking of God’s Word saves both.
3. The original promises and covenant with Jeremiah are confirmed (Jer_15:20-21). This repeats God’s pledge given at Jeremiah’s original call (see chap. Jer_1:18-19), adding the promise of deliverance from men of open violence—“the terrible.”—Arranged from Speaker’s Com.
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 15
Jer_15:1. Theme: THE LOATHSOME SOUL OUTCAST FROM GOD. “My mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of My sight.”
Such is Jehovah’s answer to the kneeling, weeping, pleading prophet. Jeremiah, in his prayer, had asked, as if it could never really be so, “Hath Thy soul loathed Zion?” (Jer_14:19). Now God affirms that the people had become irrevocably loathsome to Him.
I. Loathing would seem impossible to a God of beneficent love.
1. Sin, though repulsive, did not alienate God’s love from the world. For “God commended His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.”
2. However defiled and worthless the sinner, there dwells abounding grace in Christ. None can exceed the virtue of His atonement or the compass of His pity, or the fulness of His Gospel calls.
3. It is the crowning glory of God that He is merciful to our unrighteousness. He proclaims Himself to be, and would be known as, “The Lord merciful and gracious,” &c.
4. Love delights to assert itself towards those in the lowest depths of alienation. It seeks and saves the lost.
5. Extreme cases in the Gospel records encourage hope for vilest sinners. The crucified malefactor, who cast revilings in Christ’s teeth; Mary Magdalene, out of whom was cast seven devils; Saul, who breathed out threatenings and slaughter, &c.
II. Loathing can only ensue where love has been relentlessly outraged. This was Judah’s case; her conduct had exhausted and exceeded all the resources of Divine love.
1. Love may not neutralise the law and action of rightness. It may interpose and mitigate justice, but not frustrate it. And where love effects no change in the sinner, right must be allowed to pursue its course and requite the guilty conduct.
2. Wilful contempt of patient and pitying love courts Divine aversion. Such treatment of God’s gentleness and patience arouses indignation. “Last of all, He sent His Son, and Him they slew!”
3. The superlative crime of the sinner is to outrage and alienate love. To break law is evil enough, but when love interposes to shield the wrong-doer, for him then to abuse love is to culminate iniquity.
III. Loathing, when once incurred, closes all hope of reconciliation. “My mind cannot be towards this people.”
1. The very thoughts of God, as well as His affections, turn irrevocably away from such heinous transgressors.
2. No intercession can effect a recal of the Divine complacency. He cannot look upon such sin.
3. While the horrible heartlessness of men remains there can be no basis of reconciliation. “Intercession is powerful, and is not without fruit, when he who prays and they for whom he prays are of like spirit” (Cramer). But, with relentless hostility in the human heart, God can never turn compassionately towards the sinner.
IV. Loathing having been righteously merited, the doom of banishment follows. “Cast them out of My sight.”
1. No place in the Divine mind entails no place in the Divine presence. Having forfeited God’s favour, the soul must quit His abode.
2. No place in the Divine presence entails irrevocable banishment. An outcast,—“a castaway.” “These shall go away.” “Oh, that they were wise, that they understood these things, that they would consider their latter end.”
Theme: INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
Prayer is both a duty and a privilege. Scripture commands that those who pray should not limit prayer to self: “Pray one for another.” Intercessions are to be made for all men (1Ti_2:1-2). Jeremiah had prayed very earnestly for his people. He was not only unsuccessful, but was even forbidden to pray for them (14 Jer_15:11). Moreover, he is informed that though Moses and Samuel should both stand before God, even they could not prevail. This suggests to us that there are limits to the duty and to the power of intercessory prayer. Consider, then,
I. That intercessory prayer is an exercise of great value.
1. As developing our love to man. Interesting ourselves in his trials, seeking to save him from his sins. This love may be shown first to our nearest friends, but it will, if true, take in man as man. We are to pray even for “them that despitefully use us.”
2. As carrying out the Divine precepts. In the spirit of Christ, in the fellowship of life. “When ye pray say, Our Father.” The model prayer is in the plural, “our,” “us,” “we;” not I, my, me.
3. As following after noble examples. Abraham, Moses, Samuel (1Sa_7:9), Elijah, Jeremiah, Jesus, and all good men who love the souls of their fellows.
4. As obtaining great blessings for others. Lot appears to have been saved by Abraham’s prayer. Israel often spared because Moses or Samuel prayed (Exo_32:11-14; Num_14:17-20; 1Sa_7:9). The prayer of faith was to save the sick, to obtain even salvation (Jas_5:15; 1Jn_5:16), &c.
II. That intercessory prayer can be offered only by good men. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
1. He must not be under the sin against which he prays. If it be a prayer of sympathy for one in trouble, this rule has no force. It is essential that, as the priest of old time went in first for himself then for the people, so it should be also with intercessory prayer.
2. Should know by experience the value of the blessing he craves for another. Else how can he pray with the heart and understanding.
3. He must be willing to join effort with prayer. Otherwise his sympathy and desire will be a mere pretence, a thing of words, a mere worthless sentiment. God will not hear the prayers of those who will do nothing but pray, if they are able to do other things besides to gain the object of their prayers.
III. That intercessory prayer has some limitations even when offered by the best of men. Such as Jeremiah, Moses, Samuel.
1. This is evident from Scripture. Abraham could not prevail to save Sodom. Peter would not pray for Simon Magus; he must pray for himself. John in his First Epistle says, “There is a sin unto death; I do not say that he shall pray for it.” (See other texts.)
2. This is evident from observation. We have all known many prayers offered for others which have been apparently unanswered. Sometimes the faults are in ourselves (see under II.), but sometimes we fail to find explanation.
3. Reason would lead to the same conclusion. The best of men are but men. They may at times be more influenced by sorrowful sights than by sinful acts. Personal feeling controls them as it does others. Prayer is powerful, but not all-powerful. God will grant their requests if in so doing He can be just and true to all—His character and all His people.
IV. That intercessory prayer is a grand distinction and provision of the Gospel. We have
1. The best of intercessors (Heb_7:25). In office, in sympathy, in work, in influence.
2. Praying for the best of blessings. Salvation, preservation, comfort, glory (Joh_17:24).
3. Taking up the case of every soul that trusts Him. “All that come unto God by Him” (Heb_7:25).
4. Always successful in His intercession. He will not take up any case which would or could fail. He always does those things which please the Father. He is always heard (Joh_11:42). His plea is irresistible,—it satisfies law, it magnifies grace, it humbles the sinner, it glorifies the Father, it consecrates life to good deeds.
Let the failure of others teach us to fly for refuge to the only One whose intercessions are unfailing. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous” (His prayer for Peter Luk_22:31-32).—W. Whale.
Jer_15:2. Theme: INCREDULITY AT GOD’ MESSAGE OF DOOM. “If they shall say unto thee”—as they are likely to do in a jeer and with scoffing incredulity—“Whither shall we go forth?”
I. The seeming incredibility of the doom pronounced.
1. Sinners cannot think their ruin really imminent. They dream on demented, revel in sin, blinded to its enormity and their own peril.
2. Messages of doom seem to them empty menaces. It was so when Noah prophesied the Flood; so when the angel threatened Sodom’s overthrow; so with the terrible predictions of our Lord concerning Jerusalem’s destruction; and is so still when the “end of all things” and the fiery judgment are announced.
3. Dreadful calamities start in the mind a revulsion which produces incredulity. A kind of blank bewilderment results from the attempt to entertain a terrifying announcement—“Whither shall we go forth?” It is simply incredible, impossible. So now, in our own times, sinners answer the announcement of the woes awaiting the impenitent with a light indifference, a jeering unbelief. It is not credible that God will doom us, will dismiss us for ever from salvation!
II. The ready incredulity of those under doom.
Condemned souls would prefer not to realise the sentence true; so find evasive questions, endeavour to explain away the menace as meaningless, and then jeer contemptuously at the messenger who prophesies evil against them. The same process is rife to-day; for cavillers answer the preacher thus—There is no doom to the unsaved: whither will the ungodly be banished? Doom will not be very distressing: it is impossible that a soul should be for ever lost.
1. Man meets God’s threatenings with incredulity.
2. God meets man’s incredulity with specific affirmations. “Such as are for death,” &c. There is a dreadful precision in God’s dire messages: they cannot well be explained away as parabolic images, as oriental and pictorial figures, merely setting off in bold colours a trifling occurrence. Such things as are here arrayed in order to bring incredulity to its sober senses—death, the sword, famine, captivity—are more than imaginary forms of speech; they are terrific facts, appallingly literal.
Note: Sinners would be wise to believe God means exactly what He threatens. What madness to risk the future on an evasive interpretation of His menaces!
See Addenda: SCORNFUL INCREDULITY.
Theme: SCOFFING ANSWERED BY SARCASM. The words may be so interpreted—
I. Derisive questionings: “Whither shall we go forth?” Perhaps you will tell us a little more explicitly what our doom is to be! Inform us, if you can, where and to what we are to be driven.
II. Sarcastic directions. Would you know more precisely to what God will send you forth? Then hear: Each to his allotted doom: one shall “go forth” to “death,” and he shall certainly meet it; another to “the sword,” &c. The way will be made quite plain to you, so plain that you will not be likely to miss your appointed doom. These evils you jeer at will be found waiting for you in their appointed place. Do not think there will be any probability of your missing them. All is carefully and conveniently arranged for you. (Comp. Jer_15:3-4.)
Jer_15:4. Comments—
I WILL CAUSE THEM TO BE REMOVED.
Blayney rightly observes that the word rendered “to be removed,” in our version, has no such meaning. The verb means to move, agitate, disquiet, but not to move from one place to another. The noun as found here is rendered “vexation” in Isa_28:19, and “trouble” in 2Ch_29:8. The idea of removing is not given in any of the versions, nor in the Targum. It is used in two places by Jeremiah, chap. Jer_24:9; Jer_29:18. In both places “vexation, trouble, or disquietude” would be the best rendering. The sentence may be thus translated: And I will render them a vexation to all the kingdoms of the earth. Literally it is, “I will give them for a vexation,” &c. And so they became; they were a trouble and a disquietude wherever they were; and hence they became, as it is said in chap. Jer_29:18, a curse, a hissing, and a reproach among all nations.
Venema gives this rendering: And I will give them for a shaking to all the kingdoms of the earth. Which he understands to mean, that they would be given to be shaken, agitated and disquieted.—Ed. of Calvin.
The Jews were to have no rest, but were to be driven from place to place at the pleasure of their enemies. Ewald: Spiel des Windes.—Hend.
Rather: I will cause them to be a terror. So the Syriac and Rashi render, Every one who hears of the calamity that has befallen them will tremble. The words are quoted from Deu_28:25.—Speaker’s Com.
“BECAUSE OF MANASSEH THE SON OF HEZEKIAH.” The sin upon which this severe sentence is grounded—
i. It is in remembrance of a former iniquity. It is “because of Manasseh.” What “he did in Jerusalem” we are told (1Ki_21:3-4). This is brought into the account with the present generation, to show that the guilt of blood will light and lie somewhere sooner or later, and that reprieves are not pardons.
ii. It is in consideration of their present impenitency. Their own sin is described in Jer_15:6-7. There is mercy for those who have turned aside, if they will return; but what favour can they expect who persist in their apostasy?—Henry.
“THE SON OF HEZEKIAH.” But altogether degenerate. He was therefore the worse, because he should have been better; and the worse again, because he was author publicœ corruptelœ, a ringleader of rebellion to others, as was Jeroboam.—Trapp.
God keeps an exact protocol (register) of sins, and visits them to the third and fourth generation.—Cramer.
See what uncertain comforts children are, and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not.—Henry.
Qualis rex talis grex.—Förster.
Theme: AN ANOMALY IN THE LAW OF TRANSMISSION. “Because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah.”
Notice that, 1. Grace was NOT transmitted from Hezekiah to Manasseh: parental virtues do not necessarily reappear in the children. 2. Guilt WAS transmitted from Manasseh to that generation: evil travels down, reappears through successive years.
Explanation: The human heart is not naturally enamoured of godliness, does not instinctively appreciate and reciprocate good example; but “men love darkness,” are quick to respond to the sway and charm of a bad example.
I. Eminent piety in the father does not ensure godliness in the son. Social life cannot guarantee what a child’s future will be. Only God’s grace can implant holiness.
1. Godliness is not hereditary. Parents cannot produce it in their children. Neither is it transmitted involuntarily.
2. To see godliness at home does not necessarily awaken others to love and emulate it. The example of holiness is not omnipotent, neither is it sure to charm others. The heart is not prone to it.
II. Criminality is deepened when a holy parental example is repudiated.
1. It was Manasseh’s duty, personally and publicly, to follow Hezekiah’s example. For the reforms Hezekiah had effected were manifestly right in themselves, and beneficial to the nation, as well as due to God, who had befriended Judah.
2. It was an aggravation of his guilt that he reversed all his father had done. He owed it to his father to respect the work he had so laboriously wrought; and to his father’s God to preserve the worship and sacred institutions he had so zealously restored.
[Notes:—
“The name of the pious father intensifies the horror at the wickedness of the son” (2Ki_21:3).—Speaker’s Com.
“We learn that they are worthy of a heavier punishment, who have been religiously brought up from their childhood, and have afterwards degenerated; who, having had pious and godly parents, afterwards abandon themselves to every wickedness. Hence a heavier judgment awaits those who depart from the examples of godly fathers.”—Calvin.
“His relation to so good a father was a great aggravation to his sin, so far was it from being an excuse for it.”—Henry.]
III. Rueful consequences will overtake a people who elect and follow a guilty leader. Why does God threaten vengeance on this generation for Manasseh’s sins?
1. His example did not justify them in doing the same. They could not shelter themselves under the plea of Manasseh’s leading.
2. Their continuance in guilt was wilful and determined. They reproduced Manasseh’s crimes, but it was not because some force urged them on involuntarily; they did evil of their own accord.
3. The people had a choice of examples before them. Hezekiah had shown them the way of godliness; Manasseh, the way of sin. But they “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” There was in them “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”
4. To follow evil leading will lead to evil issues. “I will cause them to be removed—to be a horror—among the nations, because of Manasseh.” “Both fall into the ditch.”
See Addenda: PARENTAGE.
Jer_15:5. Comments—
Who will take pity … to wish thee well? “From Jer_15:1-4, it follows with absolute certainty that Jehovah will no longer help, and that therefore Israel is inevitably lost. No longer any escape! If the Lord will not, who else will have pity on the people? (Isa_51:19; Nah_3:7.) Who, indeed, will even ask how they are? The thought seems to be implied, that still less will any one do aught for the welfare of the people, or any longer intercede for them as the prophet has done (Jer_16:7 seq.)”—Naeg.
“When God abandons us, we are abandoned also by the holy angels and all creatures. For as at court, when two eyes are turned away the whole court turns away; so when the Lord turns away, all His hosts turn away also.”—Cramer.
“The sinful people will be given up to all the kingdoms of the earth to be ill used, for no one will or can have compassion on Jerusalem, since its rejection by God is a just punishment for its rejection of the Lord (Jer_15:6). Have pity and bemoan denote loving sympathy with the fall of the unfortunate.—Keil.
Theme: LOST EVEN TO PITY. “Who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem?”
It is usual to pity the ignorant, the unfortunate, the weak; but the wilfully evil, those who sin against the light of knowledge and the manifestations of love, must be blamed and, unless they repent, condemned. In her sorrows Jerusalem seemed an object of pity, but there were none to show favour unto her. The gods which she had worshipped could render no help, and the people at whose evil desire she had compromised her honour now taunted and derided her (Lam_2:15). Who shall pity thee?
I. Thou hast had the oracles of God. Thy case is not as the heathen who have no knowledge, but as of those who “love darkness rather than light.”
II. Thou hast had great religious advantages. The priesthood, sacrifices, and mercy-seats. The Sabbaths, sacred feasts, and gracious promises.
III. Thou hast had a history of Divine mercies. In Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By Moses and Aaron, Joshua and the Judges, Samuel, David, and Solomon. At the Red Sea, at Marah, at Elim, at Rephidim, at Horeb, at Jordan, &c.
IV. Thou hast insulted and forsaken thy best Friend. Thy choice has been fatal to thee, for thou hast gone away after the weak, worthless, and wicked.
V. He who pities thee most is compelled to punish thee. For His holiness’ sake, and as a warning to others (Mat_23:37; Mat_23:39).
VI. All other pity is useless to thee. It cannot deliver thee. It cannot take away thy sin. Oh that thou wouldest truly repent and turn unto the Lord, then would He not only pity, but pardon and prosper thee.—W. Whale.
See Addenda: LOST TO PITY.
Jer_15:6. Theme: JEHOVAH WEARY WITH REPENTING.
These words do not accord with our ideas of the Divine Being. We are accustomed to the words, “He fainteth not, neither is weary,” and “He is not man that He should repent.” The word “repent” evidently is not to be taken in its ordinary sense as applied to men. So far from the word “repent” indicating change in God, it is the outworking of His immutability. He ever regards sin with abhorrence, and contrite hearts with pity and grace; if, therefore, the people are hardened in sin, He sends a message like that by Jonah to Nineveh, but if, during the day of grace, the people truly repent and cry for mercy, then, by the same law of His being, He refrains from carrying out His threatenings. There is a real change in the people, which alters the relationship in which they stand towards God, but there is only an apparent change in the Divine dealing. To the impenitent, God is unchangeably just. To the penitent, He is unchangeably merciful. The fact that God is “weary of repenting,” shows—
I. That God had often turned from His threatenings, and dealt in mercy with the people.
II. That the Divine mercy had been frequently abused, and the people had gone back again to their sins.
III. That not a change in His being, but only a change of relationship, is expressed by the word “repent” (Jon_3:10).
IV. That judgment is alien to God’s heart, whereas mercy is His delight. If He can, without weakening the force of justice and encouraging sin, He will magnify grace and save men.
V. That when God is met with persistent ingratitude, and men relapse continually to sin, He must eventually punish them. He is weary with repenting, and will deal in judgment with them.
VI. That the operations of the Divine mind can only be expressed in human language with difficulty and limitation.
VII. That we should be careful in not trifling with or abusing the patient longsuffering of God. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.”—W. Whale
WEARY WITH REPENTING. “The punishment due has been delayed into weariness, and this seeming failure of justice has made Judah withdraw farther from God.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“This determination of the Lord will not change, for He is weary of repenting.”—Keil.
“God is represented as a man whose patience is at last quite tired out, it being to no purpose to withdraw His hand any longer from striking.”—Lowth.
Comments—
Jer_15:7. “The gates of the land mean the places by which men enter or leave it. As God winnows them, they are driven out of the land through all its outlets in every direction.”—Payne Smith.
“The gates of the land mean the extreme points at which an entrance or an exit was effected. Jehovah threatens to carry them thither, to be thence scattered among the nations.” (Comp. Nah_3:13.)—Henderson.
Jer_15:8. “Against the mother of the young men,” &c. (See Lit. Crit. on ver. p. 315.) Most of the old commentators regarded this as a reference to the mother-city, Jerusalem. Archbishop Secker suggested that “the nation in general is called the ‘mother’ of each Jewin particular,” citing Isa_50:1 and Hos_2:2-5. But exact criticism brings out the sense—against the mother of the young man, the word rendered “young man” meaning a picked warrior; and suggesting that even the vigorous woman who had borne a valorous warrior would fall before the spoiler. Neither strength nor valour could deliver from him. Others suggest, that both mother and son would fall, neither age nor sex being respected.
Jer_15:8. Theme: SUDDEN SPOLIATIONS.
A spoiler at noonday: Henderson’s reading (see Lit. Crit.), “a young spoiler,” leads him to adopt into his comments a historic statement which Josephus cites from Berosus, the Chaldean historian, which reads thus: “That Nabopollassar, king of Babylon, hearing that the provinces of Egypt, Cœle-Syria, and Phenice had revolted, and being himself infirm from age, sent a part of his forces under his son Nebuchadnezzar (i.e., Nebuchadnezzar II.), then in the prime of youth, by whom these provinces were again reduced.” After defeating Pharaoh-Necho at Charchemish, he marched forward against Jerusalem and captured it. The noonday attack, at an hour when military operations were usually suspended, indicated the restlessness of the spoiler—he could not wait; and the unexpectedness of the attack—at an hour when none anticipated. So that these facts stand out:
I. The Divinity which rules in calamities. “I have brought upon them:” “I have caused,” &c. (1.) God works always. (2.) Disasters have a meaning and a mission. (3.) The law is being Divinely enforced that sin brings misery.
II. The resources of Jehovah for chastisement. God would have “the young spoiler” ready when the hour of judgment arrived. (1) He foreknows history, (2) anticipates the careers of nations, (3) provides for contingencies, and (4) prepares His emissaries for the work to be done.
III. The startling aspects of misfortune.
1. At an unlikely hour: “noonday.”
2. By an impatient agent: eager, restless, could not wait for the sultry noon to pass.
3. With an impetuous force: “suddenly,” like a lightning stroke; and “fall upon,” as a crushing avalanche, irresistible, overbearing all. Even the young warriors fell before the spoiler, and the mother too.
(a.) Thus affliction comes, and health, loved lives, are stricken.
(b.) Thus reverses befall, and home, fortune, are shattered.
(c.) Thus conscience terrifies, and the soul is filled with anguish for its guilt.
(d.) Thus death seizes its victims, and we lie cold; or “widows” multiply, or “young men” fall, or “mothers” weep for the slain.
(e.) Thus the last day will come, and the archangels’ cry will suddenly appal the world.
Theme: LIFE’S NOONTIDE. “The spoiler at noonday.”
Sermon to the Young.
I. In the noontide of life we suspect no nearing ills. The foe would not be anticipated at “noonday.” The young expect no perils.
II. In the noontide of life spoilers conspire for our fall. The schemes of the enemy are founded on our not expecting him. He takes advantage.
III. In the noontide of life the young have been destroyed. Think of Byron. Yes, even the “young warrior.” “The young men do utterly fall.”
IV. In the noontide of life death seizes its prey. No age is spared. The “spoiler” respects none. Youth may die.
V. In the noontide of life, God’s redeeming care is urgently needed. Only as He befriends us are we safe when the “spoiler” comes. Religion is not merely for old age. Youth needs God. Hid with Christ in Him, nought can harm. “I fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”
See Addenda: LIFE’S NOONTIDE.
Jer_15:6-9. Theme: GOD FORSAKING AND GOD FORSAKEN.
When the Spirit of the Lord came upon Azariah, the son of Oded (2Ch_15:1-2), he was moved to say unto Judah and Benjamin, “The Lord is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him He will be found of you, but if ye forsake Him He will forsake you.” These verses remarkably verify that inspired utterance. Here we meet—
I. A God forsaking people. They are convicted by God Himself of a great folly and sin: “Thou hast forsaken Me.” In chap. Jer_2:13 the charge is more complete. Creation is called upon to express surprise at a folly so conspicuous as that of forsaking the fount of all good, and taking up with helpless vanities.
“Thou,”—who oughtest to have been unto Me a loyal and loving people, testifying of My power and grace, and proving by separation from the nations your preference for the living and true God.
“Hast forsaken,”—not simply forgotten, or disobeyed, but of deliberate choice hast taken other gods, and disregarded Jehovah.
“Me,”—who called Abraham and made a covenant of lasting privileges with him and his descendants, who brought you out of Egypt, who led you, fed you, protected you, and gave to you the land in which you dwell; and assured you, by wondrous promises which yet await fulfilment, of future good and greatness to you, if you could but be faithful to Jehovah.
II. A God-forsaken people. This is the effect, man’s conduct the cause. “If ye forsake Him, He will forsake you.” When a people are forsaken of God, they are—
1. Always retrograde. “Thou art gone backward,” spiritually gone back into Egypt. All who forsake God go backward, always backward, and downward. Unless they repent and obey God, there is no way forward and upward. Forward and upward is the desire and movement of a true soul.
2. Always in danger of destruction. “Therefore will I destroy you.” Therefore (i.e.), because you have gone backward. It is the penalty of a backward movement. It must come upon all who forsake God. If we forsake the mercy, we inherit the misery.
3. Always exposed to terrors and disasters. Suggested by such words as, “bereave,”—“widows,”—“spoiler,”—“terrors.” All caused by the God they have forsaken.
4. Always drifting into languor, premature decline, shame, and death (Jer_15:9). Such is the end of those who are forsaken of God. No strength, no courage, no progress, no real true life; but decline, captivity, and darkness. “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”—W. Whale.
Comments—
Jer_15:9. “She that hath borne seven languisheth.” Seven, being the perfect number, signifies fulness: Jerusalem, the mother-city, was once fully populated, now she is deserted! “Formerly she prided herself in her offspring” (comp. 1Sa_2:5), but now she is “ashamed and confounded” (Lam_1:1).
“She hath given up the ghost:” lit., She hath breathed out her life, as if in laboured sighs: expiring in heavy heart breaths of grief. (Comp. Job_31:39.)
“Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.” “The sun of her life sets before the evening has been reached.” (Comp. Amo_8:9.)—Keil.
“The sun of her life, and the happiness (comp. Mal_4:2, Psa_84:12) which she had in her sons, is gone down.”—Naeg.
Connecting these verses with the illfated battle of Megiddo, and accepting these words as descriptive, most commentators regard them as depicting the consternation of Jerusalem at that disastrous event. If so, the going down of the sun while it was yet day holds an apt reference to the eclipse which occurred on Sept. 30, B.C. 610.
Theme: LIFE PREMATURELY CLOSED. Text: “Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.” Specially applicable to a useful Christian life cut off by death in the midst of its years.
I. A lustrous life. She was our “sun.” In the horizon of our home, or our church, or our friendships, she glowed, and with her radiant character and gleaming ministries gladdened all.
1. A conspicuous life: of worth, of usefulness, of eminence.
2. A beneficent life: giving out good and gladness to others.
3. An illuminated life. For God gave the sun its glory. All our excellences, all our power of usefulness, are His gifts. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Yes: and “we are His workmanship.” “The Lord gives grace and glory.”
II. A lustrous life prematurely darkened. “While yet day.”
1. The course of human life is not of uniform duration.
2. The most benignant and beautiful life may suddenly end. Though we be robed with grace and living for Christ, that does not assure to us length of days.
3. When a beautiful life ends, preternatural gloom ensues. Some deaths cause no bewailing. It is a tribute to the worth of a life that it is so missed and so lamented. “Devout men made lamentation over him.”
III. A lustrous life prematurely set will again rise and shine. All lives are not lustrous, yet all lives must set in the grave. Death comes to all sooner or later. Our lives differ in degree of grace and glory. Our deaths therefore differ. All will rise again, but not all to shine. “Then shall the righteous shine forth,” &c.
1. Comfort in this thought. The sun will again rise and shine. So will the cherished life we mourn as having “gone down.”
2. Inspiration in this thought. Radiant careers on earth will glow with splendour hereafter. Therefore, “Let your light shine before men.” Live beneficent lives.
3. Satisfaction in this thought. Life is not a blunder; death is not a catastrophe. Sudden death is sudden blessedness. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” The soul whom Jesus robes with beauty, and is thus beloved and beneficent while on earth, does not cease its ministry. All the grace of Christ is not bestowed in vain. Death spoils nothing. The life is hid from our vision by the darkness into which it has “gone down;” but it shall rise again, and shine in the light of God.
4. Warning in this thought. We cannot calculate upon years. “This night thy soul may be required of thee.”
See Addenda: EARLY DEATH.
Jer_15:15-19. Theme: BEAUTIFUL BUT BRIEF. “Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.”
The text is part of a gloomy description of Israel’s decline. We take it from the context and use it topically, as an appropriate description of the end of a brief but beautiful life. Of our friend it may be said that—
I. Her life was like the sun in its shining.
1. It was gloriously bright with faith and joy.
2. It was blessedly useful in diffusing light.
3. It was constantly comforting, by its warmth of love, and hope.
4. It was Christianly generous, always giving.
5. It was a centre of attraction, in the house, in the class, in the social circle, and in the church.
II. Her death was like the sun in its setting.
1. Gradual. 2. Beautiful.
3. Peaceful. 4. To rise again.
III. Her sunset was early in the day of life.
1. In the prime and beauty of being.
2. In the midst of work.
3. It seems unnatural, and suggests questions.
4. It is an interposition of God in His Providence, doubtless wise and loving.
5. It leads us from the creature to the Creator.
6. It suggests that we be all ready, always ready, “at such an hour as ye think not.”—W. Whale.
Jer_15:15-19. Theme: PREMATURE SUNSET.
An expressive metaphor. Not true to nature, because the history so described was not natural. Both heaven and earth were called upon to express surprise (Isa_1:2-3). Unnatural conduct leads to an unnatural end, the wicked shall not live out half their days. Sunset is one of the most beautiful sights in nature, but a sudden, stormy hiding of the sun at midday is calculated to fill the beholder with distress. Such is the metaphor. Let us contemplate it—
I. In nature.
1. It would be unnatural.
2. It would be injurious to all life.
3. It would make us less confident, as to the unerring regularity of nature’s law.
II. In history. We see many cases in which nations have fallen, not with the decrepitude of age, but through early and self-wrought ruin. The Old World, Sodom, Nineveh, Babylon, &c., &c. The case of Jerusalem conspicuous (Mat_23:37-39).
III. In individual life. The young—the immoral—the unprincipled in character generally. Obedience to God gives a long day and beautiful sunset.
The text may be used topically for a funeral sermon, in the case of a young woman.—W. Whale.
Theme: THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. “She hath given up the ghost, her sun is gone down while it was yet day.”
1. Death is a solemn event; it is the end of our probationary state, and the beginning of a new and unchanging state of being—and it is of frequent occurrence.
2. No class can escape from the state of death. The aged cannot live long, and the young may be cut down in the noonday of life.
I. Death dissolves our connection with the world.
1. Dissolves all natural relationship.
2. Ends dangers and perils.
3. Takes away the means of grace.
4. Closes our probationary state.
5. Discloses our eternal needs.
II. Death is the departure of the soul to another state.
1. It does not sink into insensibility as does the body. The soul lives.
2. Should death come now, how would it find us?
III. The change at death is very great.
1. The mode of its occurrence is, to us now, very mysterious.
2. It is an awful event to the ungodly and impenitent.
IV. Though the event is certain, the time is uncertain.
V. The solemnity of the event is realised by all who think seriously upon it.
VI. Death will leave us in this separate state until the last judgment. Means of grace must be improved; salvation of the soul must be secured before the welfare of the body. Preparation for death is necessary for all, for all must die. “Prepare to meet thy God.”—Old MS.
Jer_15:11-14 considered together:
“The sense seems to be this—
i. The Lord does not vouchsafe to give a direct answer to the prophet’s complaints and murmurings concerning his own condition and calling. By this silence He administers a tacit rebuke to Jeremiah for speaking in a spirit of sullenness and discontent.
ii. He turns aside to Jerusalem, and explains His dispensations towards her, and thus by implication He replies to Jeremiah. He says to her (Jer_15:11) I will afflict thee for good, and will make thine enemies to entreat thee.
This was fulfilled in the kind treatment that the Hebrew captives received from their conquerors, even Nebuchadnezzar in the case of Daniel and the three children; and of Belshazzar, and of Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes in succession, after the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Even the captive king of Judah, Jehoiachin, was treated kindly at Babylon by Evil-Merodach.
iii. The prophet answers, Can this be true? Can iron break the northern iron and steel? Can the Hebrew nation have any power against the mighty power of the northern realm of Chaldea?
iv. No, answers the Lord, this will be done by their own power. The iron of Jerusalem will not break the iron and steel of Babylon. On the contrary, turning to Jerusalem, He says, I will give thy substance to the spoil for thy sins, and will make thee to pass into the land which thou knowest not. But yet, I who scatter thee for thy sins in My wrath, will chasten thee for thy good (Jer_15:11). Thus God always tempered judgment with mercy in His dealings with His people.”—Wordsworth.
[See also Sectional treatment, p. 316.]
Jer_15:10. Theme: A TROUBLOUS PREACHER TROUBLED. Alas! a man of strife.
“Even those who are not quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one side of the bargain, and therefore can but as much as in us lies live peaceably.”—Henry.
Jeremiah’s case suggests—
I. Distraction over the results of a faithful ministry. “I am for peace, but they are for war.” It was not that he strove with them, but they with him and his work for God. Yet no one can rebuke sinners without stirring antagonism. “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” “These men which turn the earth upside down are come hither also!” “Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”
1. A fearful witness for God cannot win popular favour.
2. Hostility to his work is sure to pain the true preacher’s heart.
II. Innocence of blame for the antagonism aroused. Had Jeremiah been a bad debtor, or disobeying creditor, they could not have acted more virulently towards him.
1. Hostility to a faithful preacher is unreasonable and unjust. “Why, what evil hath He done?” asked Pilate of the incensed crowd.
2. History repeats itself in the harsh usage borne by God’s ministers. “Which of the prophets have ye not persecuted?” So with Rutherford, Wesley, Bunyan, &c. The natural man, at enmity with God, will not be at peace with the man of God who convinces him of his sin. Fashion still scorns the faithful and evangelical preacher. Public bodies are at strife with religious societies and Christian alliances which resist measures for the desecration of the Lord’s day, &c.
See Addenda: A TROUBLED MINISTRY.
III. Despondent misapprehension of a Divine mission. Jeremiah in a doleful mood only saw the “strife” he had aroused. Moments when our best work shows only ill results. All workers for Christ “go forth weeping.” Good work is often done with pain. We cannot see all the blessed effects of godly service. But “woe is unto us, if we preach not.” Courage and grace can alone prevent us from “fainting in the day of adversity,” and enable us to continue “faithful unto death.”
See Noticeable Topics: “MEN OF PROGRESS, MEN OF STRIFE.”
Comments—
Jer_15:11. The Lord said, Verily, &c. Henderson renders the verse thus: “Jehovah saith, Have I not set thee free for good? Have I not made the enemy take thy part in the time of calamity and in the time of distress?” Dr. Gotch (in Eyre & Spottiswoode’s “Revised English Bible”) translates: “Verily, I set thee free for thy good; verily, I will cause the enemy to make supplication to thee, in the time of evil, and in the time of affliction.”
“The rendering of the A. V., thy remnant, gives an untrue sense. It would mean all the rest of Jeremiah’s days, which were by no means days of happiness. Nor had he even at last a period of tranquillity. But thy loosing means thy being set free, thy deliverance, and this sense is satisfactory.”—Payne Smith.
“Entreat thee well:” rather, supplicate thee; fulfilled in chaps. Jer_21:1-2; Jer_37:3; Jer_42:2.
i. God’s despised prophet will be found useful. “In the time of evil, and in the time of affliction.”
ii. Maledictions will give place to supplications. “Affliction” wonderfully changes the tone and temper of those who once hated and resisted the messenger of Heaven. The day of pride will soon close.
iii. Divine protection overshadows His faithful witnesses. Surrounded with strife, yet Jehovah both guards and ultimately vindicates His servants.
Jer_15:12. Theme: THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL. “Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?”
The Jews treated Jeremiah so harshly and unjustly, that he feared they would break his heart; they smote him as with an iron rod, and he felt like one crushed beneath their unkindness.
God never did, and never will, place a man in a trying position and then leave him. If the rebellious seed of Israel were iron, the Lord declared that His prophet should be hardened by sustaining grace into northern iron and steel. If they beat upon him like hammers on an anvil, he should be made of such strong, enduring texture, that he should be able to resist all their blows. Iron in the olden times amongst the Israelites was very coarsely manufactured, but the best was the iron from the north. So bad was their iron generally, that an admixture of brass, which amongst us would be thought rather to deteriorate the hardness, was regarded as an improvement; so the Lord puts it, “Shall iron—the common iron—break the most firm and best-prepared iron?”
This is a proverbial expression, applicable to many other matters besides that of the prophet and the Jews; it is clearly meant to show that
IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE A PURPOSE THERE MUST BE SUFFICIENT FORCE. The weaker cannot overcome the stronger. In a general clash the firmest will win. You cannot cut granite with a pen-knife, nor drill a hole in a rock with an auger of silk. We shall apply this proverb—
I. To the people of God individually. Shall any power be able to destroy the saints? Weak as they are, they will tread down the strength of their foes. There is a force about them which cannot be put down.
1. Many Christians are subjected to great temptations and persecutions; mocked, ridiculed, called by evil names. Persecuted one, will you deny the faith? If so, you are not made of the same stuff as the true disciple of Jesus Christ; for when the grace of God is in them, if the world be iron, they are northern iron and steel. Will you shrink in the day of trial? Do you mean to play the coward? “Shall the iron break the northern iron and steel?” Be strong. Quit you like men; and, in the energy of the Holy Ghost, endure as seeing Him who is iuvisible.
2. We are frequently called to serve God amid great difficulties. Some of you who go to the lodging-houses to speak, who visit the alleys, &c., find much annoyance and disappointment. Will you say, there is no converting these dark and obdurate souls? Is the iron to break the northern iron and steel? Are we to give way under difficulties? Look at Mont Cenis Tunnel, made through one of the hardest rocks; with a sharp tool, edged with diamond, they have pierced the Alps. As St. Bernard says: “Is thy work hard? set a harder resolution against it; for there is nothing so hard that cannot be cut with something harder still.”
3. To labour with non-success, and to wait, is hard work. It is a grand thing for a Christian to continue patiently in well-doing. He is a man who under long-continued disappointment will not
“Bate a jot
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer
Right onward.”
The well-annealed steel within him ere long breaks in shivers the common iron which strikes him so severely. To him to overcome by grace is glory indeed.
See Addenda: BE NOT DISCOURAGED.
II. Applicable to the cause of God in the world—to the Church. What power, however like to iron, shall suffice to break the kingdom of Jesus, which is comparable to steel?
1. We hear it said that Romanism will again vanquish England; that the Gospel light, which Latimer helped to kindle, will be extinguished. Atrocious nonsense, if not partial blasphemy. If this thing were of men, it would come to nought; but if it be of God, who shall overthrow it? As surely as the Lord liveth the end of Romish Antichrist will come, and the long-expected cry shall be heard, “Babylon the great is fallen.”
2. Others foretell the triumph of infidelity. Consider what these gloomy forebodings mean? That the gates of hell are to prevail against the Church; that the pleasure of the Lord is not to prosper in His hand. Who but a lying spirit would thus lay low the faith and confidence of God’s people? Infidelity and Socinianism have ready tongues, but every tongue that rises against the Church in judgment He will condemn. The Church can bear the blows of Ritualism and Infidelity, and survive them all, and be better for them too. The iron will never break the northern iron and steel.
See Addenda: EVIL SHALL NOT PREVAIL.
III. Apply the principle to the self-righteous efforts which men make for their own salvation. The iron will never break the northern iron and steel.
1. The bonds of guilt are not to be snapped by a merely human power. Habits of sin yield not to the raspings of unregenerate resolves. All your efforts apart from Jesus are utterly useless. He must bring liberty—you cannot emancipate yourselves.
2. Yet that were an easy task compared with a man renewing his own heart.
3. Do you think you can force your way to heaven by ceremony? There is no potency in baptism, confirmation, outward ceremonies of man’s devising or of God’s instituting, to deliver you from the bonds which hold you. Come, sinner, with thy fetters; lay thy wrist at the cross-foot, where Christ can break the iron at once.
IV. Applicable to all persons who are making self-reliant efforts for the good of others. How are we driven to the conclusion that it is “not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God.” Man’s heart is very hard; it is like the northern iron and steel.
1. Our preaching—we try to make it forcible—how powerless it is of itself! We plead, reason, seek goodly words, &c., but the northern iron and steel remain immovable. The cries and tears of a Whitfield would not avail. Though all the Apostles reasoned with them, they would turn a deaf ear.
2. The best-adapted means cannot succeed. A mother’s tears, as she spoke to you of Jesus; the pleadings of a grey-headed father over you—no power to change your heart! The Gospel, though put to you very tenderly by those you love best, leaves you unsaved still! You have been sick, near death, within an inch of doom; yet even the judgments of God have not aroused you. But it is not Ezekiel’s duty to make the dry bones live: whether they live or not, it is his duty to prophesy to them. Go on with your work, but let a sense of your personal inability make you fall back upon your God. Let it keep you from self-reliant prayer or work, much more from one self-confident sermon or address. God will have us feel that the iron cannot break the northern iron and steel.
V. This text has a very solemn application to all those who are rebels against God. Fight against God, would you? Measure your Adversary, I charge you. The wax is about to wrestle with the flame, the tow to contend with the fire. “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Cast down your weapons. Come now, and ask for reconciliation; but oh, resist no longer, for the iron cannot break the northern iron and steel.—Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 993.
Comments—
Jer_15:12. Shall iron break? &c. This simile is variously interpreted Thus:—“By the iron is meant Jeremiah’s intercession; but this cannot alter the Divine purpose to send Judah into exile, which is firm as steel and brass.”—Payne Smith.
“Can trouble and affliction, though hard as iron, break one who, like Jeremiah, is firm as steel and brass?”—Rashi and Umbreit.
“Not even iron, much less the Jews, could resist the northern Colossus of the Chaldean empire.”—Ewald and Henderson.
Others, by northern iron,—i.e., the steel made by the Chalybes on the Pontus,—understand the obduracy of the Jews, which not even iron could break.
“Can I, Jeremiah, even if I be iron, break the obduracy of the people hard as steel or brass?”—Graf.
The Targum regards “the iron” as Pharaoh-Necho, and “the steel and brass” as Nebuchadnezzar.
“Though there be great hardness in you (Jews), can it yet break that which is in the Assyrians? but ye are not equal to them. The prophet’s design was to divest the Jews of the false confidence in which they boasted.”—Calvin.
“God had made him (Jeremiah) an ‘iron pillar and a wall of brass,’ and He asks, now, was it possible for his enemies to destroy him whom God had thus made?”—John Owen.
[Vide next verse.]
Jer_15:13. “For all thy sins, even in all thy borders.” These words at once show that it is not the prophet who is addressed in the verse preceding, but the Jewish people.
“To the spoil without price,” i.e., “not making thee any compensation, but inflicting these losses upon thee as a punishment for thy sins.”—Dr. Blayney.
“As God sells His people for nought, i.e., gives them up to their enemies (comp. Isa_52:3, Psa_44:13), so here He threatens to deliver their treasures to the enemy as a booty, and for nought.”—Keil.
“Three things are said:—
“i. That God would give Judah’s treasures away for nothing. It is an act of contempt, implying that He did not value them.
“ii. The cause of this contempt is Judah’s sins.
“iii. This is justified by the extent of those sins. Judah had committed them everywhere, throughout her whole land.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
Jer_15:15. Theme: THE DESIRE TO BE REMEMBERED. “O Lord, Thou knowest; remember me and visit me.”
Jeremiah desires many things; but the thing he asks first, as including all the rest, is that God would not let him drop out of sight and thought.
I. The perpetually recurring phrase, “God knows,” expresses a mood of thought common to rational creatures.
A craving everywhere to be remembered. From the lips of the dying, from friends of whom we are taking our farewell, fall the words, “Remember me.” Those ambitious minds, not content that their memorial should be kept in a few hearts, labour that their names may be remembered by multitudes. Oblivion appals us.
The moralist can easily show the vanity of this desire, and the emptiness of the end. What good will it do you, he asks, to be remembered when you are out amid Australian wilds, or on the parched plains of India? what harm would it do you to be forgot?
Enough for us that He who made us so made us that, by the make of our being, we desire to be kindly remembered.
II. This desire, then, is in our nature; and the prophet shows us the right direction in which to train it.
Pointing us to the heaven above us, he bids us seek to be remembered there! The thought that such a prayer may be offered to God, teaches us a great deal of His kindliness, condescension, and thoughtful care. You feel that you are speaking to a Real Person in offering a prayer like this—not to some vague, undefined “Great First Cause least understood,” but to a merciful Father in heaven, who looks down upon His child, and, “like as a father pitieth his children, pitieth them that fear Him.”
It was while looking upon the kindly human face OF CHRIST that the whole heart’s wish of the poor penitent thief went out in the “Lord, remember me!”
It was in special clearness of revelation of God’s love that the Psalmist was emboldened to say, “I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.”
III. Consider the encouraging view of the Hearer of Prayer implied in the words of the prophet’s petition.
The petition was an acceptable one, and it was right that he offered it “Remember me,” said he, in his day of sorrow, to God.
1. He was not staggered, as he drew near in prayer, by intruding doubt whether the Almighty would listen to his poor words or consider his heart’s desires. David, psalmist and king, knew this dread: “When I consider Thy heavens, … what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or visit him?” Jeremiah almost repeats these ideas: “Remember and visit me.” What a steady faith in God is in this prayer! Coming like a little child to the great Father, the little voice pleads, “Do not forget me!”
2. It is not presumption, but faith, that speaks here. Be sure that when your prayer is earnest and sincere, and offered in simple faith in Christ the Mediator, you never spoke words to your nearest neighbour that he heard more distinctly than the Almighty hears that prayer. And you may press upon Him all your small requests, and tell out to Him all that concerns you, saying, “O Lord, remember me and visit me.”
3. Ponder for your comfort that God “thinketh upon” you; that He “knoweth your frame, and remembereth that you are dust.”
IV. In such individuality of prayer there is no selfishness. It is not the wish to be distinguished and favoured above other children of the family. It is but the wish to be remembered even as the others. It is but that when Christ, the Great Intercessor, speaks to Almighty God for Himself and His brethren of mankind, saying, in the name of all, “Our Father,” the poor sinner should not be left out. So he puts forth a trembling hand, lifts a feeble voice, and cries, “Bless me also;” “Lord, remember me,” &c.
V. Mark what simple trust in God’s wisdom and kindness is implied in the offering of such a petition.
1. Everything is asked in that. It was enough just to put one’s-self under God’s eye, just to get God to think of one at all. If God world but remember us. He would see all our wants, and be willing to give us all. The thief on the cross felt that. Only “remember me,” and all will be right.
2. Further it is assumed, that if God remembers us it will be in love. Remember how Joseph, in the dungeon, asked the chief butler to think of him; and said how he desired to be thought of, “and show kindness unto me,” &c. But there is no need to specify how we wish God would remember us.
3. Further. God’s remembrance is practical. He comes to our help. The want remembered will be relieved.
4. Doubtless there is a season in the history of the unconverted man in which he can have no real desire that God should remember him: he rather desires to keep out of God’s sight and remembrance. To be sure that every word and deed is going down in “the book of God’s remembrance” is the very last thing the utterly ungodly man would wish.
5. Yet the prayer expresses the first reaching after God of the awakened soul. “Remember me!” cried prophet, psalmist, penitent thief.
If we make it our desire and prayer to be remembered by our Saviour and God, we need not fear that we shall pass from His recollection. Others we loved may forget us. But amid all the care of this universe, He will stoop down to think of us—never forgotten by Him! In our dark days and weak faith we may be ready to think we have passed from His thoughts. There is no such experience but believers have passed through before us. Thousands of years since our doubts and fears were felt, and God supplied the perfect answer. Listen to the ancient words of doubt, and God’s blessed answer: “But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me.”
“Can a woman forget hersucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”—A. K. H. B., condensed from “Counsels and Comfort,” &c.
See Addenda: ON BEING REMEMBERED.
Jer_15:15. Theme: PRAYER. “O Lord, Thou knowest; remember me and visit me, and revenge me,” &c.
Jeremiah had prayed earnestly for the people and without success. In offering supplication for himself he found favour with God. In his prayer the pain and troubles of his life were laid before God, and the questionings of his heart were not kept back. Observe—
I. Divine knowledge is no hindrance to prayer. “Thou knowest”: 1. My character; 2. My condition; 3. My need. Yet, though Thou knowest, yea, because Thou knowest, I will pray to Thee.
II. Divine condescension an encouragement to prayer.
1. Remember me.
2. Visit me.
3. Vindicate me. “Revenge” means only vindication.
III. Human need a stimulus to prayer. He was poor, persecuted, and in peril.
Where could he go for help?
He is driven to God by trouble, and drawn by lovingkindness.
IV. The vicissitudes of life suggest topics for prayer. Poverty, weakness, want, affliction, persecution, temptation,—the sins and sorrows of others. The needs of the world, &c.
V. Conscious sincerity gives freedom in prayer. “I have suffered for thy sake.”
VI. The mediation of Christ gives efficacy to our prayer. “I have not joined in their sins” (Jer_15:10).—W. Whale.
Jer_15:16. Theme: ENJOYING GOD’S WORD. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them … rejoicing.”
The people of God have always a relief in prayer, in the worst circumstances. Jonah cried out of the belly of hell, “Yet will I look again.” David encouraged himself. Jesus, “being in an agony, prayed.” Jeremiah, borne down by the storms of the world, prayed, “O Lord, thou knowest, remember, visit me.” The disciples took up the body of John, and went and told Jesus.
Remember, the best thing you can do with your trouble is to take it to Him. Sanctioned by highest authority: “Is any afflicted, let him pray.” Attested by experience: of all the millions that tried it, not one but will say, “It is good for me to draw nigh to God.” Creatures cannot help when they would; will not when they can, but God both can and will be “a present help.”
Jeremiah found it so. And he backs his prayer by an important PLEA. He avouches the serenity of his character, “Thy words were found;” the reality of his experience, “I did eat them;” his past joys in religion, “they were the rejoicing;” the particular relationship he bore to the God of grace, “I am called by Thy name.”
Need not confine it to Jeremiah; apply it to self. Take it as a test by which to try the reality of your religion.
THE VIEWS IT AFFORDS OF PERSONAL RELIGION. It implies—
I. A high valuation for this word. It is prized as God’s word, and SOUGHT under that character.
Love to the word of God is a sure sign of a gracious heart. A neglected Bible is a sign of a graceless heart. How many read the books and writings of men who never read the Book of God! When God Himself turns author, some will not give His works a reading; but Christians prize the word, and prove it by searching into it (David, Psalms 19.)
Thy word. It partakes of the divinity of its Author. As Phidias, a self-evidencing power.
It is adapted to the nature of its subject; suited to man. A key fitted to unlock such a heart.
It has produced most astonishing effects. Infancy and age. If the slightest agency draws from the truth, the slightest agency recovers. If Peter fell by a look, he rose by a look.
1. Have you found this word?
2. Has this word found you?
A poor sailor was cast away—lost his all. The first half-crown he obtained, he inquired where to make a purchase, of what?—that neglected book, a BIBLE.
“I have many books,” says Mr. Newton, “that I cannot sit down to read; they are indeed good and sound, but, like halfpence, there goes a great quantity to a little amount. There are silver books and a very few golden books, but I have one worth more than all, called the Bible, and that is a book of banknotes.” Apply this test:
II. A personal experience of its power. “I did eat it.”
This is different from speculation. David does not say, Listen and hear, but, “Taste and see.” Apply to him for yourself instead of relying on the authority of others. As in a case of disputed relish, you determine not by testimony, but by taste. In other words, it means experience. Experience is knowledge derived from experiment, in contradiction from theory.
We are apt to confound familiarity with knowledge. Many are familiar with all the truths and doctrines, but have not the experience of the power of one. Like Bunyan’s Talkative. Like Balaam, who saw the visions of God and was proud of what he saw—but no experience. Like Judas, who preached and wrought miracles, but died despairing. How worthless this knowledge! To know the way, but never walk in it. To know there is an ark, but never enter it. To know Christ is a crucified and almighty Saviour, but, like the dying thief, never to apply to Him.
The knowledge of which you boast will aggravate your doom. Like Uriah with his fatal letter, place you in the forefront of battle.
But religion is not only something to be known, but something to be experienced. Religion is the life of the soul as the soul is the life of the body. Truth is the sustenance of the moral man. Divine truth must be incorporated with the elements of the intellectual nature or we perish. “Except ye eat the flesh.” Put test of experience. A sign of spiritual decay, and the loss of spiritual health, when this word is undervalued, when men can spend days and weeks without reading it.
When you come to the word, remember that Divine influence can alone make it effectual. As you say grace before meat, let your reading be preceded by prayer. “I will be as dew.” How sweet the fragrance after the dew!
III. A conscious participation of the happiness it produces. “It was the rejoicing of my heart.” How does it promote joy?
i. By the light it imparts to the understanding. Truly, light is sweet. It preserves us from dark uncertainty; from the dubiety of suspense; from the vacillation of doubt; from the fluctuation of undetermined choice. It gives decision to the judgment. It fully occupies the mind upon the noblest subject. It engages faculties and powers in God’s service.
ii. By the relief it gives to the conscience. In the hope of pardon and acceptance. Sprinkled from an evil conscience.
iii. By the exercise it affords to the best affections of the heart. Love to God is a source of happiness; love to man, a source of happiness. The pleasures of benevolence are genuine pleasures; allied to the happiness of God Himself. He is the BLESSED God, the HAPPY God. HAPPY in the diffusion of happiness; BLESSED in the impartation of blessedness. “I will bless thee.” How? By making thee a blessing. And taste the joy of God. Misery of malevolent affections; happiness of kind ones. As delight springs from the play of good feelings, so misery springs from the play and interchange of bad ones. There are virtues sweet to the taste of inner man; vices bitter and corroding to the heart. Scowl of malice, the malignity of revenge. Gall of bitterness.
iv. By the consolations and hopes under sorrow. The paper is yet extant on which martyr Smith recorded his experience. They gave him pen and ink to sign a draft on the treasurer; he did so, and in the corner put down these figures, “1 Cor. Jer_4:8-9.”
IV. A sense of consecration. “I am called by Thy name.”
Improvement:
1. It reproves those who never seek.
2. Those who are content with knowledge without experience.
3. Those who are strangers to religious peace and joy. If you eat, it will be joy.
4. Those who neither own God’s name, nor are owned of Him.—Samuel Thodey, 1837.
See Addenda: ENJOYING GOD’S WORD.
Theme: FOUND, EATEN, AND ENJOYED.
These words appear to be part of the prophet’s prayer, and were given to account for the fact that he had suffered rebuke, &c., from the people. It is the only verse containing any pleasant reference to Jeremiah’s experience, and then it is in connection with God’s word, and not with man’s dealings. It is as if he said, “In the midst of my sufferings and sorrows, I came upon the promises of God’s word; I seized upon them with avidity; so great was my need of comfort. I devoured them; and indeed my soul was comforted. They led me to meditate upon my fellowship with Jehovah, and to see that even my sufferings were for His name’s sake. The word was unto me ‘the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.’ ” Here we observe—
I. That an important discovery was made. “Thy words were found.”
1. Words are the representatives of thought. They are of value for this reason. Words have great power to move men’s minds. How much have they affected the destiny of nations, and the development of great enterprises? Demosthenes, Cicero, Luther, Knox, Whitfield, Brougham, &c.
2. Words derive much of their power from the mind which utters them. Truth is truth come whence it may, but truth may be spoken by most men without having much power to do others good. The stroke of a royal pen may mean liberty or slavery, peace or war to millions. God’s words are a hammer, a fire, a sword, a balm, a saving, sanctifying power to men who receive and obey them.
3. That which is found must previously have existed. God’s words were found. A grand discovery, not an invention. Treasure is not made by man, but the discoverer has much fame, and confers upon the race great benefits. God’s word exists whether men find it or not. He who finds it is wise, rich, and happy. It is the living word. Seek Him. Seek, and ye shall find.
II. That a peculiar method of appropriation was adopted. “I did eat them.”
1. It implies soul hunger. Caused by stress of duty, and pressure of persecution, and multiplied sorrows.
2. It affirms that God’s words are soul food. The soul may be starved, or may feed on husks; but if the appetite be right and rightly directed, only God and His word will satisfy. (Eze_3:1-3, Rev_10:9, Psa_119:103.) God’s word is wholesome, nourishing, savoury, saving.
III. That a delightful experience was realised. “It was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Joy and rejoicing—
1. In what the word revealed of God.
2. In the way that revelation met his utmost need. In work, in trouble, in danger.
3. In the knowledge of salvation there unfolded.
4. In the prospects to which the attention of God’s servants was directed.
Note—
1. Jeremiah’s religion was a religion of the word.
2. Jeremiah’s religion was a religion of the heart.
3. Jeremiah’s religion was a religion of rejoicing.
IV. That an emphatic public testimony was given. “I am called by thy name,” &c.
1. God’s name was called upon him. (See Margin.) As the saving power, and source of hope and joy, the name of Christ has been called upon us.
2. He was called by God’s name. As a professor, a prophet, a servant, &c. We are called by Christ’s name.
3. He was strengthened by God in all his works. Jehovah was to him “The Lord of hosts,” inspiring with courage, leading to battle, giving the victory, distributing rewards.
APPLICATION—
1. The word discovered—a treasure.
2. The word in the heart—a joy.
3. The word on the lips—a message.
4. The word in the hand—a weapon.—W. Whale.
Theme: GOD’S WORD THE JOT OF THE GODLY.
Bread is sweet to the hungry. Man, when quickened by God, does “not live by bread alone, but by every word,” &c. One of God’s children could say, “I have esteemed the words of Thy mouth more than my necessary food.” (Also Psa_119:72; Psa_19:10.)
i. BIBLE HISTORY, in its development of THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE GOVERNMENT, is to a man of God deeply instructive: “the joy and rejoicing of his heart.”
ii. PROPHECY, teaching us that THE FUTURE IS KNOWN TO THE LORD, the future of the Church, the world, and of every child of man; and that nothing unseen by us can arise to thwart His designs, becomes a very fountain of delight to every good man: “the joy and rejoicing of his heart.”
iii. The words of the Lord as EMBODIED IN LAW, prohibiting nothing but what the enlightened conscience condemns, and commanding nothing but what that conscience approves, constrain the righteous man to say, “Oh, how I love Thy law!” Conformity to the law is his earnest solicitude, and when love is perfected this desire will be realised, for “love is the fulfilling of the law.”
iv. But if the words of the Lord in history, prophecy, and law are sweet, sweeter still are His words as they sound forth in the GOSPEL OF HIS SON. They are “no cunningly-devised fables” to the soul that has seen the adaptation of the great doctrines of the Gospel to its moral and spiritual needs.
Faith is a living upon the truths of the Gospel: “Eating” them. Faith makes both the truth, and Christ the substance of the truth, precious. “Unto you which believe He is precious.”—Rev. D. Pledge, “Walks with the Prophet Jeremiah.”
Theme: THE PROPHET ON HIS WATCHTOWER.
I. The discovery. God’s “words.”
1. Sometimes hidden.
2. Yet expected.
3. And sought.
II. The treasure used. “Did eat them.”
Made them his own. The taste both bitter and sweet.
III. The result. “The joy and rejoicing of mine heart.”
Joy (1) in knowing God’s will.
Joy (2) in seeing the working out of God’s goodness.—S. Farren.
Theme: HIDDEN MANNA.
I. A memorable discovery. “Thy words were found.”
Many have heard God’s word for years, yet have never found it. “Eyes have they, but they see not; ears, but hear not.” Oh that they had found the “treasure hid in the field!”
What is meant by finding God’s words?
1. A thing found has usually to be sought for. Happy is he who reads or hears the Scriptures, searching all the while for the hidden spiritual sense. (See Pro_2:4-5.)
2. To find God’s word means that we have been made to understand them (1Co_3:14). The Bible is a dull book till illuminated; a tantalising riddle till you get the key; but, the clue once found, it absorbs our attention, delights our intellect, and enriches our heart.
3. Means to appropriate it as belonging to yourself. Reading a will is not interesting till you find you have a part in it.
See Addenda: APPROPRIATING GOD’S WORD.
II. An eager reception. “I did eat them.”
Not “I did hear them.” Herod heard John gladly, yet became his murderer. Not “I did learn them by heart.” Hundreds have committed chapters to memory, yet were wearied rather than benefited. Not “I did repeat them,” as a parrot repeats language it is taught. “I did EAT them.” What is meant by eating them?
1. An eager study. Greedy for the truth. Some professors grow squeamish and proudly delicate. My soul hungered even to ravenousness to be fed upon the bread of heaven.
2. Cheerful reception. My soul was in love with the word.
3. An intense belief. Not questioning it, but living upon it. The language means, besides, both the diligent treasuring up of the truth, and the inward digestion of the same. It is not the hasty swallowing of the word which is blessed to us, but a deliberate eating of it. It then becomes dissolved and absorbed—a part of the eater’s very existence.
III. The happy consequences. “Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”
1. Hold the truth in its entirety and harmony, and then it will be joy to your heart.
Jeremiah first speaks of God’s “words,” then he changes the number and speaks of God’s “word.” We are not only to receive parts of the Gospel, but the whole of it. That man’s heart is right with God who can honestly say that all the testimonies of God are dear to him. There are threatenings, and precious promises; testimonies of Jesus. Receive the whole of God’s word.
2. The word of God would have given no joy had he not been obedient to it.
3. Yet there are certain choice truths in God’s word, especially joy-giving: the doctrine of election, to know that you are called and predestinated; and of the immutability of divine love.
IV. A distinguishing title. “I am called by Thy name,” &c.
1. The name of the Lord of hosts was reviled in Jeremiah’s day, yet he felt it an honour to be associated with the Lord in this contempt. Oh ye who love the Lord Jesus, never shun the scandal of the cross!
2. Some do not count it a fair thing to bear the name of the Most High. It is a disgrace to any man that his Lord should die for his soul on Calvary and yet he be afraid to wear His livery. To confess Christ is so easy a burden; it involves so temporary a loss, and so real a gain. Bow your willing back to His cross, and go with Him without the camp.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 980.
See Addenda: ENJOYING GOD’S WORD.
Jer_15:17. Theme: THE ISOLATION RESULTING FROM CONSECRATION.
This describes the effects following upon his appropriating God’s words and becoming His prophet.
I. Separation from the frivolities of life.
1. Deserting the company of triflers. “I sat not in the assembly of the mockers,” or laughers. Formerly he had joined their merry meetings; he now renounced them.
2. Restrained the levity of his own nature. “Nor rejoiced;” i.e., did not make merry. Even innocent mirth was laid aside, and a gravity came upon him according with his renewed state and solemn mission. Just so. Paul had “great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart” (Rom_9:2).
II. Isolation under sense of a Divine trust. “I sat alone because of Thy hand;” i.e., because of the impulse of the prophetic spirit in him. (Comp. 1Ki_18:46, Eze_1:3.)
1. Responsible duty leads us into inevitable isolation. We cannot share it with others. We are thereby separated to a life of practical and conscious loneliness, having a “charge to keep,” in which none can participate.
2. Consecration to God’s work singles out and separates us; e.g., one who is devoted to the ministry must live a life separated from the common pursuits and habits of youth. He is devoted to God.
3. Expulsion from hilarious society follows avowal of religion. The “laughers” did not want him amongst them.
III. Oppression of spirit amid prevailing impiety. “Thou hast filled us with indignation.” Calvin thus comments on the word “indignation:” “He had not been slightly moved, but had been inflamed with zeal for God; for we cannot really execute the commission given us unless we be filled with indignation; that is, unless zeal for God burns inwardly, for the prophetic office requires such a fervour.”
1. Taught of God, the prophet sees the great sinfulness of the people.
2. Recognises the offensiveness to Jehovah, and awful heinousness of their sins.
3. Perceives the ruin thereby entailed upon his nation and God’s Church.
A “seer” may well be stirred to “indignation:” impetuous energy of thought and feeling, grief over sin, impatience to check the wrong which prevails, and rescue souls from impending doom. All God’s prophets and preachers have had this vision of iniquity around them, and, like Paul at Athens, their spirit has been “stirred” in them as they beheld the rampant impiety which called them to their earnest ministry for Christ and souls.
Jer_15:18. Theme: GOD APPEARS TO BE A VAIN HOPE. “Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?”
I. Distressing experiences distort our views of God. Jeremiah’s condition and feelings were peculiarly painful.
1. Great anguish: “pain,” “wound.” Such words indicate severe suffering, less physical than mental. Physical pain will throw its dark cloud over the mind. Melancholy is the result: melan- (black) cholic. In times of heavy anguish the mental state grows despondent, and its power of discernment becomes warped.
2. Unalleviated distress: “perpetual,” “refuseth to be healed.” This unmitigated trouble of mind and heart is indeed bitter to endure. Very rare. Yet many of God’s children go through years of disconsolate experiences. Wave upon wave rolls over them. Ill health, disasters, bereavements. Or spiritual struggles—doubts, temptations, loss of faith, &c. A spirit thus bowed and sorely tested cannot easily think bright thoughts of God. The disciples, in consequence of the tempest and toils of one wild night, thought Jesus only a ghost, and “cried out for fear.”
3. Hopeless dejection. “My wound incurable, refuseth to be healed.” He sees no prospect of better things, and abandons himself to despair. His labours will all be in vain, his delivery of God’s messages will effect no good, and his ministry will only bring more calumny and abuse upon himself. A hard lot; a black outlook. All the windows are darkened. How can he, then, think cheerfully of God?
II. Distorted views of God render religion a grave disappointment. What comfort is left to a godly man if God become to him “as a liar?”
1. All his sufficiency and safety were to be drawn from God. So Jeremiah felt. He was on a difficult and perilous mission; if God failed him, he was forlorn indeed. “He had expected that, called to so high an office, there would be a perpetual interference of Providence in his behalf, instead whereof things seemed to take their natural course” (Payne Smith). “God had in a manner deserted him for a time, had left him to struggle with difficulties unforeseen and unexpected” (Dr. Waterland). What guarantee is left us if Jesus fail? Every Christian would share Jeremiah’s sense of desolation.
If ever a position occurred in which we missed the succour of our Lord, we should feel forlorn. We have no self-sufficiency—Christ is all to us; no power of self-protection—He is our Saviour and shield. Let it once be possible to say, “Thou hast failed us,” and assurance would wholly desert us; we should be “of all men most miserable.”
2. All his happiness and hopes rested in God. He had left all to be His prophet (Jer_15:19). He looked for solace, befriending, serenity amid agitations, gladness when mocked and abused; for all light and promise amid his hazardous work—from the God he served. Even so has the Christian disciple to “take up his cross daily and follow” Jesus. But he is not unwilling. Has not Christ said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye have peace;” “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you;” “Ye shall see Me again, and your joy shall no man take from you”? Can He break His word of promise—become “as a liar”? Then all happiness and hope is dead within the believer’s heart.
Note the figure: “As a liar, as waters that fail.” Calvin renders the words thus: “Thou wilt be to me as a deception of inconstant waters;” or, “of unfaithful waters,” i.e., of such as flow not continually; adding, “for faithful or constant waters are those which never fail; as the Latins call a fountain inexhaustible whose spring never dries, so the Hebrews call a fountain faithful or constant which never fails either in summer or in drought. On the contrary, they call waters unfaithful which become dry; as when a well which has no perennial veins is made dry by great heat.” Wordsworth comments: “The stream of God’s favour, which had flowed in a full current of love towards him, seemed suddenly to have been dried up, and he was left to perish with thirst.”
The language suggests the deceptive mirage: which mocks thirst with illusory pictures of refreshing waters.
III. Disappointment in God can never have a just warrant. “Wilt Thou be unto me as a liar?”
1. Despondency is a faithless interpreter. It is as false as a crooked mirror—it reflects beauty in hideous forms.
2. Impatience spoils our childhood sweetness. It is a sad failing to be hastening conclusions about God and His dealings. “He that believeth should not make haste.”
3. Fidelity is an essential characteristic of God. Immutability is impressed on Creation. “I change not” is a truth evident in the perennial action of majestic laws in nature; and therefore the universe endures, and “all things continue as they were from the creation of the world.” In His love and relationships to us, “with Him is neither variableness nor shadow of turning.” In His words and promises, “not one good thing He hath spoken shall fail to come to pass.” Hopes cast upon Him “shall not make ashamed.” And to every soul which cleaves to and trusts in Jesus—as Redeemer, Friend, and King, for life here and in eternity—He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
Jer_15:19. Theme: A MINISTRY OF DISCRIMINATION. “If thou take forth the precious from the vile.”
God, in the freeness of His grace, apportions the reward that He promises to Jeremiah to the sense which He entertains of the greatness and difficulty of the work to which He had called him. “Thou shalt be as My mouth”—My representative, My acknowledged and accredited servant—here is the greatest honour that could be conferred on any man. “Thou shalt take forth the precious from the vile, and be to the people as a fenced brazen wall”—here is one of the most difficult and arduous duties that mortality can possibly sustain. The talents of an angel, the zeal of a seraph, if accompanied with the infirmities of humanity, must sink under the task, unless supported by Divine strength and blessing. Well then may we exclaim, “Who it sufficient?”
The difficulty of such a course as this, that of making full proof of our ministry, can only be understood by him who has tried it, and it certainly has not diminished since Jeremiah’s time. For though we have less outward persecution, it is equally difficult in all ages to combat with the prejudices and enmity of the carnal mind; difficult to penetrate the thick disguise of character—difficult to maintain the sternest faithfulness accompanied with the purest love—to pursue the Proteus forms of ungodliness into their secret retreats, and so effectually to separate between the precious and the vile, as that we may commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Our Lord Himself who tried the experiment knew its difficulty, and His last promise was a promise to ministers: “Lo, I am with you;” and He has enabled us to form an estimate of the greatness of the work from the greatness of the reward, for addressing the minister, the Angel of Ephesus, He says, “Be thou faithful and I will give,” &c.
I. What is supposed?
II. What is required?
III. What is promised?
I. What is supposed?
1. The vast importance and responsibility of the work assigned to ministers with a view to the welfare of their people. “If thou separate between the precious and the vile.” It is no common office, no slight responsibility. The Gospel dispensation is often spoken of as the ministry of reconciliation; but it is here presented under a new character, the ministry of discrimination. Christ is represented commonly as a Saviour, but He is to be regarded as a witness and a judge—for judgment am I come into the world. Ministers are usually considered as heralds of mercy, sons of consolation, but they are also to be considered as messengers of heavy tidings. Ours is an office of edification, but it is an office of separation too, a ministry of discrimination. We have to distinguish between truth and truth, between character and character, between holiness and sin; and to advocate the rightful claims and high supremacy of heaven against the usurped dominion of sin and hell. Ministers are to take the precious from the vile; to separate the wheat from the weeds; to distinguish the dross from the gold; to guide their hands wittingly, as Jacob did when he bestowed the blessing upon the sons of Joseph; they are sometimes to blow the silver trumpet of Jubilee, and not unfrequently to sound the trumpet of Alarm. “A faithful ambassador is health,” says Solomon. “As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.”
2. It is further supposed that there are some essential distinctions between right and wrong, between good and evil, between truth and error, between the base and the honourable of character, between the precious and the vile. These distinctions are real, not nominal; essential, not arbitrary; they are regarded so by God Himself. These distinctions were originally imprinted on the mind when man was created in God’s own image; and the capacity of making them still remains, as you see from the clearness with which any man can judge upon a subject of right and wrong where his own conscience is not concerned, and the zeal with which men reprobate that which is villanous and dishonourable.
3. A standard of truth is supposed. God has given us the rule of judgment. We have a more sure word of prophecy, and as the office of a judge is not to make the law but to declare it, so the office of a minister is not to burden the ears of people with his own doubtful speculations, but to declare the whole counsel of God. To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this rule they have no light. This is the glass we hold up to show you the true features of your character; this is the lamp we exhibit to guide your footsteps,—“And as many as walk by this rule, peace be on them and on the Israel of God.”
4. It is further supposed in the text that these characters are closely intermingled, and that there is a great disinclination in mankind to have the truth fully told them, and to be brought to the decisive test, the final decision. The tares and the wheat strangely grow together—the sheep and the goats both are found in the same pasture—the precious and the vile have some points in common. Cain and Abel both bring their offering to the Lord; Jacob and Esau both kneel for the blessing; Elijah and the priests of Baal openly build their altars on Mount Carmel; the five foolish virgins as well as the five wise ones go forth to meet the bridegroom; Judas and John both receive the passover in the supper-chamber. And we know that men halt between two opinions—they dwell on the borders of the Land of Promise—they love to know that an ark is provided, and even love to watch the progress of the building, but they obey not the summons, “Come thou with all thy house into the ark.”
5. One thing more is plainly supposed, that it is of the utmost consequence to both parties, that the separation should be made—take forth the precious from the vile, and the most advantageous results will immediately accrue to each. Is it not desirable to the children of God to know that they are so—that they are heirs according to the promise—that they are precious in His sight and honourable? Would it not strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees, and give them the oil of joy for mourning, could we say to them beyond contradiction, “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works”?
If the distinction be valuable to the precious, it would be scarcely less advantageous to the vile themselves. To be robbed of the cloak of a false profession would be no loss, for we know it does them no honour and brings them no peace. If they stood out in their true colours to their own conscience they could not suffer more, but they might be more safe. You had better meet the case at once, at its worst, and say, Behold I am vile.
II. What is demanded of ministers with a view to this solemn discrimination?
The text plainly demands that every effort should be used on their part to remove the willing delusions of mankind, to disabuse their blinded understandings in reference to the great things of God and Eternity and their souls’ health. What, then, is necessary so far as we are concerned in separating—
1. A plain and decisive exhibition of the truth at it is in Jesus. We are to contend earnestly for the faith. We are, as we have opportunity, to vindicate it from the blasphemies of the infidel, the perversions of the worldling, the mistakes of the Pharisee, and the corruptions of the Antinomian. Whether men will hear or whether they will forbear, we must speak to them of the evil of sin, of the danger of continuance in it, and of the only way of escape from it. We must show them the insufficiency of the forms of godliness, the worthlessness of their own self-righteousness, the necessity of a vital union to Christ, and their positive obligations to that holiness without which no man can see the Lord.
2. A fearless application of Scripture truth is necessary. To the careless and thoughtless, the young man void of understanding, trained in the ways of religion, but a living plague to the circle in which he moves, hardening in sin and fast hardening against the reach of conviction: Know that “your judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and your damnation slumbereth not.” To the apostate from a religious profession: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” To the self-satisfied formalist: “Strive to enter.” To the young: “Remember now,” &c. To the aged: “Escape for thy life.” To the precious: “Say ye to the righteous, It shall be well with him.” To the vile: “Woe to the wicked, for it shall be ill with him.”
3. To point ourselves and our hearers to the only Agent who can make the word effectual.
III. What is promised? “Thou shalt be as My mouth.” The accredited and approved servant—to speak in accordance with His will—be the organ of His clemency—all his authenticated messages crowned with success. None of his words to fall to the ground.
Mighty and blessed such a ministry. Surely the people among whom such a Divinely effectual ministry is carried on, would be drawn to the Saviour’s feet, and souls would find grace and salvation as on the Pentecostal morning.
“Faithful ministers,” says Henry, “are God’s mouth to us, and we are to hear God speaking to us by them.”—Samuel Thodey, A.D. 1823.
Comments—
Jer_15:19. “If thou return, then will I bring thee again,” &c. “There is in God’s answer a mingling of comfort and rebuke. If thou return—repent thee of thy doubts and think only of thy duty, then will I bring, &c. “I will cause thee again to stand before Me.” To stand before a person means to be his chief officer or vicegerent, and is said of Elijah (1Ki_17:1) and Elisha (2Ki_3:4) as God’s prophets, of David as Saul’s minister (1Sa_16:21-22), of Solomon’s counsellors (1Ki_12:6), and of Nebuzar-adan as commander-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar’s army (Jer_52:12, marg.)”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“If thou take forth the precious from the vile.” Jeremiah was to separate in himself what was divine and holy from the dross of human passion: So many commentators. Discriminate between good and bad men, or between the good and bad in men: Other authorities favour this rendering.
“Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.” Rather, “They shall return unto thee, but thou shalt not,” &c. “A flattering prophet perishes with the people whom his soft speeches have confirmed in their sin; but the truthful speaking of God’s word saves both.”—Speaker’s Com.
“Not surrender unpopular truths to popular fallacies.”—Wordsworth.
“Not concede to the vices of men nor cherish their fancies, but constrain them to undertake the yoke of God. The truth of God ought not to bend to the will of men; for God changes not, neither does His word.”—Calvin.
Jer_15:19-20. Theme: THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD.
We have here God’s answer to the prophet’s prayer. Jeremiah is not allowed to retire from the work, either because of its offensiveness to the people, or because it grieved him to be a man of strife among them. He is promised divine assistance and protection in those great undertakings to which he is appointed. Concerning the ministry of the word, we are here reminded that it is—
I. A ministry of divine authority. “Thou shalt stand before Me.”
II. A ministry of divine revelations. “Thou shalt be as My mouth.”
III. A ministry of wise discrimination. “If thou take forth the precious from the vile.”
IV. A ministry often opposed by those to whom it is sent. “And they shall fight against thee.”
V. A ministry requiring much courage. “I will make thee … a fenced and brazen wall.”
VI. A ministry which will be divinely vindicated. “I am with thee, to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.”
VII. A ministry which lifts up Christ as the Saviour of men. “As Moses lifted up,” &c. “I, if I be lifted up,” &c. “We preach Christ crucified,” &c.—W. Whale.
Jer_15:20. Theme: IMPREGNABLE SECURITY IN JEHOVAH’S SERVICE.
“I will make thee a fenced brazen wall,” &c. This is a repetition of the promise made by Jehovah to Jeremiah at the outset of his prophetic career (Jer_1:18-19). Jeremiah may confidently rely on protection from on high, and God-given fortitude, if he will maintain fidelity in his messages and witness for righteousness among a depraved and hostile people.
God’s address of encouragement meets the faltering prophet with definite promises and hopeful statements, and affirms the four facts:—
I. Invincible courage supernaturally supplied.
1. Its source. “I will make thee.” No self-reliance, therefore; nor self-despair.
2. Its scope. “Unto this people.” It must be shown, and shown in scenes definitely indicated.
3. Its stability. “A fenced brazen wall” Proof against all assaults; inflexible, immovable.
“Hic murus aheneus esto,
Nil conscire sibi, nulla, pallescere culpa.”
—Horat. 1 Epis. i. 60.
II. Determined hostility from the wicked. “They shall fight against thee.”
Not passive unconcern; not airy incredulity; not frank and friendly remonstrance; but defiant antagonism, and angry abuse.
1. Resistance of his messages.
2. Resentment against him personally.
3. Rebellion against the God he served.
Jeremiah must, therefore, lay himself out for vigorous and valorous warfare; get rid of sentimental fears, and quit himself like a stalwart warrior for God’s cause and glory!
III. Supremacy guaranteed over antagonists. “They shall not prevail against thee.”
1. There would be actual encounter. A struggle man to man. This is the true idea of a faithful ministry.
2. There would be need of self-defence. Assailants would intend to prevail against the prophet; to defeat him in argument; to destroy his faith in God; and to silence his messages amid derision. Jeremiah would need to look to himself and defend his own fidelity.
3. There would be a triumphant issue. Jeremiah should “prevail.” Whom God makes invincible He also makes victorious. Not only successful defence against attack, but supremacy over assailants.
IV. Personally guarded by Jehovah Himself.
1. God’s personal protection. It is a precious promise that “He will give His angels charge,” &c., also that “the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous,” &c., also that “as thy day is so shall thy strength be.” But better far this—“I will be with thee.”
2. God’s sure protection. “To save thee”—preservation from his enemies; “to deliver thee”—rescue from the wiles and assaults.
The idea of rescue, should the prophet become entangled by their sophistries or captured by force, is more fully expressed in Jer_15:21 : “I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked (malignant), and I will redeem thee out of the hand (from the grasp) of the terrible.” So that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
Jer_15:20. Theme: GOD’S AMBASSADOR FORTIFIED. “I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall,” &c.
I. God’s qualification of an overseer of His Church.
The metaphor of a call implies:
1. Courage.
2. Integrity (innocence, therefore).
3. Authority.
II. The opposition a church overseer will meet with.
“They shall fight against thee:”
1. By seditious preaching and praying.
2. By railing and libels.
3. By (possibly) open force.
III. The issue and success of such opposition.
“They shall not prevail.”—South.
Jer_15:21. Theme: GOD’S PERFECT SALVATION. “And I will deliver and redeem thee.”
The prophet’s loneliness and the opposition of the people burdened his spirit. Jehovah’s assurances must have afforded precious consolations and confidence to him. The promised presence and interposing power of God.
I. Alarming perils. “The band of the wicked; the hand of the terrible.”
Implying the moral quality which distinguishes our spiritual foes, and the fierce malignity with which there plot our ruin.
Perils to character, to peace, to security in God, to the soul itself.
II. A mighty Saviour. “I will deliver; I will redeem.”
Greater than our foes. Equal to all exigencies. No one else can save; it is His work. Employed in His service, He will undertake our defence and deliverance. Saved by Him. Safe in Him.
III. Complete redemption. “To deliver; to redeem.”
Salvation has various forms: from perils of this world, from taint of sin, from spiritual foes, from personal fears and faults, from terror of death, &c.
Redemption by price; deliverance by power.
IV. Unfailing certainty. “I will; I will.”
Expresses determination, earnestness, love, certainty.
“I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 15
Topic: PRAYER FOR A PEOPLE UNAVAILING. (Jer_15:1).
Moses and Samuel held responsible offices, and were faithful to their trusts. With their piety as men, and fidelity as servants, God was well pleased. If any two men could have prevailed with God on behalf of a rebellious people, these could. But the conduct of the people had alienated His mind from them. Thus—
i. There may be complete alienation of God from sinful men. “My mind could not be towards this people.”
ii. There is a limit to the Divine forbearance towards defiant souls. “He will not always chide,” though He chides again and again; neither will He keep back His anger for ever. Cast them out of My sight. Then no prayers, even from the best of men and the most eminent servants of God, can arrest the judgment.
I. Manifestly the prayers of good men do avail much. Instances prove that it is an established law for prayers, by the Moses and Samuels who stand before the Lord, to prevail.
II. While the power of prayer is obvious, there is no merit in prayer nor in him who offers it.
1. Prayer supposes the absence of all claim, for what a man can claim he need not pray for.
2. Prayer can only make its appeal to mercy, and mercy, being purely sovereign, can heed or refuse the appeal according to its pleasure. Had mercy refused every prayer, justice would have received no violation.
III. God’s right to refuse to answer prayers is beyond all challenge.
1. His declaration: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” &c., asserts His right to withhold or bestow grace according to His sovereign will.
2. This right involves the right to hear or not to hear the prayers of suppliants, be those suppliants Moses and Samuels, or publicans and sinners.
3. If God were under obligation to hear prayer and bestow mercy, mercy would be no longer mercy, and grace would be no longer grace. Obligation is justice, and not mercy; duty, and not grace.
IV. All our appeals for mercy and grace must be based on the Atoning Sacrifice.
1. Every act of mercy flows to us through the righteousness of Christ, the only channel of mercy from God to man.
2. Even when our appeals are based on the sacrifice of Christ, they must be left to the sovereignty of Divine mercy to answer or not to answer.
3. If we rightly recognised this sovereignty of Divine mercy, our prayers would be more humbly presented and answers would kindle a loftier praise, exclaiming, “Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer nor His mercy from me!”
V. Prayer is music in the ears of God. The sounds of earnest prayer enter into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, and delight Him more than ten thousand harpers harping with their harps. The prayer of the penitent gives joy to all the hosts of heaven, and the prayers of saints, our Moses’ and Samuels, give pleasure to the gracious God even when—for wise and judicial reasons—He cannot grant their requests. Whether answered or unanswered, “the prayer of the upright is His delight”.—Arranged from “Morning and Evening Walks with the Prophet Jeremiah.”
Topic: MEN OF PROGRESS, MEN OF STRIFE. (Jer_15:10).
Jeremiah called of God to an essential but unpopular work. He is judged to be a fault-finding, quarrelsome person, whereas he is really a sympathetic friend. They hear his outspoken denunciations against sin, and the utterance by him of divine threatenings; but they do not hear his prayers for them, or know the groanings of his spirit. He is misjudged. He is lonely. He would rather have been born to a quiet life, and wishes God would have chosen some one else to the prophetic work.
Jeremiah is typical of public men who have been the reformers of society, the leaders of thought, and often the martyrs of some great movement. We may note some reasons why such persons appear to be men of strife:—
I. Because of noncompliance with popular sins. Jeremiah asserted his freedom from prevailing evils. Always some interested in doing wrong, and maintaining evils among the people. Those who will not conform, especially such as speak and labour against sin, are considered men of strife—Micaiah, Elijah, John Baptist, Jesus, and many others.
II. Because they are in advance of the age. They look at all matters from a more elevated standpoint, and seek to bring the people up to their level. Paul was in advance of the craftsmen of Ephesus. Luther was in advance of the church of Rome, as Wicliffe before him had been. Copernicus and Galileo, Huss and Wesley, not to mention others in all departments, were pioneers of progress, and were in advance of their fellows.
III. Because they were earnest and energetic men. Some can be indifferent; true souls cannot be. Cannot agree to leave things alone, and let every one go his own way. Must bear testimony for God and truth. Many now would call Noah, Elijah, Daniel, Jesus, Paul, visionaries, enthusiasts, madmen, as indeed they often speak of those who have their spirit.
IV. Because all good work causes strife. Evil has to be conquered, the devil has to be cast out. No curse will peaceably give place to a blessing. In the heart, and in the world, it must be conflict. Christ came to give peace to the trustful heart, but not to bring peace immediately on earth. In Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in Capernaum, in Jerusalem, He made conflict Every great work has its stage of martyrdom, its age of chivalry, before its triumph;—its Egypt and wilderness before its Canaan,—its manger, baptism, wilderness trial, Gethsemane, and cross, before it sits on the throne waiting till its foes be made its footstool.
V. Because the field of battle is the path of glory. “We must fight if we would reign.” The promise is “to him that overcometh.” Salvation is finally for “him that endureth to the end.” The exhortation is not only to repent and believe, but to “fight the good fight of faith.” The provision is for the warrior; he who would be a saint, must be a soldier. The martyrs of one age are the heroes of the next. Prophets, apostles, martyrs, missionaries, and reformers have all been men of war. We honour them for the battles they fought and the victories they won. The record of their lives appeals to us—
“Hark! ’tis a marshal sound,
To arms, ye saints, to arms,
Your foes are gathering round,
And peace has lost its charms.
Prepare the helmet, sword, and shield,
The trumpet calls you to the field.”
—W. Whale.
Topic: THE POWER OF REBUKE. (Jer_15:19-20.)
“If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth; and I will make thee unto the people a fenced brazen wall.”
It is by the gracious word of Divine mercy that the hearts of men are to be subdued.
The human mind is found to be influenced far more by hope and tenderness, than by terror and rebuke.
I. The Christian ministry includes also an office of commination. If the messengers of heaven, when among the outcasts of mankind, who, in ignorance of God, have gone astray from virtue, speak much more of virtue than of wrath; when they stand among those who, being well informed in matters of religion, use the grace of the Gospel to palliate their vices, the messages of wrath must be most upon their lips.
II. The tendency of the Christian ministry is to move down from its remedial functions to become an office of delectation.
1. Furnishing intellectual entertainment; uttering, as matters of gorgeous eloquence, the appalling verities of eternal justice. Nature forbids such an incongruity, and the renovating Spirit refuses to yield the energy of His power to the sway of a mere minister of public recreation.
2. Affording spiritual entertainment; by exhibiting the conceits and ingenuities of mystic exposition; by painting in high colours the honours and privileges of the believer, and allowing professors of all sorts to appropriate the fulsome description; or by pealing out thunders of wrath against distant adversaries, rather than at the impure, unjust, rapacious, and malicious who fill the pews around him. This latter direct method might turn the whole tide of his popularity!
III. It behoves preachers to beware of the indurating effect of accustomed phrases and forms of words. Such conventional phrases conceal from the mind the ideas they should convey; hence preachers should continually endeavour to break up the mental incrustations which are always spreading themselves over the sensitive surface of the soul. This is most especially necessary in reference to matters wherein the drowsy formalities of language tend directly to augment the stupefying influence that belongs to all vicious indulgences. A mind, already rendered callous by sensuality, receives every week a new, and again a new insensibility from the heavy monotonies of the pulpit.
IV. It is a pressing duty of the minister of religion to maintain, in vigour, the spirit he needs as the reprover of sin and the guardian of virtue. It is easy to teach the articles of belief, to illustrate the branches of Christian ethics, to proclaim the Divine mercy, to meet and assuage the fears of the feeble and sorrows of the afflicted. But to keep in full activity the power of rebuke, demands rare qualities. It is fruitless to search aside for substitutes for these qualities. The preacher may avail himself of abstract demonstration respecting the unalterable rigour of the Divine government, to prove that the Supreme Ruler of the moral system can never pass over transgression, but must needs exact the appointed penalty from either the transgressor or his substitute. The erudite argument, for any substantial effect it will produce, might as well have related to the planets.
Or he may adopt the devices of eloquence; turning descriptive, pathetic, indignant. Yet while the walls ring with these sounds of alarm, the covetous man continues counting his gold, the eye of the vain and prurient is darting from object to object of illicit attraction, &c.
But to speak efficaciously of the holiness and justice of the Almighty God, and of its future consequences; to speak in modesty, tenderness, and power, of the approaching doom of the impenitent, must be left to those whose spirits have had much communion with the dread Majesty on high. On these topics ordinary preachers are most at fault; they are not themselves in spiritual fitness and equipment for their duty of rebuke and testimony of judgment.
V. There are three indispensable qualifications for the vigorous exercise of the Christian minister for this power of rebuke.
1. Such a conviction of the truth of Christianity as shall render him proof against assaults from within and from without. The quarrel of the world with Christianity comes to its issue upon the doctrine of future retribution. Meditating upon the scenes of joy which the Gospel spreads before us, we are not perplexed by discordant doubts; for joy and hope are emotions indigenous to the human mind. But the same law which makes joy and hope spontaneous, unsuspectingly impels us to doubt when we set our foot upon the region which sin has replenished with terrors. Fatal to his influence as a refuter of sin must be a lurking scepticism in the preacher’s breast. The infection of his own doubts will pass into the heart of the hearer, and will serve to harden each transgressor in his impenitence.
2. A resolute loyalty to the divine administration will be equally needful. It rests itself upon the assurance, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” It takes its force from genuine piety and affection to truth. It is the same spirit that led the royal poet to utter his persuasion, “I know, O Lord, that all Thy judgments are right;” and moved Paul with a similar force of healthy piety to exclaim, “Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar.” Such loyalty will break through the mazes of much sophistry, will support the servant of God when assailed by more fallacies than he can at the moment refute, and enable him to cleave under all obloquies and embarrassments to what he inwardly and firmly knows must in the end prove itself the better cause.
3. Not less necessary to the minister of truth is an unaffected and sensitive compassion towards his fellow-men, and a compassion of that efficient kind which nothing has ever produced but the Gospel. The servant of Heaven can effect his commission only as he gains access to the human heart; and there is no other path of access but that of love. Men, rather than angels, are sent to preach repentance, that the promulgation of mercy may always be heard in tones of tenderness and humiliation. The end of all reproof is mercy. If there were no redemption at hand, it were idle or cruel to talk of judgment.—Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening, xv.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 15: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_15:1. INTERCESSORY PRAYER. “I ought to study Christ as an intercessor. He prayed most for Peter, who was most to be tempted.”—M‘Cheyne.
“Sandalphon stands listening breathless
To sounds that ascend from below;—
“From the spirits on earth that adore,
From the souls that entreat and implore
In the fervour and passion of prayer;
From the hearts that are broken with losses,
And weary with dragging the crosses
Too heavy for mortals to bear.
“And he gathers the prayers as he stands,
And they change into flowers in his hands,
Into garlands of purple and red;
And beneath the great arch of the portal,
Through the streets of the city immortal,
Is wafted the fragrance they shed.”
—“Legend of the Angel of Prayer.”
—Longfellow.
LIMITS TO PRAYER.
“If by prayer
Incessant I could hope to change the will
Of Him who all things can, I would not cease
To weary Him with my assiduous cries.
But prayer against His absolute decree
No more avails than breath against the wind,
Blows stifling back on him i hat breathes it forth:
Therefore to His great bidding I submit.”
—Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”
“What is the limit of our prayer? This: ‘Not my will but Thine be done!’ Is that a limit? Why, that is glorious liberty! Not my will but Thine,—not a little will but a great will,—not my thought but Thine,—not my love but Thine’ Is it a limit? It is the lark rising from its field-nest with the boundless liberty of the firmament. Truly we do not limit ourselves when we exchange the creature for the Creator.”—Joseph Parker, D.D.
Jer_15:2. SCORNFUL INCREDULITY. “Rest thee well assured, O scorner! that thy laughs cannot alter truth, thy jests cannot avert thine inevitable doom. Though in thy hardihood thou shouldst make a league with death, and sign a covenant with hell, yet swift justice shall overtake thee, and strong vengeance strike thee low. In vain dost thou jeer and mock, for eternal verities are mightier than thy sophistries; nor can thy smart sayings alter the divine truth of a single word of this volume of Revelation. Oh! why dost thou quarrel with thy best friend, and ill-treat thy only refuge?”—Spurgeon.
Jer_15:4. PARENTAGE. “The account that begins to be incurred when parents rejoice because a child is born to them, is the most solemn account that ever is incurred aside of one’s own individual duty towards God. I do not mean that all the misconduct and evil-endings of the child are to come back upon the parent, and that there is to be in the child no free will, so that no individual account can belong to him. For if a parent has cleansed his skirts of his children, the guilt of their sins will rest on their heads, and not on his. But unless the parent can show that the child’s misconduct and wreck of eternity are not attributable to any fault of his, the weight of the child’s condemnation will be divided.”—H. W. Beecher.
“The last thing forgotten in all the recklessness of dissolute profligacy is the prayer or hymn taught by a mother’s lips or uttered at a father’s knee; and where there seems to have been any pains bestowed even by one parent to train up a child aright, there is generally more than ordinary ground for hope.”—The Experience of a Prison Chaplain.
Jer_15:5. LOST TO PITY.
“None pities him that’s in the snare,
And, warned before, would not beware.”
—Herick.
Jer_15:8. LIFE’S NOONTIDE.
“O life, how pleasant is thy morning,
Young Fancy’s rays the hills adorning!
Cold, pausing Caution’s lessons scorning,
We frisk away,
Like schoolboys at the expected warning,
To joy and play.”
—Burns.
“For ah! my heart, how very soon
The glittering dreams of youth are past;
And long before it reach its noon,
The sun of life is overcast.”
—Moore.
“What is youth? A dancing billow,
Winds behind, and rocks before!”
—Wordsworth.
“Live, that thy young and glowing breast
Can think of death without a sigh,
And be assured that life is best
Which finds us least afraid to die.”
—Eliza Cook.
Jer_15:9. EARLY DEATH. “What is this voice to us?” says Bonar of the early death of M‘Cheyne. “Only this much we can clearly see, that nothing was more fitted to leave his character and example impressed on our remembrance for ever than his early death. There might be envy while he lived; there is none now. There might have been some of the youthful attractiveness of his graces lost had he lived many years; this cannot be impaired now. It seems as if the Lord had struck the flower from the stem ere any of the colours had lost their bright hues or any leaf its fragrance.”
It is remarkable yet mysterious how many of God’s choicest servants have been removed so early. Look over this list:—H. Kirke White (at 21), Andrew Gray (21), John Janeway (23), Patrick Hamilton (24), R. M. M‘Cheyne (29), Captain Hedley Vicars (29), David Brainerd (30), H. W. Fox (30), Felix Neff (31), J. H. Forsyth (32), H. Martyn (32), Toplady (35), W. Archer Butler (35).
Jer_15:10. A TROUBLED MINISTRY. “Exposed to criticisms and interferences of the vulgarest and coarsest kind. One man will ask how it is that so few additions are made to the Church? Another will inquire how it is that the collections have fallen off? A third will profess to lament that the seats were better let in former years. A fourth will intimate that we must have preaching which is abreast of the times. The minister often listens to these things with a justly angry spirit, oftener still with a heavy or aching heart; but what can he do? Shall he answer a fool according to his folly? This is exactly what the fool would like above everything. Shall he restrain himself and swallow his grief? He does so; but such discipline often brings with it discouragement and sadness,—sometimes almost despair.”—Parker.
Jer_15:12. BE NOT DISCOURAGED. “Some of the greatest works that were ever performed by Christian people were not immediate in their results. You know the story of the removal of old St. Paul’s by Sir Christopher Wren. A very massive piece of masonry had to be broken down, and the task, by pick and shovel, would have been a very tedious one, so the great architect prepared a battering-ram for its removal, and a large number of workmen were directed to strike with force against the wall with the ram. After several hours of labour, the wall, to all appearances, stood fast and firm. Their many strokes had been apparently lost, but the architect knew that they were gradually communicating motion to the wall, creating an agitation throughout the whole of it, and that, by and by, when they had continued long enough, the entire mass would come down beneath a single stroke. The workmen, no doubt, attributed the result to the one crowning concussion, but their master knew that their previous strokes had only culminated in that one tremendous blow, and that all the non-resultant work had been necessary to prepare for the stroke which achieved the purpose.”—C. H. Spurgeon.
EVIL SHALL NOT PREVAIL.—“In the dark ages the enemy thought he had destroyed the Church, but life came into the monk in his cell, and Luther shook the world. The Church in England fell into a deadly slumber in the days of Whitfield and Wesley; but she was not dead, and therefore a time of awakening came. The flame burned low, but the heavenly fire still lingered among the ashes, and only needed the Holy Spirit to blow upon it, and cause a hallowed conflagration. Six young men in Oxford were found guilty of meeting to pray: their offence was contagious, and soon there sprang up hundreds glorying in the same blessed crime. Earnest servants of the living God were forthcoming, and no man knew whence they came; like the buds and blossoms which come forth at the bidding of spring, a people made willing in the day of God’s power came forward at once. Seeing that there is life in the Church of God, you can never calculate what will happen within its bounds to-morrow; for life is an unaccountable thing, and scorns the laws which bind the formal and inanimate. The statues in St. Paul’s Cathedral stand fixed on their pedestals, and the renowned dead in Westminster Abbey never raise a riot; but who can tell what the living may next conceive or attempt? They burnt the Gospel out in Spain, did they not? And in the Low Countries they erased the memory thereof. How is it now? Has not Spain achieved her liberty at a blow? Is not also Belgium free to the preacher of the Word? Not even Italy or Rome itself is safe against the obnoxious heretic. Everywhere the Gospel penetrates. Even the earth helps the woman, and swallows up the flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth to drown the man-child: political rulers restrain the violence of those who otherwise would slay the saints in one general massacre.”—C. H. Spurgeon.
Jer_15:15. ON BEING REMEMBERED. See Bonar’s hymn, “The Everlasting Memorial.”
“I need not be missed if my life has been bearing
(As its summer and autumn moved silently on)
Its flower and its fruit: I shall still be remembered—
Yes, but remembered by what I have done.”
Jer_15:16. ENJOYING GOD’S WORD. “What do I not owe to the Lord,” writes Henry Martyn, “for permitting me to take part in the translation of His Word? Never did I see such wonders, and wisdom, and love in the blessed Book, as since I have been obliged to study every expression: and it is a delightful reflection, that death cannot deprive us of the pleasure of studying its mysteries.”
Shortly before his death, Dr. Buchannan, giving to a friend some details of his laborious revisions of his Syriac Testament, suddenly stopped and burst into tears. On recovering himself, he said, “I am not ill, but I was completely overcome with the recollection of the delight which I have enjoyed in this exercise. At first I was disposed to shrink from the task as irksome, and apprehended that I should find even the Scriptures pall by the frequency of this critical examination. But, so far from it, every fresh perusal seemed to throw fresh light on the Word of God, and to convey additional joy and consolation to my mind.”
APPROPRIATING GOD’S WORD. “Have you an ear to hear Gospel truth as the voice of the Infinite God addressed to your own soul? The Dutch farmers at the Cape, at no very distant period, considered the Hottentots around them to be little better than beasts, quite incapable of anything beyond mere eating, drinking, stealing, and lying. After our missionaries had laboured among the natives for a time, one of them was found reading the Bible by the roadside. The Dutchman inquired of him, ‘What book are you reading?’ ‘The Bible.’ ‘The Bible! Why, that book was never intended for you.’ ‘Indeed it was,’ said the black man, ‘for I see my name here.’ ‘Your name! where?’ cried the farmer. ‘Show it to me.’ ‘There,’ said the Hottentot, putting his finger on the word ‘sinners.’ ‘That’s my name; I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came to save me.’ It were well, indeed, if men would but read the Bible, saying, ‘In this volume the great God condescends to speak to me.”—Spurgeon.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1-9. The coming woes described.
1-9. The coming woes described.
1. Moses (Exo_17:11; Exo_32:11; Num_14:13-20) and Samuel (1Sa_7:9; 1Sa_12:23) were successful pleaders with God in time past: cp. Psa_99:6.
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2. To death] meaning, by pestilence.
4. To be removed into] RV 'to be tossed to and fro among.' For Manasseh's wickedness see 2Ki_21:3.
7. They shall be dispersed and driven forth from the land by every way of exit.
8. Even the mothers of warriors in the prime of youth shall have none to protect them. At noonday] taking them by surprise: see Jer_6:4. I have caused him, etc.] RV 'I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her' (the mother) 'suddenly.'
10-21. Jeremiah's lament and appeal. God's reply.
10. I have neither lent, etc.] The Jews were forbidden to take interest from one another (Deu_23:20), and the money-lender accordingly was held in extreme disfavour. Jeremiah laments that his mission is constantly one of strife with his people.
11. It shall be well with thy remnant] RV 'I will strengthen thee for good.' His enemies shall not only spare Jeremiah, but invoke his aid. This took place more than once: see Jer_21:1.; Jer_37:3; Jer_42:2.
12. Judæa is not tough enough to withstand the Chaldean power. For northern, cp, Jer_6:1.
14. I will make thee to pass with] Some authorities read, 'I will make thee to serve.' So it runs in the parallel passage, Jer_17:4.
16. He describes the joyful acceptance with which he first received the divine commission.
17. The mockers] RV 'them that make merry.' There is no suggestion of wrong doing in the original word. Because of thy hand] meaning God's guidance, His inspiration. For this sense of 'hand' cp. Isa_8:11 and Eze_1:3; Eze_37:1.
18. Liar] RV 'deceitful brook.' As waters that fail] The figure is that of a watercourse, which being dried up belies the anticipations of the thirsty traveller: cp. Job_6:15. Jeremiah laments that his message seems to have no effect.
19. Return] i.e. repent öf his murmuring.
Stand before me] as my servant: cp. for the phrase, 1Ki_18:15; 2Ki_3:14. Take forth the precious from the vile] i.e. purge himself of his distrust. Let them return, etc.] Deliver your message, regardless of the people's favour. They must turn to God.
20. See Jer_1:18, Jer_1:19.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv6, 11 (See Scofield "Zec 8:14")
repenting
(See Scofield "Zec 8:14")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The Prophet’s Deep Soul-Exercise
CHAPTER 15
The Prophet’s Deep Soul-Exercise
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1. The answer (Jer 15:1-9)
2. The prophet’s grief and sorrow and Jehovah’s answer (Jer 15:10-21)
Jer 15:1-9. The preceding prayer is now answered and the Lord tells Jeremiah that if Moses and Samuel, these two great men of intercessory prayer, were pleading, judgment would not be averted. What is in store for those who are appointed to death, for the sword, for the famine, for captivity, will be accomplished. There is no escape. They will be removed among all kingdoms on account of Manasseh’s great sin 2Ki 21:11-26. The terrors of judgment are described in Jer 15:7-9. Their children will be taken; widows increase; the mother of seven children faints, because they are all taken from her.
Jer 15:10-21. Jeremiah is overwhelmed. He pronounces a “woe” upon himself and declares that his mother has given birth to one who is a man of strife, of contention to the whole land. He has faithfully discharged his duty; he loved his people and they hated him beyond measure. Every one cursed him, as if he were a wicked man. What anguish of soul this implies! But then the Lord was near to cheer and comfort him, as He is near to us when we are in sorrow and all is dark and we are in despair. It would be well with him and with those, who, like Jeremiah, trust the Lord. But the remnant, too, would suffer with the nation’s portion (Jer 15:13-14). This brings out another prayer from Jeremiah’s heart. He pleads for revenge upon his adversaries, and then prays, “Take me not away in Thy longsuffering, know that for Thy sake I have suffered rebuke.” But while he prayed he also used the Word of God. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them.” He fed on the bread of life. The word was unto him the joy and rejoicing of his heart. He knew from the Word that he was called by His Name. And we also can turn to the Word and feed on it. But how few can say, “Thy Word is the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” That Word on which Jeremiah fed, which filled his sorrowful heart, led him to separation. It will lead us also to separation in the evil day of departure from God and the threatening judgment. He sat alone; He refused to have anything to do with the assembly of mockers, those who denied His Word and His Name, who listened to the false prophets with their false message. Jer 15:18 must be interpreted in the sense that Jeremiah speaks as representing the godly remnant of Israel. There was such a remnant then in the midst of the wicked mass, there will be such a remnant again in the future, during the great tribulation, or, as Jeremiah calls that time, “The time of Jacob’s trouble.” They suffer in the trials and judgments; they are fearful, yet trusting. Jeremiah is representative of this remnant. The answer the Lord gives in Jer 15:19-21 must be explained in the same light. Jer 15:21 will find its final fulfillment of the future remnant when the Lord returns and redeems them from the hand of the wicked and the hand of the terrible, the two beasts of Rev 13:1-18.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 The Lord Refuses help the Second Time
The Lord Refuses help the Second Time
v. 1. Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel, who are hereby affirmed to be historical persons, stood before Me, the high regard in which He held these His servants tending to have Him look upon them with favor, yet My mind could not be toward this people, their intercession could not save the people from the threatened destruction. Cast them out of My sight and let them go forth, since Jehovah utterly repudiates His chosen people.
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v. 2. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shall tell them, in a very harsh answer, as befitted the occasion, Thus saith the Lord, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. The Lord’s previous sentence, in which He names three scourges, 14:12, is here strengthened and intensified in order to bring out the inevitable certainty of the impending destruction.
v. 3. And I will appoint over them four kinds saith the Lord, four varieties of death: the sword to slay, so that their carcasses would lie on the ground, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy, the last three agencies completing the judgment upon the dead bodies.
v. 4. And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, Cf Deu 28:25, there being a great many countries making up the Babylonian Empire, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem, in introducing and practicing the abominations of idolatry. Cf 2Ki 21:11 ff.
v. 5. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem, or who shall bemoan thee? in a feeling of sympathy for the various punishments which were about to strike her. Or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? in a neighborly form of inquiry concerning her welfare. By the dispensation of Jehovah, men were simply ignoring her and her plight, letting her alone in her misery.
v. 6. Thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord, rejecting the God of the covenant, thou art gone backward, away from Him and His Word; therefore will I stretch out My hand against thee and destroy thee, in one mighty stroke of punishment; I am weary with repenting, since His gracious offers had so often been abused and rejected, He would now no longer show mercy.
v. 7. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; even as a man at the opening of a threshing-floor makes use of every gust of wind to remove the chaff from the wheat, so the Lord would stand at the entrance of the land and let its inhabitants pass through a sifting process. I will bereave them of children, by causing the flower of their youth to fall in battle; I will destroy My people since they return not from their ways, persisting in their rejection of Jehovah.
v. 8. Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas, beyond the possibility of counting them; I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men, the wife in the fullness of her strength, a spoiler at noonday, the enemy hordes; I have caused him to fall upon it, the city with all its inhabitants, suddenly, and terrors upon the city, so that she was filled With anguish.
v. 9. She that hath borne seven, the woman usually in her best years and strength, languisheth, she hath given up the ghost, despairing because not one of her sons remained; her sun is gone down while it was yet day, her good fortune leaving her just at a time when she should have been at the height of her prosperity; she hath been ashamed and confounded, put to shame on account of the disappointment over the loss of her children; and the residue of them, those still remaining at the time when Jerusalem was taken, will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord. Cf Mic 6:14. Thus the fate of the city was determined upon in every respect, as the Lord proceeded to carry out His sentence upon its inhabitants.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13 General Information:
General Information:
Jeremiah has just been praying to Yahweh.
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were standing in front of me, I would still not be in favor of this people
This implies that they are pleading for Yahweh to spare the people. AT: "were standing in front of me pleading for these people, I would still not be in favor of them" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Send them out from before me, for them to go away
Yahweh repeats this idea of sending away his people to add emphasis to it. (See: Parallelism)
Those who are for
"Those whom I have appointed to go to"
should go to death
This speaks of dying as if death were a place that people can go to. AT: "should die" (See: Metaphor)
those who are for the sword should go to the sword
Here the "sword" represents war. To be "for the sword" means that God has appointed them to die in war. AT: "those whom I have appointed to die in war should go to die in war" (See: Metonymy and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Those who are for famine should go to famine
This means that Yahweh has appointed these to die because of famine, and these words speak of dying by famine as if "famine" were a place that people can go to. AT: "Those whom I have appointed to die by famine should go and die by famine" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
should go to captivity
"should go into captivity"
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Samuel
favor
people group
send
destine
die
sword
famine
captive
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 On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 15:1-9 The Lord’s reply to Jeremiah’s prayer (14:19-22) was…
15:1-9 The Lord’s reply to Jeremiah’s prayer (14:19-22) was that Judah’s destruction was inevitable.
15:1 Moses and Samuel were noted for their intercessory prayer. Several times, when they prayed for the rebellious Israelites, the Lord withdrew his threatened punishment (see Exod 32:11-14; Num 14:13-20; 1 Sam 7:8-10). But now, even their intervention would have been ineffective.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.