A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
Parallel Translations
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A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
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A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
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Thou throne of glory, on high from the beginning, thou place of our sanctuary,
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 17:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 96:6 Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
- Jeremiah 3:17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘Yahweh’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Yahweh’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
- Ezekiel 43:7 He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the children of Israel forever. The house of Israel will no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their kings in their high places;
- Jeremiah 14:21 Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us.
- Ezekiel 1:26 Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. On the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above.
- Isaiah 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
- Hebrews 4:16 Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.
- Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- Revelation 3:21 He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.
- Psalms 103:19 Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens. His kingdom rules over all.
- Isaiah 66:1 Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest?
- Matthew 25:31 “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
- 2 Chronicles 2:5-6 “The house which I am building will be great; for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain him? Who am I then, that I should build him a house, except just to burn incense before him?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain No doubt the Prophet refers to the singular favor…
No doubt the Prophet refers to the singular favor which God granted the Jews, when he chose for himself an habitation among them. It was an incomparable honor when God was pleased to dwell in the midst of that people. Hence, the Prophet exclaims, that the throne of glory and of loftiness was the place of his sanctuary, which God had chosen in that land. But we must understand the design of the Prophet; for the Holy Spirit sometimes commemorates the blessings of God, to raise the minds of men to confidence, or to rouse them to make sacrifices of praise. Here is then a twofold object, when the Scripture sets before us the blessings of God; it is first, that we may be fully persuaded, that he will be always a father to us, for he who begins is wont to bring his work to an end, according to what is said in Psalm 138:8,
“The work of thine hands thou wilt not forsake.”
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And then, the Scripture sometimes encourages us to render thanks to God, when it shews how bountifully he has dealt with us. But here is a reproof when the Prophet says, that the glorious throne of God was among the Jews, as though God appeared there openly and in a visible form; for Judea, so to speak, was as it were a terrestrial heaven; for God had consecrated to himself mount Sion, that he might dwell there.
We now then understand why the Prophet here extols the dignity to which God had raised the Jews, when he had commanded a temple for himself to be built on mount Sion. Some will have a particle of comparison to be understood, “As a throne of glory;” that is, as heaven itself in height, so is the place of our sanctuary; but we may take the words simply as they are. We must at the same time repudiate the Rabbinical comment, — that God before the creation of the world had built the temple, as he had appointed the Messiah and other things. But these are foolish trifles. Yet this passage has afforded the Jews an occasion for labling; for it is said from the beginning, מראשון merashun. If the throne of God, that is, the sanctuary, [they say] was from the beginning, it then follows that it was created before heaven and earth. But this is disproved by this single consideration, — that he speaks not here of time but of the order of things, and that that order is; not according to the essence of things, but according to the providence of God. From the beginning, then was the throne of God glorious in Judea, even because God in his eternal counsel had determined to choose the race of Abraham, and then to raise up in that nation the throne of David, and from thence to extend salvation to the whole world. Predestination therefore is the antiquity of the throne of which the Prophet now speaks. Hence the most suitable view is this, — that God had honored the Jews with a singular privilege, because he had purposed to dwell among them, not otherwise than in heaven, so that their condition became more excellent than all human glory. It now follows, —
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 Showing that the godly ought to glory in nothing,…
Showing that the godly ought to glory in nothing, but in God, who doth exalt his, and hath left a sign of his favor in his Temple.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 17:12 A glorious high throne from the beginning…
Jer 17:12 A glorious high throne from the beginning [is] the place of our sanctuary.
Ver. 12. A glorious high throne from the beginning.] Therefore it is best to "trust in God at all times, ye people, and to pour out your hearts before him," since "God is a refuge for us." {Psa 62:8} All that do otherwise shall be ashamed, {Jer 17:13} and worthily; because, having so glorious a God resident among them, they so basely forsake him to serve and seek to idols.
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 It is much more hard to give an account…
It is much more hard to give an account of the connexion of these words with the former, than of their sense considered absolutely in themselves. Some would have them the words of the people, reckoning up another vain ground of their confidence, because they had amongst them the temple of the Lord, which we know was what they mightily gloried in. Others would have them the words of the prophet owning his and the good Jews’ confidence to be only in God, and themselves to worship God not in groves or high places, but only in that place which he had chosen to be worshipped in, even in his sanctuary or temple. Many other conjectures there are, but these two seem to me the most probable.
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 Here, as often before, we have the prophet retired…
Here, as often before, we have the prophet retired for private meditation, and alone with God. Those ministers that would have comfort in their work must be much so. In his converse here with God and his own heart he takes the liberty which devout souls sometimes use in their soliloquies, to pass from one thing to another, without tying themselves too strictly to the laws of method and coherence.
I. He acknowledges the great favour of God to his people in setting up a revealed religion among them, and dignifying them with divine institutions (Jer 17:12): A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. The temple at Jerusalem, where God manifested his special presence, where the lively oracles were lodged, where the people paid their homage to their Sovereign, and whither they fled for refuge in distress, was the place of their sanctuary. That was a glorious high throne. It was a throne of holiness, which made it truly glorious; it was God's throne, which made it truly high. Jerusalem is called the city of the great King, not only Israel's King, but the King of the whole earth, so that it might justly be deemed the metropolis, or royal city, of the world. It was from the beginning, so, from the first projecting of it by David and building of it by Solomon, Ch2 2:9. It was the honour of Israel that God set up such a glorious throne among them. As the glorious and high throne (that is, heaven) is the place of our sanctuary; so some read it. Note, All good men have a high value and veneration for the ordinances of God, and reckon the place of the sanctuary a glorious high throne. Jeremiah here mentions this either as a plea with God for mercy to their land, in honour of the throne of his glory (Jer 14:21), or as an aggravation of the sin of his people in forsaking God though his throne was among them, and so profaning his crown and the place of his sanctuary.
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II. He acknowledges the righteousness of God in abandoning those to ruin that forsook him and revolted from their allegiance to him, Jer 17:13. He speaks it to God, as subscribing both to the certainty and to the equity of it: O Lord! the hope of those in Israel that adhere to thee, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed. They must of necessity be so, for they forsake thee for lying vanities, which will deceive them and make them ashamed. They will be ashamed, for they shame themselves. They will justly be put to shame, for they have forsaken him who alone can keep them in countenance when troubles come. Let them be ashamed (so some read it); and so it is a pious imprecation of the wrath of God upon them, or a petition for his grace, to make them penitently ashamed. "Those that depart from me, from the word of God which I have preached, do in effect depart from God;" as those that return to God are said to return to the prophet, Jer 15:19. Those that depart from thee (so some read it) shall be written in the earth. They shall soon be blotted out, as that is which is written in the dust. They shall be trampled upon and exposed to contempt. They belong to the earth, and shall be numbered among earthly people, who lay up their treasure on earth and whose names are not written in heaven. And they deserve to be thus written with the fools in Israel, that their folly may be made manifest unto all, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters (that is, spring waters), and that for broken cisterns. Note, God is to all that are his a fountain of living waters. There is a fulness of comfort in him, an over-flowing ever-flowing fulness, like that of a fountain; it is always fresh, and clear, and clean, like spring water, while the pleasures of sin are puddle-waters. They are free to it; it is not a fountain sealed. They deserve therefore to be condemned, as Adam, to red earth, to which by the corruption of their nature they are allied, because they have forsaken the garden of the Lord, which is so well-watered. Those that depart from God are written in the earth.
III. He prays to God for healing saving mercy for himself. "If the case of those that depart from God be so miserable, let me always draw nigh to him (Psa 73:27, Psa 73:28), and, in order to do that, Lord, heal me, and save me, Jer 17:14. Heal my backslidings, my bent to backslide, and save me from being carried away by the strength of the stream to forsake thee." He was wounded in spirit with grief upon many accounts. "Lord, heal me with thy comforts, and make me easy." He was continually exposed to the malice of unreasonable men. "Lord, save me from them, and let me not fall into their wicked hands. Heal me, that is, sanctify me by thy grace; save me, that is, bring me to thy glory." All that shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now; unless the disease of sin be purged out the soul cannot live. To enforce this petition he pleads, 1. The firm belief he had of God's power: Heal thou me, and then I shall be healed; the cure will certainly be wrought if thou undertake it; it will be a thorough cure and not a palliative one. Those that come to God to be healed ought to be abundantly satisfied in the all-sufficiency of their physician. Save me, and then I shall certainly be saved, be my dangers and enemies ever so threatening. If God hold us up, we shall live; if he protect us, we shall be safe. 2. The sincere regard he had to God's glory: "For thou art my praise, and for that reason I desire to be healed and saved, that I may live and praise thee, Psa 119:175. Thou art he whom I praise, and the praise due to thee I never gave to another. Thou art he whom I glory in, and boast of, for on thee do I depend. Thou art he that furnishes me with continual matter for praise, and I have given thee the praise of the favours already bestowed upon me. Thou shalt be my praise" (so some read it); "heal me, and save me, and thou shalt have the glory of it. My praise shall be continually of thee," Psa 71:6; Psa 79:13.
IV. He complains of the infidelity and daring impiety of the people to whom he preached. It greatly troubled him, and he shows before God this trouble, as the servant that had slights put upon him by the guests he was sent to invite came and showed his Lord these things. He had faithfully delivered God's message to them; and what answer has he to return to him that sent him? Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now, Jer 17:15, Isa 5:19. They bantered the prophet, and made a jest of that which he delivered with the greatest seriousness. 1. They denied the truth of what he said: "If that be the word of the Lord which thou speakest to us, where is it? Why is it not fulfilled?" Thus the patience of God was impudently abused as a ground to question his veracity. 2. They defied the terror of what he said. "Let God Almighty do his worst; let all he has said come to pass; we shall do well enough; the lion is not so fierce as he is painted," Amo 5:18. "Lord, to what purpose is it to speak to men that will neither believe nor fear?"
V. He appeals to God concerning his faithful discharge of the duty to which he was called, Jer 17:16. The people did all they could to make him weary of his work, to exasperate him and make him uneasy, and to tempt him to prevaricate and alter his message for fear of displeasing them; but, "Lord," says he, "thou knowest I have not yielded to them." 1. He continued constant to his work. His office, instead of being his credit and protection, exposed him to reproach, contempt, and injury. "Yet," says he, "I have not hastened from being a pastor after thee; I have not left my work, nor sued for a discharge or a quietus." Prophets were pastors to the people, to feed them with the good word of God; but they were to be pastors after God, and all ministers must be so, according to his heart (Jer 3:15), to follow him and the directions and instructions he gives. Such a pastor Jeremiah was; and, though he met with as much difficulty and discouragement as ever any man did, yet he did not fly off as Jonah did, nor desire to be excused from going any more on God's errands. Note, Those that are employed for God, though their success answer nor their expectations, must not therefore throw up their commission. but continue to follow God, though the storm be in their faces. 2. He kept up his affection to the people. Though they were very abusive to him, he was compassionate to them: I have not desired the woeful day. The day of the accomplishment of his prophecies would be a woeful day indeed to Jerusalem, and therefore he deprecated it, and wished it might never come, though, as to himself, it would be the avenging of him upon his persecutors and the proving of him a true prophet (which they had questioned, Jer 17:15), and upon those accounts he might be tempted to desire it. Note, God does not, and therefore ministers must not, desire the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn and live. Though we warn of the woeful day, we must not wish for it, but rather weep because of it, as Jeremiah did. 3. He kept closely to his instructions. Though he might have curried favour with the people, or at least have avoided their displeasure, if he had not been so sharp in his reproofs and severe in his threatenings, yet he would deliver his message faithfully; and that he had done so was a comfort to him. "Lord, thou knowest that that which came out of my lips was right before thee; it exactly agreed with what I received from thee, and therefore thou art reflected upon in their quarrelling with me." Note, If what we say and do be right before God, we may easily despise the reproaches and censures of men. It is a small thing to be judged of their judgment.
VI. He humbly begs of God that he would own him, and protect him, and carry him on cheerfully in that work to which God had so plainly called him and to which he had so sincerely devoted himself. Two things he here desires: - 1. That he might have comfort in serving the God that sent him (Jer 17:17): Be not thou a terror to me. Surely more is implied than is expressed. "Be thou a comfort to me, and let thy favour rejoice my heart and encourage me, when my enemies do all they can to terrify me and either to drive me from my work or to make me drive on heavily in it." Note, The best have that in them which might justly make God a terror to them, as he was for some time to Job (Job 6:4), to Asaph (Psa 77:3), to Heman, Psa 88:15. And this is that which good men, knowing the terrors of the Lord, dread and deprecate more than any thing; nay, whatever frightful accidents may befal them, or how formidable soever their enemies may appear to them, they can do well enough so long as God is not a terror to them. He pleads, "Thou art my hope; and then nothing else is my fear, no, not in the day of evil, when it is most threatening, most pressing. My dependence is upon thee; and therefore be not a terror to me." Note, Those that by faith make God their confidence shall have him for their comfort in the worst of times, if it be not their own fault: if we make him our trust, we shall not find him our terror. 2. That he might have courage in dealing with the people to whom he was sent, Jer 17:18. Those persecuted him who should have entertained and encouraged him. "Lord," says he, "let them be confounded (let them be overpowered by the convictions of the word and made ashamed of their obstinacy, or else let the judgments threatened be at length executed upon them), but let not me confounded, let not me be terrified by their menaces, so as to betray my trust." Note, God's ministers have work to do which they need not be either ashamed or afraid to go on in, but they do need to be helped by the divine grace to go on in it without shame or fear. Jeremiah had not desired the woeful day upon his country in general; but as to his persecutors, in a just and holy indignation at their malice, he prays, Bring upon them the day of evil, in hope that the bringing of it upon them might prevent the bringing of it upon the country; if they were taken away, the people would be better; "therefore destroy them with a double destruction; let them be utterly destroyed, root and branch, and let the prospect of that destruction be their present confusion." This the prophet prays, not at all that he might be avenged, nor so much that he might be eased, but that the Lord may be known by the judgments which he executes.
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 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the…
A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. The temple, which was a sanctified place, where the holy God dwelt, his holy worship was observed, and his holy people met together. Here, from the beginning of its erection, from the time of its dedication, the Lord took up his residence; the glory of the Lord filled the house; he set up his throne in it, a high and glorious one; he dwelt between the cherubim, over the mercy seat, typical of the throne of grace. Kimchi and Ben Melech observe that R. Samuel Ben Tibbon is of opinion that the "caph" of similitude is here wanting; and that it should be interpreted thus, "as a glorious high throne", &c.: heaven is the high and glorious throne, where the Lord sits and reigns; and the temple or sanctuary bore some likeness and resemblance to it; it was a figure of it; and every place where God is worshipped, and grants his presence, is no other but "the house of God, and the gate of heaven"; and therefore it was great wickedness and ingratitude in the Jews, who were so highly favoured of God, to forsake him, his house, his worship, his word and ordinances, as the following verses show; and which suggest another reason of their destruction. The words in connection with the following verse may be read thus,
"and thou, whose glorious high throne the place of our sanctuary is, O Lord, the Hope of Israel, &c.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. A glorious high throne] As he is…
Verse 12. A glorious high throne] As he is cursed who trusts in man, so he is blessed who trusts in GOD. He is here represented as on a throne in his temple; to him in the means of grace all should resort. He is the support, and a glorious support, of all them that trust in him.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 17:12. A glorious high throne, &c. — “As…
Jer 17:12. A glorious high throne, &c. — “As in the preceding verses was set forth the vain dependance of him who seeks to advance himself by indirect methods; so here we are taught the solid foundation which he builds upon who has recourse to the divine blessing, and seeks to recommend himself to the favour of that Being, to whom Israel was taught to look up for support, and whose kingdom, from all eternity, ruleth over all.” The temple at Jerusalem, where God manifested his special presence, where his lively oracles were lodged, where the people paid their homage to their sovereign, and whither they fled for refuge in distress, was the place of their sanctuary, and might properly be termed a glorious high throne. It was a throne of holiness, which made it glorious; it was God’s throne, which made it truly high. And it was the honour of Israel that God set up his throne among them. Jeremiah may mention this here partly as a plea with God to show mercy to their land in honour of the throne of his glory; and partly as an aggravation of the sin of the people, in forsaking God, though his throne was among them, and so profaning his crown and the place of his sanctuary.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Throne. The temple. We may also read "O high,"…
Throne. The temple. We may also read "O high," &c., chap. xiv. 21.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain throne--the temple of Jerusalem, the throne of Jehovah. Having…
throne--the temple of Jerusalem, the throne of Jehovah. Having condemned false objects of trust, "high places for sin" (Jer 17:3), and an "arm of flesh," he next sets forth Jehovah, and His temple, which was ever open to the Jews, as the true object of confidence, and sanctuary to flee to. HENDERSON makes Jehovah, in Jer 17:13, the subject, and this verse predicate, "A throne of glory, high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary, the hope of Israel is Jehovah." "Throne" is thus used for Him who sits on it; compare thrones (Col 1:16). He is called a "sanctuary" to His people (Isa 8:14; Eze 11:16). So Syriac and Arabic.
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 12. Glorious high throne — Here commences a brief…
12. Glorious high throne — Here commences a brief but most impressive invocation of Jehovah. The copula should not be used in this verse, as such a cold, dogmatic statement would be here most inappropriate. These phrases are a part of the invocation. As the mind mounts up to God, it first rests on what might be called the externals of his presence, and, through these, approaches his personality. O throne of glory, set on high (literally, loftiness) from the beginning, place of our sanctuary — Jehovah, the hope of Israel.
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 12, 13. These verses, the third of the small…
12, 13. These verses, the third of the small group of isolated pieces (see above) which compose this sub-section, are probably to be taken in close connexion, the whole of Jer_17:12 being in form an invocation of the Temple as the scene of God’s visible glory, but in reality an address to Himself. O Lord, throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary, hope of Israel, all that forsake thee, etc. In Jer_17:13, ch. Jer_14:8 supplies the beginning, and ch. Jer_2:13 the end, while the v. also reminds us of Isa_1:28 f. The two vv. may be safely held to be an insertion by an editor of the Book.
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 (12) A glorious high throne . . .—The verse…
(12) A glorious high throne . . .—The verse is better taken in connection with the following, and not, as the interpolated “is” makes it, as a separate sentence, the nouns being all in the vocative. Thou throne of glory on high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary, the hope of Israel, Jehovah . . . The thoughts of the prophet rise from the visible to the eternal temple, and that temple is one with the presence of Jehovah. The term “throne” is applied to Jerusalem in Jer_3:17; practically, to the ark of the covenant in Psa_80:2; Psa_99:1; to the throne in heaven in Eze_1:26; Dan_7:9; Psa_9:4; Psa_11:4.
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 Vers. 12, 13. An address to Jehovah in two…
Vers. 12, 13. An address to Jehovah in two parts, the first specially referring to the temple regarded as the sacramental symbol of the Divine presence, (comp. Psa_5:7) the second to Jehovah himself. It seems to us, no doubt, singular thus practically to identify, Jehovah and his temple; but the prophet s meaning is that God can only be addressed in so far as he has revealed himself. The temple was not, strictly speaking, the "Name or revelation of God, but it was "the place of the Name of Jehovah," and in the language of strong feeling might be addressed as if it were really the Divine Name. The disciples of the incarnate Name were familiar with the idea that their Master was in some sense the antitype of the temple. (Mat_12:6 Joh_2:19) In proposing this explanation, it has been tacitly assumed that the Authorized Version, A glorious high throne... is the place of our sanctuary, is wrong. Grammatically, indeed, it is not indefensible; but it is a weak rendering in such a context. Render, therefore, Thou throne of glory, a height from the beginning, thou place of our sanctuary, thou hope of Israel, Jehovah. The temple is called "the throne of thy glory" in Jer_14:21; "height" is a common synonym for heaven, (Psa_7:8, Hebrew; Isa_57:15, Hebrew) but is also applied to Mount Zion, (Eze_17:23 Eze_20:40, quoted by Keil) which is also in Isa_60:13 called, "the place of my sanctuary." By adding the concluding words of the address (at the opening of ver. 13), the prophet prevents the suspicion that he attached importance to the mere outward buildings of the temple, like those formalist Jews, whose words are quoted Jer_7:4.
Vers. 12-14. The Hope of Israel.
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I THE REVELATION OF THE HOPE OF ISRAEL.
1. God is revealed as the Hope of his people; i.e. as the source
(1) of their highest good a "fear" at first, (Gen_31:42) but when better known a "hope;
(2) of a good not yet attained a hope, not a full fruition; but
(3) of a good assured for the future a true hope resting on good promises, not a vain dream.
2. God is thus revealed in connection with the sanctuary,
(1) because the worship of God enlarges the knowledge of God;
(2) because the sanctuary is the center of religious instruction, either by symbolic service as that of the temple, or by direct teaching as that of the Christian Churches. God must be known to be loved and trusted. They who neglect the duty of public worship lose the privilege of receiving light on Divine truth which would be a comfort and help to them.
3. Experience confirms this revelation of God. The glorious character of God has been true of him "from the beginning." The antiquity of the temple was the proof of this to the Jew, the history of Christendom should be more so to the Christian.
II THE FOLLY OF FORSAKING THE HOPE OF ISRAEL.
1. It is foolish to forsake God. We know that it is wrong; we have to learn that it is also injurious to ourselves. The character of God should make this apparent. Such a character as has been above ascribed to him shows that he is "the Fountain of living waters," i.e. the one Source of pure, life-giving energy. Though no true roll on can be founded on low motives of self-interest, self-interest should at least show us the mistake of irreligion.
2. The results of forsaking God are shame and destruction:
(1) shame, because the stay of confidence which was chosen in preference to God is seen at last to be a rotten reed, while God is manifested as worthy of all trust; and
(2) destruction, for "they shall be written in the earth;" sin is graven as with a pen of iron upon a rock, but the life of the sinner is written in dust, to be dissipated and forgotten, a wasted career, with nothing solid and lasting about it.
III THE PRAYER OF CONFIDENCE IN THE HOPE OF ISRAEL. (Ver. 14)
1. A prayer for healing. Though we hope in God we may suffer at present. We need not so much improved circumstances as a bettering of the condition of our own souls not so much wealth as health.
2. A prayer for salvation. The prophet feels himself in danger. Dangers of various kinds wait on all of us. Salvation is a large word, meaning deliverance from all real harm. It is a large thing to ask for, but not too much for faith.
3. A prayer of assurance shall be healed." What God does he does effectually.
4. A prayer of humble thankfulness thou art my Praise." True faith rests, not on our merits, but on God"s mercy, and therefore all prayer should confess his goodness and all supplication be mingled with thanksgiving. (Php_4:6)
Vers. 12, 13. The saint"s Refuge.
The construction Of the clauses of the twelfth verse is very difficult, and it is not easy to determine their exact relations. It may be better to take them as simple and independent exclamations, united in their being addressed to a common object rather than by any grammatical nexus: "O throne of glory, height from the beginning, place of our sanctuary!" But, taken by itself, this would have no particular sense. It is only as a preface to ver. 13 that we can thoroughly understand its bearing. Jeremiah, full of anxiety and distress at the general depravity, looks instinctively upon Jerusalem, and reflects that only through that which it represents can the future of Israel be secured. There is a gradually ascending climax of spiritual reference, culminating in the words, "Hope of Israel, Jehovah.
I THE SAYING POWER OF THE HOLY CITY IS DERIVED FROM HIM OF WHOM IT IS THE SHRINE. It is obvious that the descriptions of Jerusalem are all relative to this, which gathers up and concentrates everything in a person. The series of epithets of vers. 12 and 13 are cumulative, and express a gradually deepening spiritual insight. Through the material the prophet looks until his eye rests upon the spiritual. God is the center of attraction and the Savior of the worshipping soul. Everything in the ritual and teaching of the temple pointed to him. The glory of the temple was his. It was only as he condescended to use it that men could find therein the spiritual rest and safety they needed. And the same is true of the Church of Christ. It is not the institution which saves, but Christ working in and through it. There is danger of this being overlooked by non-spiritual men. Association connects the grace of salvation with the means or instrumentality, and ignores the original source. It is the virtue of the prophet"s insight that it penetrates the veil of rites and ordinances, and fastens itself upon God as the only saving power.
1. Spiritual men should examine themselves and see whether they rest upon this true spiritual foundation. The process of the prophet"s mind is one through which all true saints have to go. In many instances there will not be the eagle-like directness and happy immediacy of his discovery. There may be clouds and difficulties. But no true satisfaction can be attained until he be discovered and rested in. We are all prone to stay ourselves upon prescription, antiquity, authority, that are merely human. The doctrine, the rite, the priesthood, may intervene, not to unite, but to separate.
2. It behooves those who call themselves by Gods name to exalt and honor him. If there is danger of his being ignored or pushed into the background, the more need is there of a bold and frequent assertion of his power and grace.
3. It is only by a living, experimental, practical faith that this connection with God can be sustained. The sorrow and trouble of Jeremiah drive him inwards for comfort. His meditation was like a voyage of the soul through the straits and shallows of ceremonialism into the great ocean of the personal presence and love of God.
II THE THREEFOLD CLAIM OF GOD"S CITY TO THE REGARD OF MEN. Jerusalem, as the seat of the theocracy, was:
1. The seat of authority and splendor. The power of Israel amongst and against the nations consisted in the spiritual influence emanating from Jerusalem and its temple. The house of God, as the center of all rule and influence, is a throne. It is its own protection, and its authority is self-sustained and self-commended. It is a refuge for the oppressed and a place of justice for the wronged. "Go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks;" for this city is our city, and "this God is our God forever and ever." "Because thou hast made the Almighty... thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." And this power to enforce its mandates and its authority brought with it the glory of security, honor, and respect. Its whole history had been one of growing luster and renown, and its influence had ever "made for righteousness." The saved sinner breathed freely within its precincts, and the victories of Divine love were celebrated within its courts. Those who believe in Christ constitute a Church which is his abode and "the praise of his glory." The distinction and eternal glory of God is that he is "just, and yet the Justifier of the ungodly.
2. It is chosen from eternity. Although only for a few centuries the actual center of Divine rule in the earth, it was not by accident it had become so. From the beginning it was foreseen in God"s thought: "It was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the world was." This was a conviction deeply fixed in the hearts of all true Israelites. The eternal purpose of God had not only determined upon Jerusalem as his dwelling-place, but, through Jerusalem, that purpose was being carried out in the redemption of mankind. And the Church of Christ must be regarded in like manner as the abode of God"s Spirit, chosen from eternity. It is a new dignity for the saints that they had been set apart for this long ere sin had desolated the world. It links the Church with celestial and eternal institutions, and precludes the possibility of its ever having originated in accident or human contrivance. M.
"The place of our sanctuary.
Some four hundred years had passed between the date of these words and the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of the Egyptian king. But that remote event, fruitful of consequences as it was at the time, was fruitful also in results for generation after generation in the centuries to come. And it is to one of those results that this verse has reference, or rather was occasioned by it. Forever since that marriage there had been an Egyptian party in the court of Judah, which sought to sway the affairs of Judah in harmony with those of Egypt. On the other hand, there were the representatives of another near and mighty monarchy which sought to render Judah subservient to their interests. This was the Assyrian power. There was consequently a perpetual tendency on the part of Judah, when trouble came, to make alliance with one party or another. Now the Egyptian alliance was preferred, and now the Assyrian Isa 30 and the history of the reign of Josiah and his death are instances in proof. But the prophets of God were ever against these alliances, and lifted up their voices, though in vain, in protest. These verses, 5-12, are one of those despised utterances, denouncing the false trust and exhorting to the true. This twelfth verse
I SPEARS OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM.
1. For that temple has a throne. It was the earthly throne of God. There was the mercy-seat and the cherubim bowing in profound homage over it, and between them was the visible presence of the glory of God, that Shechinah, that wondrous appearance so bright and awful that but one out of all Israel, and he only once a year, could look thereupon and live. "In Salem was his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion.
2. And it was a glorious throne. By reason of its external magnificence; but more especially of the glorious manifestations of God which had been seen in connection with it.
3. And a high as well as a glorious throne. Not only because Jerusalem was a mountain-city, the loftiest in the world, so high and lifted up was the "mountain of the Lord"s house," but also because of the spiritual glory so far excelling all other which belonged to it. The ancient psalmists and prophets were never tired of declaring and demonstrating how the Lord was "King above all gods.
4. Venerable also: "from the beginning," from the first days of their national life, God had chosen a place for his Name beneath the rugged cliffs of Sinai then, and now in the magnificent temple, the place of their sanctuary. But
II IS DESIGNED TO SUMMON GOD"S PEOPLE TO TRUST IN HIM.
1. For to assert that the place of their sanctuary was a "throne," was to assert that Jehovah was a King. Kings occupy thrones. The sovereignty of God is declared by the prophet"s words. And what a King! How glorious, let all the records of their race declare. How pre eminent over all the gods of the nations, let the gods of Egypt, of Philistia, of Tyre, and others confess. And he was the eternal God. From the beginning" his rule and majesty had been confessed. But the prophet reminds his countrymen of all this that they might see and own the folly of trusting in gods of the heathen as they were so prone to do.
2. And he reminds them of the nearness of God. For the place of their sanctuary was his court, his throne, his abode. Therefore to forsake such a God, and one so near, for idol-gods, and they afar off, what folly, what ingratitude, what sin that! But the same memory cherished concerning God, his glorious sovereignty, his all-superintending power and his nearness to us, how would this strengthen and cheer our hearts oftentimes! Our sins and sorrows, our faint-heartedness, our fears and dismay, are all largely owing to our forgetfulness of that glorious and precious truth which the prophet here declares. And
III MAY BE TAKEN AS A SETTING FORTH OF WHAT OUR SANCTUARIES SHOULD BE.
1. For God should rule in them. A Christian Church, whether we speak of the fabric or the people, should be a throne of God. His Law supreme, his will the rule confessed of all. Human governance in any shape or form which will infringe on the Divine authority, is forbidden. Christ is the Head of the Church, and the "crown rights of the Redeemer" should be jealously maintained. Let Caesar"s dues be ever paid To Caesar and his throne, But consciences and souls were made To be the Lord"s alone.
2. And if our churches be the Lord"s throne, he will make it "a glorious high throne." We should try to make our church buildings glorious outwardly, so far as we may, coveting what is splendid, majestic, beautiful, in architecture, music, adornment, to lay as a tribute at our Sovereign"s feet. Where, consistently with other claims, this may be done, it should be. But he himself will make our Churches his "glorious high throne,": by coming into their midst. On how many a Sunday his people have known that he has been with them! The King himself comes near And feasts his saints today.
And by asserting his power over men"s hearts. This is his most glorious power to sway the spirit, to lead the will, to bend the heart. And this, by his Spirit in connection with the proclamation of the Word of his grace, he will do, and so the Church will become "a glorious high throne" of the Lord.
3. And because of "the communion of saints," and the consequent union of the Church of today with the Church of all the ages past, therefore the Church is God"s throne which has been from the beginning." The Church of today is in the honored succession of the Church of the first days, through its long line of patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, saints, and thus may claim to have been the "glorious high throne of the Lord from the beginning." Let us cherish and seek to hand on this succession, and thus justify our claim to the august title contained in these words. But most of all these words
IV REMIND US OF CHRIST AND HIS CROSS, THE TRUE SANCTUARY OF SOULS. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ type of all ignominy and shame, though it was has become the Lord"s "glorious high throne." From it and by it he has wielded a sovereignty so glorious, so wide, so holy, so enduring, that, far more than the mercy-seat, its ancient symbol, it deserves thus to be described. Whether we consider the number of his subjects, their character, the means by which his rule over them has been won and is sustained, or the nature of his rule, all justify the ascription to his cross and to him the supreme reference of these words. Let each one ask in conclusion Is the cross of Christ the place of our sanctuary, the place where we worship, the beloved retreat of our souls? God grant it may be! C.
Vers. 12, 13. An inspiring invocation.
We must take ver. 12 as invocatory rather than indicative. The prophet speaks suitably in the language of apostrophe as he refers to the throne of Jehovah and the holy heights where he dwells. "O throne of glory, height of beginning, place of our sanctuary!" It will be felt that this apostrophe is well fitted to make the Hope of Israel a source of real hope in the hearts of Israel.
I THE THRONE OF GLORY. This may be taken as having, by contrast, a double reference. He who sits on this throne is the Deity, Jehovah; hence all the seats of the Gentile gods may in like manner be considered as thrones. And because he who sits on a throne is reckoned as a king, there is also a contrast with human kings. This reference to the throne of glory amounts, therefore, to a condemnation of all idol shrines and human thrones as places to be ashamed of. The shrines were richly decorated and regarded with the utmost veneration, but this did not make them glorious. The practices of those connected with the shrines and the character of the worshippers showed that instead of glory there was shame. It has been the mark of all who have turned from formal idolatry or from the equally real idolatry of a worldly spirit to the living God, the God of Sinai and the tabernacle, of Calvary and of Pentecost, that they have become more and more ashamed of their ungodly past. Its defilement and unworthiness have been seen in a new light and with new eyes. When the slave becomes a freeman, servitude is more and more seen to be inexpressibly degrading. And so with regard to the thrones of human kings: these are just the places where human selfishness and pride are most conspicuous. To see how base and fiendish a man can become, we have only to select from the occupants of thrones. It is not meant that kings have been worse than common men; but their elevated position has both enlarged their opportunities for mischief, and also exposed them to the gaze of all succeeding generations. A Tiberius or a Nero gets an immortality of infamy, whereas an obscure villain of the same age passes swiftly into oblivion. Those kings who have really glorified thrones did so only as far as they were viceroys to him who is the King of kings. Human thrones may or may not be thrones of glory so far as glory can belong to the creature. Jehovah"s throne must be glorious seeing that it is forever transfigured with the effulgence of him who sits thereon.
II THE HEIGHT OF BEGINNING. "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth." It is man coming in afterwards who has misemployed and degraded what God fashioned with certain Divine and supremely beneficial ends in view. Out of that which God has made for his glory man raises up things to glorify himself. The proudest system of idolatry, the system most deeply rooted in the hearts of millions, is but of yesterday when compared with those heavens which are God"s throne and that earth which is his footstool. Measured against this height of beginning, the most ancient of human families is only an upstart. It is like the mushroom of a night when set over against some immemorial tree. The abode where and whence the glory of Jehovah is manifested is not a Babel edifice, which, however high it may rise, is humiliatingly conditioned by the unstable foundation on which it rests. Human power, at the summit of its splendor, has traversed and conquered large tracts of the earth; and so kings get the name of great; but the greatness is only a momentary, unsubstantial swelling. Their power, like that of the sudden torrent, swiftly passes away. One can imagine how the prophet, while he talked of this height of beginning, looked to the heavens, so unaffected by all the strife and pride of the generations which succeed one another in this lower world. Jehovah has not climbed through long struggles to his height of glory. There may be evolution and graduation among the creatures of his hand, but such conceptions of progress are nothing less than blasphemous when we try to apply them to him.
III THE PLACE OF OUR SANCTUARY. The place which God had condescended to make holy in his special connection with Israel the place where the Ark of the Covenant rested had become also a place (the history of Israel being witness) where the people of Israel might have every confidence in God. The temples of idols had not an invariable connection with the triumphs of their worshippers; but just in proportion as Israel honored the Ark of the Covenant and the God of the ark, in the same proportion they were made to see the effect of their conduct in triumph over their enemies and success in their own affairs. It was because they forsook the ark that they themselves were forsaken in humiliation, adversity, and shame. Not, of course, that the prophet is thinking of the ark only here. The true place of sanctuary is also in his mind the invisible abode of the invisible Jehovah. 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 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the…
Jer_17:12-14
A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
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Our sanctuary
This book of Jeremiah is a very thorny one--it might be called, like his smaller work, The Book of Lamentations. Our text is as a lily among thorns, as a rose in the wilderness; the solitary place shall be glad for it, and the desert shall rejoice. The words sound like sweet music amid the crash of tempest. The bitter tree yields us sweet fruit. The weeping prophet wipes away our tears.
I. The true place of our sanctuary. It is not at Jerusalem, nor yet at Samaria; it is not at Rome, nor yet at Canterbury. The place of our sanctuary is our God Himself. God is our refuge and strength. Lord. Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
1. He is viewed under the aspect of a sovereign reigning in majesty--A glorious high throne is the place of our sanctuary. Many refuse to worship God as reigning: they have not yet grasped the idea that the Lord is King, so that they cannot understand the song, The Lord reigneth: let the earth rejoice. For that includes, first, Divine sovereignty, and some men grow black in the face with rage against that truth; they cannot endure it. He will make His own election, and He will distribute His mercy as seemeth good in His sight. Now this God whose sovereignty is so much disputed is our God; a glorious high throne for absolute dominion and sovereignty is the place of our sanctuary. To Him whose sovereign grace is the hope of the undeserving we fly for succour. Besides sovereignty, of course, His glorious high throne includes power. A throne without power would be but the pageantry of vanity. There should be power in the King who ruleth over all: and is there not? Who shall stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?
2. Forget not that the Lord reigns in exceeding glory. The excellence of His dominion surpasses all other, for He is the blessed and only Potentate. Every act of His empire exhibits His glorious character, His justice, His goodness, His faithfulness, His holiness.
3. It says, A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. It is a very blessed thing to come back to the fact that the Lord has not newly assumed a throne, from which He has newly cast out some former king. As His is the most potent of empires, so is it the most ancient. God is never taken by surprise; He has foreseen all things, and worked them into His grand plan. God is working evermore for a glorious purpose, which shall one day make the universe and all eternity to sing with rapturous joy that ever God determined to do what He is now doing.
4. When the prophet alludes to the place of our sanctuary, our mind is naturally led to feel that there must be some kind of place where God especially reveals Himself. The place where He mainly revealed Himself among men was the temple, to which I have said Jeremiah somewhat alludes. Now, where was the temple built? It was built upon that mountain whereon Abraham took his son Isaac to offer him up as a sacrifice. A ram caught in the thicket was the substitute for Isaac; but there was no substitute for Jesus, the Son of God. He died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. But there, where the most instructive of all types of the heavenly Fathers love was exhibited, there must be the temple wherein God would converse with men and make for men a place of sanctuary. The temple itself was built upon that site, and there it was that God dwelt visibly between the wings of the cherubim, above the ark of the covenant, over that golden lid which was called the mercy seat. What was that ark of the covenant, but a type of our Lord Jesus Christ in a most instructive way. The sacrifice of Isaac and the ark of the covenant were only types of that greater sacrifice, when He who is the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, went up to the Cross, and on Calvary it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. It is natural that the Lord should meet with us in grace in the place where He put His Son to grief. There, where He made His soul an offering for sin, the Lord becomes well pleased with us. Now, then, the place where we worship is God Himself revealed in the person of His dear Son. I pray you, never try to worship anywhere else. Christ is the one altar, the one temple, the one sanctuary.
5. In addition, the Lord God is our refuge; for a sanctuary was a place to which men fled in the hour of peril Is not Jesus our refuge from present guilt and from the wrath to come?
II. I am to speak concerning whose who depart from God. Alas, that there should be such!--men who leave the river for the desert, the living for the dead! Who are they? The text says, All that forsake Thee, and they that depart from Me. See, then, that this text has a bearing upon us, because these people of whom we are now going to speak were not an ignorant people who did not know God, or how could they be said to forsake Him? At one time, evidently, these people had something to do with the Lord, but after awhile they forsook Him. What did they do? They no longer sought unto the Lord as once they did, but ceased to be fervent in their service. At first they ceased to worship Him, they took no delight in His ways; they tried to be neutral, they were lukewarm, careless, indifferent, they forgot God. After thus declining in zeal, and refusing outward worship, they went further; for he says they had departed from Him--they could not endure the Lord, and therefore went into the far country. They said unto God, Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. They went into open sin; they disowned their God and broke His commands: some of them even dared to blaspheme Him. The course of sin is downhill. The man who once forgets his God soon forgets himself; and then he throws the reins on the neck of his lusts and goes from sin to sin, forgetting his God more and more. The most hardened of sinners will one day be ashamed, saying, I acted unprofitably to myself. Such shame will come over you forgetful ones one of these days. It may not come upon you till you die, but it is very probable that it will assail you then. When in your dying hours, what a dreadful thing it will be to be filled with shame at the remembrance of the past, so as to be afraid to meet your God, ashamed to think that you have lived a whole life without caring for Him! What will it be to wake up in the next world and to see the glory of God around you--the glory of the God whom you despised! Oh, the shame that will come over the ungodly in judgment! They shall wake up to shame and everlasting contempt. Great men and proud men will be small enough ere long; and careless and profane persons will be miserable enough when that word shall be fulfilled--All that forsake Thee shall be ashamed. And then it is added that they shall be written in the earth; that is, if they turn away from God they may win a name for a while, but it will be merely from the earth, and of the earth. O worldlings, you have your riches in this poor country which is soon to be burned with fire. Your pleasures and treasures will melt in the fervent heat of the last days. Your lifes pursuits are a short business, ending in eternal misery. The text tells us that there shall come something besides this: they that forsake God shall one day be sore athirst even unto death, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. There is for the soul but one fountain of water, flowing, cool, clear, ever refreshing. All my springs are in Thee, said David; and so may we say, for our only source of supply is the Lord our God. If a man turns away from God, then he forsakes the cool fountain, he goes to broken cisterns that hold no water, and he will perish of thirst.
III. Let us look at the comers to God. Those who come to God--how do they come? They come away from all the world. O soul, if thou wouldst have peace, come away to your God. Never take your place with those who shall be written in the earth. How did believers come to God of old? Jeremiah came sick and needing to be saved, for he cried, Heal me, O Jehovah, save me. That is the way to come. But come to God with faith. It was grand faith of Jeremiah which enabled him to say, Heal me, and I shall be healed. Sick as I am, if Thou wilt act as physician to me I shall be cured: if Thou save me, lost as I am, I shall be saved. Come along, poor sinner. Where, sir? say you. To God in Christ Jesus. And come with this acknowledgment on your tongue,--For Thou art my praise. We have a good God, a loving God, a tender God, a gracious God, a God full of long-suffering and mercy and faithfulness to us poor sinners. This is good argument in prayer--I have made my boast in Thee, O God, I pray Thee let not my glorying be stopped. Be to me as I have declared Thou wilt be. But suppose you cannot say so much as that, then put it this way--Heal me, O Lord; heal me this morning; save me, O Lord; save me at once, and Thou shalt be my praise. Lord, I promise that I will never rob Thee of the honour of my salvation; if Thou wilt but save me Thou shalt have all the glory of it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God our sanctuary
The godly soul has a sure defence and aid in his living, loving Father and God. In every time of earthly need and trouble this is his chief consolation, and the source of serene and abiding joy
I. Thy necessity of a divine refuge. Times come when the hardiest and most self-reliant is made to feel that he is but feebleness, vanity, and dust. Protection, comfort, and settledness for the soul can alone be found in God.
1. We are victims of moral evil.
2. Of mental and physical sorrows.
II. The nature of the refuge afforded.
1. Lofty and glorious in position. There we may obtain--
(1) Mercy.
(2) Grace.
(3) Pardon.
(4) Strength.
2. All-sufficient in resources. Help for every circumstance, need, age.
3. Perpetual and abiding in duration. (James Foster, B. A.)
Mans refuge-A glorious high throne
The word sanctuary at first meant anything separated and set apart for a holy purpose; later it came to designate a place used exclusively for sacred services; and then we find it used to express one chief end of a sacred place--an asylum--a place of refuge to which the guilty may fly and be safe.
I. Mans refuge. No creature so much needs the shelter and defence of a safe hiding place as man. His sources of danger are more than can be numbered. Beset with foes, he is in constant need of shelter, and often cries out for deliverance. What so welcome to him as a refuge! Physically regarded, as possessed of a body over which disease and death reign, how often does he sigh for some asylum, which may furnish a defence against these invaders of life! How is he to escape the feeling of terrible desertion and unimaginable dangers, how help crying out for some refuge from the fightings without, the fears within, and the foes on every side? And, looking still deeper, when we see that he is the subject of a disease deceitful above every other--a disease which pertains to his whole nature--an incurable wickedness, and when we hear him cry out in anguish of soul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver into from this body of sin and death,--who does not rejoice at the very idea of refuge? How hard it is not to complain against God, and to demand wherefore He has made man in vain! How still harder to believe that there is a refuge for man which has been set up from the beginning! But in all times of deepest trouble, when human helpers fail and the hour of extremity comes, the strange thing is that the universal instincts of mans nature do lead him to look for help, and though he passes away apparently unhelped, he does so looking for help. You may have stood among a crowd, upon the shore, watching some vessel tossed on the tempestuous billows which threatened to overwhelm her until at length a mighty wave washed over her and swept her clean of every living soul. And as that sea overwhelmed her there arose from the breast of everyone of the gazing crowd, God help them! Was that prayer an unconscious self-delusion in that moment of agony, or is there help for man in all times of his need? Or you may have listened to a judge passing the awful sentence which doomed a fellow creature to death--and whilst telling him there was no longer mercy or hope for him on earth, pointing to heaven and assuring him of hope and help in God. Was that judge dishonouring his judicial robes, and deceiving that poor wretch by this solemn mockery of pretended mercy, or is there an open door of hope in heaven for the poor outcasts from earth? And we have all read of the poor thief upon the Cross, turning, whilst paying the last penalty of the law with his life, in penitence to the Saviour and praying, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom; and we know the gracious answer he received, This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. Was our Lord deceived in this promise, or did He knowingly deceive the miserable victim of crime in the moment of his extremity? Oh no--there is help for the helpless, help for the hell-deserving, shelter for the defenceless, a refuge for the outcasts. The just God, who is also a Saviour--oh, how I love that combination--hath said, Look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else.
II. Mans refuge is a sanctuary. A place which is only a refuge furnishes but a temporary shelter. To the shipwrecked, a naked rock jutting out of the sea would be a glad refuge from the devouring waves; but it would not be a refuge long. But a refuge, which is also a sanctuary, a Divine house, affords not only shelter, but rest, repose, and satisfaction for all we need or can desire. The house of God may well be a home for man. And he who enters such a refuge soon discovers that it will be to him all his desire.
III. Mans refuge is not only sacred, but royal. A glorious high throne is the place of our sanctuary. The house of God, the dwelling place of the Most High is also the seat and source of all rule, authority, and power. Under the shadow of the Almighty, man finds a sure defence for the whole breadth of his nature, in the midst of every possible circumstance, throughout the whole course of his history. The security and defence vouchsafed to him are of the highest character, and inseparable from the nature of the throne, which has become his refuge. The sanctuary-refuge-throne is holy, and the holiness of the throne is its defence and security. The power of the throne is the defence of mans refuge. But the throne, which has become mans refuge, is not merely a symbol of power, but also of power surrounded with becoming glory. There is the pomp which surrounds a throne. The throne gathers up and crowns every excellency.
IV. This sanctuary-refuge-throne is spoken of as an exalted throne. It is high enough to embrace not merely mans individual nature, in all its integrity of body, soul, and sprat, but the whole race--the earliest sons in all the height and might of their experience, together with the latest born in the feebleness of beginning life. And not merely the race of man, for, under its exalted height is gathered together, in one unity of blessed life, all the elect, from the archangel before the throne to the weakest and meanest of the sons of men.
V. This exalted throne is glorious in the history of its exaltation. Its exaltation has not been by might but by right. Righteousness has been pleased and the law magnified throughout the holy pathway of ascent from a humble refuge to the glorious high throne. In becoming a refuge for the destitute, the abandoned, the lost, the throne has revealed the charms of the holy order and eternal righteousness by which triumphant conquests are made over every form of disorder and wickedness. Fugitives from the consequences of violated law, as they enter the refuge become obedient to law; the wicked become righteous; the sinful are made holy.
VI. It has been set up from the beginning. The provision for the requirements of mans fallen nature was no afterthought but a forethought. The refuge was ever latent in the unbroken depths of the throne, and, for the revelation of its fundamental glory, needed to be opened up. The history of man unfolds the eternal purpose, and will be no mean history when complete. It was the joy of the Eternal Wisdom, whose delights were with the sons of men ere ever the earth was; it will be His joy when the earth is no more. The discords of human history lie between two harmonies, the one in which they have no place, the other in which they have been resolved. In mans nature is struck the keynote of those pre-established harmonies, the melody of which is being written out in his history as a fitting song with which to celebrate the close of his earthly career, and the reconciliation of all things.
VII. The personality of this refuge. An impersonal refuge could never afford shelter and defence for man against his personal foes. Moreover, the impersonal could never afford rest to, nor become a home for man. Man needs man, a human security, a human joy, a human home, a warm maternal bosom on which to rest; not even God as God, but God as man. Is there such a person? One who is a refuge for man and a sanctuary for God? One who is also a throne, a throne exalted by a glorious history, and yet set up from the beginning? Oh joy of all joys, that God has revealed to us One possessed of all these attributes! We make our first acquaintance with Christ as a refuge. We seek in Him deliverance, shelter, and safety. Having made the experience of Him as a refuge, we begin to find He is more than a refuge, that He is a Divine house, a blessed home, a home in the house of God. Then, as we enlarge our acquaintance with our home, we find it a house of many mansions, opening up out of each other height above height, until a very throne is displayed to us--the throne of God, rising out of the refuge for man--and that the refuge is lost in the throne. And then as we gaze upon the throne which has hidden the refuge in its glory, the humanity in the Divinity, we begin to discover the refuge again in its deeper depth, something human in the depths of the Divine, and that it gives its own lustre to the central glory of the throne. And we perceive that this eternal humanity in the depths of Deity which gives a lustre to the eternal glory is the humanity which is the Alpha and Omega of mans earthly history. And seeing this we refuse to it all dates and proclaim it to have been ever from of old, and that it became the eternal Son in the bosom of the Father, nay, behoved Him to be in all things made like unto His brethren that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people; nay, more, that it must needs have been that He might enter into His glory! Hallelujah! God has made Himself one with us in our necessities that we may partake of His glory. (J. Pulsford, D. D.)
Adoring exclamations of a soul gazing on God
I. A wonderful vision of what God is. There are three clauses. They all seem to have reference to the temple in Jerusalem, which is taken by a very natural figure of speech as a kind of suggestive description of Him who is worshipped there. The Sublime Porte is properly the name of a lofty gateway which belonged to the palace in Constantinople, and so has come to mean the Turkish Government--if government it can be called. So we talk of the Papal see. Or, again, the decision of the Chair in the House of Commons. So the prophet takes outward facts of the temple building as symbolising great and blessed spiritual thoughts of the God that filled the temple with His own lustre.
1. A glorious throne--that is grand, but that is not what Jeremiah means--A throne of glory is the true rendering. In the Old Testament, where glory is ascribed to God, the word has a very specific meaning, namely, the light which was afterwards called the Shekinah, that dwelt between the cherubim, and was the symbol of the Divine presence, and the assurance that that presence would be self-revealing, and would manifest Himself to His people. The throned glory, the glory that reigns and rules as King in Israel, is the idea of the words before us. It is the same throne that a later writer in the New Testament speaks of when he says, Let us come boldly to the throne of grace. We all can draw near, through the rent veil, and walk rejoicingly in the light of the Lord; this glory is grace; this grace is glory. This, then, is the first of Jeremiahs great thoughts of God, and it means--The Lord God omnipotent reigneth, there is none else but He, and His will runs authoritative and supreme into all corners of the universe.
2. High from the beginning. It was a piece of the patriotic exaggeration of Israels prophets and psalmists that they made much of the little hill upon which the temple was set. Jeremiah felt it to be a material type, both of the elevation, and of the stable duration, of the God whom he would commend to Israels and to all mens trust. High from the beginning, separated from all creatural limitation and lowness, He whose name is the Most High, and on whose level no other being can stand, towers above the lowness of the loftiest creature, and from that inaccessible height He sends down His voice, like the trumpet from amidst the darkness of Sinai, proclaiming, I am God and there is none besides Me. Yet while thus holy--that is, separate from creatures--He makes communion with Himself possible to us, and draws near to us in Christ, that we in Christ may be made nigh to Him.
3. He is the place of our sanctuary. That is, as though the prophet would point as the wonderful climax of all, to the fact that He of whom the former things were true should yet be accessible to our worship; that, if I might so say, our feet could tread the courts of that great temple; and we draw near to Him who is so far above the loftiest, and separate from all the magnificences which Himself has made, and who yet is our sanctuary, and accessible to our worship. Ay! and more than that--Lord! Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. In old days the temple was more than a place of worship. It was a place where a man coming, had, according to ancient custom, guest rights with God. God Himself, like some ancestral dwelling place in which generation after Generation of fathers find children have abode, whence they have been carried, and where their children still live, is to all generations their home and their fortress.
II. The soul rapt in meditation of this vision of God. To me, this long-drawn-out series of linked clauses without grammatical connection, this succession of adorning exclamations of rapture, wonder, and praise, is very striking. It suggests the manner in which we should vivify all our thoughts of God, by turning them into material for devout reverence; awestruck, considering meditation. We should be like ruminant animals who first crop the grass--which being interpreted means, get Scripture truth into our heads--and then chew the cud, which being interpreted is, then put these truths through a second process by meditation on them that may turn into nourishment and make flesh.
III. The meditative soul going out to grasp God thus revealed, as its portion and hope. O Lord! the hope of Israel. I must cast myself upon Him by faith as my only hope; and turn away from all other confidences which are vain and impotent. So we are back upon that familiar Christian ground, that the bond which knits a man to God, and by which all that God is becomes that mans personal property, and available for the security and the shaping of his life, is the simple flinging of himself into Gods arms, in sure and certain trust. Then, every one of these characteristics of which I have been speaking will contribute its own special part to the serenity, the security, the Godlikeness, the blessedness, the righteousness, the strength of the man who thus trusts. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
All that forsake Thee shall be ashamed.
A backslider ashamed of his conduct
A London City missionary writes: One Sunday afternoon, when out visiting, I noticed a soldier. He was in a great hurry, but I soon caught him up, gave him a tract, and, walking with him, spoke to him about his soul. In reply he said, I only wish I was the same as I used to be. For four and a half years I was a Christian. I worked for Christ with all my heart, and was never so happy as when so engaged. I made up my mind to enlist. I thought I should get on all right, but when my companions knew I was a Christian, they made it so hot for me I could not stand it, and gave in. But, said I, what would your country think of you if you were a coward in the face of an enemy? And should you fear to face the foes of Jesus Christ? When the greatest danger surrounds you, then it is your duty to be most faithful, not only to King Edward, but to King Jesus. The young soldier was deeply moved, and said, I do thank God for meeting you. I will give my heart to Jesus again, and by Gods help I will be true to Him. I will not be a coward again, but will confess Him tonight in the barrack room.
Shall be written in the earth.--
Where is our name being written
Prudentius rightly saith, that their names that are written in red letters of blood in the Churchs calendar, are written in golden letters in Christs register in the book of life; as on the contrary, these idolaters whose sin was with an iron pen engraven on tables of their hearts (verse 1) are justly written in the earth. (John Trapp.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Jeremiah
A SOUL GAZING ON GOD
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Jer 17:12.
I must begin by a word or two of explanation as to the language of this passage. The word ‘is’ is a supplement, and most probably it ought to be omitted, and the verse treated as being, not a statement, but a series of exclamations. The next verse runs thus, ‘O Lord! the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed’; and the most natural and forcible understanding of the words of my text is reached by connecting them with these following clauses: ‘O Lord! the hope of Israel,’ and, regarding the whole as one long exclamation of adoring contemplation, ‘A glorious throne,’ or ‘Thou glorious throne, high from the beginning; the place of our sanctuary, O Lord! the hope of Israel.’
I. If we look at the words so, we have here, to begin with, a wonderful vision of what God is.
‘A glorious throne,’ or, as the original has it, ‘a throne of glory,’- which is not quite the same thing-’high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary.’ There are three clauses. Now they all seem to me to have reference to the Temple in Jerusalem, which is taken, by a very natural figure of speech, as a kind of suggestive description of Him who is worshipped there. There is the same kind of use of the name of a place to stand for the person who occupies or inhabits it, in many familiar phrases. For instance, ‘The Sublime Porte’ is properly the name of a lofty gateway which belonged to the palace in Constantinople, and so has come to mean the Turkish Government if Government it can be called. So we talk of the ‘Papal See’ having done this or that, and scarcely remember that a ‘see’ is a bishop’s seat, or, again, the decision of ‘the Chair’ is final in the House of Commons. Or, if you will accept a purely municipal parallel, if any one were told that ‘the Town Hall’ had issued a certain order, he would know that our authorities, the Mayor and Corporation, had decreed so and so. So, in precisely the same way here, the prophet takes the outward facts of the Temple as symbolising great and blessed spiritual thoughts of the God that filled the Temple with His own lustre.
‘A glorious throne’-that is grand, but that is not what Jeremiah means-’A throne of glory’ is the true rendering. And to what does that refer? Now, in the greater number of cases, you will find that in the Old Testament, where ‘glory’ is ascribed to God, the word has a very distinct and specific meaning, viz. the light which was afterwards called the ‘Shekinah,’ and dwelt between the cherubim, and was the symbol of the divine presence and the assurance that that presence would be self-revealing and would manifest Himself to His people. So here the throne on which glory rests is what we call the mercy-seat within the veil, where, above the propitiatory table on which once a year the High Priest sprinkled the blood of sacrifice, and beneath which were shut up the tables of the covenant which constituted the bond between God and Israel, shone the Light in the midst of the darkness of the enclosed inner shrine, the token of the divine presence. The throned glory, the glory that reigns and rules as King in Israel, is the idea of the words before us. It is the same throne that a later writer in the New Testament speaks of when he says, ‘Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace.’ For that light of a manifested divine presence was no malign lustre that blinded or slew those who gazed upon it, but though no eye but that of the High Priest dared of old to look, yet he, the representative and, as it were, the concentration of the collective Israel, could stand, unshrinking and unharmed, before that piercing light, because he bore in his hand the blood of sacrifice and sprinkled it on the mercy-seat. So was it of old, but now we all can draw near, through the rent veil, and wall rejoicingly in the light of the Lord. His glory is grace; His grace is glory.
This, then, is the first of Jeremiah’s great thoughts of God, and it means-’The Lord God omnipotent reigneth,’ there is none else but He, and His will runs authoritative and supreme into all corners of the universe. But it is ‘glory’ that is throned. That is equivalent to the declaration that our God has never spoken in secret, in the dark places of the earth, nor said to any seeking heart, ‘Seek ye My face in vain.’ For the light which shone in that Holy Place as His symbol, had for its message to Israel the great thought that, as the sun pours out its lustre into all the corners of its system, so He, by the self-communication which is inherent in His very nature, manifests Himself to every gazing eye, and is a God who is Light, ‘and in whom is no darkness at all.’
But reigning glory is also redeeming grace. For the light of the bright cloud, which is the glory of the Lord, shines still, with no thunder in its depths, nor tempests in its bosom, above the mercy-seat, where spreads the blood of sprinkling by which Israel’s sins are all taken away. Well may the prophet lift up his heart in adoring wonder, and translate the outward symbol into this great word, ‘The throne of glory; Jehovah, the hope of Israel.’
Then the next clause is, I think, equally intelligible by the same process of interpretation-’High from the beginning.’ It was a piece of the patriotic exaggeration of Israel’s prophets and psalmists that they made much of the little hill upon which the Temple was set. We read of the ‘hill of the Lord’s house’ being ‘exalted above the tops of the mountains.’ We read of it being a high hill, ‘as the hill of Bashan.’ And though to the eye of sense it is a very modest elevation, to the eye of faith it was symbolical of much. Jeremiah felt it to be a material type, both of the elevation and of the stable duration of the God whom he would commend to Israel’s and to all men’s trust. ‘High from the beginning,’ separated from all creatural limitation and lowness, He whose name is the Most High, and on whose level no other being can stand, towers above the lowness of the loftiest creature, and from that inaccessible height He sends down His voice, like the trumpet from amidst the darkness of Sinai, proclaiming, ‘I am God, and there is none beside Me.’ Yet while thus ‘holy’-that is, separate from creatures-He makes communion with Himself possible to us, and draws near to us in Christ, that we in Christ may be made nigh to Him.
And the loftiness involves, necessarily, timeless and changeless Being; so that we can turn to Him, and feel Him to be ‘the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.’ No words are needed, and no human words are anything but tawdry attempts to elaborate, which only result in weakening, these two great thoughts. ‘High-from the beginning.’
The last of this series of symbols, even more plainly than the other two, refers originally to the Temple upon the hill of Zion; and symbolically, to the God who filled the Temple. He is ‘the place of our sanctuary.’ That is as though the prophet would point, as the wonderful climax of all, to the fact that He of whom the former things were true should yet be accessible to our worship; that, if I might so say, our feet could tread the courts of the great Temple; and we draw near to Him who is so far above the loftiest, and separate from all the magnificences which Himself has made, and who yet is ‘our sanctuary,’ and accessible to our worship.
Ay! and more than that-’Lord! Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.’ In old days the Temple was more than a place of worship. It was a place where a man coming had, according to ancient custom, guest rights with God; and if he came into the Temple of the Most High as to an asylum, he dwelt there safe and secure from avengers or foes.
‘The place of our sanctuary,’ then, declares that God Himself, like some ancestral dwelling-place in which generation after generation of fathers and children have abode, whence they have been carried, and where their children still live, is to all generations their home and their fortress. The place of our sanctuary implies access to the inaccessibly High, communion with the infinitely Separate, security and abode in God Himself. He that dwelleth in God dwelleth in peace. These, then, are the points of the prophet’s vision of God.
II. Note, further, the soul rapt in meditation and this vision of God.
To me, this long-drawn-out series of linked clauses without grammatical connection, this succession of adoring exclamations of rapture, wonder, and praise, is very striking. It suggests the manner in which we should vivify all our thoughts of God, by turning them into material for devout reverence; awe-struck, considering meditation. There is nothing told us in the Bible about God simply in order that we may know it. It is all meant to be fuel to the fire of our divine affection; to kindle in us the sentiments of faith and love and rapturous adoration. It is easy to know the theology of the Old and the New Testaments, and a man may rattle over the catalogue of the divine ‘attributes,’ as they are called, with perfect accuracy, and never be a hair the better for knowing all of them. So I urge, on you and on myself, the necessity of warming our thoughts and kindling our conceptions of what God is until they melt us into fluidity and adoration and love.
I believe that there are few things which we Christian people more lack in this generation, and by the lack of which we suffer more, than the comparative decay of the good old habit of frequent and patient meditation on the things that we most surely believe. We are so busy in adding to our stock of knowledge, in following out to their latest consequence the logical effects of our Christianity, and in defending it, or seeking to be familiar with the defences, against modern assaults, or in practical work on its behalf, that the last thing that a great many of us do is to feed upon the truth which we know already. We should be like ruminant animals who first crop the grass-which, being interpreted, means, get Scripture truth into our heads-and then chew the cud, which being interpreted is, then put these truths through a second process by meditation on them, so that they may turn into nourishment and make flesh. ‘He that eateth Me,’ said Jesus Christ {and He used there the word which is specially applied to rumination}, ‘shall live by Me.’ It does us no good to know that God is ‘the Throne of Glory, high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary,’ unless we turn theology into devotion by meditation upon it. ‘Suffer the word of exhortation ‘-in busy, great communities like ours, where we are all driven so hard, there is need for some voices sometimes to be lifted up in pressing upon Christian people the duty of quiet rumination upon the truths that they have.
III. We may see in our text, further, the meditative soul going out to grasp God thus revealed, as its portion and hope.
As I have already said, the text is best understood as part of a series of exclamations which extends into the following verse. If we take account of the whole series, and regard the subsequent part of it as led up to, by the part which is our text, we get an important thought as to what should be the outcome of the truths concerning God, and of our meditative contemplation of them.
My relation to these truths is not exhausted even when I have meditated upon them, and they have touched me into a rapture of devotion. I can conceive that to have been done, and yet the next necessary step not to have been taken. What is that step? The next verse tells us, when it goes on to exclaim, ‘O Lord! the hope of Israel.’ I must cast myself upon Him by faith as my only hope, and turn away from all other confidences which are vain and impotent. So we are back upon that familiar Christian ground, that the bond which knits a man to God, and by which all that God is becomes that man’s personal property, and available for the security and the shaping of his life, is the simple flinging of himself into God’s arms, in sure and certain trust. Then, every one of these characteristics of which I have been speaking will contribute its own special part to the serenity, the security, the godlikeness, the blessedness, the righteousness, the strength of the man who thus trusts.
But such confidence which makes all these things my own possessions, which makes Him ‘a throne of glory,’ to which I have access; which makes Him a place in which I dwell by this exercise of personal faith; which makes Him my hope, has for its other side the turning away from all other grounds of confidence and security. The subsequent context tells us how wise it is thus to turn away, and what folly it is to make anything else our hope except that ‘throne of glory.’ ‘They that depart from Me shall be written in the earth,’ because ‘they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.’ If we say, ‘O Lord! Thou art my hope,’ we shall have the ‘anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which entereth within the veil,’ and fixes on Him who is within it, the throned Grace between the cherubim, our Brother and our Hope. So we may dwell in God, and from the secure height of our house look down serenely on impotent foes, and never know the bitterness of vain hopes, nor remove from the safe asylum of our home in God.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 The place of our temple is a glorious throne
The place of our temple is a glorious throne
Jeremiah speaks of the temple being a "glorious throne" because it is there that Yahweh dwells and rules. (See: Metaphor)
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The place of our temple
This refers to Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
All who abandon you
Here the word "you" refers to Yahweh.
those in the land who turn away from you will be written in the earth
This can be stated in active form. AT: "you will write in the dust those in the land who turn away from you" (See: Active or Passive)
will be written in the earth
Possible meanings are 1) this is a metaphor in which Yahweh speaks of people dying and being forgotten as if someone writes their names in the dust, and those names quickly disappear. AT: "will disappear like names that someone writes in the dust" or 2) the word "earth" is a metonym for the place of the dead. The phrase is a metaphor in which Yahweh speaks of people going to the place of the dead as if someone enrolled their names in the records of those who have died. AT: "will join those in the place of the dead" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
Yahweh, the fountain of living waters
Jeremiah speaks of Yahweh being the source of life as if he were a fountain of living waters. AT: "Yahweh, who is like a fountain of living waters" (See: Metaphor)
the fountain of living waters
Jeremiah speaks of fresh, running water as if it were living water. AT: "the fountain of fresh, running water" (See: Metaphor)
I will be healed ... I will be rescued
This can be stated in active form. AT: "you really will have healed me ... you really will have rescued me" (See: Active or Passive)
For you are my song of praise
Possible meanings are 1) "For you are the one whom I praise" or 2) "For you are the reason I sing praise."
translationWords
temple
glory
throne
hope
Israel
shame
turn
fountain
cure
praise
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 17:12 God’s faithful people worship the sovereign Lord, not…
17:12 God’s faithful people worship the sovereign Lord, not money.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.