For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”
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For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
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For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they have called thee an outcast: 'She is Zion, there is none that careth for her.'
Cross-references (24)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 30:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 107:20 He sends his word, and heals them, and delivers them from their graves.
- Jeremiah 33:6 ‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
- 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
- Psalms 103:3 who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases,
- Exodus 15:26 He said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”
- Psalms 23:3 He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
- Hosea 6:1 “Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
- Malachi 4:2 But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
- Ezekiel 34:16 “I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.” ’
- Revelation 22:2 in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
- Isaiah 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
- Psalms 12:5 “Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
- Jeremiah 3:22 Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
- Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Jeremiah 30:13 There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up. You have no healing medicines.
- Isaiah 11:12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
- Nehemiah 4:1-4 But when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and was very indignant, and mocked the Jews. He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall.” “Hear, our God; for we are despised. Turn back their reproach on their own head. Give them up for a plunder in a land of captivity.
- Ezekiel 36:2-3 The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because the enemy has said against you, “Aha!” and, “The ancient high places are ours in possession!” ’ therefore prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;”
- Psalms 79:9-11 Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
- Jeremiah 33:24 “Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘Has Yahweh cast off the two families which he chose?’ Thus they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.”
- Psalms 44:13-16 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us. You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. All day long my dishonor is before me, and shame covers my face, at the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses, because of the enemy and the avenger.
- Ezekiel 35:12 You will know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They have been laid desolate. They have been given us to devour.’
- Ezekiel 36:20 When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, ‘These are Yahweh’s people, and have left his land.’
- Lamentations 2:15 All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain When God promised favor to the Jews, he referred…
When God promised favor to the Jews, he referred to their enemies; for it would have been a grievous temptation, which would have otherwise not only disturbed and depressed their minds, but also extinguished all faith, to see their enemies enjoying all they could wish, and successful in everything they attempted, had not this consolation been granted them, — that their enemies would have at length to render an account for the wickedness in which they gloried. But now the main thing is here expressed, — that God, when reconciled to his people, would heal the wounds which he had inflicted; for he who inflicts wounds on us, can alone heal us. He exercises judgment in punishing, he afterwards undertakes the office of a Physician, to deliver us from our evils. It is, therefore, the same as though the Prophet had said, “When the right time shall pass away, which God has fixed as to his people, deliverance is to be hoped for with certainty; for the Lord has decreed to punish his people only for a time, and not wholly to destroy them.”
Iwill bring thee, he says, healing, and will heal thee of thy wounds And this admonition was very necessary, for the Jews had nearly rotted in their exile when God delivered them. They might have then been a hundred times overwhelmed with despair; but God bids them here to raise upwards their minds, so as to expect help from heaven, for there was none on earth. And he adds, because they called thee, Zion, an outcast whom no one seeketh; that is, of whom, or of whose welfare, no one is solicitous. He confirms what I have before said, — that the extreme evils of the people would be no hinderance when God came to deliver them, but, on the contrary, be the future occasion of favor and mercy. When, therefore, the people should become so sunk in misery as to make all to think their deliverance hopeless, God promises that he would then be their Redeemer. And this is what we ought carefully to notice: for we look around us here and there, whenever we hope for any help; but God shews that he will be then especially propitious to us, when we are in a hopeless state according to the common opinion of men. It 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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 30:17 For I will restore health unto thee,…
Jer 30:17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, [saying], This [is] Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
Ver. 17. For I will restore health.] It goes best with the Church when worst with her enemies. It shall do so much more when all Christ’s foes shall be made his footstool.
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Because they called thee an Outcast.] Concluding so from thine afflictions. The Jewish nation, saith Cicero, {a} show how well God regards them, that have been so oft subdued, by the Chaldees, Greeks, Romans, &c. This was but a slender argument, only God is moved by the enemy’s insolence and insults to look in mercy the rather upon his poor despised and despited people.
Saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.] Illusio ex allusione, this was a jeer by playing upon her name, {b} as if Zion signified a dry or waste place, and therefore not much to be desired. Strabo indeed saith as much of Judea; and Mount Zion at this day, nihil habet eximium, nihil expetendum, hath no great desire in it. But certainly Judea was once a land flowing with milk and honey, and Mount Zion was in no small request. Howsoever, none ought by their bitter taunts to add affliction to the afflicted, but rather to weep with those that weep; "be pitiful, be courteous." {1Pe 3:8}
{a} Quam cara diis esset, docuit, quod est victa, quod elocata, quod servata. - Cic, pro Flacco.
{b} Per ludibrium et blasphemam contumeliam.
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 As the miserable state of this people was by…
As the miserable state of this people was by the prophet, Jer 30:12,13, described under the similitude of a man wounded, and bruised, and sick; so their more prosperous state is described under the nation of health, and God’s action in restoring them expressed under the notion of healing, both here and in many other texts, Isa 6:10; 19:22; Isa 57:18,19. The particle here translated because may so signify, here, for often the scorn and contempt of God’s people’s enemies causeth God to make haste to their salvation and deliverance; but many think that it were better translated although, as it is Jos 17:18; though the heathens call thee one that I have cast off, as a man doth his wife; yet they shall see the contrary, for I will heal thee of thy wounds.
Saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after; though they deriding say, This Zion whom none cares for. Some think that in this they alluded to the original signification of the word Zion, which is, a dry or waste place.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For I will restore health to thee,.... That is,…
For I will restore health to thee,.... That is, bring thee into a comfortable and prosperous condition, both in church and state, with respect to things religions and civil: as the afflictions and distresses of the Jewish nation are expressed by sickness, wounds, and bruises; so their prosperity, both spiritual and temporal, is signified by health. The words may be rendered, "I will cause length to ascend unto thee"; or a long plaster (z); or rather, that which has been long looked for, and long in coming, prosperity; or else, that whereas they were before bowed down with afflictions and sorrows, now they should be as a man in an erect posture, that rises up in his full height and length, being in a robust and healthful state;
and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; pardon their sins, remove their afflictions, and bring them into a comfortable situation, into a Gospel church state, and into their own land:
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because they called thee an outcast; as the Jews now are, cast out of their own land, rejected from being the people of God; so they are reckoned by the nations among whom they are:
saying, this is Zion, whom no man seeketh after: after their good, either temporal or spiritual; despised by most, pitied and prayed for by few; and fewer still they are that seek after, and are solicitous about, or take any methods, or make use of any means, for their conversion; but though man does not, God will, and his work will appear the more manifest.
(z) "adducam tibi emplastrum longum", so some in Gataker; "faciam ut ad justam constitutionem assurgas", Junius & Tremellius; "ut assurgat sanitas tibi", Piscator; "nam faciam ut ascendat tibi proceritas", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Restore health - Or, “apply a bandage” (Jer 8:22…
Restore health - Or, “apply a bandage” (Jer 8:22 note). For they called read “they call.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Close. Septuagint, "remove the healing plaster from thy painful…
Close. Septuagint, "remove the healing plaster from thy painful wound." (Haydock)
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 (Jer 8:22; Jer 33:6).
(Jer 8:22; Jer 33:6).
Outcast--as a wife put away by her husband (Isa 62:4, contrasted with Jer 30:12).
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Zion--alluding to its Hebrew meaning, "dryness"; "sought after" by none, as would be the case with an arid region (Isa 62:12). The extremity of the people, so far from being an obstacle to, will be the chosen opportunity of, God's grace.
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 17. They called thee an Outcast — But by…
17. They called thee an Outcast — But by God’s blessing thou “shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah.” Isa_62:4.
Zion, whom no man seeketh after — Some have taken this phrase as explanatory of the preceding, in the sense that Zion, taken etymologically, means wasteness or aridity; but this etymology is disputed, and is not necessary to an intelligible understanding of the sentence. The meaning simply is, that Zion is so insignificant that no man will even take the trouble to inquire after her. As to the whole promise, it has been well observed, that the extremity of the people will be no obstacle to God’s grace, but rather its chosen opportunity.
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 17. I will restore health unto thee] better, I…
17. I will restore health unto thee] better, I will bring new flesh upon thee. See on Jer_8:22, also Jer_33:6.
Zion] The LXX, reading the end of the word somewhat differently, render prey. This Co. prefers. The enemy, he would explain, consider Zion and her sons as a free hunting ground, where they may range about and devour at will.
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seeketh after] mg. careth for. Cp. Deu_11:12; Psa_142:4.
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 (17) I will restore health unto thee . .…
(17) I will restore health unto thee . . .—Literally, I will place a healing plaster on thee. The image of the plague-stricken sufferer is resumed from Jer_30:13. Men had scorned her. The contemptuous term of outcast had been flung at her. She was like Tyre, as a “harlot that had been forgotten” (Isa_23:16). There were none who sought her company. No nation courted her alliance. It was as though that extremest misery had touched the heart of Jehovah with pity, even for the adulteress who had forsaken Him. The whole passage brings the history, or the parable, of Gomer very vividly to our memory (Hosea 1-3).
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 Restore health; rather, apply a bandage. They called thee…
Restore health; rather, apply a bandage. They called thee an Outcast. Jehovah, speaking after the manner of men. cannot bear to hear his enemies, as they pass along, scornfully denominating the holy city an Outcast.
Divine healing.
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I GOD IS THE GREAT HEALER OF HIS PEOPLE.
1. God is not satisfied to leave his people unhelped in sin and wretchedness. We may grow accustomed to the evil of the world till we pass it unheeded. But it is not so with the Father of us all. He cannot endure the perpetual continuance of the wretchedness we accept (for others) with so little concern.
2. God designs to restore his people. It would seem easier to destroy the old weary world and create a new world, than to redeem and restore that which is so abandoned. But it is the glory of the gospel that it seeks and saves the lost.
3. The restoration of God"s people can only be effected through the healing of them. Israel cannot be restored to the Holy Land until the people are healed of their unholiness, and restored to God spiritually. Men are too ready to regard redemption externally as a change of state, a deliverance from distress and ruin, a gift of blessings, heaven, etc. It is all this, but not primarily. In the first and chief place redemption is healing, is not a change of circumstances, but a change in the soul itself. The richest possessions are of little use to the sick man. The sick body needs health, not wealth; and the sick soul needs healing before all external changes of condition.
4. It is a great thing to see the source of this healing in God. No soul can cure itself. No man can heal his fellow. The disease is naturally incurable (ver. 12). It is healed only by God and through a miracle. The miracles of Christ are thus visible parables of his great work of redemption. The good Physician saves men"s souls by working miracles of spiritual healing upon them.
II THE GREATNESS OF HIS PEOPLE"S DISTRESS INCLINES GOD TO HEAL THEM. Because Israel is called "an Outcast," God interferes to save him. David prays that God will pardon his iniquity, for it is great". (Psa_25:11) We feel that our sin is so great that we dare not ask for forgiveness, our wretchedness so abject that it is useless to seek for deliverance. But we may reverse the argument. The greater the sin the more does it need forgiveness, the deeper the misery the more loudly does it call for help. As claims of merit we have nothing. But when we look for pleas for mercy we find that the very bitterness of distress creates them. As the Judge, God cannot be invoked to help the sinner; as the Healer, he is most ready to come in the deepest need. The reasons for this are apparent.
1. The love of God. Love is moved by need rather than by desert. If God loves his children he will be most ready to help in their sorest distress.
2. The honour of God. The people who were called by the Name of God were also called "outcasts." Here was a reproach on the great Name of their God. For his Name"s sake God saves.
3. The special design of redemption. The physician finds his vocation in the healing art. Sickness is a call for the exercise of special functions. The worse the patient is, the more may he expect of the physician"s care and attention. "They that are whole need not the physician." He is the helper of the sick. Therefore the very greatness of a man"s sin and wretchedness, instead of discouraging his faith, should encourage him to seek Christ. They who are in such circumstances may know that they are the very persons Christ chiefly seeks to help.
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 I will restore health unto thee, and I will…
Jer_30:17-19
I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord.
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Gods love in restoration
Most times in Scripture the voice of God is the voice of love. The sterner words come forth as of necessity, on compulsion. How wonderful in the text is the tenderness with which God speaks, what marvellous considerateness for natural human feelings, for the peculiarities, if I may so speak, of human feelings, when, in promising to renew and to restore, He speaks not only of restoration, but of restoration on the very spot, restoration with the least possible loss, the least possible wrench to natural feeling,--restoration of the city on the ruinous heap, on the old foundation; not merely life again, but life where they had lived of old, the hearth to be raised where the hearth had burned of old, and home where home had been, not one joy or sorrow of association being lost, no change of place, no severance of old ties and thoughts, but all the round of life to begin again on the very site where the days had gone round before. Great mercy would it have been, if the decayed city, with its palaces and homes, had been rebuilt at all, and on other spots, in other places not known or loved before; but as there would have been a certain sorrow in changing the place of habitation, in making a new home, and on looking back on the bare desert plots where the city had once stood, so God, promising restoration, so promises it, that there should not be one cloud upon the heart in seeing the walls again built, not one touch of sorrow and regret to mingle with the joy. And how has it been with the Church of Christ, of which these words of the prophet, in a second and a spiritual sense, doubtless speak? There is no branch of the Church, alas! which has not failed at times in its high part, which has not at times sunk down into listlessness and sloth, which has not at times had an evil activity and an unwise zeal, which has not at times wasted its high gifts, spilt them as it were like water on the ground, suffered its lamp to burn low or to glare with an unhealthy light, which has not at times grudged alms, or been faint in prayer, or worshipped the world, or dressed itself out in gorgeous robes of worldly greatness, or been self-indulgent, or lax in its view of Christian verities. And yet no branch of the Church has been without its calls and recalls, its revival, whether of its spiritual life or of its form and order, its gracious renewings, its waterings from on high with the heavenly dew, that it might again look strong, again battle with the world, again bear noble witness, again do noble deeds, again shew the power of a living faith, again unite itself with heaven by its warm and frequent prayers, again preach Christ crucified by its own crucifixion of all earthly affections, and the manifestation of all saintly ways and tempers. (Bishop Armstrong.)
Blessed promises for dying outcasts
The promises of this verse will be exceedingly sweet to those who feel their personal need of them; but those who boast that they are neither sick nor wounded will take no interest in this comfortable word.
I. Taken in connection with the verses which precede it, our text describes a class of men and women who are in a serious plight. These people suffer under two evils. They are afflicted with the distemper of evil, and also by dismal disquietude of conscience. They have broken Gods commandments, and now their own bones are broken. They have grieved their God, and their God is grieving them.
1. They are sick with sin, and that disease is one which, according to the fifth and sixth verses, brings great pain and trouble into mens minds when they come to their senses, and know their condition before God. Sin felt and known is a terrible kill-joy: as the simoom of the desert smites the caravan with death, and as the sirocco withers every herb of the field, so does a sense of sin dry up peace, blast hope, and utterly kill delight. This disease, moreover, is not only exceedingly painful when the conscience is smarting, but it is altogether incurable, so far as any human skill is concerned. Neither body, soul, nor spirit is free from its taint. At all hours it is our curse and plague; over all places it casts its defiling influence; in all duties it injures and hinders us. To those who know this there is a music sweeter than marriage-bells in these words,--I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds The incurable shall be cured; the insatiable malady shall be stayed. How gracious is it on Gods part to pity a creature infected with this vile distemper! How good of Him to regard our iniquity rather as a sickness to be healed than as a crime to be punished!
2. I told you of a double mischief in this plight, and the second mischief is that this person has been wounded for his sin. His wounds are of no common sort, for we are told in the fourteenth verse that God Himself has wounded him. There is such a thing as cruel kindness, and the opposite to it is a loving cruelty, a gracious severity. When the Lord brings sin to remembrance, and makes the soul to see what an evil it has committed in transgressing against God, then the wound bleeds, and the heart breaks. The smart is sharp, but salutary. The Lord wounds that He may heal, He kills that He may make alive. His storms wreck us upon the rock of salvation, and His tempests drive us into the fair havens of lowly faith. Happy are the men who are thus made unhappy; but this for the present they know not, and therefore they need the promise, I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord. The blows are not only on the conscience, but when God is in earnest to make men flee from their sins, He will smite them anywhere and everywhere. He takes away the delight of their eyes with a stroke; the child, the husband, the wife, or the friend is laid low; for the Lord will fill our houses with mourning sooner than leave us in carnal security.
II. A special interference. The poor creature is in desperate dolour; but the God of pitying love comes in, and I beg you to notice the result.
1. This interference is, first of all Divine. The infinite Jehovah alone can speak with that grand Ego, and say, I will, and again, I will. No human physician who was worthy of the name would speak thus. He would humbly say, I will attempt to give you health; I will endeavour to heal your wounds; but the Lord speaks with the positiveness of omnipotence, for He has the power to make good His words.
2. Note, that since this interference is Divine it is effectual. What can baffle the Lord? Can anything perplex infinite wisdom? Is anything difficult to almighty power? He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast. When therefore God says, I will restore health unto thee, health will visit the wretch who lies pining at deaths door. When He says, I will heal thee of thy wounds, the deep cuts and gashes are closed up at once.
3. Observe that this interposition performs a work which is most complete, for it meets the two-fold mischief. He will heal both disease and wound.
4. Notice, too, how sovereignly free this promise is. It does not say, I will restore health unto thee if--No, there is no if; and there is no mention of a fee. Here is healing for nothing. Jesus comes to give us health without money and without price, without pence or penance, without labour or merit.
5. Notice that, although it be thus free and unconditional, yet it is now a matter of covenant certainly, for God has made the promise, and He cannot turn from it. To every guilty sinner, conscious of his guilt, who will come and confess it before God, this promise is made to-day, I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.
III. A singular reason. He says, not Because you were holy, or Because you had good desires; but Because they called thee an outcast. Who were they? Why, the mockers and blasphemers: the Lord actually transforms the venom of asps, which was under the tongues of the malicious, into a reason for His mercy. This clearly shows how God hates the very notion of merit; but it also shows that He will find a reason for mercy somewhere.
1. This roused the Lords pity. Oh, He said, has it come to this? Have they dared to call My Beloved an outcast, and say that no man seeketh after her! I will seek her, and heal her, and restore her, for I cannot endure such tauntings. Now, if there is a poor sinner in the world, upon whom other sinners, who are just as bad in their heart, begin to vent their scorn, and say, She is an outcast; then the God of mercy seems to say, Who are you that you should talk like this? You are as vile yourselves, and yet you dare to look down upon this poor, selected one, as if she were so much worse than you. Therefore, I will save that despised one, and will have mercy upon the rejected.
2. Gods jealousy is aroused against those who despise His people and speak ill of them. It is one thing for a father to chasten his boy; but if, when he is out in the streets, a stranger begins to kick him, his father declares that it shall not be. He arouses himself to defend his child, the same child that just now he smote so heavily. That is a fair parallel to the case of our God. He will chasten His people in measure, but the moment that their enemies call them outcasts He turns His anger another way and releases His people. Oh, how blessedly does good come out of evil! How graciously He causes the wrath of man to praise Him. He restores health to Zion, and heals her wounds because she is called an outcast.
IV. A little suitable advice. I will suppose that I have those before me who have felt their disease and their wound, and have been healed by the God of mercy. I would recommend them to attend to certain matters.
1. Take care that you live very near your Physician. I notice that patients come up from the country when they are suffering with serious complaints, and they take lodgings near a medical man who is in high esteem for such cases as theirs. Now, the Lord has healed your wound, and restored health to you, therefore abide in Him; never leave Him, nor live far away from Him, for this old disease of yours may break out on a sudden, and it will be well to have the Healer close at hand. It will be best to entertain Him constantly beneath your roof, and within your heart; for His presence is the wellspring of health to the soul.
2. I recommend you often to put yourself under His searching examination. Go to this great Physician, and ask Him to look into your hidden parts, to search you, and try you, and see what wicked way may be in you, that He may lead you in the way everlasting.
3. I recommend you from personal experience to consult with this Doctor every day. It is a wise thing before you go downstairs into the worlds tainted atmosphere to take a draught of His Elixir vitae, in the form of renewed faith in Him. I am sure at night it is an admirable thing to purge the soul of all the perilous stuff which has accumulated through the day by full confession and renewed confidence.
4. Lay bare your case before Him; conceal nothing; beg of Him to deal with you according to His knowledge of your case. Make a clean breast that Christ may make a sure cure.
5. Then I should very strongly recommend you always to obey the prescriptions of the great Healer. Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. The Lord Jesus must be received as a whole, or not at all
6. Take care also to exercise great confidence in this Physician. Your cure is working wondrously when you trust in Jesus heartily. Distrust is what you have to fear; faith is your strength.
7. When you are healed, as I trust you are already, speak well of your Benefactor. When you were restored from sickness the other day, you were quite able to inform your friends as to that new medicine which acted like a charm, and you found a tongue to speak well of your doctor; and I am sure you have ability enough to declare the wonderful works of the Lord in your case. Oh, but I could not embellish the tale! Do not attempt to embellish it; for that would only spoil it. Tell the story as simply as possible. I think it is of Mr. Cecil that I have read the following incident. A friend came from some distance to inform him of a medicine which was to relieve him of his disorder. This friend told him all about it, and having done so, entered into conversation upon the current matters of the day. The result was that Mr. Cecil was greatly interested in the talk, and when his friend was gone, he quite forgot every ingredient of the wonderful medicine. Beware of allowing the many things to drive the one thing needful out of your friends mind. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 30:17 I will . . . heal your wounds:…
30:17 I will . . . heal your wounds: The people would return from exile and their sins would be removed.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.