PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1
Thomas Kelly Cheyne [1841-1915] · 535,674 words · 592 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 181
springing up into eternal life." There is another Jerusalem besides this earthly nnd polluted one. Jeremiah was not the only one who told people to fly out of it because of impending destruction. Jesus, in his prophetio words, spoke with even grea.t.er emphasis-a thing to be expected. The earthly Jerusalem, great and g…
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Ver. 14.-Healing the hurt slightly. There is here an illustration of the false dealing referred ~o in the previous verse-~n illus_tration from the pr?phets in parti- cular, and, as might be expected, the specimen given shows how senously this false dealing affected the prospects of the nation. '!'here is, it will be …
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Ver. 16.-The ancient paths to be sought and wal,ked in. I. THE ADDRESS 18 TO THOSB WHO ARE ALREADY WALKING IN A CERTAIN WAY. There is activity of the whole life, a conscious and chosen activity. We are sometimes spoken of as being asleep and needing to be awakened out of sleep, and even as being dead and needing to be …
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Mnn is not sent out on a vague quest, with nothing to guide and to limit him. If he will look where God points, and ask the questions which God puts into his mouth his quest will soon be at an end. The right path is indicated by infallible signs. It is the ancient one; the way which began to be trodden, not one or two …
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hands and a pure heart. The great use of these gifts with their pleasant qualities was to signify what was sweet and fragrant and devoted in the hearts of the people. But when God knew that the gifts were bestowed through superstition or formality, or through the fear lc$t neglect might bring disaster on some cherished…
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EXPOSITION. false prophets evidently retained a lnrgo CHAPTER VII. amount of the old materialistic faith of the Ch. vii.-x.-Severe rebukes of idofotry Semitic nations (lo whom tho Israelites belonged by race), which localized the alternating with announcements of the im- presence and the power or the divinity. pend…
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formula is that of the Septnngint, i! «1,i,vos temple at Jerusnlem? Tho latter view is K«l ,.,, «lli,vos : i.e. from the most remote stron~ly confirmed by Judg. xviii. 31, "All antiquity to the most distant future. tho time tho.t the house of God in Shiloh Vers. 8-15.-The formalism of Jewish existed" (A~thorized Versi…
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described in eh. vi. 11. Cakes (comp. eh. description of Paradise regained (xi.), xliv. HJ). The word is peculiar (1,avuanim), Hosea speaks of sufferings of the animals and perhaps entered Palestine together arising out of the i.;uilt of Israel (iv. 3), anrl with the foreign rite to which the cakes a consciousness of t…
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the prnisefnl cxr'.amntions of those who "llty chief care wns not to prescribe rules would bring the sacrifice of t.hanksgil'ing. for holocausts nnd sncrifices, but this is what These passa1'<'S do not contain any state- I commanded thco nbove o.11," viz. moral ment respC'cting the origin of the sacrifieial obc~ie~c…
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the nnlion thnt Lave not henrkenecl," etc. the "high places" (Hebrew f,rimolh)-here 'l'rnth; rnthcr, good faith (ns eh. v. 1). Is probnbly artificial mounds to erect lhc :tltars cut off from their month; i.e. their oaths to upon, and on "the Topheth," sec C0 m. Jehornh are false oaths (eh. v. 2). men tary on 1 Kings). …
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abandoned (ver. 6). Men must repent of their own sins, their characteristic sins, thoir habitual sins. We arc too ready to renounce the sins which do not brlon" to us, and to pass over our most familiar sins unnoticed. 4. This must be thorough. "The Jews are to " throughly amend" their ways. A half-hearted repentance i…
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of his tenderness and beneficence in the cheery songs of spring and the glad shout of tlie harvest. 2. 'l'he voice of history. God is in history, and speaks to us through the events of the past, warning by judgments (ver. 12), inviting by acts of deliverance and gifts of mercy (see Pa. cv.). 3, 'l'he voice of pravide'T…
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III. PRAYERS FOR WHAT rs WRONG IN ITSELF, God cannot grant such prayers. Wo may pray for all men, but we may not pray for every imaginable favour to be given to all men. Thus it is wrong to pray that the impenitent wicked should not be punished. The purpose of the text seems to be just to forbid this prnyer. Jeremiah i…
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HOMILIES BY VA.RIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-3.-Keeping the temple gate. It was probably not the outer gate, but one of the gates which led from the outer to the inner or upper court (cf. eh. xix. 14; xxvi. 10; xxxvi. 10). "From this point the prophet .could view the whole assembly of the people in the outer court, as well a…
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diate aml strenuous exertion, will show diligence in some such way. He will be unable to res~. So it is ~Hh God and his_ Church. Not _that he can be said to fear or be uncertarn as to the issues. But the mterest he has m the fortunes and spiritual state of his people is of this description. It is no impassive God who i…
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selves will be put to shame. The idolater and atheist are their own worst enemies. 3. Not to be escaped 01· ended. 'l'hey are playing with fire. It will soon find its proper objects in themse!Yos and their profaned offerings. Nor will they be able to quench that which they have kindled. So helpless will transgressors e…
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higher than earth e.nd man e.nd the present life. But religion gives the lwe of God in Ghrist e.e its e.11-constre.ining force. Under the iufluence of this, what have not men done e.nd borne; and what will they not do e.nd bear? 2. By lending intensity to those already in action. How puny the power of hope, when it has…
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done still? It is to be feared that not a few suck a poisonous pleasure from the blessed doctrine of the forgiving love of God. Thus the gospel itself may become a "snvour of death unto death " to those who thus "make Christ the Minister of sin." And because religion has been seen so often severed from righteousness, a…
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this same demand of those who rebel against their laws. 4. God's providence uphold 8 this demand. The constitution of things is for the obedient and against the trans- gressor (cf. Butler's' Analogy'). II. AND THE REASONS ABE BECAUSE SIN: 1. Outrages God. What order or happi- ness can there be in that household where …
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glory had filled it., the Shechinah brightness rested on the mercy-seat. Was it to be ~magined that he who of old had smitten wit~ death those who presumed even to look mto or to touch the ark of God, who had snutten monarchs with leprosy for lack of due respect to it, would now suffer the bands of the idolaters to …
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drawn near to God, that material shrine had a certain value and would not lightly be allowed to perish. But if there were precioll8ness in the temple, there was not suffi- ciency of it to outweigh or to cover over the iniquities which surged around it, yea invaded its very courts, and of which it was made the unwill…
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fashion, custom, society. What would be thought of them if they did not go to chw-ch? 3. Or a method of quieting conscience. '!'hey come awuy a11d think they have wiped off the score that was against them. '!'hey say (vcr.10)," We arc delivered [see Exposition] to do," etc. 4. Or to set au example t.o those they are pl…
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Vers. 12-16.-Warning voice,. I. SuCll VOICES ARE PERPETUALLY HEARD. The prophet speaks of three such here. 1. Shiloh (ver.12). 2. The Lord himself (ver. 13). 3. Ephraim (ver. 15). II. And THEY TELL EVER THE BAME TBUTHS. 1. The Divine anger against sin (ver. 12). 2. 'l'he utter uselessness of their "trust in lying word…
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dation from which Eli was powerless to deliver them. His own sons led the way in abominable wickedness, and became sons of Belia! even beyond others. So low had they fallen, that they had come to regard the ark of God as a kind of fetish, and hence they carried it down to battle against the Philistines, thinking there…
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our own land. And many still, perhaps, need sorely tbe admonitory counsel to ,, 0 to Shiloh, and see what the Lord has done there. But not in material edifices alon; nor even in those gathered communities to which more properly tbe name of Chu~ches belongs, need we go to find instances of God-forsaken shrines. For i…
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"restore your souls and lead you in," etc. But first, as when Hezekiah cleansed the temple, you must cast c,ut the manifold uncleanness that is there. '!'here must be a thorough purging, a real repentance. God will not come back to a sin-inhabited and evil-loving soul. You must "throughly amend your ways." This is indi…
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And there is a sense in which these words are most blessedly true, but it is undeniable that such words are often pressed to a meaning which practically encourages the sinner to go on in sin. 3. And yet more is this truth abused in deed. Those to whom the prophet was writing had abused the long-suffering of God (cf. t…
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from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: •.• I shall be inno- cent from the great transgression "!-C. Ver. 16.-I'rohibited prayei·s. The text a distil!.Ct instance. We rem11.rk- I. SucH PROHIBITION OF PRAYER SEEMS VERY STRANGE, Are we not bidden " pray without ceasing," "in all things by prayer and…
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active and eager part. They become so many societies for the propagation of ungodli- ness. In the sanctity or the sin of the parent the children are sure to share. In the first, by the grace of God; in the second, by the fatal force of a father's example. A father can lift his children up to heaven or he can drag them …
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of grace. His iniquities have so" taken hold of him" that he cannot "look up." All joy, al! confid~nce, all hope in God, have fled. He feels himself an outcast lrom the Divine presence; he woul,I feel the eye of God upon him if he knelt down to pray, and that he cannot bear. (3) Before man. He cannot for ever concea…
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the sake of their children, that they might not be harmed, keep back from sin to which but for ~uch motive they might have yielded I 2. It deepens repentance for ~in. (CF. 2 Sam. xx1v, 17.) 3. It makes sin more hateful to us. What must that be which destroys not us only, but our children, innocent of all sin? And it ma…
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seed. 2. And its growth will be in like manner. Progressive daring in sin; the deba.seruent of our nature. 3. And its ha,·vest will be seen, (1) iu widespread spiritual death, an,l often in te, rible death-beds; (2) in the loss of all joy and aladness • (3) in degradation before men; (4) in awful despair. "' ' CoNCLUS…
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directness and closeness in dealing with the unfaithful; and no want of coura<Ye 0 and candour on the part of the man who was chosen to warn. II. TWJ MESSAGE IB To MIBTAKEN woBBHIPPEBS. To look round with pride and say these buildings are the temple of God, was as the utterance of some first principle. 'l'hese worshi…
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unity. There were the dedication of the firstborn, and the institution concerning the meaning of the Passover feast (Exod. xiii.). There was the command to honour father and tnot.her. So connected with the passage now under consideration, there was the setting apart of the dough (Numb. xv.). A continual instruction …
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there must be the means of furnishing ample proofa that directions have first been given-plain, earnest, and authoritative. And this is just what we find here. God refers his people back over the long years in which, by divers agencies, he had laid before them his righteous and beneficent will. What he commended was f…
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they have loved, eto. The prophet is Palestine. The expression • stork in the designedly diffuse in his description. With he9:vens' refers to the immense height o.l all their misspent zee.l, these unho.ppy winch they fly during migration" (Tris- idolaters oonnot even find tombs. tram); (2) the turtle, or turtle-dove…
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wise and the divinely appointed teachers (" ••. them that shall inherit them") than of the people. To this J eremin.h replies, not on ver. 12; (2) that ver. 10 is deficient in (as the Authorized Version renders) Lo, symmetry; and (3) that the deviations from oertainly in vain made he it, etc.; but, Yea, eh. vi. 13-15 s…
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general, the ideas of bitterness and of Jehovah, pointing out that their suffer- poisonousness being taken as interchange- ings were but au exact retribution for their able. The Authorized Version may there- infidelity ( comp. ell. v. 19), fore stand. Ver. 20.-The harvest is past, eto. For Ver. 15.-B:ea.lth; rathcr…
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HOMILETICS. Vera. 4-6.-Persistent depravity. I. PERSISTENT DEPRAVITY HUST BE DISTm- GUISHED FROM A CASUAL LAPSE INTO BIN. 1. This is marked by a constant hal>it of sin, a falling without rising again. The best man is often guilty of mistakes, but he soon seeks to recover himself (Ps. xxxvii. 24). His habit is uprig…
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To tbe lower animals this comes as n necessary law, n.s a course determined by uncon- scious instinct. To man it comes as a mandate of duty, an impulse in the conscience, a way to be clearly ptirceivcd and freely chosen. But, though the same method for exacting the performance of the Divine or<linnnces which obtains in…
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Ver.11.-(See on eh. vi. 14.) Vers. 14-, 15.-Despair. I. DESPAIR wn.L ABISE ON THE PERCEPTION THAT THERE IS NO WAY OF ESCAPE FBOM BUIN. 'l'he miserable Jews are pictured as firnt sitting still helplessly, a.nd then rousing themselves to enter the fenced cities, only to find that death awaits them there as surely a.s in…
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soon detect the fallacy which underlies them. Outward events do not always correspond to inward experiences; the latter have their own separate conditions. God may deal mercifully with us now and in earthly things, but his present forbenr- ance is no proof that we shall never suffer from his righteous wrath in tho seas…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers, 4-1.-~postasy an anomalous and incalculable thing. I. THE ANALOGIES OJ' COMMON BENSE AND INSTINCT ABE ll'ALSIFIED. (Vers. 4-6.) If a man fall, he will rise again to bis feet; if he has made a mistake or gone in a wrong direction, an<l discovers it, he will turn again, unless he be ab…
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Vers. 13-15.-False hopes ministering despair. The lessons of life are not readily learned by most men. They require to be frequently repeated ere they produce an impression. God, therefore, deals severely with his people, whose delusion is the more unpardonable because of the piety of their fathers and the light of …
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Ver. 20.-0ccasions of hoped-for salvation that liave not availed, Probably a pro- verbial expression. It is not admissible for us to understand the words of help expected from Egypt, which would bo to make them an anachronism. They well describe tho result of hoping against hope, and in this sense might be spoken by th…
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Ver. 2.-Befooled i1ideed. This is what we say when we see men giving heed to the plausible st9:tements of gross impostors, and, in consequence, lavishing their time, energy, and wealth m the hope of large recompense; but who, when the time comes that the hoped-for _gain should be theirs, find themselves deceived, de…
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better do as we do and trust our gods rather than your own." (2) The spirituality of the worship God required, and the absence of all such demand on the part of idolatry, was another argument for idolatry and against the worship of God. No graven image, no representation of God, nothing that would help the senses to…
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For (1) they do after this manner give themselves to the world. They "love," "servo," "walk after," "seek," and "wo!'llhip" it. (2) And their infatuation is explained by like reasons. (3) And their reward will be to be utterly deceived and disappointed. God will say to each one of them, "Thou fool I" (Luke xii. 20).…
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IV. THEIR CURE. How shall this evil spirit be cast out and the right spirit be restored? In ver. 6 the prncess is shown to us. There is: 1. Realizati<m of the results of our sin. The backslider is Mpresented as contemplating with dismay the awful consequences of his sin, and asking," What have I done?" It is "the convi…
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confirm our faith in this Divine solicitude for the sinner's salvation I Look at the very constitut1·on of our nature. That, as Bishop Uutler has shown1 is evidently on the side of virtue, that is, of obedience to Goel, and against the disobedient. " Who will harm you, if ye be doers of that which is good? "-thus th…
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deceived, and, what is worse, a.re willing to be deceived: "They bold fast deceit and eo refuse to return." We should have thought that surely it would be otherwiSC:, 1. Reason bids them return (ver. 4). If a man have fallen, he will not lie content on the earth, but will a.rise. If in an ordinary journey he have misse…
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CONCLUSION. Then, instead of causing s01TOw to the faithful servants of God by resisting their appeals, yield to them, and so gladden these servants, and the angels of (Jed, and the heart of God, and the Son of God. So you yourself shall "enter into the joy of your Lord."-C. Ver. 22.-0hrist and the Holy Ghost ,·ealiti…
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pollution that characterizes vast ma.eB0B of mankind, indeed the mass of mankind. And think of the corruption of Christianity: what a veneer of religion I what a counterfeit of godliness! what a hollow mockery eo great part of it is! And coming closer home, the saddened contemplator of the ravages of sin may turn his g…
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a long, long time coming in, bl\t it <loes come in. Healing ie always a gradul\l work. "Nemo repente fuit 'sanctissimus,'" any more than "turpiesimus." A man cannot leap into heaven, as, thank God, he cannot leap into hell. Dut because healino- is only gradual, do we deny its existence? Dut we know there are vast mu…
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moral condition of the world, in view of the fact that God's " saving health" in the gospel hae eo long been made known to it. Consider- !. THE DIVurn REMEDY FOR THE MORAL MALADIES OF THE BUMAN RACE. Thi, remedy is the spontaneous fruit of the love of God. On the ground of that love we may justly expect such a remedy.…
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another indication of how complet.ely, for its sins, Jerusalem had been handed over to the foreign destroyer. It makes all the difference to mention such a terrible ciroum- Btance beforehand, as an illustration of the severity of God's dealings. 'fhus it is seen that the spoliation can~ot b~ l'.1-!d t? his charge. A…
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eo bad as to make death desirable would seem to them to show that the threatener of such a doom was overdoing his warnings. ll, LIFE MAY BECOME SO FULL OF PAIN AND MISERY THAT THIS NATURAL DREAD MAY BE REVERSED. When the blow was struck and Jerusalem fell into the bands of the hosts from Babylon, thousands would be th…
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"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider." The very birds of the air, seemingly so free from all restraint, come and go according to certain laws. If the bm1sts which man has tamed to his use, and on which he daily depends, were to treat him as he …
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Jehovah is with us," said these wise men; but it was a valuele.'IS connection, whereas the prophet had that Law written in his heart. Being in full sympathy with all that was right, and loving, and generous, and pure, he was a.fit subject for the solemn impulses that came to him from on high, and thus he went forth to …
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Ver. 20.-" The life i's more than the meat." .After the subsidence of the Deluge, there was a promise given to Noah that," while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, ... summer and winter, ... shall not cease." Scanning the surface of the Scripture nar- rative, it appears as if this promise h~d not been kept, se…
683 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.