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 301
a lonelr man. This isolation of bis lot was. bis grief, but the persistence of the succession of the prophets proved the unswervmg purpose of God ultimately to save, not only Israel, bnt the "'orld. There might be from time to time but one or two who could say ".Amen" to his judgments, but some day the people as a whol…
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Magistrate, as be draws bis cordon round the transgressor and compels him to capitulate. The real calamity in connection with these judgments is the spiritual wrongness which necessitates them, and not the physical conditions through which they are executed. Most men suppose that if the pain or inconvenience is removed…
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Ver. 3.-The doom of disobedience. This new discourse, which begins with eh. :d.. is a continuation of the same sad monotone of denunciation a1;1d doom wbich goes on throughout well-nigh the whole of Jcrcmiah's prophecies. The curse pronounced here on the disobedient- !. Is VE!l.Y TERnIDLE. The words, " Cursed," etc., …
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consequent doom, are all facts with which we a.re familiar. The history of Israel is but an example of what is ever taking place. Even the gospel of the Lord Jesus, however much it may avert the eternal results of our transgressions, will not save us from the present temporal consequences in this world. "These all died…
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abandoned of that Holy Spirit. Ilut there was ever a faithful remnant, ever a godly few, of whom the Lord was wont to say, "They shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels." And we must remember that there were long periods iu Israel's history when, as a nation, they lived under the blessed guidance of that …
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and this promise God ever fulfils. And it means also, "I will be your rest." The soul whose God the Lord is, reposes on him. The storms of life may rage, its tempests beat, but "firm and unmoved are they who rest their souls on God." Everything may appear to be slipping away from a man, and he may seem to be like one g…
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were placed first in opportunity have been found last in attainment. Privilege, favour, education, help of all kinds, have been at their disposal, and yet the results which had been designed for them, and which so smely should have been theirs, they have missed ( cf. Matt. xi., "Woe unto thee, I3ethsaiua !" etc.). A…
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olh·e·trec 11,ttains thero can be no doubt, It brings forth fruit in old age, and its leaf doth not wither (Ps. i.). _It was, therefore, a. fit emblem of permanent prosperiLy and strength. Such w.as the Divine intent in regard to his people. 'rheir blessedness was to abide. Thus i11 all these and yet other ways were th…
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forfeited it; but now, not till his forbearance had (vers. 8-10) manifestly failed in its purpose and was being even perverted into an occasion for fresh sin, did he "change his way" toward them. And even then, many years' respite was given in which repentance and so forgiveness and restoration were possible. And to…
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"Between the priesthood and the prophets there had hitherto been more or less of conAict, but now that conflict was exchanged for a fatal union. 'A wonderfol and horrible thing was committed in the land; the prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bore rule by their means;' and he who by each of his callings was…
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Vers. 1-12.-The cove1;ant with the fathe1·s binding on the children,' llere it iR necessary t-0 go back over all the history of Israel, and consider, the great covenant transactions between God and his people. S11ch transact.ions we find to have .been filled with great soler.mity, so that they might make a deep'mark …
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xv. 1. It was evidently meant that the prophet should feel how unavailing all interces- sion was. I. \VE HA.VE HERE A VERY PAINFUL EXCErrION TO A VERY IMPORTANT RULE. The rule is to pray, to pray continually, and to pray with not the least fervency aud devoti9n when our prayers are intercessions. God delights in the d…
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making ;-the thoughtful among them would feel that God could have employed IiCi better figure to suggest how full Israel was of productivity of the most practical sort. Mention is ma.de in Hosea (xiv. 6), as well as here, of the beauty of tha olive tree. In one sense the olive wA.S not beautiful. As far as the pictu…
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life in Capernaum and Bethany, and not at all in Nazareth. We may surmise that he never had as much as one quiet day there after his public ministry began, The rela- tives of Jesus said that be was beside himself, and probably they feared that the strange things he did and the ever-increasing hostility he provoked wou…
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Ver. 3.-He.st: seen me, and tlied; rather, peoples, not, however, without a prospeot l!eest me, and ti-iest. Pull them out. Perhaps of their return homo 11nd conversion to this is correct, and there is an· allusion to Jehovah. It is evident enough tlwt this the figure of tho plant in ver. 2. Dut the passage stands in n…
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to Lhe o.ncionts ('fo.eit., 'Ann.,' vi. 28; Suet., contrast to Isa. xlix. 9). The sword of the • Oma.,' 81; Plin.,' Hist. No.t.,' x.19), of bircls Lord shall devonr; rather, the Lr,rd hath a go.thering 1·ouncl o.ncl o.ttacking II strange- sword which dev_oureth. It is the Leavcnly looking bircl o.ppearing in thoir m…
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Their ,iolent actions are often unchecked and produce fatal results. How s it that these e,il thin~s nre not frustrated before they ripen to perfection? That wi kcd men should plot evil, should attempt evil, we can imagine; but that they should 1-,e allowed to carry it out-often only because many accidents are favourab…
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Ver. 5.-A dark prospect. If Jeremiah was ready to despair when he discovered the conspiracy of the men of Anathoth, how would he bear the news of the treachery of his own brethren? His condition under the lesser trouble made the prospect of greater trouble most alarming. The Divine admonition which such a situation sho…
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Ver. 13.-Profitless labour. I. PUNISHMENT WILL CONSIST IN PART IN THE PROFIT- LESSNEBS OF LABOUR. This will perhaps be the special puni~hment of industrious bad people. To them it will be peculiarly painful, for in proportion to the zest and earnest- ness with which any work is carried on will be the bitterness of disa…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers.1-4.-Moral difficulties with the providence of God. 'l'he tone of this address to Jeho'l"ah is strikingly contrasted with that to the men of Anathoth. To them he is as a lion or a brazen wall. To Jehovah he is as a fretful child, ignorant, wilful per,crs~, and requiring to be corre…
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Vere. 7, 8.-Leaving all for God. (Naegelsbach is of opinion that the words of vers. 7-13 "are to be understood as having a double reference," i.e. both to the prophet's own feelings and to Jehovah's judgment. Zwingli and Bugenhagen consider that Jehovah begins to speak at "Go" or" Corne," in ver. 0. There is evidently …
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IJ. EVEN IN BEING PUNISHED FOR TIIE SAKE OF ISRAEL, THEIR DESTINY WAS LINKED WITI!- HERS. If at first their lot would _appear to be hard and inconceivably hopeless, yet m the end there can be no question that they were gainers by the association. In common life, with tho~e whom they subdued they received manifold advan…
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Ver. 3.-lmprecatory prayers. "Pull them out like sheep," etc. There are many of these. Some of them, like this one, are very terrible (cf. Ps. cix.; cxxxvii. 9, etc.). How are they to be understood? how justified? Of what use are they to us now? Questions like these cannot but be started in reading such prayers. 'fhe d…
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the New Testament we have snme simila1· u!temnces. (Cf. Matt. xxiii. 11.) (6) And we <'U.rseli•cs i11 1car-which we all allow to be at times lawful---<ict on these very p1'inciples and do for ourselves what the Old Testament saints only besought God to do. Rene~ conclude that, in like circumstances and for similar reas…
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withstood prepares for withstanding the greater when it comes; and the overleapine1 of the frail barriers that now may oppose our self-surrender to Christ ensures that nothin" at any future time shall be able to keep us back from him, nothing shall "separate u~ from the love of Christ."-C. Vers. 7-13.-Tlie hiding of G…
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to nnother; but the mind would not take hold, or I was, as John Bunyan ,vould say, 'much tumbled up and down in my thoughts.' Just then I walked to the window and looked out. On the other side of the narrow street in which I lived I saw a poor, solitary canary bird upon the slates, surrounded by a crowd of sparrows,…
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any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." "The frien,lship of the world is enmity against God." "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Whose aver- sion, then, will you have, since that of God or of the world you must have? Your peril is not that you should deliberately choose to have the aversion of God…
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vindicating God's ways with Israel or with other nations, they indicate the method of his dealings with themselves. This was singularly true of Jeremiah, and we have here u. striking illustration of it. This passage probably marks the time when the people of his own native city of Anathoth, and even his kindred, his…
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to the prophets were. Two things are noticeable in this remonstrance, 1. It Tejera to Jeremiah's want of cowrage, and says nothing about his mental perplexity. We are reminded that the best cure for our morbid conditions of thought and feeling is that we should brace up the energies of our soul to bear whatever Provide…
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said in them and done ·even iu Jercminh's own time and under his own eyes, and wheu further be recollected his own hasty complaints, he would surely feel that a trustful and patient waiting for the full event would have been much wiser. Perhaps no prophet. ever saw more of the accomplishment of his own prophecies than …
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midst of them, are seen then in their comparative unimportance. Let it not be supposed that, after cutting off the right hand, one must of necessity wait for the fulness of life cternn.l to get anything like compensation. The compensation begins in the very act of self-sacrifice. Does not the prophet here say that what…
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sow wheat and yet reap thorns. The contradiction is ouly on the surface; it suggests inquiry, and the further the inquiry is continued, the more it is seon what serious truth is contained in the prophet's statement. Consider, then, the statement in two aspects I. As SliOWING THAT MEN DO NOT REAP WHAT THEY RAVE BOWN. …
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EXPOSITION. product of Judah, Hos. ii. 5). Put it not in CHAPTER XIII. water. The object of the prohibition is well The chapter falls iato two parLs-the one elated by St. Jerome. It was at once to describing a divinely commandP.d action of symbolize the cho.ractrr of the people of Israel, stiff and impure, like unw…
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best wny of making this interpretation shown in indivichml instirncc's. For the plausible. fulfilment, sco 2 l{ings xxiv. 15. After a Ver. 6.-After many days. To allow time reign of three months, the young prince ond for 1he npron to become rotten. his mother were carried to Babylon. And to Ver. 7.-I went ... and d…
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the Authorizod Version undoubtedly re- 1 safer to render, the portion of thy garment, quires correction. The alternatives are, the upper garment being used instead of a TVhat un'lt thou say when he shall appoint bag to hold anything (comp. Ruth iii. 15; over thee (but t11ou thyself hast trained 2 Kings iv. 39). In fals…
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HOMILETICS. Vere. 'l-11.-The spoiled girdle. I. Gon's PEOPLE ARE LD!J!I A GIRDLE TO Goo. 1. 'l'hey are his peculiar property, The girdle is a privato personal possession. It belongs solely to the wearer. When all ordinary property is taken from him he retains the clothes on his body. Even the bankrupt has a right to t…
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herald of the dawn ; but they are mistaken-it is the portend of• the night. The mingled lights and shadows will melt into the blackness of midnight. The mixed joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, of this life, which some sanguine souls suppose to be the worst condition they will be in, and likely to give place to rest an…
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HOMILIES BY V.A.RIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-11.-Tlie marred girdle. This and the following emblem are intended to Fym bolize the ch.e.ractcrs and punishment of pride in spiritual and carnal men respectively. The "girdle" of linen cloth worn by the priest represents the close relation of Judah and Jerusalem to Jehovah. He h…
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prophet has in view. It was sufficient for him to impress upon them that there would be but a short time between the present and the fate he had described. It was a sign of God's grace that he had been sent to warn them. They were to listen to his voice as lo the voice of Jehovah. And in the event of rcpcnlance, that w…
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III. ITs GREAT REMEDY. Seeing that in himself the sinner is without strcn,,th it would appear at first as if he could only despair. But this is not the teaching ~f the prophet. He has already counselled vigorous effort, and implied that a commencement and_ continuance in well-doing were possible. But the change could o…
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Vers. 12-14.-Vessels of wrath. This is another similitude having the same general purpose as the former one. "Every earthen flagon (cf. eh. xlviii. 12)-the inhabitants of Jerusalem, her king, her priests, and prophets-will be filled with the wine of the intoxicating beverage of God's wrath (cf. eh. xxv. 15; Isa. xxv…
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they were, more than by' aught else, hindered from receiving the word of God. The inflated shape, the mean material, and the easily destroyed nature of those " bottles " to which he had likened them, as well as the arrogant boastful talk of the drunkard w_b?se doings theirs be predicted should resemble; both these comp…
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has come upon him, but the remembrance of his sins crushes hope of mercy (cf. Jndas" going out and hanging himself"). 3. The entanglements of sin. It is a great mistake to imagine that those \\'ho arc enslaved by any sin are happy in it. Not a.few of them endure a very hell in their frantic but futile endeavours to bre…
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II. To ALL PARENTS. Our children are the Lord's flock, his "beautiful flock." They are very dear to him. He puts his arm round every one of them; he takes them all up in his arms and blesses them. He declares by his Word and by their baptism that they are of his kingdom, and he both promises vast reward to those that r…
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"A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify, A ,cc,cr-dying soul to snve And fit it for the slcy. "Help me to watch nnd prny, And on thyself rely; Assured if I my trust betray I shall for ever die." c. Vers. 21, 22.-Sin its own scourge. I. THERE ARE o·rHER SCOURGES FOIi BIN. 'l'he direct and positive inflictio…
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they will know, e.nd he will be cast out as vile. 6. The thought of the misery and shame he will bring upon others. Perhaps he has wife, children, father, mother, a number of friends and relations, whom he knows he will drag down with him in his own rui11. 7. The temptation to recklessness born of despair. Satan is eve…
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shame, they would be willing then to be rid of the sin itself, But their return to their sin shows how momentary and superficial this feeling was. And men would be will- ing, perhaps, ,f by some one act the whole cure could be effected; if the being made whole was not so slow, so difficult, so self-denying a process. A…
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find the darkness growing more and more deep and dense around them. It is often something like this when men are unfaithful to their real convictions and negligent of the acknowledged claims of God. Trifle with truth and conscience, and you cannot wonder that truth should become to you a mere mocking shadow, and consci…
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Other nations might play the part of girdle to their deities, but there was really nothing of substance to gird. But when Jehovah drew Israel to himself, there was the oppor- tunity of a real, glorious, and ever-extending service before thew. Other nations chose and fabricated their gods; Jehovah chose and separated…
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intervals of light, intervals where the mercy of Jehovah is clearly revealed, and his never-failing desire that his people should return to him. There is, of course, practi- cally, no hope for these people so far as their present social state is concerned. They will go on their own way; but to the last God will also ma…
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Ver. 20.-.A searching question to the slupherd. The position of a king towards his people was illustrated by the position ,of a shepherd towards his flock. Hence the question here was doubtless meant for the special attention of the king. The nation was largely in the hands of the king for the time being. Formal aut…
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the will of Ghrist. The great thing to be aimed at ie that we should be clear from the blood of all men (Acts xx. 26-30). III. It will be seen that this was a question FOB FLOCKS AS WELL AS FOB SHEPHERDS. Rulers are responsible for right lending, but subjects and followers are not altogether as sheep, that they should…
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EXPOSITION. there. They are blaok unto the ground. OHAPTEB XIV. "To be black," in Hebrew, i,s "to be dressed in mourning" (eo e.g. Pa. xxxv. 14, "I This chapter must be read in connection bowed down in black'.'), Here we must ";th the following one, They describe understand the same verb which is expressed chiefl…
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of the wild asses fail, beoause there·wu [is] ment, which till then is laid up in store no grass ; rather, herbage. They grow Jim ( comp. Gen. xv. 16 ; Isa. xvi ii. 5; xniii 10). first with seeking it so long in vain, ond Ver. 11.-Pray not for this people. So in then from lack of nourishment. oh. vii. 16 (on which s…
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more expression of the pained human feel• Ver. 19.-We looked for peaoe, oto.; a ings of the prophet. It is possible that the repetition of oh. viii. 15. editor of Jeremiah's prophecies thought the Ver. 20.-0ur wiokednees, and the ini- pe.rngraph which begins here needed some• quity of our fathers. There is a mysterious…
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most fenrful kind of drought. Yet, while the physical calamity excites all attention and occasions universal distress, this calamity is orten unheeded. llut the effects of it ara not the less destructive, The soil becomes barren, unfruitful; the heavenly graces within, the instincts of Christian charity, are lost; the …
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the ground for the realization of hope; (3) our highest hope is for the possession and enjoyment of God himself; ( 4) this hope is justifiable iu the peoplo of God. Ho is the Hope of Israel, truly the Hope of the spirilual Israel. 2. God is the Saviour in trouble. He is remembered in trouble if he is forgotten iu pr…
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temptation to dl\grade their mission by aiming at pleasing their hearers instead of faithfully proclaiming the will of God. IV. FALBE TEAOHING IN RELICIION WILL BE PUNISHED BY FATAL RESULTS. H ought to be clear to every body that the first question concerning any teaching is whether it is true, Yet this question ie of…
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indications of law have been discovered, and we 88e the dawn of a meteorological science. How, then, can we expect God to change the weather in response to our prayers? 2. The limitations of knowledge. We really do not know what weather is best. What is good for one place is bad for another. The effects of rain and of …
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Vere. 19, 22.-Prayer a fruit of chastisement. There is a deeper and more spiritual tone in this utterance. The heart of Israel is conceived of as having been searched and revealed. Repentance is felt, and confession made. The true source of peace and help is sought after ; and the false ones which have been tested are …
886 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.