The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 42

are seen to be involved in the common corruption, then the case of such a Church com- munity, or nation is hopeless indeed. See, too, the insensibility that such sin c~uscs. In ver. 2 Jeremiah is bidden" Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem." As you would bend down your face to the ear of one in whom the sense of hearing was all but dcarl and would place your lips close to his ear, and by loud, clear utterance strive to mak,'. him hear, so had it become necessary by reason of the insensibility which their sin harl caused, to deal with those to whom the prophet wrote. It is one of the awful jud"- rnents that overtake the hardened and impenitent, that whereas once they would nZt hear the voice of God, they at length find they cannot. Oh, then, let the prayer of us 1111 be "From hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and commandment, good Lord, deliver us."-O. __ Vera. 14-19.-The Divine ideal, how lest and regained. 'fhe prophet has in bis mi_nd what was God's original thought for Israel, the Divine ideal concerning him; and along with that the mournful and utter contrast of bis actual condition. An indignant "No" is the answer which rises to the p!"ophet's lips as the questions," Is Israel a slave'? Is he a _homeborn slave?" are asked. He thinks of God's words (Exod. iv. 22). Dut then there stares him in the face the most distressing but yet most unanswerable fact that Israel has become altogether such an one. "He is spoiled ; the young lions roar over him," etc. (ver. 15). .Applying the story of Israel to ourselves, we learn- I. THE DIGNITY AND GLORY WHICH GoD DESIGNED FOB. ma REDEEMED. They were to be as his_ sons (cf. John i. 12, and parallels). Think of the ideas which we associate with the relationship of sons. Take the story of .Abraham and Isaac as setting forth in human form what these relationships are. What affection, what confidence, what sympathy, what affluence, what honour, were Isaac's because he was .Abraham's son ! All that appertained to him no doubt manifested his happy consciousness of the place he held in bis father's love. His looks, his tones, his dress, his demeanour, the respect paid to him, the freedom of hie intercourse with .Abraham, the influence he bad with him,-a.ll made manifest his honoured and his happy position. Now, all that which was Isaac's because he was Abraham's son, God purposes should be ours because we are his. Were the Divine ideal fulfilled, all that appertains to llil would reveal the terms on which we stand towards God. Our look, our voice, our demeanour, om freedom from care, the general brightness of our life,-all would show our happy con- sciousness that we were the "sons'' of our Father in heaven. The delight that Isaac had in Abraham, the delight that children have in their parents (Prov. xvii. 6), above all, as the supreme example of true sonship, the delight that Jesus had in God, we should increasingly realize. Such is God's ideal for his redeemed. II. THE BAD CONTRAST WHICH ACTUAL Jl'AOTS TOO OFTEN PRESENT TO TBIB IDEAL. This contrast Jeremiah presents in a series of vivid similitudes. 1. Isrrul is" spoiled." That is, he who had been a beloved son, happy, honoured, and free in his fatber'H affluent home, is made a prey of, bound, beaten, abused, carried off as a slave. 2. Next he is likened to some unhappy traveller who, passing by a lion's lair, has fallen a victim. The beast's talons aro fastened in his quivering flesh as he lies prostro.te on the ground, and its fierce, exultant yells over him make the forest ring again. 3. The next is tho.t of a wasted land, the desolated homesteads, the stripped fields, the torn- down vineyards, the flocks and herds all driven away. 4. The next, that of once goodly cities, their buildings now a heap of smouldering ruins. 5. And last, that of mocked and insulted captives in Egypt. Their captors have inflicted on them the indignity, so terrible in the eyes of a Hebrew, of shaving off their hair; the words "broken the crown of thy head" rather meaning " shorn the crl>wn of thy head." Now, all these pictures which would call up vivid ideas of humiliation and suffering before the minds of Israel, the prophet suggests in these several sentences, in order to show the contrast between what God proposed for Israel at the first, and that to which lie had now fallen. But that which was true of Israel is true now, once and again, of those who should have continued as God's sons. Does not that verse" Where is the happiness I ~n_ew?" etc., and the whole tone of th~t. ,~ell-k1?-ow1;1 hymn, describe a spiritual cond1t1on all too common? Onr very fanuhanty with 1t shows how often there has been the sad experience of which it tells. One reason why we love the PsalmB so much is that they clothe our own thoughts in the very words we need; 36 THE DOOK OF THE PROPHET JEHEMIAH. [oH. n. 1-87.