The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 48

I. THE WHOLE NATION rs SPOKEN TO. God has tho power to look at human life in the light of a unity which the individual man is scarcely able to conceive. Here be looks not only at the living generation of those who hnd sp1•un"'0 from Jacob but all backward through the past; each generation is, as it were, a y ear in the lif~ of one who still lives, and is able to look back on things that happened centuries ago as events of his own youth. Thus not only is it true that one gemiration go~s and another oomes, while God abides for ever, but it is also true that while one generation goes and another comes, Israel a):>ides for. ever. Israel _i~ spoken to as a full-grown man might be spoken to, exhorted m the midst of backshdmg and unworthy habits to look back on the far different promise of his youth. II. THE NATION IS SPOKEN TO AS SUSTAINING A MOST ENDEARING RELATION TO Goo. Even as a husband loves and cherishes his wife, so God has loved and cherished Israel. He looks back into the past, and he sees a great fall. 'fhe youth of Israel according to his present view of it, was a timo of love and devotion. No doubt ther; were murmurings and rebellions ; and indeed, when we think of some of the things that Israel did during the leadership of Moses, the words of God seem exaagerated in speaking of the kindness of Israel's youth and the love of its espousals. B~t then we must bear in mind that we know only in a very imperfect way what is recorded whereas God saw all, and to him the enthusiasm of the people on certain memorabl; occasions was very significant. He remembered all those events in which Israel rose to the height of its better self, and indicated the possibilities that might be expected from it. Such events now stand forth like sunny heights in memory. They are reasons why God should not allow his people quietly to depart, further and further, into the alienations of idolatry. This is what makes the present attempt at restoration so full of interest, that it is an attempt to bring back the erring spouse to her first love. III. The nation is viewed in the light of A PAST IN WHICH JEHOVAH· HAD )[ADF: GREAT PROMISES AND ENTERTAINED GREAT EXPECTATIONS WITH REGARD TO ISRAEL'S FUTURE. They were reckoned a holy nation. 'l'hey were as firstfruits of the whole earth, to which he attached an especial value. Levi he brought in sacred nearness to himself in lieu of the firstborn of Israel. H is one of Christ's distinctions that he has become the firstfruits of them that slept ; and so here there was a nation which was the first to step out from long-accustomed idolatry. 'l'he glory of Abraham's faith in the unseen was still, as it were, resting on Israel in the wilderness. Jehovah told the people where to go; he gave them bread, water, and defence against enemies, in a land of peculiar desolation and danger. Promises for the future were given in the roost effective way by distinguished services rendered in the. present. When at last the Israelites settled down in Canaan, it might have been said to them, "May you not be sure that be who has freely, amply, and just at the right time, supplied your every need, will also, in all the generations to come, whatever their peculiar experiences, do the same thin a?" God had taken his people into .the deepest darkness, and put out every earth-enk~dled light, just that he might manifest iu greater glory aµd attrac- tiveness that light which is the portion of all unwavering believers in himself. Thus the past of Israel glorified the God of Israel; and at the same time, it not only dis- graced Israel itself, but had in it such elements of God's favour and assiduity as made the national desertion of him a great mystery, • IV. OBSERVE HOW COMPLETELY IT IS BROUGHT OUT THAT THE DEBERTIOli[' IS A NATIONAL AOT. The priests appointed mediators in offering and atonement between Jehovah and his people; the expounders of the Law, whose business it was to keep ever manifest the difference between right and wrong; tho shepherds, such, for instance, as every father at the head of his household, providing and guiding; the prophets, who should have been the messengers of Jehovah ;-all these, far away from their right place, are found in the very forefront of iniquity. Jehovah is not only ignored; he is almost treated as if he were unknown. The people carelessly let their superiors think for them. When the priest in the parable went by on the other sido, the inferior Levite would have thought it presumption to have acted ditfcrenUy.-Y. Vera. 10, 11.-Heathendom give, an unconscious rebuke to apostate Israel. From a humiliating contrast of the present conduct of Israel with what might have been reasonably expected from the peculiar experiences of the past, God now turns to CU, II. 1-37.J TllE nooK 01~ 'l'HE PROPllE'l' JEREMIAiI.