The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 161

speeding from the north. The alarm-trumpet sounding its shrill notes amid the quiot streets of Tekoa; be sees the signal-fires blazing from the heiaht of Deth-haccerem and answered by other like fires, all telling of distress ; and then, from hill-summi~ yet further away, he sees the never-ending train of fierce and victory-flushed soldiers marching ruthlessly on in all the pride and pomp of war, streaming along the great northern roads, the open highway whereby they entered the holy land. He sees the ,·arious encampments, the spoliation of the whole district round, the eager ha.ste of the foe to attack the great fortress of Jerusalem, the goal of all their hopes and the prize of their arduous campaign; he sees the varied preparations for war, the buildina of the engines of attack, the burning of her palaces ; in short, the whole dread details of a city doomed to destruction at the hands of a besieging army. Thus vivid was the Yision. And such clearness of onlook is given to God's seers that they may thereby more deeply impress and more surely move the minds of those they are sent to. It is well to muse over things unseen and eternal until they become real to us, until our faith becomes the evidence of the things not seen, and gives substance, shape, and body to the things hoped for. Then as those who have tasted and handled and felt. the powers of the world to come, we shall speak with unwonted power, and men through •!s will also see what they have never seen before. But- III. How WELL FOUN1>ED THIS VISION WAS. For the prophet came to the convic- tion of the coming wrath upon his country, not on any light grounds, but on such as in all ages may lead to a like conviction. 1. There was the extreme importance of Jerusalem, as an almost impregnable mountain fortress. In the frequent wars between Egypt and Assyria this fortress was the object of much solicitude to either side. .And besides her strength there was her wealth e.nd her fame, so that Jerusalem became a co,eted possession to oue great monarchy after another. Jeremiah (ver. 2) compares her to a beautiful and luxuriant pasturage ( cf. Exposition). .And as shepherds would covet such pasturage for their flocks, so the enemies of Jerusalem would covet her. So 11ttractive, so desirable was she in their esteem. This fact, then, of the worth of Jerusalem to Assyria was one reason wherefore Jeremiah knew that that lawless and rapacious nation would certainly attack her. 2. The" delight in war" which characterized .Assyria. Vers. 4, 5 represent the language of their soldiers, their eagerness to be led to the attack, their impatience at every hindrance, their disregard both of the heat of noon or darkness of night. They were a people ever on the look out for plunder and aggrandizement, and seized on the very first pretext that offered for invasion and capture. 8. The prophet's clear perception that God was on the side of Israel's foes. Ver. 6, "Thus bath the Lord of hosts said." It was, therefore, his will. It had been borne in upon his mind that God's wrath was ready to be poured out. He had been told so by the Spirit of God; he "spiritually discerned" the dark facts of the future, so that they stood out vivid and clear before the eye of his soul. 4. .And his conviction that such was God's will coul,d not but be deepened by the constant presence before him of the atrocious wickedness of the doomed city. Ver. 7, "Ail a fountain," perpetually, copiously freely, irresistibly, "casts out her waters, so did Jerusalem cast out," etc. The moral cor- ruption of the people made him certain that the holy God of Israel would not suffer it to go on unpunished. And it is ever so. Let a nation, a family, a Church, an individual, give themselves up to wickedness and gross violation of the commands of God, it is certain that sentence of death is on them. Execution may be deferred, but unless there be repentance it will certainly. be carried ont. _'l'her~ were speci~l features about the vision that was given to Jeremiah, but every believer m God sees lil substance the very same. The deep-felt conviction of the godly is the expression of the will of God. What such a one binds on earth is bound in heaven, and. whose sins such retain they a.re 1ctaincd. It is a terrible fact, then, when any come under the grave moral condemna- tion of the people of God, for their condemnation is but the echo of those thunders they have beard reverberatin" around the throne of God. IV. How MERCIFULLi BENT. '!'heir purpose was obvious. Many years God would yet wait. Thus he gave this call to repentance, and waited long to see if it would be needed. The most loving words of Jesus are those which make our hearts tremble ~nd our spirits quake with fear; those which tell of the everlasting fire and: the nevcr-_dymg worm. For these awful declarations are the expedients of love to drive, to terrify, to force away from the edge of the precipice of ruin those whom no other means will with- OH. VI. 1-30.J THE .BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 159