The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 170

nccomplishment of one result, may yet be of much use in regard to another. Jeremiah's testimony, though it did not save the people from captivity, was of great service to them there, and to the whole Jewish people ever after. His words, which seemed as idle tales when he spoke them, became mighty through God in after days. The neglect therefore, of oar message now should not lead us to cease delivering it, but should rous~ us to more zeal, and make us "weary with holding in" (ver. 11). We may be sure that whenever God moves us to speak earnestly his Word, he intends to make our message a means of blessing somewhen and somewhere. III. WHAT. THE PREACHER'S GRIEF REVF.ALB. It tells much: 1. Of God. (1) Of his love; for it is ever he who inspires his servants with deep solicitude for men's sn.lvation: it is he who through them is saying, "How can I give thee up?" (2) Of his righteousness; for the vivid realization of the coming judgment which his servants hn.ve is given them that they may impress upon the impenitent and the ungodly the sure issue of their sins. The prophets who see and declare God's love are they who declare his righteousness also. 2. Of the preacher himself. How truly he is sent of God! It is the Spirit of God speaks through him, the love of God lead in~ him to deep love for his fellow-men. If our hearts are greatly filled with a yearning for men's souls, if "rivers of water nm down our eyes because men keep not God's law,"-such solici- tude is a sure sign of the presence of God with us, and a pledge of his help in deliver- ing our message. 3. Of men. How desperately set they are against God! how absolute their need of the renewing power of the Holy Ghost! See what the prophet says (ver. 10): "Their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken." The habit of sin hn.s caused their ear to be overgrown, and its power of hearing stopped, "so that," etc. How should the preacher ever remember this, and supplicate the mighty aid of the Divine Spirit if his message is to do any good I IV. QUESTIONS IT SUGGESTS. 1. For prea,c'hei·s and teachers. Do we know anything of the prophet's grief? Facts all too plentiful and too closely resembling those which filled Jeremiah with the fury of the Lord (ver. 11) abound in our day. Do they excite any similar feeling in ourselves? What need we have to pray and watch against becoming used to sin! and for sympathy with the prophets of God and yet more with Christ, their Lord and ours I 2. For those who hear the Word of God. Are you becoming the cause of such grief to any of God's servants? Remember theirs is but the foreshadowing of your own, which will be far greater if you heed not their word. Rather heed that Word, and so become not their bitter grief but their joy now, and their cnuse of rejoicing in the day of the Lord.-C. Ver. 10.-The uncircumcised ear. I. WRAT IB THIS? Not a physical defect, although the figure employed seems to tell of some fleshly growth which has formed over the cavity of the ear, and so destroyed the power of hearing. Nor a mental defect. They were acute enough ; they readily understood the prophet's meaning when he spoke to them. Their minds were at that very time busy about all sorts of plots and schemes, which they hoped to carry out. Nor was it a moral defect. 'l'hey knew the right, tho true, the good. Conscience was still at work and goading them with her reproaches. Hence they devise means (ver. 14) to lull and quiet it. And they had the power of choice, and deliberately chose ways of their own rather than those of God. True, it is said in the text," And they cannot hearken." Ilnt that tells only of what is the perpetual result of refusing continuously to hear God's "\Vord. Let a man tie bis arm to bis side for six months, and see what power of using it be has left after that. It will have become atrophied. And so in like manner do the functions of the soul, the limbs of our spiritual nature. The "will not" in regard to their uso darkens down into the dreadful" cannot" of the judgment of God. '!'here is no more awful fact for the faith- less servant of God, nor more blessed one for the faithful, than this law of habit. The utterance of it concerning the wicked is, as here, "They cannot hearken ; " but con- cerning the good, "My heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." But it is a spiritual defect. It is the result of" the alienated will," that which the Ilible calls "the unrencwed heart," "the carnal mind," "the unregenerate nature." All such expressions tell of the will of man turned away from God, and having uo higher motive than to please and gratify self. That is the radical defect of us all, and it is that which the prophet here terms "the uncircumcised ear." It by no rucan11  168 THE IlOOK OF THE PROl'HE'l' JEREMIAH. [on. v1. 1-30,