The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 227

better do as we do and trust our gods rather than your own." (2) The spirituality of the worship God required, and the absence of all such demand on the part of idolatry, was another argument for idolatry and against the worship of God. No graven image, no representation of God, nothing that would help the senses to conceive of God as like to themselves, was granted to the Jews; God was a Spirit, and he was to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. No statue, no image, no painting, no symbol even, was to repre- sent him. It was not allowed that the Jew should be able to place in his house or carry about with him, as other nations did, any material emblem of his God (cf. Deut. iv. 15; Isa. xl. 18). But spiriLual worship of this kind has ever been found far more difficult to maintain: it demands a condition of heart and mind so purified that to the gross and sensual such worship is impo,siblc, and to the ordinary miml it is far from easy. The anthropomorphisms of the Uld Testament, and the Incamatioo itself, are condescensions of God to the confessed feebleness and incapacity of man for such pure worship. But., on the other hand, idolatry, abounding with "chambers of imagery," lending itself to all the clamour of the senses,-what wonder that it was preferred? (3) Add on to this the fact that strict obedience to the Levitical Law involved such isolation from all other people, such scrupulous care, such heavy sacrifices of time, wealth, ease, and the good will of men; in short, was alto6ether, as St. Peter afterwards said (Acts xv. 10), "a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to uear;" whilst idolatry wooed them with its sensuous, brilliant, luxurious, and easy rites ; and again wo ask, what wonder that idolatry was preferred? ( 4) And present earthly good seemed to be associated with it, and absent from the worship of God (cf. eh. xliv. 15-19, "For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off, . . . we have wanted all things"). And (5) lastly, the licence allowed by the lax moral code of idolatry, and its positive sanction of gross licentiousness; this, contrasted with the stern frown of the true Jewish faith upon all such sin, was more than sufficient to attract in crowds a people so debased as the Jews had now become. Then, as still, the most po1verful and the most depraved passions of human nature wern not only permitted free indulgence by idolatry, but actually patroni?.ed, protected, and prescribed. All ancient history attests this, and the result on the heathen world,'.not only history but God's providence and his Word alike (Rom. i.) have plainly declared. 2. .As to their disappointmt:'llt. Idolatry, howover for the moment it may seem to have brought good o.long with it (cf. supra), resulted at last in such unparalleled woe as the prophets, one and all, continually declared must come from it. But whilst no idolatrous nation has ever stood permanently in its greatness-let the decayed and peri,hed empires of antiquity witness-there can be little question that sentence against the evil work was executed more speedily, more sternly, and more notoriously against the Jews than against any other idolatrous nation whatsoever. It cost them more than any other people, o.nd they have not paid "the uttermost farthing" even yet. '!'he rabbis say that in every one of the innumerable cups of affliction which Isrnel in the course of the long ages hus had to drink, there has been mingled some of the dust of that golden idol-calf which Moses ground to powder beneath Mount Sinai. We are told how, when he lrntl II.one this, he cast the powder into the stream from whence the camp drew its water, and made all the people drink of it. Now, wherefore was sorer judgment meted out to Israel tban to others because of their idolatry? (1) Because they were the beloved of the Lord. A man may see a strange child doing a disgraceful action and may take comparatively little notice; but if it be his own son, whom Le loves, will he not foci nnd resent it then as otherwise he never would? (2) And "chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God." '!'hey were to be the channel along which the truth of revelation was to flow to mankind at large, and if that clrnn11el were not kept free from pollution, neither could the living waters which flowed along it. Hence the prompt and stern measures which were ever taken to preserve Israel in the faith of God, or to restore them if they had wandered. It could not be, therefore, that Israel shoulu permanently and entirely lapse into idolatry. 'l'he well-being of the world hinged ou their handing down pure and uncorrupt the oracles of God and tho faith of their forefathers, and because" God so loved the world," the cup of idolatry was ever made bitter aud nauseous to his people so that they might hate to drink of it. III. 'fRY ~ TUBN THIS WHOLE SUBJECT TO GOOD ACCOUNT. 1. 'l.7ie votaries of the world may in these veraea behold their own portraiture and rearl their sure reward. JEREJIUAB, Q  226 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [oH. vnL 1-22.