The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 238

"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider." The very birds of the air, seemingly so free from all restraint, come and go according to certain laws. If the bm1sts which man has tamed to his use, and on which he daily depends, were to treat him as he treats God what an awkward, nay more, what a perilous scene this world would become I 'l'he wh~le visible universe, ground beneath, air around, and far away into the immensities of space are crowded with admonitions to perversely disobedient man. These birds mentioned here by certain wondrous intimations to which they are ever heedful-exceptions only going to prove the rule-help to carry on the government of God. They are faithful to their nature, and their faithfulness is again but a sign of God's own faithfulness in the order- liness of the seasons. Then go beyond the ordinary subjection of God's creation to his will. Look at what we call" miracles." Think of the passage of the Red Sea, the speak- ing of Balaam's ass, the obedience of the fish in the Sea of Galilee to the will of Jesus, the storm becoming a calm, the venomous serpent dropping innocuous from the hand of Paul. What rebukes these are t-o man, who persists in walking in his own way! Man himsell proceeds with all oonfidence in the training of brute beasts. He takes the colt and the puppy, and makes them abundantly useful. He is pretty sure how they will turn out, The trouble he takes with them is rewarded in the end. But with regard to his own child, though he has watched over it far more carefully than any of his beasts, he may be bitterly disappointed. His training may be mocked, as it were, and put to shame-and so, rising from the human parent to the thought of God in :heaven, we see Israel similarly perverse, negligent of all that has been done to make right ways for it and keep it in tbem.-Y. Vers. 8--12.-73/,eexposure of pseudo-wisdom. I. THE OLA.IM MADE. Those on whom Jeremiah presses his appeals for a change of purpose reply, if not by plain words, at all events by equally plain actions, that they are so wise in their own conceits as to need no guidance from an outsider. A profound belief in one's own insight and skill may of course be justified by results; such a belief has been a very important factor in many great achievements. But it is also to be noticed that to have this belief without any corresponding reality is an evil which may afflict a man at every age of his life. It belongs to the young in their ignorance, and the old, with all their experience, may not be free from it. That experience, even though long, may have been a narrow one, and yet, with all its narrowness, full of blunders. .But the recollection of all that should make such old men humble avails nothing to diminish the dogmatism of their advice to others. A certain official and social position is also a grand vantage-ground to air a reputation for wisdom. Nothing is then needed but an abundance of self-assertion to gain acknowledgment from the weak and the ignorant. These great men of Jerusalem would point scornfully at Jeremiah, the lonely prophet, Their city polish would perhaps be in strong contrast to the rustic airs of the man from Anathoth, and, as if to make their claim of wisdom more definite, they fell back on what seemed an unanswerable challenge. "Is not the Law of Jehovah with u~?" The meaning of this seemed to be that they could boast of a certain outward conformity with Mosaic institutions. They certainly did attend to the incense and the sweet cane, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices (eh. vi. 20). Moreover, what they asserted for themselves implied a correspondingly humiliating opinion of Jeremiah. They were wise, and of course he was a fooL They had the Law of Jehovah, and Jeremiah, in pretending to utter Jehovah's words, was of course nothing better than an impostor. II. THE DrvINE WAY OF EXPOSING THIS CLAIM. These self-constituted wise men meet the prophet with a declaration as to ,vhat they think themselves to be. "We are wise men," they say, nor does the prophet throw back the shortest, directest answer that we.s possible. It would have been of no use to say," You are fools." But it was of use to project himself into the future, and indicate what would happen to these boasters. When the homes of these pseudo-wise are broken up, and their wives and fields become the spoil of the conqueror, then it will be clear beyond a. doubt where the wisdciin is e.nd where the folly. Folly will be condemned of her children, even as wisdom is justified of hers. Where now are the writings of these wise men? Jeremiah said at the time that they were full of lies, and we may be sure that, like all rofiections of popular fashion and prejudice, they passed very quickly out of vogue. "The Law of on. vm. 1-22.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 237