The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 312

xv. 1. It was evidently meant that the prophet should feel how unavailing all interces- sion was. I. \VE HA.VE HERE A VERY PAINFUL EXCErrION TO A VERY IMPORTANT RULE. The rule is to pray, to pray continually, and to pray with not the least fervency aud devoti9n when our prayers are intercessions. God delights in the dependent and con- fiding approaches of his people ; and intercession must be specially a joy to him because it looks a.way from individual good, and exemplifies most effectively the loving of one's neighbour as one's self. Moses, Job, Samuel, Daniel, are all found intercening for trans- gressors. Hence .the very forbidding here makes continual remembrance of the needs of others all the more a duty. We have to pray for those who la.ck the faith or the disposition to pray for themselves. And especially we have to bear in mind him" who ever liveth to make intercession" for the spiritually needy. It is worth noting that, while God here forbids Jeremiah to inwrcede for the people, he is represented in Rom. xi. 2-4 as reproving and enlightening Elijah when he interceded against the people. We must give special pains to say for sinners all that we can. And in order to do this, we must be observant and pitiful; for as a general rule we have a quick eye for faults, and becqme censorious by a kind of second nature. It wonderfully suits the inclina- tions of fallen roan to be an accuser of his brethren. II. WHY THE EXCEPTION IS HERE MADE. There are two considerations here. 1. The petition, as to its literal aim, could not be granted. It was evidently a petition for the delivery of Judah and Jerusalem from the special calamity now so near. That calamity had become necessary. There was no choice for the people but to drink the waters of tho full cup now wrung out for ,them. God, in refusing to hear Jeremiah, had really the same end in view as the prophet himself; but the prophet, in his keen sensitiveness, wished the end to come by some less painful way than through desolated Jerusalem. But God knew that this was the right way-just because it was the way of humili- ation and loss, and thus, in refusing the special supplication of the prophet, God was really taking the best way of answering it-paradox though it may seem to say so. 2. Jeremiah's own position had to be considered. We may conclude that it was reckoned one of the distinctions of a. prophet that he could act as intercessor. Jeremiah, wo know, was asked to pray to God for the people (eh. xx:xvii. 3; xiii. 2); a.nd just at the times when the refusal was most emphatic, the appeal for intercession may have been most urgent. Well, then, was it that Jehovah should, as it were, stop the mouth of his servant in his supplication, so that no one could take up a reproach and sny, "If thou wert indeed a prophet, thy petition for ns would immediately avail," The honour of Jeremiah as a faithful servant was dear to his Divine Master. This is brought out very clearly by the reference to Moses and Samuel in eh. xv. 1. It was no shame to him lo fail where Moses a.nd Samuel oould not have succeeded. Ill OBSERVE WHAT LAY BEYOND THE PRESENT REFUSAL. Though all is so stern and forbidding here, we look further on in the book, and there is brightness ngnin. Ch. xxix. 1-14 is a beautiful. contrast to the word we have beeu considering. Desolntion. and exile wcrn a cheap price to pay for such a restoration into favour as God there pro- vides. He has shut the gates of mercy for a while; but only for a little while-seventy years, two generations of meu I The permanent command, only to be set aside by a special interference, is that which says," Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee" (Ps. cxxii, 6).-Y. Vers. 16, 17.-T/ie fated olive tree. I. Goo's COMPARISON OF HIS PEOPLE TO TUE QLIVE TREE, 'l'here would have been force in the comparison if applied to any flourishing and fruitful tree, but there was peculiar propriety in directing the thoughts of the people to the olive. The olive was already associated in sacred history with the return of hope after the Flood, and doubtless, in tho times of Jeremiah, it was ona of the most valuable of trees, as it still is, for the richness of its produce, and the variety of ways in which that produce meets the common wants of men. 'l'he oxteu- eivo olive, groves, composed of trees that reach no great height, and unattractive to a mere casual glance, were yet more to the people than all the cedars of Lebanon. And as the people were led to consider these olive trees, full of vigour, abounding in blos.~oms, many of which never came to fruit, and yet, after all, left abunclauca of fruit oo'iind; QS they recollected all the UIIC of the olive, for food, for light, for anointing, for soap•  812 THE BOOt{ OF THE PROPHET J~RE:MtAit. tcrr. x1. 1-29,