The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 336

HOMILETICS. Vere. 'l-11.-The spoiled girdle. I. Gon's PEOPLE ARE LD!J!I A GIRDLE TO Goo. 1. 'l'hey are his peculiar property, The girdle is a privato personal possession. It belongs solely to the wearer. When all ordinary property is taken from him he retains the clothes on his body. Even the bankrupt has a right to these. 2. They are near to God. This girdle-really an under-garment-is close to tho person of the wearer. God does not simply hold his people as an absentee landlord holds his property. He draws them nea.r to himself. He cherishes them with affection, sustains the bJirdeu of them, carries them with him in his glorious out-going to works of wonder and mercy and in his blessed in-coming to Divine pea.ce and sa.bbatic repose. 3. They are a glory to Gud. (Ver. 11.) Garments are worn, not only for clothing, but to add grace and beauty. God's people are more tha.n safe with him ; they a.re glorious. It is true that they have no inherent grace which they can add to the splendour of God, but they can adorn that splendour by reflecting it, as the clouds which gird about the rising sun seem to increase its beauty by reflecting its own rich rays. 4. They are required to cleave to God. God graciously takes his people near to himself; yet they must volun- tarily bind themselves to him in love, in devotion, in submission, in obedience. II. Goo's PEOPLE, IN THEm SIN, ARE LIKE A GIRDLE DEFILED AND UNWASHED. 1. Jeremiah was forbidden to put the girdle in water (ver. 1). Whilst living in this world the best men da.ily contract stains of sin; but God has provided a fountain for cleansing, and by daily penitence and faith in his purifying grace tho soul ma.y be ma.de and preserved pure (Zech. xiii. 1). As all have sinned and do sin, all need this constant clea.nsiug. 'l'o neglect it is to become increasingly foul and unfit for the honour that God bestows upon his people. 2. This corruption is manifest (1) in neglect of the will of God-" they refuse to hear my words;" (2) in wilful obstinacy- they "walk in the stubbornness of their heart;" (3) in positive disobedience and impurity-they "they walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them;" (4) iJI inveterate impenitence-they "would not hear." Ill. 'fliE l'UNISlUIENT 01!' GoD'B SINFUL PEOPLE IS LIKE THE SPOILING OF THE GIRDLE, 33G 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [cu. xm. 1-27. -- --- ---------------------------- ]. They are cast o.ff. The unwashed girdle can be worn no longer. In their holiness God's people were his glory; in their defilement they are his dishonour. God can endure the presence of nothing impure (Heb, xii. 14). 2. They are left to their own increasi11g defilement. The unwashed garment is buried, and becomes only worse. The most terrible punishment of sin is to be left to sin unchecked. Vice then becomes ingrained-a second nature. 3. They are dishonou,·ed. 'l'he girdle is visibly marred with the earth in which it is buried. Internal impurity is punished with external shame. Punishment is appropriate to guilt. Pride is chastised by humiliation. 4. Though their sin may be hidden for a time, it will be revealed at last. The girdle is buried only to be exhumed. 'l'he longer it was buried the worse must have been its con<lition when it was again exposed to view. 1.'he corruption of the heart cannot be ultimately concealed; it must reveal itseH in the life. In the resurrection-life, wherein the body is spiritual and fits truly and expresses clearly the soul that inhabits it, the foul soul will be compelled to inhabit a foul body. 5. They are rendered worthless. The girdle is utterly spoiled-profitable for nothing. Sin not only dishonours it destroys. The girdle becomes rotten. As dirt rots a. garment, so sin rots a soul. It 'not only makes it foul and hideous, but it destroys its faculties and energies, degrades its essential nature, and introduces the corruption of death (Jas. i. 15). Vers. 12-14.-The parable of the wine-flagons. I. THE PROUD ARE LIKE WINE- FLAGONS. Jeremiah is thinking chiefly of the aristocracy of his nat.ion (ver. 13) and their pride (ver. 17). 'l'he metaphor, therefore, specially designates the proud. These are swelled-out and pretentious, but not solid, and do not contain anything good of their own. They are brittle. Pride is itself a source of danger (Prov. xvi. 18). II. 'fRE WRATH OF GOD IS LIKE FERMENTING WINE. It is a disturbing influence, breaking in upon the quiet of self-complacency. The more its natural tendency to reduce us to repentance is suppressed by pride, the more terribly will its presence agitate us. The larger the flagon, the more wine will it contain; the greater the rank, the greater the trouble when universal retribution comes. The more empty the flagon, the more wine will it contain; so the less of real solid worth there is in a man's life, the more room will there be for the exercise of Divine wrath against his wretched condition. III. THE EFFECT OF THE Wl:IATH OF GOD ON THE PROUD IS LIKE THE ROLLING OF WINE-FLAGONS FILLED WITH FERMENTING WINE. The flagons are imagined to be drunken, and to behave as drunken men would behave. In this condition they exemplify the state of those into whom God has poured the vials of his wrath. This does not simply work in them, leaving their exterior undisturbed. Spiritual though it is, it affects the whole life. We cannot escape the effect of God's anger by ignoring spiritual facts and living in the outside, worldly life alone. This and all our experience will be disturbed. The flao-ons strike one another. Companions in the pleasures of sin become mutual enemie:'in the punishment of it. Moral corruption leads to social discord. Civil war is one of the greatest calamities which can overtake a nation, and when this arises, not from any contention for right or liberty, but from the outburst of wild passions, selfish greed, etc., it is doubly destructive. In such an event wickedness becomes its own executioner. Ver. 10.-DarkneBS. I. SrN PLUNGES THE SOUL INTO DARKNESS, "Light is sown for the righteous" (Pa. xcvii. 11). 'l'he darkness of evil thoughts and nn evil will 1hrows its shadow out on the world, and ultimately brings gloom over the whole of life. 1. This darkness is distressing. 'l'he benighted feel a horror of great darkness falling upon them amid the wild and lonely mountains. When God withdraws the sunshine of his Ql'ace this mournful condition must be the experience of the godless, 2. It is co11fusi~. 'l'hey "stumble upon the twilight mountains." Without God we have no true guide in life. 'l'here are mountains of difficulty to be overcome in our earthly pilgrimage, steep and toilsome and dangerous. How dreadful to venture unenlightened and unguided through such pathless wilds I If the life were to be spent in a paradise, it would be sad to dwell amidst its beauties in perpetual gloom; but, seeing that it is a pilgrimage over the mountains, it is fearful to be left in darkness. 3. It will grow into deeptr darkness. At first it is a twilight. Some hope that this is the on. xw. 1-27.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'f JEREMIAH. 337