The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 362

Vere. 7-9.-An absent God deplored. The denrth told of in foregoing verses and the misery causeLI thereby led tll the conviction that God had abandoned his people. In these verses all(l throughout this section down to eh. xv. fl we find the prophet pleading with God to return. In these verses we arc shown- 364 'l'HE BOOK OF 'J'l-Jg PROl'HBT JEREM.lAI:l. trn. xrv. 1-22. J. THE CAUSES WHICH HAD BROUGHT ABOUT 1'1IE DIVINE WITHDnAWAL FUOM TilEM. Their "iniquities," "backslidings," "sins" (ver. 7). Nothing else has such power; sin only can shut out God, but it always will and does. II. 'l'HE HAPPY MEMonms WBI0H MADE IT so BITTER. God had revealed himself to them in such endearing manner. He had been ever " the Hope of Israel." He had inspired, maintained, and justified that hope again and again. And he had become the Hope of Israel through having shown himself so perpetually "the Saviour thereof in the t.ime of trouble." The memory of God's servantR was stored with recollections of such deliverances, national and individual, from troubles temporal and spiritual; vouchsafed, too, not because of Israel's deserving, but out of God's pure bounty. Now, it was these happy memories which made God's present dealings with them so terrible to bear. III. THE BAD OOJITRAST BETWEEN THE DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS NOW AND 01!' OLD. \Ve have seen what he had been to Israel, but now, the prophet complains, he is to them very far from what he was then. He is "as a stranger," "a wayfaring man," as one "taken by surprise," as one strong but yet unable to help. Their enemies would taunt them with the reproach that either God was as a stranger, and therefore did not care for them; or, if they denied that, then it must be that there was a stronger than he, who bad taken him by surprise and prevented his rendering help to his afflicted people. Either he would not or he could not-on one of the horns of this dilemma they by the force of thE>ir present circumstances were thrown. .And there can be no doubt that the great mystery of life, its sins and sorrows, do often force perplexed and troubled minds perilously near to one or other of these '.conclusions, which nevertheless faith affirms to be alike false, and will never admit for one moment. IV. THE SOURCES 01!' HOPE UNDER cmCUMBTANCES LIKE THESE. They are: 1. The Name of God. This the prophet pleads (ver. 7). He confesses that all their own con- duct is altogether against them. They can have no hope in themselves. But the Name of God remains to be urged in bis pleading, and therefore it is this Narne that he does urge. "Do thou it for thy Name's.sake." Here is a fa.et which cannot change. When driven out of all hope in ourselves by reason of our sins, we RJay yet hope in God, and plead the grace and goodness that are evermore in him. 2. The presence ef his appointed ordinances and his chosen dwelling-place in their midst. 'l'bis is the meaning of ver. 9, " Yet thou art in the midst of us." The temple, the altar, the sacrifice, the priests, the ark, were all there; the appointed channels of communication bet\~een God and bis people. .And so long as we may go unto bis footstool, and the throne of grace is open to us, there is hope in that. God will come to us again in the way of his holy and appointed ordinances, if we will go along that way to seek him. 3. They were the ob;"ects of his love. "We are called by thy Name." Israel was so. God bad chosen them at the first. " When Israel was a child, then I loved him." And it is because of that undying love of God, they who for their sins have lost his presence may yet win it back again. V. TBE PRESENT DUTY. Prayer. The prophet betook himself hereto. "Leave us not," he cries (ver. 9). And nothing barred the success of this prayer but that tbo people for whom he prayed had no heart in it. God stood ready to forgive and restore. The prophet's prayer was fully answered on the part of God. But those for whom he prayed were not ready, and so their judgment went on. But for ourselves, if we deplore an absent God, let us betake ourselves to these potent arms of all-prevailing prayer, and God shall ere long be again known to us as of old as our Hope and our Saviour in time of trouble.-C. Vers. 13-16.-False teachers no adequate ezcuse for evi1, conduct. No doubt the people to whom Jeremiah was sent bad been encouraged in their ungodliness by ~be faithlessness and sin of their prophets. Blind guides were leading the blind, and with the inevit.able result. .And here Jeremiah pleads, as an excuse for his people's sin, that tliey bad been thus misled. But God refuses to admit the plea. Now, on this, note- I. F ALBE TEACHING IS BOllilE EXCUSE FOR EVIL OONDUOT. The deepest instincts or our hearts affirm this. Our Lord himself does so, when he says, "He that knew not his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with few stripes." But this word of his, whilst it allows that lack of teaching is some excuse, deniea that it is sufficient (cf, on. xrv. 1-22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 365