The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 363

John xix. 11). St. Pe.ul also so.ye, concerning the heathen nations, "The time of this ignorance God winked at." II. BUT IT IS NOT AN ADI!:QUATE EXOUBE. For: 1. TM taught are the creator, almost as much as the creatures of their teachers. The people who clamour for smooth things to be prophesied to them will find such prophets forthcoming. .Ahab's pro- phets-all of them but Micaie.h-were such. It is true, "like priest, like people;" but it is also true, "like people, like priest." The demand creates the supply. The pastors of the Church are the product of the Church, almost as much as the Church is the product of the pastors. What a worldly Church wants it will have, for the woe both of itself and its pastors alike. 2. They have a mre test by which to try all their teachers. "To the Law and to the testimony," etc. Conscience also is ever on the side of God, and is prompt to condemn all teaching that leads to sin. The Holy Spirit likewise pleads in men's hearts for God. .And the faithful words of those in whom God's Spirit dwells. None, therefore, are shut up to any human teachers. 3. .And where evil teachers have been followed, it has been in spite of the protest which thes8 other higher and surer guides have uttered, or would have uttered had they been suffered so to do. III. BUT IF IT BE ILL FOB THE TAUGHT, IT IS YET MORE ILL FOB THE TEACHERS. "His blood will I require at the watchman's hands." The most awful of our Lord's denunciations were addressed to such evil teachers (cf. the oft-repeated," Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites I" cf. ver. 14, etc.). CoNOLUSI0N. 1. Let those who are taught by any hum:i.n teachers test what they receive by the Word of God. Be as the Bereans (Acts xvii. 11). 2. Let those who teach watch anxiously and prayerfully against the temptation to conform their teach- ings to the likings of their hearers rather than to their needs. Let them remember that the causes of error and false teaching are much more moral than they are intellectual. 3. Let teachers and taught alike sit daily at his feet who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."-C. Vers. 17-22.-The distracting power of great distress. The prophet seems blinded by his tears. The distress portrayed here is terrible indeed, and the prophet so realized it that his mind appears to have reeled beneath his apprehensions of the comiog calamities. Hence he falls into utterances which can only be regarded, however par- donable and comprehensible under his piteous circumstances (cf. ver. 18), as exagge- rated, and in many respects, as all such utterances :i.re, incorrect. Every sentence in ver. 19, etc., is open to grave question. It would be dreadful if they were not. Note- I. THE PBOPHET's EXPOSTULATIONS. (Ver. 19.) Now, God did not "utterly reject Judah," nor did" his soul loathe Zion." It was his love for his people that determined him at all costs to purge them from their evil. _ II. His COMPLAINTS. (Ver. 19.) He complains that they had been disappointed and implies that God was the cause why their expectations had failed. They had no right to look for peace, being what they were. III. His CONFESSIONS. Nothing could be more appropriate or more sure to gain the mercy of God than such confession as this, if it were indeed sincere and general on the part of those who he.d sinned. Ilut this it was not; it was because they would not repent, would not return unto the Lord, that therefore his wrath arose against them until there was no remedy. lV. His ENTREATIES. (Ver. 21.) God never" abhorred" his people, but only their sins; and that God should be thought to "disgrace" the throne of his glory can only be explained on the grounds we have stated. Nor either is it God's way to" break bis covenant." V, His Pl,EAS. (Ver. 22.) Here the prophet pleads truly. There was no hope in any heathen deity, but in God alone . .And had the people indeed" waited" upon God, matters had gone more happily with them. But this was just what they did not do. Now, concerning all such utterances as these: 1. Bear with them. God did 80. He rebuked not bis servant, though that sorvant had spoken unadvisedly concerning him. 2. Be very slow to believe them. Cf. Naomi, and her false forebodings of foar. How ill she thought Gud woulJ Jeal with her l How gracious, in fact, that dealing was I .And St.  366 THE DOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [011, xrv, 1-22,