The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 366

Let us have faith in the triumphant force of God's own Word. "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord," etc. (eh. l:xiii. 28, 29). We may well trust in the ulti- mate victory of that which is the product of infinite wisdom, and is backed by all the resources of omnipotence.-,v. Vers. l-6.-The mise1·ies p1·oduced by lack of water. I. THE BITTER 0ONBOIOUBNESS 'l'JIAT AN IMPERATIVE NEED CANNOT BE SATISFIED. Well might there be mourning, J:1nguishing, and crying. When we arc speaking of need, one of the first questions to be asked is whether the need is natural or artificial. An artificial need, by continued ~elf-indulgence, ma.y come to be very keenly felt; and yet, when circumstances arise which prevent the satisfying of the need, the artificiality of it is clearly seen. But a natural need, when the supplies are stopped, soon shows how clamorous it can become, how productive of unendurable pain. These Israelites had been multiplying artificia.l needs. They thought they needed visible irn11.ges, to be richly adorned 11.nd constantly worshipped. They thought they needed large external possessions, and so the 11!.nd became full of covetousness. Rich men tried to increase their riches, and poor men wanted, aho11e all things, to get out of their poverty. But all the while the difference between natural aud artificial need was forgotten. The natural needs went on being satisfied, because God, who gives rain from heaven, was long-suffering; and the supply came so habitually that the people did not reckon how there was a hand upon the foun- tain of the waters which could sea.I them up in a moment. But now, no sooner is the supply stopped than there is deep and inconceivable misery. The idolater will go on living, even if you take his images away; a rich man need not die because he is stripped of his possessions; but what shall one do who cannot get water to drink? The unendurable pa.in of Dives in Hades came not from the lost wealth and splendour of earth, but because he could not get the least drop of water to cool his tongue. IL THE VANITY OF RUMAN RESOURCES. Jerusalem now abounds in pools and cisterns, and the probability is that in the time of Jeremiah there was a similar abundance, both within and without the city. Great cities ha.ve always had to see to the providing of water, according to their judgment of what was necessary. A due supply of water is one of the most important charges that can b9 entrusted to any municipality. The authorities of Jerusalem may have done their best according to their lights; but they had forgotten that the most they could do was to provide receptacles for the Divine bounty. They had hewn cisterns without considering that a time might come when there would be no water to put into the cisterns. That time has come, and where is now the wisdom of the wise and the strength of the mighty? Men may flatter them- selves that they rule on earth; but it is very plain that the spnces above, where the clouds gather and whence the rains descend, are beyond their control. Ill THE NULLIFYING OF HUliU.N INDUBTBY, The work of the ploughman is in vain. God requires man to work and study in order to get the fruits of the earth; bnt it is only too easy for him in all his work and· study to forget God. He who expects a harvest will not omit ploughing, sowing, irrigating-without these works expectation would be idiotic-but he may very easily omit faith in God. He may neglect tho bestowment of the firstfruits, and all that service of God which the fruits of tbe earth give us strength to render. Well may such a one be ashamed when the ground is chapped and there is no rain in the earth. This is the sign of his own folly in attending to certain secondary requisites and forgetting the one requisite most important of all. ,vhen it is so required, God call feed thousands without any sowing and reaping at all; but no man is allowed to reckon '.!bat his sowing will assuredly be followed by reaping. He may sow wheat bountifully, only to reap thorns bountifully, because he has forgotten God (eh. xii. 13). If the sowing is in prayer and humility, in gratitude for the past and reasonable expectation for the future, then the sower will have no need to bo ashamed. Whatever other things God's servants may lack, God will put the true, abiding glory upon them. IV. THE LINKING OF MAN WITH THE BRUTE 0REATION IN A COMMON BUFFERING, The binds and the wild asses suffer, and doubtless they were prominent representatives of many other claBt;es of the brute creation (' 'l'he Land and the Book,' p. 172). A common thirst notoDly brings down the noble to the level of the mean man, bnt man in general to the lev~l of the brute. lt is well that we should have plain reminders, such OH. XIV. 1-22,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 000