The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 408

Vers. 5-9.-The house of mourning and the house of feasting alike forbidden. It is made plain upon the surface of this command that the house of mourning and the house of feasting are not forbidden in themselves. The man on whom the injunction is laid is a special man, and he is spoken to in special circumstances. All others may cross the threshold of such houses; the prophet alone must remain outside. This peculiar conduct was meant to emphasize his predictions. Every time there is a funeral or a marriage-feast, the terrible judgmpnts shortly coming on the land are once more set forth. The worst sorrows of the present are but as a child's shallow grief compared with the universal and dreadful experiences that are yet to come; and in the joys of the present it would be unseemly for the man to share whose breast is filled with the sense of how soon these joys must pass away. A man who had to live as Jeremiah lived, in such an age, with such a message, seeing visions of so much woe, how could he '.receive pleasure from any festive gathering, or bring pleasure to it? The more he advances in his mission as prophet the more he has to walk alone. 'l'his commanded attitude towards the house of mourning and the house of feasting indicates to us the spirit in which those who may have to make such visits should pay their visits. We must not go to fall in with the wishes of those who are visited, but rather to do the will of God, at whatever cost, and with whatever difficulty. Consider this- I. WITH REGARD TO THE HOUSE OF MOURNING. One feels that the prophet must have oecn exposed to much misapprehension in carrying out this command with the sym- bolic prophecy involved in it. It would be said that he was not only an unpatriotic man but an unfeeling one. Happily we have abundant proof that, whatever the imper• fections of J ercmia!:t, a cold indifference to the griefs of others was not one of them. He may often have had to do violence to his own impulses in keeping away from the homes where the dead were lying; and yet be only did by command what we should sometimes like to do by preference, if it were only possible to do it without wounding the feelings of others. 'l'l.iink of the houses of mourning where little or nothing cau be said that is comforting. What could have been done to comfort stricken parents that night when there was one dead in every Egyptian household? There is a way of offer- ing sympathy which, well intended as it is, only exacerbates instead of mollifying. \Vhat false consolations, what hackneyed commonplaces, are made use of in the house of mourning I There is a falling back on what is called the good moral character of the dead. Death-bed repentances may be made too much of. The chamber of mourning is the stronghold of an immense amount of very dangerous error in the attitude of man towards God. The temporary pain of the freshly wounded heart of man is more considered than the abiding truth of God. Then what censurable regrets there are I what utter and unconcealed selfishness on the part of survivors I It is not a feeling of pain for what the departed may have lost, but rebellious wrath for what the survivor may have lost. And so we may say that, to enter into a house of mourning where thero is the right and Christian spirit, is a matter for joy and not for grief, because indeed the peace and the loving-kindness and mercies of God are there. Let us aim so to live, in• such unworldliness and heavenliness of life, that survivors shall not be tempted into vain consolations when we are gone. II. WITH REGARD TO THE HOUSE OF°FEASTINO. 'l'he absence of Jeremiah from festive gatherings would be as a most significant presence; seeing tho\t he was absent, not by accident, not from any personal feeling, not from any ascetic dislike to such gatherings, bnt by the special command of God. Not only was he forbidden to become himself a bridfgroom, be could not even congratulate any other. It will be noticed thnt tho marriage-feast in particular is reforred to, The wedding was a time for B special gather- OH. xvi. 1-21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 413