IL 1'uB SECOND PROMISE. " And they shall be my people." The avenue that this guards is that of man's circumstances. Doubt does often enter by such way. If a man be surrounded with distress, almost worn out with "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," broken-hearted and bankrupt of all earthly good, let none condemn such, or only those who are themselves without sin though they have been in like manner tried, if doubt do haunt these troubled ones and faith in God dies down. Do we not admire Job just because he held so fast to his faith under such awful circumstances ? Is not our very admiration of him proof of our conviction as to the sore difficulty ot faith keeping its hold at such times ? Did not even he than whom Christ said nona of women bom was greater— John the Baptist — find the drear dungeon into which Herod had flung him, and the cruel death which he knew awaited him, more than hit spirit could bear ? And so he sent to the Lord, saying, " Art thou he that shoula come, or," etc. ? Oh, it is easy under sunny skies and amid happy surroundings and when all is well, to sing sweet hymns about trusting in God and the blessedness of faith. But let all that prosperity vanish, and be replaced by gr.m, gaunt poverty, in which and because of which you have to see your beloved wife or children, or both, hunger and perhaps die, because you have not enough to ward off from them the sufferingi
40 THE BOOK OJf' THE PROPHEl JEREMIAH. | bh. xxxi. 1—40.
they have to endure. Ah I where would be the faith of myriads ol those well-to-do Christians who love to sing " Sweet it is to trust in him " ? Not a Utile of the sad unbelief of the poor is accounted for, and we cannot but think rendered iar less guiltful, by the fact of the terrible privations that are so often their lot. (Ct. homily on The moral disadvantages of the poor, eh. v. 4, vol. i. p. 133.) But this promise, " They shall be my people," assures that such trial of faith sliall not be permitted. For the promise means that God will bestow on them such signal favour; he will so graciously deal with them that it shall become evident to all that they are his people, the beloved of the Lord. They shall have that " blessing which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow thereto." They shall not any more have to eat the bread of affliction or driuk the water of afflic- tion, but their circumstances shall he so happy and peaceful as to utterly prevent that unbelief to which adversity so often gives rise. The beggar Lazarus is carried by the luigels into Abraham's bosom; not one word is said about his character; and this surely seems to teach that the poor, to whom belief in the love of God has been so difficult here, shall hereafter in happier circumstances see and enjoy that love of which here they are only tola. Of coursn, happy circumstances, such as are involved in this promise, would be of little avail without the bestowment of the other promise, " a heart to know that I am the Lord ; " but with that tiiis gives a double defence, within which blessed are they who abide. And if it be said that God does not now, as he did in Old Testament days, make any promise to his servants that they shall be exempt from adversity, as in fact they are not, it is to be remembered that they have far clearer light than had the saints of the Old Testament concerning that blessed home ol God's Ijeople, ot whose inhabitants it is said, " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neithet shall the sun light upon them, nor," etc. If not now, assuredly then, .■>liall they be known as God's people by the happy external lot which will be theirs.
III. The third promise. " I will be their God." The avenue which this guards is I hat ot the heart. Man's understanding may be convinced, and his circumstances be iiU favourable and prosperous, but if he have not rest of his soul in God, unbelief will still assail and, not unlikely, overcome him. " Nostrum cor inquietum est donee requiescat in te." He must be able to say of the Lord, " He is my God " (Ps. xc 2), ere ever he has rest in God. God must be his joy ; he must " delight himself also iu the Lord," and be happy in God, would he effectually bar out all unbelief. But this third promise ensures this. " I will be their God." It tells of this joy which they shall have in him, and of their happy rest in him.
Conclusion. Then let us " return unto Ood with our whole heart." Perhaps it is because we have not returned in this whole-hearted way that we yet have to wait for these promises to be fulfilled ; and that we still find unbelief, though banished for a while, yet returning and haunting us once more. It is said of Joshua and Caleb that they served the Lord " fully." It is this thoroughness which is needed. Let but this be, and the understanding will be satisfied ; the circumstances of our life will be pleasing to us, because they are those the Lord pleases ; and our heart shall sing for gladnMS, because God is our " exceeding joy." — C.
Var. 82. — God the Husband of his peoplt. (Of. homily on ch. liL 14.)— CL
Ver. 8. — The everlasting Ityve of Ood. L In contrast to other lovers. Note ch. XXX. 14, " All thy lovers have forgotten thee," etc. Israel had had many lovers pro- fessing regard and offering service ; but what had their regard and service come to ? They were now cold, careless, perhaps even hostile. They had shown the appearance of love to Israel, not that they cared for Israel, but because they themselves were advantaged. Now, that is no true affection which changes when the thing loved ceases to gratify us. Yet this was all the affection of these other lovers amounted to^ a mere name of love ; a feeling which, in the course of time, was to evince their own instability and bring shame to them. But God is a contrast to all this. He loves with an everlasting love. He loves Israel, not only in the days of prosperity and wealth and beauty, but in the days of downfall and despair. His thought penetrates through to the abiding worth of humanity. We do not slander humaii affection, or in any way uiider-estimate it, when we say that man cannot love his fellow-man as OtoA loves him, God it i» who fiiat of all shows man what love really is ; then man, having the 8];drit
cH. XXXI. 1— 40.J THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
of the Divine Father breathed into him, learns to love also. We cannot attain to any- thing which will give us the light to say with respect to duration that ours is an ever- lasting love; but, as true Christians, we may have something of the quality of that atlection.