Vers, 36 — 41. — The bonds of abiding attachment to Ood. Jeremiah has seen the war prospect, and it is one of siege, captivity, and destruction. He speaks as one who has the long-tbreatened hour before his eyes (ver. 24). But God, looking from a higher point, sees the enduring bright result beyond. Observe in this passaue —
I. God's thorough good will towards his people. His will is ever to show favour and do good to mankind. That will is always in action, but it can only be in mani- festation when men themselves, by their spirit of submission to God and obedience to his directions, make such a matiifestation possible. As he is thorough in his anger against the rebellious and idolatrous, so he is thorough in his favour towards the repentant. It is well that we should ever rtmemher this deep good will of God to men when things are going wrong with us. The fault of untoward experiences may be in U8 or it may be in others ; it cannot be in God. We must not put down to arbitrariness in him the painful workings of that law which manifests itself in sequence to human ignorance and folly.
II. God's buffioibnt opportunity to do good to his peoplk. The confident tone that runs through this passage is most encouraging. Bad as the people have been, far as they have been driven, widely as they have been scattered, God can put all right again if only the people are willing to have it so. All God waits for is to hear the jffodigal nation say, " I will arise and go to my Father." If only we give God the opportunity, he will make us to abound in supplies for our necessities and blessedness. We let many opportunities slip for doing good, and never do we use any such oppor- tunity to the full. But God delights in the opportunities men give him, and here is an
OH. xxxn. 1— 44.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 61
illustration of how he presses forward to use them. " I will plant them in thiA land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul." Only he willing to be a plant of God's own planting, and there is no reason why you should not feel the whole heart and soul of God going out for your highest good.
III. God working towards thk itoity of his people. One is reminded of the unity proclaimed in Eph. iv. 3 — 6 : one God, one people, one heart, one way, one covenant because an everlasting one, one character for the future. This unity stands out in contrast to the previous scattering. The previous scattering was only an out- ward symbol of the scattering within. If even the people had continued in Jerusalem, that would have given them no unity save the unity of place, which is the most pre- carious, mocking, and delusive of all unities. But the new iinliy is that of one heart. As 0E8 life flows through all the organs of the body, making the life of each the life of all and the life of all the life of each, so God will make it among his true people. God binds each to himself by the law written in the heart, and so all are bound to one another.
IV. The everlasting covenant thus made possible. God has now found some- thing deep in the heart of his people whereby he can get an abiding hold. His covenant finds a firm anchorage in the regenerated inward man. With one heart and one way there is a starting-point for doing Diviiie good, not to one generation, but to many. How much good we may hinder by our spiritual blindness and indifference! And on the- other hand, what copious showers of blessing may be the result of a timely turning to God 1 — Y.
Ver. 42. — SvU the measure of good. I. With beoard to certainty. Here is evil actually upon the city and country. Evil that has come, not in some inexplicable, unexpected way, but in correspondence with prophetic announcements, extending over a long time and frequently repeated. And now out of the very perceived certainty of this evil, God takes occasion to create ground of hope and encouragement for the people. He who without fail has sent chastisement for the disobedient will equally without fail keep all his promises to the obedient. It is the principle of sowing and reaping. The harvest will assuredly be according to the seed that is sown. We have the choice of alternatives, and only of alternatives. Either by our negligence we shall lay ourselves open to have God bring great evils upon us, or by our obedience and regard we shall receive all that great good which God promises to those who obey.
n. With regard to agency. The emphasis of the verse is especially upon the agent. Those who fail to see that it is God who has brought all this great evil will fail to get much comfort from his most comprehensive and gracious promises. Behind the unseen inst ruments we must see the unseen Director and Controller. We must try to trace out the wrath of God in manifestation against the unrighteousness of men. As we trace the miseries that come from human selfishness and self-indulgence, we must learn to see God in them — God as well as man ; we must recognize righteous law as well as wicked folly. We are not to depend for the best things upon uncertain man, but upon God, with his unvarying love, his exhaustless power.
III. With regard to extent. One would not wish for its own sake to measure the height, and depth, the breadth, and length, of human misery, but we have to do it to estimate its cause and bring about its cure. And always the peril is to look upon it superficially and hastily. Now, by this very superficiality and haste we miss a great source of gladness. For our estimate of possible good must have for one of its elements our experience of actual evil, A man must sink low if he would rise high. We do not mean, of course, that he must sink low by an exceptionally depraved and vicious life ; that would be to recommend what Paul denounces — sinning in order that grace may abound. We must sink low in our estimate of ourselves. We must see that, unless we also repent, a great evil will inevitably come upon us, whereas, if we are wisely obedient, we shall b« the recipients of a splendid good — • good which ever kM ill foremimen in the gradous promises of God. — ^Yi
M
THB BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xxxiii. 1— 2«,
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXXIIl.
A ohbpter of promiees, having reference, first, to the people and kingdom in general (vers. 4 — 13), and then to the royal and priestly offices in particular (vers. 14 — 26). The first part is but the expansion of passages in the preceding prophecy, to which this chapter is attached by the opening verse. The remaining portion ia less closely connected; it is occupied by promises of the perpetual duration of the house of David and of the Levites. It should be noticed by the student that there are diflScaltiei connected with the author- ship of vers. 14, 26 (see below).
Ver. 1. — In the court of the prison ; Mther, of the guard (ch. xsxii. 2).