n. The new. 1. The messenger. Not Jeremiah, but Baruch ; not a prophet, but » prophet's deputy ; not a word spoken, but a word read ; not a part of Jeremiah's utterances, but the whole, so that people might have it brought home to them how much they had neglected. Old truth appears in new framework and new relations, so that it may arrest people who have become indifferent to the old associations. There was a time when Jeremiah's face was fresh, and curiosity would make people stop to hear what this babbler might say. But after hearing him often, they ceased to heed him. Then Baruch comes forwud, and words that were an exact repetition of words heard before got a flavour of novelty. 2. The occasion. The fasting-day. Read Isa. Iviii. carefully to discover the avowed purpose and yet utter uselessness of the fasting-day in Israel. The people met together to acknowledge their sins, to punish their bodies, to please God, to avert his displeasure. It might, therefore, be assumed that then, if ever, they were in a state prepared to listen to the volume of one great prophet's utterance. If anything was to be got out of seizing the best available occasion, then surely it was to be got here. Thus we learn how occasion adds responsi- bility to utterance ; responsibility both for him who speaks and those who hear. These people were not stopped in the street or the market ; their homes were not invaded by prophetic messages ; they had no pretence for saying they were interfered with. They put themselves in Baruch's way. His work, as reader of Jeremiah's prophecies, was in exact harmony with what ought to have been the feelings and desires of his audience. 3. 2%e audience. That audience, as we have said above, was to some extent old, but to some extent also it would be new. A new message to some people in Jerusalem, and quite new doubtless to the bulk of those who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusa- lem. The whole proceeding helps us to see how valuable the public reading of the Scriptures may be. For old as they are, with so much in them that savours of vanished ages and customs, they have, nevertheless, to do with perennial wants, miseries, and possibilities. — Y.
Ver. 23. — Burning the Word of the Lord. I. The kdjg's motives nr this act. Perhaps he was not conscious of any distinct set of motives. He was but a despot, and despots are in many thinc;s like spoiled children ; they act not from any clear reason, good or bad, so much as from the caprice of the moment. If this act had been a singu- larity of Jehoiakim's, there would have been less need to attend to it, but unhappily it only illustrates a whole series of acts by those occupying stations of power among men. Putting Jeremiah in prison, burning Baruch's roll, slaying the innocents at Bethlehem, patting apostles in prison, and all the long list of martyrdoms, — what are these but the same essential act all through? Jehoiakim would have been in full sympathy with Roman Catholic priests burning the Scriptures in translations under- stood of the common people. Jehoiakim was a man buttressed with privileges, pam- pered with privileges; and here he had a document forced upon his ears which contained assertions by no means compatible with the continuance of nis privileges. And there was one thing he could do — he could get rid of the offensive document. He stands before us a great example of those — and how many there arel — who, in their eagerness to get rid of an unpleasant subject, take the first means that comes to hand for getting rid of it.
n. Look at the act in the lioht of history. Jehoiakim burnt Baruch's roll, but he did not destroy Jeremiah's prophecies ; nor did he nullify the truth of Jeremiah's predictions ; nor did he stop other prophetic utterances. If Jehoiakim can, he may burn, not only Baruch's roll, but Baruch and Jeremiah as well. Suppose this done ; yet Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and probably many more, of whose words we know nothing, have to be reckoned with. 'This is the peculiar folly of men like Jehoiakim, that they perform acts monumental of their folly. Jehoiakim might have quietly said, " If these words are true, then we cannot make them false ; and if they be false, time will show their falsity, and bring to shame both the dictator and the writer of them." Instead of acting thus with dignified endurance, Jehoiakim, in burning the roll, challenged the attention not only of his own people but of all ages. He did what there was no sort of need for him to do. It may be said — Why not apply the same line of remark to Luther burning th" pope's bull ? To this the answer is obvious, that Luther's act was a message of renunciation, a summons of the papacy 'i
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bondslaves to freedom, an act of sublime trust in God. Looked at from the pointoi view given in the present, it is seen to have been an inspiration. But what did Jehoia- kim's act amount to? Only empty bravado. He had notliing to lear from men. Luther (iid something when he burnt the bull. Jehoiakim did nothing but proclaim his own shame, and advertise the glory of that God over against whose throne his paltry throne had been set up. — Y.
Ver. 26. — Jehovah hiding hit tervantt. \. Thb need oir such nrrBBPOsinoN. Baruch and Jeremiah had already been told by the princes to hide (ver. 19); but what was any effort purely of their own likely to avail? Indeed, it is only as we appre- ciate the .usclessness of a purely huma* effort for this pnrpose that we shall see the need of a Divine intervention. God does not mean miracles and special providences to do the work of man's prudence. But when it is made evident that man can do little or nothing, then God's action appears manifest and admonitory. It may be too much to say that this action of God was intended as an answer to Jehoiakim's audacity in burning the roll ; bat it was an answer nevertheless.
II. The manner of the interposition. This is left untold. Either Jeremiah could not explain the manner of his hiding, or it was purposely left unexplained to heighten the impressiveness of the fact. It may have been through a marvellous combination of human kindness and sympathy, such as showed a Divine directing hand ; or there may have been miracle. God is an etfectual hider. How much there is hidden away in the very things we see, so that knowledge may be kept from all but the humble and obedient 1 God could not be the revealer that he is, unless he were also an effectual hider. The great end was gained if people of the right sort in Jerusalem were made to feel that this hiding was in no sort the work ot man, and could only be explained by the intervention of a higher power.