II. How uuoH IS REQUIRED TO JUSTIFY A WRONG ACTION It was a case, apparently, on Johanan's showing, of self-protection. Ishmael contemplated murder and treachery ; what more natural than that he should be killed? Yet this consideration had no weight with Gedaliah. His informant might be mistaken, and was, perhaps, interested. It was foreign to his disposition to be suspicious : and he could not brook the idea of assassination. If the governor was wrong in neglecting the most ordinary precautions, he was certainly right in this. The instinct of the true man is ever averse to under- hand actions, even although their object be to avert contingent or certain evils. It is never right to do evil that good may come or evil may be averted. The weapons which God's children have to wield are ever those of truth and honour ; and these are Buflicient if they be sagaciously handled.
III. How GREAT A CRIME AND CALAMITY MAT BE DIVINELY PERMITTED. 1. Jeremiah,
for the most part, resided with Gedaliah, and yet no warning appears to have been given him of the catastrophe. How was this? Had it not as profound a bearing on the future of God's people as the march of Nebuchadnezzar's armies ? It is a great mystery, and there are many like it. How appalling the wickedness of our Saviour's crucifixion I Yet are the fruits of it a world's salvation. 2. The dictates ot common sense and worldly experience, had they been attended to, might have proved sufficient. God's interpositions are not always to wait upon human folly. It is out duly to make the best of the means and information at our dispos il This is especially iiicum^nt with regard to the warnings and instructions of the gospel. The rich man, eager for an evangel from Hades to his careless, sinful brethren, is assured," If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke xvi. 31). We may wait long if we expect to be converted by a miracle. The commandment is binding now : " Believo on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." — M.
Vers. 2, 8.— The blind seeing, the seeing Mind. This heathen captain, who could not be expected to know the truth, who was, as it were, born blind as to the truth of CSod, sees clearly that truth, and declares it ; whilst the people of Judah and Jerusalem, their kings, their priests, their nobles, all of whom regarded themselves as knowing the truth, who, as in John is. 41, said, " We sea," are found to be completely blind u to that truth. Note herein —
I. How CLEAR WAS THE RECOGNITION OF GoD. He ascrlbcs allto " the Lord thy God." He recognizes the prophet as sent of God (ver. 3), " According as he hath said." He traces their calamities to their true cause — sin against God. He recuguizes that Babylon and her troops are but ministers of God to do his will.
II. The PROBABLE SOURCES OF HIS KNOWLEDGE. Fci'haps : 1- The general belief that each nation had its own deity. 2. Yet more, the prophecies of Jeremiah. 3. Also the strength of Jerusalem. Never, apart from the people's sin, has such a fortress been overthrown. 4. The madness of the people. Quern deut vuU perdere prius dementat. Only a God-forsakeu people could have thrown away their well-being as these had done. 6. The judgments that came upon them.
III. What such facts as these — the blind seeing, etc, — reveal. 1. How clear the light of truth which God has given I Were it not so clear, such as this heathen would not see it. 2. How dense the darkness which persistent sin spreads over the soul I
CH. XL. 1—16.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 161
Hence the " seeing blind." 3. How awfnl the doom of those who seeing, see not ) Of. Matt. xL, " Woe unto thee, Chorazin," etc. !— 0.
Vers. 4, 6. — "A strait hetwixt two." St. Paul tells how he was in such strait. He was willing to stay, but leady to depart home to his eternal rest, which would be far better. And ofti ntimes we are in perplexities as to choice in the common events and circumstances of our lives. It is so difficult to see wiiat we ought to do, what it would be best to do. Here we Viave an instance. The patriotic prophet had a per- plexing chuico put before him. Consider —
L The al'ieunativbs proposed. 1. He might go to Babylon, where, no doubt, the same favour that bad shown him such consideration thus far would bring him to honour there. 2. He might utay amongst his own people. Amid their poverty, their dis- pleasure, their dis.^race. 3. Or he might go anywhere he pleasecl—to Tarshish, as Jonah tried, if so he pleased.
II. The ARO0MENT8 FOB AUD AOAINST EACH. 1. For Babylon. Safety, wealth, honour, help to his countrymen there. 2. For staying in Israel. There he had been called ; there he was yet needed ; Ezekiel and Daniel were in Babylon. Against this, he had no command of God ; the peril in which he would be placed.
III. The decision. He resolved to stay. This come to, not because the captain (ver. 5), who saw him lingering, bade him go back, but because tl^e hardness of the duty i-eemed to declare it was his duty. In such cases dwose what you lihe least. — 0.
Vers. 7 — 12. — " That we may be godly and quietly governed." These verses are an illustration of men's desire for such government. In the disorder and confusion of the times, men were looking out for some settled rule. Comparii(js of armed men were camping about, only waiting for some sign to indicate to whose standard they should repair. That which they wanted seemed to be found in Gedaliah. Hence they go to him (ver. 8). The incident here recorded suggests, in regard to government generally —
I. The common consent of men as to its necessity. It was not ruerely one company ol the scattered Jews that were on the look out /'or a Lader, but all the com- panies, and not the men only, but their officers also. And in every collection t. human beings, however tbey group themselves, however casually they may have been thrown together, if they have to dwell and to work together the choosing of a lead .. , jne who shall rule them, is a never disregarded need.
II. The pbinciples on which this consent rests. They are such as these : 1. There can be no well-being — strength, peace, happiness — without order. 2. No order without law. 3. No law without a lawgiver, and a law-upholder, i.e. a government, ft may be monarchical, an oligarchy, a republic, a democracy, only in some way law must be expressed and ujjheld. Because men feel that this last is necessary to the first, men will ever seek after government, good, if possible, but any is felt to be better than none. Anarchy is so much misery. Thus do men reason in regard to their temporal affairs,