I. They that think to establish themselves by wicked ways.
II. Those that rely upon men and not on God.
III. Those that trust to uncertain riches.
IV. Those that think saying " Lord, Lord," whilst living ungodly lives, will aavt them. — C.
Ver. 1. — The view of a prophefs complete work, I. A prophet ib onb who has to speak the wobds of Jehovah. Not his own words, not the words of other men. This applies to the substance of the message ; for it is plain that each prophet has his own style. The chief thing to be remembered is that a prophet never goes foith on his own impulse. Men in their zeal for right may go out to protest against wrong and fight against it, but this does not make them prophets. The prophet's strength and claim and responsibility lie in this, that he can ever preface his announce- ments by " Thus saith the Lord." And all preachers and teachers will approach the
OH. XLiu. 1— 13.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 188
prophet]s position just in proportion to the extent In which they can fill their addresses with Divine declarations. The essential elements of prophecy can never be out of place.
II. _Hb has to speak aUi the wobds of Jehovah. The prophet b not to be an eclectic, picking out some of God's words as suitable and others as unsuitable. God's omniscience can alone judge what is suitable. If to him it seems suitable a word should he spoken, then it is suitable. God speaks not to apparent needs, but to real ones. God, always saying something for the present, makes his weightiest words to bear upon the future. The responsibility of the prophet is simply that of being a brave uid faithful messenger.
III. He is bent to speak these wobds. He does not merely take np woids of Jehovah which he thinks suitable for the emergency. This is his work to act as a special messenger from Heaven. Others have to expound the Word already spoken, already written ; but the prophet hears a voice directly from the excellent glory, " Go and make known my vfill to men." And in all prophecy there is evidence, to one who will look for it, that the prophet is a sent man.
IV. He has to speak words to those on whom God has a claim. Jehovah is not only the God of Jeremiah, he is the God of all the people. This was an historical fact of which they could not get rid. It was the glory, security, and blessing of the people, if only they could see it. And is not Jehovah also our God ? — God coming for • while more closely in contact with one nation, that ultimately he may be in contact with all. If we admit the claim of Jesus, we admit the claim of Jehovah also. He speaks through ancient prophets to us, because the essentials of their message have to do with the permanent life of men.
v. He speaks to all the people. In this particular instance the request came from all the people, so the message was correspondingly to all. Prophets, of course, had often messages for particular men, but even these messages are so founded upon general principles as to become worthy the attention of all. Prophecy concerns man as man ; it meets the yoimg vrith dawning consciousness, and grasps the old till their latest hour.
VI. The prophet must take oabe to make an end of his profheot. He does not simply cease speaking; he has to make people feel he has said all he has to say, and that the time has come for them to have their say, or rather for them to enter with promptitude and devotion upon corresponding deeds. They may not hear all they would like to know, and thus it must be made clear they have been told all that it is good for them to know. With God all things are for edifying, not to inform curiosity or comply with every actual desire. — Y.
Vers. 8 — 13. — TTie visitation upon Egypt. Here again is one of the symbolio acts which the prophets were commanded at times to perform. So the hiding of the girdle by Euphrates (ch. xiii.), the commanded celibacy of the prophet (ch. xvi.), the dashing of the potter's bottle to pieces (ch. six.). But while these symbolic acts are described in terms which make them perfectly clear, the hiding of the great stones mentioned here needs more full explanation than we can reach to get the significance it. Still, this much of the drift of the action we perceive that Jehovah will make quite manliest, that Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt is one divinely ordained and sustained. Not, of course, that Egypt is to suffer simply because these men have gone there ; its idolatries are the deepest ground of its calamities. But the delusion of tiie men of Judah must be looked at in the light of the sufferings of Egypt. In all this experience of death and captivity and slaugliter, of temple-burning and image-breaking ; in all this entire appropriation of Egypt by the Babylonian king, these men of Judah must not expect to escape. There is no second land of Goshen for them — a place of immunity and peace. If only they had stayed where they thought there would be no safety, then they would have been safe ; and goinij where they made sure of safety, they found the worst of ruin. It reads as if Egypt was to com* under Babylon more •¥«■ tb>a Jerusalem bad done. — Y<
186
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xliv. 1—30
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XLIV.
Jeremiah's debate with the Jewish fngi- tives in Pathros ; his last prophecy.
Vers. 1 — 14. — Accusation brought against the obstinately idolatrous peo|'le.
Ver. 1. — Which dwell ; rather, wliirh dwelt. It appears from this vurse that the Jewish fugitives had separati d in Egypt, some going to the two northern frontier cities, Migdol (on which see K. S. Poole, ' The Cities of Egypt,' ch. viii.) and Tah- panlies or Daphnse, others further soutli to Noph, i.e. Memphis, or, less probably, Napiita (see on ch. ii. 16), and Patliros (».e. Upper Egypt ; comp. Isa. xi. 11).
Ver. 6. — Was kindled in ; rather, burned up.
Ver. 7. — Against your Bonis ; i.e. against yourselves. The " soul " is the personality.
Ver. 8. — That ye might cut yourselves off ; rather, that ye might cut (them) of from you. Who are meant is clear from ver. 7.
Ver. 9. — Have ye forgotten, etc.? The prophet wonderingly asks if they have for- gotten the sins of their forefathers and the consequent calamities. No other ex|ilana- tion of this present idolatry seems possible ; and yet how passing strange is it I Their wives. The Hebrew has " his wives," i.e. according to Kimchi and Hitzi^', the wives of eacli of the kings (sometiincs great patrons of idolatry). But it is better to adopt, with Ewald, Giaf, iind Dr. Payne Smiih, the read- ing of the Soptuagint, "liis prinres."
Ver. 10. — They are not humbled ; rather, not made civntrite (literally, not crushed, vis. by repentance).
Ver. 1 1. — To ont oil all Jndab ; i.e. the Judah in Egypt, not that in Uabylon. Notice the qualitieation of this too absolute statement in vers. 14, 28.
Ver. 14.— They have a aesire; literally, they lift up their sou! (lorap. eh. xxii. 27).