▼•r. 6. — Amhition prohibited. " Seekest thou great things," etc. ? God searches the heart, and probably discovered that, lurking secretly there, there was somcwliat of an unhallowed ambition. Had he been other than one of God's chosen messengers, such ambition would have been natural and reasonable (cf. former homily). God does not directly charge him with this, but sets him on self-examination. This ever the Divine method. Are we seeking great things for ourselves? If we are, God says to us, " Seek them not." And the reasons are many. Some of them are such as these —
I. We cannot tell whether they are designed for us. If they are not, they will bring us only misery ; cf. David in Saul's armour. If they are, they will come without our seeking.
IL To make ourselves our supreme object is ever wrong, des)ncable, and in the end ruinous. The com of wheat must fall into the ground and die, give up its own life. If it do not, it abideth alone; if it do, it bringeth forth firuit " He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he," etc. (John zii.).
III. Great things mean great responsibilities and terrible possibilities of great guilt and harm done to others and ourselves.
lY. Whilst seeking them, we let go what is more precious than them alL " Whilst I was busy here and there, lo, he was gone."
T. They tend to tie us down to earth and to fill our hearts with that loTe of the world which is death. " Ah 1 Davie, Davie," said Johnson to Crarrick, as they wandered through the beautiful demesne of a great nobleman, " these are the things that make it so hard for a man to die." A nmilar story is told of Cardinal Richelieu,
OH. II.TI. 1— 28.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
206
who caused himself, when near death, to be borne into his magnificent pictoM-gtllery, and there is reported to have made, to one near him, • like remark. — 0.
Verg. 1 — 6.—Countel and comfort far the man overcome with had tidings. L Con-
BtDER THE EFFECT ON BarUCH'S OWN HIND OF WHAT HE HAD HAD TO WRITE. BatUch
came in simply to be a scribe and transmitter. Seemingly a friend of Jeremiah, ii must have been in considerable sympathy with the prophet in his purposes and predic tions. Doubtless he had made himself acquainted with each prophetic utterance as it same forth from Jehovah. But he had never had them all before his mind at one time, as now became necessary, through his having to write them down. Hence we have here an illustration of how more is required than the m^re utterance of a word of God in order to produce a deep effect from it. A man may think he understands and receives it, and yet the understanding and reception may be far from what they ought tu be. Not till Jeremiah's prophecies stand before Baruch in one mass does he fully discern the trouble coming on his people. Jehovah has spoken many times, and always in the same way, against the wicked and their wickedness. And so we see how important it is to get the impression, not only of successive parts of God's words, but of that Word as a whole. Moreover, if Baruch was oppressed by the consistent mass of threatening, it is equally possible for us to be uplifted and strengthened by a consistent mass of promises and encouragements. We shall ever find in the Scriptures that which we look for and prepare ourselves to find.
II. Some indication of Baritch's own oharactbb. Baruch seems to have been, not exactly what we should call an ambitious man, but still one who wanted to get on in the world. Perhaps he had a position which made it reasonable for him to expect influence and authority. But what can a man of this sort look for in a state rapidly declining to its fall ? Baruch had to learn all at once that he must seek for such things as God would have him seek for. Thus we see God combining a lesson for the indi- vidual with the message for the nation. Baruch could hardly have been the :nly man competent to act as a scribe, but God, in taking him, took one who needed correction, needed to have his purposes turned into a more submissive way and a less self-seeking one.
III. Temporal blessinos must depend upon circuhstanoeb. There had buen times in the Jewish state when Baruch might have been a very useful man in some high position. But every man must accept the conditions of the time in which he lives. At one lime the great temporal blessings may be those of attainment, at another those of escape. And so, to s^me extent, it is in spiritual things. There are times when what Christ does for us puts on the aspect of salvation; we are glad because of the great evils from which we are delivered. There aru other times when we are not contented with merely thinking of deliverance ; we want something positive — growth, fruitfulness, perfection. Then we are seeking great things spiritually — things which are always to be sought. And we may add they are always to be found, how- ever adverse temporal conditions may be. — ^Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XLVI.
This chapter, the first of a series, consists of two prophecies united, though it is pro- bable enough that the latter was intended to supplement the former, fur vers. 2 — 12 are clearly incomplete (from the point of view of this group of prophecieu) without a distinct and unmistakable predirtion of the conquest if Egypt. The earlier prophecy is, in fact, i.it itself a prediction, but a triumphal ode, itiiHlogoas to suph as we finrl in the Books of
Isaiah and Ezekiel. It falls into three stim- zas : (1) Ters. »— 6 ; (2) vers. 7—9 ; (3) vers. 10—12. In the first two the great event is de- scribed with poetical imagery ; in the third, ita cause is declared, and the irremediable coin pleteness of its eifects. The point of time assumed is immediately before the battle of Carchemish. The Egyptian army has taken up its position by the Euphrates, and Jere- miah, from his prophetic watch-tower, recog- nizes the importance of the step. He knows thnt » collision of the two great powers is
206
THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEUEMIAH, [ch. xlvl 1—28.
inevitable, and that the fortunes of Am world will be decided by the result. It is, in short, a "day of Jehovah" which he sees before him. As a prophet, he cannot doubt what t)ie iiiBuo will be. He tails into a lyrically deseiiptive mooil, and portrays the picture which unrolls itstlf before his imagnation.
Ver. 1. — Against the Gentiles; rather, con- eeming the nalioru (nu distiiigiii^hed from Israel). This heading reUtus to all the seven prophecies in ch. xlvi. — xlix. 33.