I. The possibilities of lifb. " Moab hath settled on his lees." Moab is, therefore, compared to wine. There are sour grapes with which nothing can be done ; but there are also grapes of splendid natural quality, that have had the best culture of the vine- yard and have come to all due ripeness. That which is to become perfect wine starts from a fruit of which much is expected. The wine-producer knows that his wioe will be according to his grapes. Now, from Moab much was expected ; this truth being Involved in the very comparison to wine. There was something that had in it the making of an exquisite taste and an exquisite scent.
II. How THE POSSIBILITIES ABE MISSED. There is the chance of ease, enjoyment, and self-indulgence, and this chance is ignobly accepted. Of some men the character is tried by difficulties and repeated discouragements ; the strength and worth that lie deep in them are manifested by their perseverance. Other men are tried by the absence of difficulties. They are born to a competency. As children they have whatever money can provide for in the way of instruction and pleasure. Everything external to them is made as easy as it can be made. Many voices, near to them every day and all day long, say, " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years : take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Everything depends on the way the young man, placed in such circumstances, looks.
III. The result of neoleoted disoifliiie. Possessions give opportunities of service, opportunities denied to many, who see the needs of others, have the will to meet them, and lack the power. Is it not a righteous thing that God should deal severely with those whose circumstances give them the means and the time for doing great good, and yet who fill their lives with selfish pleasure ? Such lives will come out at last in pitiable contrast with what they might have lieen. To change the figure : " If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? henceforth it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men." Note how the vessels that should have been used toward the perfection of the wine, and the buttles that should have held them, become at last usehss. If we will not use our opportunities for God's purpose, God will secure, in due time, that we should not use them for our own. — Y,
Vers. 26, 27. — Moab exuUing over foMen Israel. Here is another allusion to a wine country. Moab knew well what it was to drink to excess. The drunkard with his silly talk and behaviour is a common object of ridicule everywhere. And Moab shall become to other nations abject and degraded as the drunkard. This is the end of its wrong excitement over the fall of Israel. Moab has seen Israel in its days of power and glory and pride, and, seeing, has feared. Could the days of Balak and the prophecies of Balaam be forgotten ? Nor is it likely that Israel would be without unseemly exultations and reciprocal jealousies. And now at last Israel falls. And all that Moab can take knowledge of is the fact of the fall. That it has been cauiied by disobedi- ence and rebellion, that Jehovah is the real Author of it and not the King of Babylon, who is but as Jehovah's sword, Moab cannot well have means for knowing;. All it can Ma is ft rival fallen, and as it seems permanently follen. Therefore Moab must be
2-lG IHli; BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. XLvm. 1— 47
taught a lesson. In exulting over Israel it is exulting against Jehovah. Indeed, there is no reason why we should reject the notion of some open and bold comparison between tlie weakness of Jeliovah, God of Israel, and the strength of Chemosh, god of Mnab. As if the people said, " See how strong Chemosh is ; for we are still here, though Baby- lonian armies have not been far from us ! and see how weak Jehovah is ; for the nation to whom he was God is gone into a distant captivity ! " To exult over the fall of those who have been avowedly the servants of Gud is a dangerous thing to do. The man who is tempted and falls should be an object of pity, one to be helped up and reinstated, even though the woik needed for this be one with some loss and risk to ourselves. And surely we should be especially careful not to rejoice over the calamities of those whose calamity seems to give us a better chance. Moab had now to drink to tlie dregs a cup of shame, because it had failed to comprehend the duty of rejoicing with those who rejoiced and weeping with those who wept. — Y.
Ver. 38. — The broken vessel. I. Nor beoken bt accident. A vessel broken by accident would not have furnished the proper figure. Lives that are as real serviceable vessels in the hand of God never do get broken by accident. Earthen vessels though they often be, there is a providence and a watchfulness which preserves them till their work is done. They are kept through days of persecution ; they are restored from sick- ness ; they live on into a good old age, while men apparently stronger and of greater physical resource are stricken down. And when there seems sometimes a premature and unaccountable breaking, yet it is really to be regarded in another light, namely, as a change to higher and fuller service.
II. Not broken by oapbicb. That which is not broken accidentally must have been iroken purposely. And if purposely, either with a reason or through mere recklessness.
Men too often destroy things in a reckless, thoughtless way, from the first unconsidered impulse that comes into the mind. It is an action in which is expressed, by a sort of bravado, the sentiment that a man may do what he likes with his own. But God would ever have us feel that, though he lias made the world and all that therein is, his dis- position of these works is regulated by fixed laws, and our disposition of things under our control should be regulated in the same way. Never let it be said of us that we have destroyed or injured an} thing without sufScient reason. We should not eron pull a flower to pieces through mere thoughtlessness, mere vacuity of mind.
III. Bboken for a sufficient reason. Moab is a vessel in which there is no pleasure. It is of no real use to God. Whether we shall be vessels of use to God or not depends upon whether we put ourselves as clay into his hands as Putter. { ^Moab was a nation which had loved to shape its own life, to hew its own designs. And just in proportion as it persevered in this path did it become useless to God. Appearance is only a small thing. The first consideration is use. The commonest earthenware pitcher, if without a flaw, is worth more than a cracked golden pitcher that will hold no water — worth more, that is, as a pitcher. Gold is a rare, glitteiing, fascinating thing compared with common earth, but alter all it is the common earth out of which vessels are made for daily use. The real value of a human life depends upon what God gets out of it. — Y.