III. It has failed to tnrDERSTAin) it. Had the Idumasans known the might c f a spiritual religion, they would not have leagued against Israel. Had the HerodUns known the wisdom of God, " they would not have crucified the Lord of glory " (1 Cor. ii. 8 ; Acts iii. 17 ; vii. 51). Had Borne known the power of the truth, it would never have corrupted the religion of the cross, and thus prepared for its own disintegration and decay in the Middle Ages, and the manifold complications of worldly religion in modem times. The whole conception of God's kingdom — its spirituality, other-world- liness, and purity — is still a strange thing to the wise men of the world. But it con- tinues to grow and to realize itself amongst men ; and it is destined to fill the whole earth, absorbing and assimilating its ancient antagonists ; for " he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet " (1 Cor. xv. 25). — M.
Ver. 12 (cf. ch. xxv. 29 ; Prov. xi. 31 ; 1 Pet. iv. 18 ; and, for ori^al, Obad. 16).— Israel's judgment an argument for Edom's. I. An illustration of the ohaeaoter ov God. 1. Proving his strict righteotisness. There is no respect of persons. His love foi righteousness and hatred of wrong are such that even his chosen people do not escape punishment. Salvation will not, therefore, be by favour or independent of character. The least sin will be judged. Individual saints shared in the general calamity. 2. Eis unfailing faithfulness. It was predicted particularly concerning Israel, and was declared as the law of his kingdom. Its fulfilment, therefore, vindicates the Divine veracity.
II. An akoument based upon rr. If such a God reigns amongst men, can any transgressor escape ? To such sinners, then, as the Edomites, the heaDhen or worldly enemies of godliness and the truth : 1. Punishment would be certain. Their present immunity was only as the lull before the storm. Conscience gathers no comfort from apparent prosperity. Israel's punishment is a certain guarantee of Edom's. 2. Punish- ment will be proportional to the sin. In such cases as that of Edom — an open, flagrant, and conscious foe to the kingdom of God — it would be far more severe. There is no promise of " bringing again their captivity." It was to be " as if it had not been." Where the heathen, on the other hand, have not sinned so clearly against light, there will be condoning circumstances which will be taken into account. — M.
Ver. 23. — The unrest of the wicked. Isaiah (xvii. 12, 13 ; cf. Ivii. 20, 21) uses the same figure of Damascus, and Jeremiah must, therefore, have either borrowed it from him or from some common source. It is possible that the figure was a common expression amongst the Jews of the time. The neighbourhood of Damascus and its associated cities was always a populous one, with a varied nationality and conflicting interests and aSinities. From its character there was no religious unity, and its position exposed it to dangers on every hand, especially Irom Babylon and Egypt. It was a motley people, with vast commercial relations and strong tendency to pleasure, but no religious earnestness or cajiacity of moral influence or initiation. This is another of those phases of the world- spirit which Jeremiah paints in his panorama of the nations' judgment.
I. The unrest of world-life is likened to that of the sea. 1. Continual. 2. Vast and tumultuous. 3. Not to be stilled. 4. Sad and ruinous in its effects.
II. Because the worldly THEMSELVES are like THE SEA. 1. Unstable. How easily ruffled I Uncertain, irresolute (Jas. i. G), subject to sudden panics. This is moral and spiritual. 2. With no central controlling power. The very constitution of the sea renders Btorms sudden and terrible. So it is with the sinner's character. There is no central controlling influence ; no moral principle or spiritual power. True calm comes from within. He of the Gfalileau sea can alone tranquillize the troubled nation or the alarmed sinner. — M.
Ver. 1. Might not right. Ammon had taken possession of the territory of Israel (cf
chapter). Had done so as if it were his right, as if they were the lawful heirs of the land. Because of this judgment is denounced against them. They are to learn that might is not right.
I. There may be rwht withoot might. It was so with Israel at this time. Is so
JVRFIIIAH — 'n. •
258 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, ten. xlix. 1—33,
with the true Church of God. " All things are yours" — 80 we are told, but it is only di jure, not de facto. But —
II. There MAY BE MIGHT WITHOUT RIGHT. In the casB here giveu. Audit is common enough. Perfect justice is not attainable in this life. Even in the little world of the home, the school, the Church, injustices will occur. And, painful as they are to witni'ss and to bear, they have to be borne. It is hard sometimgs to see the justice of the Divine ways ; how much more, then, of human ways ! Nevertheless —
III. Might may be eight. " La carriere aux talents," said Napoleon — that was to be the law of his empire. " The tools to him who can use them " — such is our common maxim. The " king," the ruler, the lord paramount of the state, whiit is he but — if the etymology be correct — the "can "-ning man, the man who can, the able man? And so not seldom when we see mii^bt, we see right too. In the colonisation of lands inhal'itsd by savages who are letting the capabilities of glorious territories lie unimproved or running to waste, such colonization is not wrong. Might is right. "The lools," etc. It is a stern law to the incapable, but a just and beneficent one for the human race. " Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath ten tnlents " (Matt. XXV. 28); what is this but the sanction of this combination? "To him that liath shall be ?iven." There we have it once more. But —
IV. God's will is, and odrs should be, to give might to right. Eight one day shall be might as well as right. 1. Thisis theburden nf the promises of Ood in his Word. "Thy kingdom come ; thy will be done" — the will that is ever-rigliteous — "on earth," etc. 2. Tlie constitutiun of human nature is in favour of it (cf: Butler's ' Analogy '). 3. Con- science ever takts the side of right, whatever our conduct may do or be. 4. And God's providence is slowly working to this end, 5. " Faith " is simply the giving ourselves up tt the righteous One, to be " his faithful servant and soldier, and to fight manfully under his banner until our lives shall end."
Conclusion. Let us seek to be on the side of right always, let the cost be vhat it may. — C.