OH.!.. 1—46.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 287
Vera. 6, 7. — The wolf excusing himself. These verses remind us of the well-kuown fable of the wolf and the Iamb. The wolf, acting according to its vrolfish nature, devours the lamb, but first of all it mates a pretence of having some shjw of reason to go npon. So here the cruel spoilers of Israel try to make out that all their cruelty and rapacity were perfectly right, because Israel had done so much wrong. We have here^
I. A TBUB ACX3UBATI0N. Israel's wrong-doing is not at all overstated. They have sinned against Jehovah. Nor is this accusation left in all its wide generality. Note the rendering of Kaegelsbach : " Jehovah the true Pasturage and their fathers' Hope." Thus the figure begun in the previous verse is continued. For the sheep a true, ample, rich pasturage is provided and protected. The shepherd mal%es that pasturage with all its needs his peculiar charge. If the sheep will not have faith in their shepherd, sub- mission to hla ordinances, satisfaction with his provisions, and general content in all their appointed lot; if they prefer an erratic, self-providirjg, self-protecting lot; — then they must take the consequences. There was nothing wonderful in Israel having becoming a lost and miserable flock. The wroni^-iloing of a man does not excuse bad treatment of him by others, but it explains how bad treatment often becomes possible. If, overleaping the bounds and laws of Divine wisdom, we go of our own choice into the way of the adversary, we must not complain of consequent spoliation and suffering.
IL A BAD BEABON. The adversaries of Israel made Israel's wickedness a plea for their own wickedness. We must distinu;uish between the conquerors of Israel as made useJ[of by Jehovah and the purposes and feelings of the conquerors themselves. It is evidently God's principle to make use of what already exists : these people were bent on attacking the land of Israel, and, when Israel had so utterly ajjostatized in heart from Jehovah, there was no reason why he should defend them. The wickedness of man often wonderfully serves a Divine purpose, but tliat does not make it wickedness any the leas. Wicked men are not necessary to God, however useful they may be in the present conditions of things. Vain will it be for any man to plead that, in the event, his wickedness has brought some good thing to light. The purposes of his heart were evil and only evil, and by those purposes he must be judged.
III. Indication of the pbopeb treatment. The proper treatment of the sheep that have forgotten their resting-place is fully revealed in the Gospels. There the true Shepherd is set before us, no self-indulgent one, no self-seeker, n^ hireling; but he who came to seek out the lost sheep, and who dies for his own. We must never forget, in all comparisons between straying men and strayin? sheep, that God means us thereby to be deeply impressed with the need of his provisions and protections. He who remem- bers that we are dust, remembers also that at the best we are as sheep, needing fur the present to be watched very closely, and kept within a place of safety by all sorts of checks and constraints. — ^T.
Ver. 11. — Ute punishment of those who rejoice wrongly. I. The bfibit nr wmoH Babylon should have done its dbstroting woek. Jehovah meant Babylon for the chastisement and the humiliation of his own people, that they might be enlightened and purified through the losses they thus sustained. They lost many things they loved, but at the same time they lost things which tempted and ensnared. The descrip- tion here, "Destroyers of mine heritage," indicates sufficiently the spirit in which Babylon acted. What God wanted was the thorough purification of his heritage, not at all its destruction. Babylon cared nothing as to whether Israel was better or worse for its afflictions. It could only rejoice over another nation conquered, another territory acquired, and a fresh degree of brightness added to its military glory. It is surely a terrible thing when men do good work unconsciously and not meaning it to be good work at all. When we have to engage in any work that inflicts suffering, shame, and loss on others, it ought to be under the sternest pressure of necessity and as the sorrow- in" ministers of violated law. There are times when we cannot escape being the agents of suffering to wicked and foolish men ; but if we only act in the right spirit, keeping our hearts free from all that is vengeful and exnling, we may even have some share in turning them from their wickedness. Everything that savours of our personal satis- faction and gain must be kept away when we have to make others suffer.
n. Thk cbbtain betbirution on those who buotoc in the suffebinos of
288 THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. [oh. L. 1—48
OTHEBS. A disposition to rejoice in tliis way indicates, of course, a general iniquity ol life which is sure to bring retribution. But retribution will take special forms according to the sin, and those who have gloated over the humiliations of others are taking a sure way to have others gloat over them in the day of their humiliation. Israel itself, which had been rejoiced over by Babylon, had first of all been rejoicing wheie it ought not to have rejoiced. If we exult and insult where we ought to pity, then nothing is more certain than that we shall meet with insult in turn.
III. A DIBEOTION SUOOESTED IIT WHICH THERE HAT BE QBEAT BEJOICING. Man
was made to rejoice ; the pity is that so often his rejoicing comes from individual and selfish considerations. When the right spirit is in our hearts, we too sliall rejoici) that » many are oast down, but it will be because of the opportunities given to lift them up. There should be the greatest of gladness in serving the lowly aud the needy. Thus while there never can be joy at suffering for its own sake, there can be much joy because of the opportunities given for glorifying Christ. — Y.
Vers. 19, 20. — The feeding-places of the flock. Consider —
I. What Jehovah had provided and the people had lost. Carmel and Bauhan, Ephraim and Gilead, were not something altogether new. They were memories of the past as well as hopes of the future. Israel had been a scattered sheep. Out of Christ not only are we ourselves lost, but we have lost the use of the appropriate possessi'>ns of humanity. Beally what God does in restoring his people is to bring them to something a great deal better than the places mentioned; but these places represent an actual," experienced good. And it is well that God should give us, as one aspect of the future, a restoration of all that was satisfying in the past.
IL JeHOTAH 18 ABOUT TO BESTOBE : HOW WILL THE PEOPLE ITBE WHAT IB TO BE