II. They give risb to great difficulty. It is not difficult to understand that men should do wrong, or even the particular wrong which is charged against them and for which they are punished; but the difficulty is that the sin should be seemingly ascribed to God. And tho Jews seem to have believed that God did prompt men to sin ; cf. Job n Ix, I , " Who did sui, this man or his parents tu m-dei- that (Iva) ha ahuuld be bom bl i nd ?
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The effect, the man's hlindness, they looked on as designed and intended by God, and hence the cause producing that effect must haye been designed also. As we read over Scriptun ;- like these, the question of Abram starts immediately to our lips, " Shall not the Jud c of all the earth do right?" (of. Rom. iii. 5 — 8). God "may and must transcend oni understanding. He will by the very nature of the case dazzle and confound our imagi- nation by the unsuspected riches and glory of his many mansions ; but he must nnt trouble our sense of right if he would retain our homage and our love." But it is th > sense of right that is troubled by what seems to be the teaching of Spriptures like thesi . Thty seem to teach that God prompts men to sin and then pimishes them for it. Sonn who reasoned with St. Paul appear to have suggested (cf. Kom. iii.) tliat in such cases God was "unrighteous" who took " vengeauce." The a|)ostle does not attempt fi' argue the matter, but treats the suggestion with a sort of " Get thee behind me, Satan," which is what his ju,^ yivono really amounts to. And where the suggestion is made fron. mere captious motives, or with the intent only to support a foregone conclusion and determination to disregard God, then such a reply is the proper one to make. But it can never be other than right to endeavour to meet the honest difficulties which some of the utterances of God's Word and some of the actings of his ]iiiividence do unquestionably give rise to. If the suggestion were true that God made men to sin and then damned them for it, nothing could be more horrible, and no possible force conld make men trust, Love, or sincerely worship a God who would act so. But the suggfstion is not true ; for —
HI. The difficulty is appaeknt, not kbal. God is never the author of sin. " The Lord is holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his works." " Let no man say when he is tempted," etc. (cf. Jas. i. 13). But when sin I as been begotten in a man's soul by his own evil desires, then the special form in which that sin sliall manifest itself is very often ordered by God. This is how we understand all these passages. Tliat very Babylon in connection with which this ver. 3 is writttn may supply an apt illustration. Isaiah calls Babylon "the desert of the sea," for when, by reason of the melting of thi snows which fed the Euphnites and her many tributaries, the great river overflowed its banks, the f;reat plain on which Babylon stood became like a vast sea. But the great Assyrian lords cut their canals and constructed their massive dairis and reservoir^ so that the superabundant and otherwise destructive waters were directed into sale channels, and could do no further harm. Those monarchs were not the authors of the floods, but by their skill and wisdom they directed which way those floods should flow. On one of our great railways a little while ago, a signalman saw to his horror that an engine had somehow got away without its driver, and was rushing on with ever-increasing speed to its own destruction and that of the firvit unhappy passenger train — and one was nearly due — that it should meet. Quick as thought the signalman seized his levers and turned the runaway into a siding where it could harm no one but itself. In every large fire the firemen act in a similar way. And so Ood. When sin has broken out by no will of his, but altogether contrary to his will, he does not let it run riot, as it might, but he orders the way it shall take. Thence it came to pass " through the Lord " that " Zedekiah rebelled against the King of Babylon " (ver. 3).
IV. This obdbeino of bin's way on the fast of God h a thing HtruH to bk BBMBMBEBED. 1. FoT OUT consolation and comfort. Mad and monstrous as sin is, it i • yet under God's control. Like as to the raging sea, he can say and does say to it " Thus far shalt thou go, and no further," etc., and cf. ch. v. 22. 2. For the wamiri. of the sinner. The flames of the eternal fire are lit within our own soul. Sin is eve twisting and knotting its own scourge. What a man soweth that shall he also reai . The seed of all our punishments was sown by our own hand, though we never intendcil the harvest. The way sin' shall take is utterly out of our power. If it does somewhat that we did intend, it does for men that we never dreamt of nor desired. 3. For instruc lion to all thoughtful readers of Qod's Word and beholders of his providence. G il " does " the evil that is in the city (Isa. xlv.), but he does not originate it, and that which he does 1* bat the ordering of its way. — 0.
Yen. 4 — 84.— 27'e march of doom. These verses tell of the awful progress of the judgment of God on the doomed city of Jerusalem, her king, and people. To all whu imagine that God is too full of love and graciousness to sternly judge and punish men, the contemplation of the events told of here may be painful, but assuredly they will
318 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEHEMIAH. [oH, 1*1-34
be salutary also. We are shown the 6a>iylonian armies gathering round the city; the long and dreadful siege ; the gaunt famine that fastens upon the besieged ; the walla broken at last and the inrush of the infuriated foe ; the flight, capture, and tragedy of the king; the burning of the city and temple; and the carrying off into exile or slaughter of all but the poorest of the people. Ten weary years are covered by these events, and they were years full of lamentation, affliction, and woe. Now, all this teaches plainly — •
I. That the judgmknts of God aee slow to beqiw. He is slow to anger. How long he bore with Judah and Jerusalem ere these tribulations came I
II. But when beoxtn thet oo om. What a procession of one calamity after another it is!
HI. TuET CANNOT BE ABRESTED OB TURNED ASIDE. All that endurance, courage, and skill could do was done in that memorable siege. Of. Ezek. vii. 6, " An evil, an only evil, behold, it is come," etc.
IV. The distress and anguish deepen. (Gil Ezek. vii.; viii.; zL; Lam. ii. 11, 12 19 ; iv. 4, etc.)
Y. They are belentlebb and know no pitt. Prayers and entreaties an in vain (cf. Prov. i. 24—31).