II. Thk holt house of Jerusalem was sacrileqiouslt abused bt the heathen JONQUXBOBS. The temples of their gods are always the object of a nation's reverence and sometimes of affection. But the Jews had especial reason for venerating their sanctuary; it was the scene of their sacrifices and offerings, the depository of their oracles, the spot where the Sheohinah-glory was displayed. The more sacred portion of the edifice was reserved for the priests ; even the devout Jews were not sufl"ered to enter these consecrated precincts. What, then, must have been the disgust, the horror, with which the pious contemporaries of Jeremiah, and especially the prophet himself, witnessed the profanation of the sanctuary, as the Chaldean soldiers polluted it with their heathen presence and speech I Their feelings were injured in the most susceptible part of their nature.
Application. Retribution is not an accident ; neither is it the mere outworking of natural laws. There is Divine providence superintending it ; it has a meaning, for it witnesses to human responsibility and sin ; it has a purpose, for it summons to repent- ance and newness of life. — T.
Ver. 12. — Unparalleled woe. The prophecy here rises into poetry. The captured and afflicted city is personified. Like a woman bereaved and desolate and lonely, bewail- ing her misfortunes, and pouring out the anguish of her heart, Jerusalem sits in her solitary desolation and contempt, and calls upon bystanders to remark her sad condition, and to offer their sympathy to unequalled anguish.
L The consciousness of sorbow, desolation, and shams. How extreme ia the distress and humiliation here depicted is apparent from the fact that this language has been attributed to our Divine Saviour when hanging upon the cross of Calvary. If a city never endured sorrow like that of Jerusalem, certainly no human being ever experienced agonies so piercing as those which the Captain of our salvation wiSingly bore for our sake when he gave his life a ransom for many.
** All ye that pass by.
To the Saviour draw nigh ; To you is it nothing that Jesus should die,f
For sins not his own
He died to atone ; Was pain or was sorrow like his ever known ?"
IL Thk admission that affliction is of Divine appointment, that n n CHA8TIBEMENT. When Jerusalem came to herself she could not fail to recognize a Divine hand in the miseries which befell her. The scourge was the army of the Chal- deans, but the hand was the righteous and retributive hand of the Eternal. It is too common for those who are in trouble to murmur agaiust Providence, to exclaim against the injustice of iirovidential appointments. Yet true wisdom points out that the path of submission and resignation is the right path. When once the mind is brought to acknowledge, " It is the Lord ! " there is a prospect of spiritual improvement.
IIL The cbt for stmpatht. My a striking figure of speech, Jerusalem is repre- sented as calling upon surrounding nations for interest and compassion. " Is it nothing to you? . . . Behold, and see 1 " Human sympathy is welcome in seasons of sorrow. Yet true help and deliverance must be from God, and from God alone. It is better to call upon the Lord than to^call upon man ; for he is both ready to sympathize and mighty save.— T.
Ver. 18.—" The Lord is righteous." In nothing is the distinction more marked between religions of human origin and devibe and the religion which is the revelation of infinits Wisdom and Truth, than in the views they respectively afford of the moral character and attributes of Deity. Whilst the heathen freely attribute to their gods qualitiei
12 THE LAMENTATIONS OP JEREMIAH. lOH. 1. 1— 22
which are detestable in man, the Scriptures represent the Supreme as perfectly right- eous. The acknowledgment here made by Jeremiah was made by Moses, by Kehemiah, by Danirl, and iadeei) is virtually, if not yerbally, made by the writer of every book of the Old Testament. And the new covenant is based upon the revelation of a righteous Ruler and Father.
I. GJoD IS RIGHTEOUS IN HI8 OHARACTEB, It is Certainly no progress, but a retro- gression towards i^snorance and barbarism, to represent tlie supreme Intelligence as destitute of moral attributes, exercised in the fulfilment of wi-ic and benevolent pur- poses. Affliction and anguish sometimes obscure men's judgment of the character and the dealings of God. It was not so with Jeremiah, who, in lamenting the troubles of his nation and of himself, did not distort the representation he gave to his countrymen of the attributes of the Most High.
II. God is righteous in ras Law. The theocratic government of the Hebrews wag based upon the just character and the holy Law of the eternal King. To some minds the reflection might have seemed inappropriate and unwelcome in the depth of disaster. But a true prophet, a true religious teacher, feels bound to set forth the fact that the rule under which men live as individuals and as communities is a righteous rule ; the justice of the Law abides although that Law be broken, and although its penalties be incurred and endured.
in. God is righteous in his retribution. This is probably the thought most prominent in the text. The fate of Jerusalem was a hard fate, a lamentable fate, but it was not an unjust fate. The people reaped as they had sown.. An onlooker might readily have acknowledged this, but it was a merit in a sufferer so to do. For the chastened to confess the justice of their chastisement is • proof that already the chas- tening is not in vain. — T.
Ver. 20. — The cry of the contrite. Trouble, when it leads to an inquiry into its cause, when it prompts to submission and to repentance, proves a means of grace. The cry of suffering and distress may have no moral significance ; the cry of contrition and of sup])Iication is a sign of spiritual impression, and is a step towards spiritual recovery.
I. The occasion of affliction and contrition. This is here specified, and the reality and severity are manifest. Within, «.e. in the homes and streets of the city, there is dearth ; without, i.e. in the field, there is destruction by the sword. Thus in two strokes national calamity and disaster are depicted.
II. The tokens of affliction and contrition. Man's bodily nature is expres- sive of his spiritual state. Severe suffering and distress display themselves in organic, physical disturbance The prophet feels in his bodily frame the disturbing effects of the trials he has undergone, the lively sympathy he has experienced.