I. The oiboumstakoes that call fob considbbation. 1. Famine and the inhuman conduct to which famine sometimes leads. 2. Death hy the sword. 3. The privation of those religious offices which are the centre and inspiration of the nation's life. 4. The common suffering of all classes ; prophet and priest, children and old men, virgins and youth, are alike overtaken by want, by wounds, by death.
II. The grounds upon which considbbation is begged fob. 1. The main appeal is to Divine pity and benevolence. 2. The former mercies shown to Judah seem to he brought implicitly forward in this language. Israel has been chosen by God himself, favoured with privileges, delivered, protected, and hlessed in a thousand ways. Will God cast off those in whom be has taken an interest so deep, for whom he has done so great things V
III. The hope with which consideration is asked. Hitherto the regard of God in recent events has been a regard of displeasure and of censure. But if the attitude of the stricken be no longer one of defiance, but of submission, it may be that the Lord will turn him again, will he favoural)le unto his afflicted people, will restore them to former prosperity, enriched with the precious lessons of their adverse experience. — T.
Ver. 1. — The manifestation of Jehovah's wrath with Itrad. It will be noticed that the words " auger " and " wrath " occur again and again in these first three verses. Figure is heaped upon figure in order to bring out the practical effects of this anger. Wa need not pursue these figures into detail ; each of them speaks for itself. Let us rather notice —
I. How THET moioATE THE EXTENT OF PAST FAVOUB. The Very fact that, la order to show the character of Jehovah's anger, such strong figuratlTe expressions are posKhla proves that in former days there had been many indications of his complacency with IsraeL Not that Israel had been really better in the past than in the present, but she had to he dealt with in a long-suffering way, and the long-suffering of Jehovah is a quality which shows itself by abundance of most positive favours. God looked upon Israel according to the bright possibilities of excellence that lie in human nature. Israel did sink very low, hut that was because she had the capacity of rising very high. Thus God heaped upon Israel favours, as if to show that he would not entertain any doubt as to her willingness to respond to his requests. And so the black anger-cloud resting on Israel's present looks blacker still when contrasted with the Divine brightness and clearness of Israel's past. God has cast down the beauty of Israel, and that casting is as from heaven to earth. That which God has not remembered in the day of his anger is something which he had reckoned useful to himself, even as the footstool is useful to the king seated on his throne. Thus the extent of present anger measuies the extent of past favour.
II. How THESE FIGURES INDICATE THE EEALITT OF JeHOVAH'B WBATH. The Very
heaping up of these strong figures should make us feel very deeply that God's wrath is not itself a fij^ure. God's anger is not to be reduced to a mere anthropomorphism. We are misled in this matter, because human anger is never seen without selfish and degrading elements. An angry man, in all his excitement and violence, is a pitiable sight, but nevertheless it is possible for a man to be angry and sin not. The man who cannot understand the reality of God's anger will never comprehend the ideal of humanity. The sensitive musician would laugh to scorn any one who told him that, while he was pleased with harmony, he should not be disturbed by discord. Again and again Jesus was really and righteously angry, showing in this, not least, how he was partaker of the Divine nature. When we are in wrong ways and God is consequently against us, his opposition and displeasure must l>e shown in ways that cannot be mistaken.— T.
Ver. 6. — Jehovah reckoned as an enemy. 1. How fab was thebb bealitt undbb THIS afpeabance OF ENMITY ? God might look like an enemy, but it did not therefore follow that he was one. But even if Jehovah behaved himself like an enemy, it must
OH. IL 1.^22.] THE LAMEi^TATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 2S
also be asked whether there was not a necessity that he should do so. If Israel had to say, " Jehovah acts as an enemy towards us," Jehovah had to say, " My people act as an enemy towards me." These people had now for a long time heen travelling in the wrong way, and it was in the very nature of things that the more they advanced the more opposition should multiply and hecome intensified. God not only appeared to be an enemy, but in certain respects he really was an enemy. He hated tlie evil that had risen to such a height among those whom he had taken for his own. Our love for evil is ever the measure of his hate of it ; and the more determined we are to cling to it, the more his hostility will appear. God himself always keeps in the same path of law and righteousness and order. When we, according to our measure, follow in his foot- steps, then real opposition there cannot be ; but the moment we think fit to become a law to ourselves and do what is right in our own eyes, then inevitably he must oppose us.
IL This ranurr was largely in appeabanoe only. When Israel said that Jehovah was as an enemy, they got their idea of enmity from the hostile proceedings of individuals and communities. But God cannot be the enemy of any man as men are enemies one to another. His motives are diiferent and so are the results of all his opposition. One man forming hostile plans against another acts from malicious motives, or at all events from selfish ones. There is no basis of reason in what be does. He is not hostile to the lower in order that he may show himself friendly to the higher. Besides, we must not look merely at outward manifestations of enmity. There may be the deepest enmity and greatest power of inflicting injury where outwardly all looks harmless. Those who profess to be our friends and whom we reckon to be our Mends may yet inflict worse injuries than all avowed enemies taken together. God is the true Friend of every man, however he may be thought at times to put on the appearance of an enemy. — ^Y.
Ver. 9. — The prophetic office suspended. There is something of a climax about this statement that the prophets find no vision from Jehovah. Jeremiah has already spoken of God destroying the outward resources and defences of Jerusalem. Next, he mentions the exile of the king and the chief men, and then, as if to hint that it was a still greater calamity, he tells us how the prophet had no longer anything to see or to say. He did well to magnify his own o£Bce ; for no office could be more important than that of the man whom God chose to communicate needed messages to his fellow-men. Observe—