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THE PROPHET JEREMIAH
Introduction
This book starts with information concerning the person of Jeremiah,
the time when he was called to the office of a prophet, and the period
of time during which he exercised his ministry.
Jeremiah means "exalted of the Lord," or, "established by the Lord."
He was the son of Hilkiah. Some have identified the father of Jeremiah
with the high-priest Hilkiah, who was such a power in Josiah's great
reformation work. This is incorrect. The high-priest Hilkiah was of the
line of Eleazar, as recorded in 1 Chronicles 6:4, 13. The father of the
prophet Jeremiah was, we read in the first verse of this book, of the
priests that were in Anathoth; the priests who lived there were of the
line of Ithamar. (See 1 Kings 2:26; 1 Chronicles 24:3, 6.) Anathoth, the
home of Jeremiah, was in Benjamin, about three miles northeast of
Jerusalem.
The first time the Word of the Lord came to young Jeremiah, for he
was but a child, was in the thirteenth year of King Josiah, or just a
year after the eventful reformation accomplished by that good man. We
know but little of the activity of the prophet during the subsequent
reign of Josiah. Only one message is timed "in the day of Josiah the
king" (3:6). In the history of that illustrious king of Judah, we read
nothing of Jeremiah, with the exception of the brief statement "and
Jeremiah lamented for Josiah" (2 Chron. 35:25). It seems that the third
verse gives the period covering the larger part of the ministry of this
prophet. The Word of the Lord came unto him "also in the days of
Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the
eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, unto
the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month."
The book which bears this prophet's name abounds in personal
allusions. In fact no other prophet in his character, in the exercise of
his soul, and in his experience is so fully portrayed as Jeremiah; not
even Ezekiel and Daniel whom, with Habakkuk and Zephaniah, were his
contemporaries. The study of this great man of
God is deeply interesting.
He has been called "the weeping prophet" and is generally known by
that name. No other prophet wept like Jeremiah. That outburst in his
lamentations, "For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye, runneth down
with water" (Lam. 1:16) shows how tender hearted he was, and how his
tears flowed freely. But he was something else beside the weeping
prophet. He was a man of great courage, with the boldness of a lion. In
the presence of His Lord he was prostrate and broken, one who trembled
at His Word, filled with godly fear. He was a man of prayer and faith in
the Lord and faithful in the discharge of his great commission.
His Life of Service and Suffering
His lot was one of great solitude; he was divinely commanded to
remain unmarried (16:2). He was forbidden to enter the house of joy and
feasting (16:8). Reproach and derision were his daily portion (20:8). He
was betrayed by his own kindred (12:6), and his fellow citizens at
Anathoth wanted to kill him (11:21). Then, in the first part of his book,
we read of the inner struggles he had, the spiritual conflict, when
everybody was against him. In the bitterness of his spirit he spoke of
himself as "a man of contention to the whole earth" (15:10). He even
doubted whether his whole work was not a delusion and a lie (20:7), and
like Job he cursed the day of his birth (20:14). When the Chaldeans came
to the front and Jeremiah heard from the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar was
called as His servant to receive the dominion from His hands (27:6),
Jeremiah urged submission. This stamped him as a traitor. False prophets
appeared who contradicted him with their false messages; he committed
his cause to the Lord. On one occasion when the temple courts were
filled with thousands of worshippers, he appeared and uttered the
message that Jerusalem would be a curse, that the temple should share
the fate of the tabernacle at Shiloh (26:6). Then the great conflict
began. The priests, the false prophets and the people demanded his death
(26:8). The Lord graciously protected him through chosen instruments.
Still greater were his sufferings under Zedekiah. His struggles with the
false prophets continued; they called him a madman (29:26), and urged
his imprisonment. He then appeared in the streets of Jerusalem with
bonds and yokes upon his neck (27:2), showing the coming fate of Judah.
A false prophet broke the offensive symbol and gave a lying message that
the Chaldeans should be destroyed within two years. Then the Egyptian
army approached, and the Chaldeans hastened away; it created a dangerous
condition for Jeremiah. He sought to escape to his home town Anathoth;
it was discovered, and he was charged with falling to the Chaldeans as
others did (37:14). In spite of his denial, he was thrown into a dungeon.
Later he was thrown into the prison pit by the princes to die there.
From that horrible fate he was again mercifully delivered. When the city
fell, Nebuchadnezzar protected his person (39:11), and after being
carried away with other captives as far as Ramah, he set him free. It
was left to him whether he would go to Babylon to live under the special
protection of the king, or remain in the land with the governor Gedaliah.
He chose the latter. But Gedaliah was murdered by Ishmael and his
associates. Then the people forced him to emigrate with them to Egypt.
The last glimpse of the prophet's life we have of him is in Tahpanhes,
uttering there a final protest and a great message. Nothing is known of
the details of his death.
"He is preeminently the man that hath seen afflictions (Lam. 3:1).
He witnessed the departure one by one, of all his hopes of national
reformation and deliverance. He is forced to appear as a prophet of evil,
dashing to the ground the false hopes with which the people were deluded.
Other prophets, Samuel, Elisha, Isaiah, had been sent to arouse the
people to resistance. He has been brought to the conclusion, bitter as
it is, that the only safety for his people lies in their acceptance of
that which they think is the worst evil, that brings on him the charge
of treachery. If it were not for his trust in the God of Israel, for his
hope of a better future to be brought out of all this chaos and darkness,
his heart would fail within him. But that vision is clear and bright,
and it gives to him, almost as fully as to Isaiah, the character of a
prophet of glory. He is not merely an Israelite looking forward to a
national restoration. In the midst of all the woes he utters against the
nearby nations, he has hopes and promises for them also. In that stormy
sunset of prophecy, he beholds, in spirit, the dawn of a brighter day.
He sees that, if there is any hope of salvation for his people, it
cannot be by a return to the old system and the old ordinances, divine
though they had once been. There must be a New Covenant. That word,
destined to be so full of power for after ages, appears first in his
prophecies. The relations between the people and the Lord of Israel,
between mankind and God, must rest, not on an outward law, with its
requirements of obedience, but on an inward fellowship with Him and the
consciousness of entire dependence. For all this the prophet saw clearly
there must be a personal center. The kingdom of God could not be
manifested but through a perfect righteous man, ruling over men on earth.
They gather round the person of Christ, the Jehovah Zdidkenu--THE LORD
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, the Son of David,
Israel's coming king."
The Authorship of Jeremiah
The book begins with "The words of Jeremiah," and it closes with
chapter 51:64 with the statement, "thus far are the words of Jeremiah."
The final chapter is an addition of a historical character. That
Jeremiah must be the author of the greater part of the book is proven by
the many personal references which only the prophet himself could have
written. No other prophet was so frequently commanded to write as
Jeremiah was. "Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in
a book" (30:2). "Take thee the roll of a book and write therein all the
words that I have spoken" (36:2). Then Baruch witnessed that he wrote
all these words which came from Jeremiah's lips in a book (36:18); and
when the roll was burned the Lord said, "Take thee again another roll,
and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll"
(36:28). "So Jeremiah wrote in a book" (51:60). Who are the men who try
to make us believe that Jeremiah did not write these words? Baruch, his
secretary, who took the dictations from the lips of the prophet (36:27)
may have arranged, under the direction of Jeremiah, the different
prophecies. The language used is the language of his time and is tinged
with Aramaic. The style does not compare with that of Isaiah.
There are, of course, many difficulties in connection with the
text. For instance, the Greek version (the Septuagint) differs more
widely from the Hebrew than that of any other portion of the Old
Testament. Numerous passages like 7:1-2, 17:1-4, 23:14-26, etc., are
omitted in the Greek version. Inasmuch as the Hebrew is the oldest and
the Septuagint was made from the Hebrew, the latter is the correct text.
The critical school has made much out of these apparent difficulties and
the disorder and unchronological character of the book. Therefore
Jeremiah has suffered just as much in the dissecting room of the
destructive critics as Isaiah and Moses. Thus Peake in his commentary
on Jeremiah uses nine symbolic letters to show which is which.
J. Which stands for the prophecies of which Jeremiah is most likely
the author.
S. This stands for certain supplementers.
JS. This stands for the words of Jeremiah worked over by a
supplementer; nobody knows who he was.
B. This means Baruch and his production.
BS. This means that Baruch's words were supplemented by some more
unknown supplementers.
R. This stands for Redactor, whoever he was.
I. Here we have an unknown author who, according to the critics, wrote
chapter 10:1-6.
K. Here is another unknown gentleman, the author of 17:19, etc.
E. This letter denotes extracts from 2 Kings.
It is of little interest to quote the ramblings of Duhm, Ryssell,
Hitzig, Renan and others about the authorship and compilation of
Jeremiah. Not one of these scholars agrees. They have theories but no
certainties. How simple it is to believe the beginning and the end of
this book, that here are "the words of Jeremiah. And though King
Jehoiakim tried to destroy these words, they still live and they will
live on in our days, in spite of the successors of the wicked king, the
professors of apostasy, who are trying to give Christendom an abridged
Bible.
That the book appears disjointed and is unchronological is no
argument against its authenticity. The Companion Bible gives the
following: "The prophecies of Jeremiah do not profess to be given in
chronological order; nor is there any reason why they should be so
given. Why, we ask, should modern critics first assume that they ought
to be, and then condemn them because they are not? It is the historical
portions, which concern Jehoiakim and Zedekiah that are chiefly so
affected; and who was Jehoiakim that his history should be of any
importance? Was it not he who cut up the Word of the Lord with a
penknife and cast it into the fire? Why should not his history be cut
up? Zedekiah rejected the same Word of Jehovah. Why should his history
be respected?"
The Message of Jeremiah
His message is first a message which charges the people with having
forsaken Jehovah. The sins of the people are uncovered, especially the
sins of false worship and idolatry. Connected with this are the appeals
to return unto the Lord with the promises of the mercy of Jehovah. The
impenitent condition of the people is foreseen and judgment is
announced. Then follow the messages which make known Jehovah's
determination to punish Jerusalem, and further announcement of the
impending judgment. But while Jeremiah gave the messages of warning of
the coming disaster of Nebuchadnezzar's conquest, he also received
prophecies concerning the future. Thus in chapter 23 we find a great
prophecy of restoration. He speaks of the days when the righteous Branch,
the King, is to reign, when Judah will be saved and Israel dwell safely.
Who that King is, every believer knows. His name is "Jehovah our
Righteousness." It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Greater still is the great
prophecy contained in chapters 30-31. Here we find the prophecy of the
new covenant to be made with the house of Judah and the house of Israel.
Chapter 33 contains another prophetic restoration message. Chapters
46-51 contain prophecies against Gentile nations.
The personal experience and the sufferings of this prophet are of a
typical character, like the experiences and sufferings of other men of
God in the Old Testament. The following passages make Jeremiah a type of
Christ: Chapter 11:19, 13:17, 20:7 (last sentence), 20:10, 26:11, 15;
Lamentations 1:12, 3:14.
The Divisions of Jeremiah
We have already referred in the introduction to the charge made by
the critics that the book of Jeremiah is unchronological and lacks
proper arrangement. Says one critic, "as the book now stands, there is
nothing but the wildest confusion, a preposterous jumbling together of
prophecies of different dates." Attempts have therefore been made to
reconstruct the book on a chronological basis, but none of these are
satisfactory. on the other hand, some able scholars have come to the
conclusion that we possess the book substantially in the same state as
that in which it left the hands of the prophet and his secretary Baruch.
We believe this is correct. If Jeremiah was guided by the Spirit of God
in writing and dictating his great messages, he wrote them down just as
the Spirit wanted to have them written down. If some things appear
disjointed, or out of the chronological order, there must be some wise
purpose in it. We shall discover this as we proceed with the analysis
and in our annotations.
To enjoy fully the book of Jeremiah a good knowledge of the
historical setting is eminently necessary. We have given many references
in the annotations which will help in this direction.
We call attention first to the two main divisions of the book. The
first constitutes the greater part of the book, from chapters 1-45. This
portion has the full ministry of the prophet during the reign of Josiah,
the brief reign of Jehoahaz (Shallum; see chapter 22:10-12); the reign
of Jehoiakim, Jehoiakin (Coniah) and the reign of Zedekiah. The second
division contains the prophecies against Gentile nations, that is
chapters 46-51. The last chapter is an appendix corresponding in its
history to 2 Kings. Some have looked upon this appendix as the
introduction to the Lamentations.
The prophecies historically according to the reign of Josiah,
Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiakin, and Zedekiah may be arranged as follows:
Under the Reign of Josiah. The call of Jeremiah and probably the greater
part of chapters 1-6.
Under the Reign of Jehoahaz. The prophecy contained in chapter 22:10-12.
Under the Reign of Jehoiakim. Chapters 7-20, 25-26, 35-36, 46:1-12,
47, 49.
Under the Reign of Jehoiakim (Coniah, Jeconiah). Chapters 22 and 23.
Under the Reign of Zedekiah. Chapters 21, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30-34, 37-44,
46:13-28, 50 and 51.
We make the following divisions for the study of this book:
I. THE PROPHET'S CALL TO REPENTANCE, THE NATION'S IMPENITENCE,
AND THE JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED (1-13)
II. THE PROPHET'S MINISTRY BEFORE THE FALL OF JERUSALEM, THE
PROPHECIES OF JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF
JEREMIAH, HIS FAITHFULNESS AND HIS SUFFERING (14-39)
III. AFTER THE FALL OF JERUSALEM (40-45)
IV. THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE GENTILE NATIONS (46-51)
V. THE HISTORICAL APPENDIX (52:1-34)
The different subdivisions will appear in the analysis.
Analysis and Annotations
I. THE CALL To REPENTANCE, THE IMPENITENCE OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE
JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED
CHAPTER 1
The Call of the Prophet
1. The introduction (1:1-3)
2. The divine call (1:4-10)
3. The renewed call and the first visions (1:11-19)
Verses 1-3. The first three verses introduce us to the person of
the prophet, to the time the Word of the Lord came unto him, and to the
sphere of his ministry. Jeremiah's father, Hilkiah, was a priest of the
line of Ithamar; his home was Anathoth of Benjamin. (See general
introduction.)
Verses 4-10. "Then the Word of the LORD came unto me" (verse 4).
The prophet is the writer who tells us how he was called into the office
of a prophet. A sovereign, omniscient and omnipotent Lord speaks to and
informs the young Jeremiah that He knew him, that his call was prenatal.
He had been chosen and set apart for the specific work which he now was
to undertake. (See Isa. 49:1; Gal. 1:15, 16). What comfort this assuring
knowledge must have been to the prophet in his trying ministry, in the
persecutions which were his portion and the suffering he passed through!
The Lord had called him, the Lord knew all that would take place, and He
had the power to sustain him. And he is the same Lord today, and
Jeremiah's comfort is still the comfort of His trusting people.
Jeremiah expresses at once his fear. Like Moses (Exodus 4:10), he
manifests self-distrust. He was but a child, not in the sense of a mere
child, but a youth. The Septuagint translates it, "I am too young."
After that the Lord encouraged him by the promise of His presence, "I am
with thee to deliver thee." Then He touched his mouth and said, "Behold,
I have put my words in thy mouth." He was the mouthpiece of Jehovah, Who
commissioned him to fulfill a ministry over nations and kingdoms, to
announce the overthrow of them by the judgments of the Lord.
Verses 11-19. Some think that this renewed call came in the
beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. There is nothing in the text to
indicate this. The first vision is that of the rod of the almond tree.
The Hebrew word for almond is "Shakad," which means to watch, to wake
early. It is the first tree which shows the return of spring. It denotes
the early fulfillment of the judgment purposes of the Lord. The vision
of the seething pot toward the north denotes the coming invasion by the
kingdom of the north, that is, the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.
Then follows the renewed commission with a threat in case of
disobedience; if his fearfulness would lead him to abandon
the commission. More than that, the Lord, knowing the fears of the
servant He had called and separated, encouraged him and once more
promised him, "I am with thee saith the LORD, to deliver thee."
CHAPTERS 2:1-3:5
Expostulation and Impeachment
1. His love and kindness to Jerusalem (2:1-3)
2. The unfaithful people (2:4-11)
3. The two evils and the results (2:12-18)
4. Impeachment (2:19-30)
5. Expostulation (2:31-37)
6. Jehovah waiting to show mercy (3:1-5)
Verses 1-3. The first message Jeremiah received begins with
reminding Jerusalem of the kindness Jehovah bestowed upon the nation in
her youth, and how she went after Him in the wilderness. He had
separated Israel to belong to Him, to be a holy nation, the first fruits
of His increase, which probably means that other nations should through
Israel be called to know Him. He was their protector and those who tried
to devour them would be held guilty.
Verses 4-11. After Jehovah had called to the remembrance of the
people the days of her youth, He reproves them for their unfaithfulness.
This is the opening chapter of the roll which Jehudi read in the
presence of Jehoiakim, which he threw into the fire after he had
mutilated it with his penknife (chapter 36:23). The remonstrance starts
with a pathetic question: "What iniquity have your fathers found in Me,
that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are
become vain?" Was there anything unrighteous in Him: had He dealt in a
treacherous way? Was the fault in Jehovah that they had left Him? They
had not thought on His faithfulness as He had led them out of Egypt,
through the desert and the shadows of death. It was forgotten by them,
and when Jehovah brought them to the land of promise they had defiled
the land. Priests, pastors and prophets had apostatized. Thus Jehovah
states His case to plead with them and their children. Their folly and
ingratitude were worse than that of heathen nations. Such was the
failure of the favored nation. The failure of Christendom is even
greater when we think of the greater manifestation of God's love in the
gift of His Son, and the greater blessing and deliverance.
Verses 12-18. The two evils are, forsaking Jehovah, the fountain of
living waters, and the hewing for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. Jehovah was the storehouse of the living waters,
put at the disposal of His people without money and without price. But
instead of confessing, "All my springs are in Thee," they had left Him,
the source of life and comfort; and turned to broken cisterns of their
own invention, as well as to the idols and worshipped them. It is so
among the professing people of God in this dispensation; the two evils
are present with us also. The result for Israel was enslavement. The
young lions came (the Assyrian invasion) and made the land waste. Noph
(Memphis) and Tahpanhes (Daphnae), that is, Egypt, did the same. It came
as the fruit of having forsaken the fountain of living water.
Verses 19-30. The impeachment begins with the solemn statement:
"Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou
hast forsaken Jehovah Thy God, and that my fear is not in Thee, saith
the Lord GOD of hosts." They had broken the covenant and played the
harlot. The noble vine He had planted had degenerated. Their iniquity
was marked before the Lord, and nothing that they did could remove the
stain (verse 22). Yet they denied their guilt of going after idols. And
when the Lord tells them, "withhold thy foot from being unshod," that is,
running so much after strange gods, so that the feet become unshod, by
wearing out the sandals, they boldly declared, "There is no hope; no,
for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go." Their backs and
their faces were turned from Jehovah. But when the time of trouble
comes, they will say, "Arise, save us." But could or would the false
gods they had made respond and save them? Some day a remnant of that
nation will turn to the Lord and cry, "Arise, save us," and He will
answer.
Verses 31-37. Israel's conduct was incomprehensible. Once more it
is the "Why" of Jehovah. What had He done that they should turn away
from Him? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet
His people had forgotten Him, who had loved and adorned them, days
without number. He will plead with them because they said, I have not
sinned.
Chapter 3:1-5. Here is the first time the gracious invitation is
given, "Return again to Me, saith the LORD." And how many times after,
the Lord pleads in the riches of His mercy for His people to return unto
Him and offers them forgiveness.
The Call to Repentance and judgment Announced (3:6-6:30)
CHAPTER 3
1. The contrast between backslidden Israel and treacherous Judah
(3:6-11)
2. The call to return and the promised glory (3:12-18)
3. The future true repentance predicted and anticipated (3:19-25)
Verses 6-11. The message which begins with the sixth verse was
given to Jeremiah during the reign of Josiah. There is then, first of
all, a contrast between Israel (the ten tribes) and her sister Judah.
(Compare with Ezekiel 23.) The house of Israel, the northern kingdom was
judged first by the Lord. She played the harlot; after she had done so,
the Lord said, "Turn thou to Me." She refused, and her treacherous
sister the house of Judah saw it. And when the Lord dealt with the house
of Israel in judgment and they were carried away, Judah did not fear but
played the harlot. The tenth verse proves conclusively that the
reformation under Josiah was not a true spiritual revival: "And yet for
all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto Me with her
whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD."
Verses 12-18. Here is a message to be proclaimed toward the north,
calling on backsliding Israel to return. He promises mercy to them. One
hundred years before, the house of Israel had gone northward as captives.
The Lord knew where they dwelt and sent them this message of mercy. He
knows today where the house of Israel is, the ten tribes, and at some
future time the gracious offer given here will be consummated in their
return. These verses are prophetic. They speak of the time when the
chosen people will return. Then Jerusalem will be called "the throne of
the LORD." Israel will be converted. All the nations will be gathered
unto the Name of Jehovah; the house of Judah with the house of Israel
will be reunited. That will be when the King our ever blessed Lord comes
back.
Verses 19-25. What the future true repentance of the people will be
is here predicted and anticipated. There will be weeping and
supplications. They will acknowledge that true salvation is in the Lord.
They will confess their sins and their disobedience.
CHAPTER 4
1. True repentance and what it means (4:1-4)
2. The alarm sounded: judgment comes (4:5-13)
3. The doom of the rebellious people (4:14-22)
4. The desolation of Israel's land through judgment (4:23-31)
Verses 1-4. A return must be a return unto Him, Jehovah; anything
less is insufficient. Their abominations must be judged and put away.
Every return of backsliders must be in the same way--a true return to
the Lord with confession of sin, self-judgment, and abandonment of evil.
The circumcision of the heart means regeneration. (See chapter 31:31-34,
and Ezek. 36:26.)
Verses 5-13. This is the first definite announcement of the coming
judgment from the north, which Jeremiah had seen in the vision of the
boiling pot toward the north (chapter 1). The lion who comes, the
destroyer of the Gentiles, who makes the land desolate, is
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. It is a very vivid description of
the approaching judgment. Verse 10 means not that Jeremiah is
reproaching the Lord for having deceived the people. Jeremiah did not
preach peace, but the false prophets did. They came and spoke in the
name of Jehovah, that there should be peace; and Jehovah permitted as a
judgment these prophets, and the message of these prophets. And thus
they were deceived.
Verses 14-22. The doom of Jerusalem and Judah is sealed; there can
be no escape. Their ways and their doings brought all upon them. And
when Jeremiah hears it from the lips of the Lord, he breaks out in a
lament: "My bowels, My bowels! I am pained at my very heart. My heart
maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O
my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war."
Verses 23-31. Then the prophet has a vision of what will happen to
the land of Israel, when the judgment threatened above has passed over
it. The unscriptural invention and wicked teachings of Seventh Day
Adventism applies this passage to the whole earth and teaches that when
the Lord comes the whole earth will be laid waste. Like Isaiah 24, only
Israel's land is in view. It must be not overlooked that the Lord said:
"The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end." This
is Israel's hope.
CHAPTER 5
1. The apostate conditions of Jerusalem (5:1-9)
2. The impending judgment (5:10-18)
3. Sowing and reaping (5:19-29)
4. The horrible thing (5:30-31)
Verses 1-9. So degenerate had the inhabitants of Jerusalem become
that the Lord promised if but one man could be found in the city who
executed judgment and sought the truth, He would pardon Jerusalem. It
was a general apostasy. A similar apostasy is predicted for the end of
our age. "Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh shall He find the
faith on the earth?" "They were foolish, saith the Lord; they broke the
yoke and burst the bonds; they have refused to return. They were as fed
horses in the morning; every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Shall I not visit these things, saith the Lord; and shall not my soul be
avenged on such a nation as this?"
Verses 10-18. The judgment messages had not been believed by the
people (verse 12). What the invader from the north will do to Israel is
described in verses 15-18. Again the promise is given, "I will not
make a full end with you." The Lord keeps in the midst of His people
a remnant.
Verses 19-29. Their sowing was bringing a harvest. They asked,
"Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us?" He
answers them that they had sown their evil seed in forsaking the Lord
and serving strange gods; the harvest would be serving strangers in a
strange land. The good things promised had been turned away by their
sins and iniquities. The question of verse 9 is repeated in verse 29.
And what was true of that generation, is true of this present age
also. The seed which is being sown is Bible rejection; the rejection
of the gospel of Christ, the seed of apostasy, will bring a harvest
of judgment as it did with Israel.
Verses 30-31. False prophets, false priests and the people were
satisfied with it. How is it going to be in the end? Both prophets
and priests were in league against the prophet of God. They misled
the people; they were a curse instead of a blessing. It is not unlike
the religious conditions in Christendom today.
CHAPTER 6
1. The call to the children of Benjamin (6:1-8)
2. Corruption and the deserved judgment (6:9-26)
3. The prophet addressed (6:27-30)
Verses 1-8. The children of Benjamin are exhorted to flee for
safety on account of the evil from the north. There were probably
among the Benjamites God-fearing men. Those who heeded the call fled
and escaped. It is a warning message which follows: "Be thou
instructed, O Jerusalem, let my soul depart from thee; lest I make
thee desolate, a land not inhabited." But they heeded it not.
Verses 9-26. They did not hear because they had uncircumcised
ears, neither had they delight in the Word of the Lord. How true this
is today of the great mass of professing Christians! The Lord will
now no longer restrain His fury; He will pour it out upon them.
Covetousness, the love of money, as it is in our day, was the
controlling passion. Prophet and priest dealt falsely; their one
message, like the one message of the prophet and priest today, was
peace, peace, when there was no peace. Then once more the judgment
from the north is announced (verses 18-26).
Verses 27-30. In the final paragraph of this chapter the Lord
speaks intimately to the prophet. He is encouraged and strengthened.
He is set as a tower and as a fortress. What a position of honor! May
we consider it as we are as His believing people surrounded by the
flood of apostasy; that we, too, are called to be a tower and
fortress.
The Prophet's Temple Address (7-9)
CHAPTER 7
1. Amend your ways and your doings (7:1-15)
2. No prayer-answer to be expected (7:16-20)
3. Sacrifices rejected; Obedience demanded (7:21-28)
4. Jerusalem's rejection (7:29-34)
Verses 1-15. We call this next address of the prophet "the
temple address," because he was commanded to stand in the gate of the
LORD's house. There he stood, a solitary figure, and said: "Hear the
Word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to
worship Jehovah." Their worship was but external. They trusted in the
temple of the Lord, as if with the house itself some kind of a blessing
was connected and the house would shield them from disaster. Micah gives
the same delusion of the apostate people: "Yet will they lean upon the
LORD, and say, is not the LORD among us? no evil can come upon us"
(Micah 3:11). Such a false trust in ordinances and outward worship is
only too evident in Christendom also. The masses of unsaved people with
their religious observances think it is a protection and insures the
Lord's help and blessing. They trusted in lying words. They were thieves,
murderers, adulterers, perjurers and idolators, and they thought if they
go to the house of the LORD they would be delivered from these
abominations. The Lord calls upon them to amend their ways and their
doings, to work a better righteousness. They had made His house a den of
robbers. This verse (verse 11) was quoted by our Lord in Matt. 21:13. He
tells them of the fate of Shiloh when it was overthrown on account of
the wickedness of Israel; such would be the fate of the temple (Psa.
78:60). They would be cast out as the whole seed of Ephraim had been
cast out.
Verses 16-20. The Lord told the prophet that no prayer of
intercession would be answered. "I will not hear thee." What a word this
is, coming from Him, who had told Israel to cry unto Him and He would
answer. They had provoked Him by making cakes to the queen of heaven.
They had fallen in with the worship of a female idol, so prevalent among
the idolatrous nations which surrounded them, like the Phoenicians, the
Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Babylonians. The Babylonian Venus,
Ishtar, was called by them the queen of heaven. The Assyrian called her
Beltis, the female form of Baal; they placed in the sculpture a star
over her head and called her "the mistress of the heavens." The
Phoenicians worshipped this "queen of heaven" under the name of
Ashtoreth or Astarte. This wicked worship, with which all kinds of
immoral ceremonies were connected, had been adopted by the Jews. The
women made cakes to present to this goddess. Jewish tradition tells us
that the image of the idol was stamped on each cake. This worship of
"the queen of heaven" is perpetuated in the mystical Babylon, Rome, the
great whore and mother of harlots (Rev. 17). Mary is called by Romanists
"the queen of heaven" and "mistress of the heavens." It can be proven
that Mariolatry is but the continuation of the Babylonish worship of the
goddess they called "queen of heaven." If the Lord was provoked to anger
because the women of Israel brought cakes to this queen of heaven, how
much more is He provoked to anger with the idolatries of papal Rome?
Verses 21-28. He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no
command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought
them out of Egypt. Destructive critics have built upon this verse (22) a
puerile argument to prove that the law of sacrifices was not given by
Moses, but introduced many centuries later. When the Lord first led them
out of Egypt, He gave them no laws as to sacrifices, but asked obedience.
They harkened not; nor did they in Jeremiah's day. It is a nation that
obeyeth not the voice of the Lord, nor receiveth correction.
Verses 29-34. The hair was cut off as a sign of mourning (Job 1:20).
Jerusalem is to lament in the high places. They have defiled His house.
On the heights of Tophet, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, they had
burned their children as a sacrifice to Molech (2 Kings 23:10). The days
were now to come when the same place should become the place of
slaughter. The carcasses of the people should then be meat for the beasts
of the earth; they should lie there unburied. Such was to be Jerusalem's
rejection and judgment.
CHAPTER 8
1. The horrors of the invasion (8:1-3)
2. Hardened hearts and retribution (8:4-12)
3. Utter destruction threatened (8:13-17)
4. The prophet's lamentation (8:18-22)
Verses 1-3. These verses must not be detached from the preceding
chapter. The division of chapters is often unfortunate in this book. The
invaders from the north would even have digged out the bones of the dead.
Kings, priests, prophets and people who had worshipped the sun, the moon
and the stars should be exposed and spread out before the sun and moon,
remain unburied and become dung. We doubt not that all this was
literally done during the Chaldean invasion.
Verses 4-12. They did not repent of their wickedness. Theirs was a
perpetual backsliding. The stork knows his appointed time; the turtle,
the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming, but they had
hardened their hearts in such a manner that they knew not the judgment
of the Lord. Hence the retribution (9-12).
Verses 13-17. The thirteenth verse shows the desolation which will
fall upon the land when the Lord arises. The words of verses 14-16 were
spoken by the prophet and not by the impenitent people as some take it.
The 16th verse is extremely vivid.
Verses 18-22. His heart was faint in him. He is overwhelmed with
sorrow. The harvest was passed, the summer gone and they were not saved.
It is a mournful outburst.
CHAPTER 9
1. The prophet's complaint and Jehovah's answer (9:1-9)
2. The cause of desolation and destruction (9:10-16)
3. The call for the mourning and wailing women (9:17-22)
4. Glorying in the Lord in view of judgment (9:23-26)
Verses 1-9. Here again is a deplorable break. The opening verses of
this chapter belong to the preceding one. The prophet still speaks. He
is overwhelmed with sorrow; his eyes are fountains of tears. He weeps
day and night over the slain. He wishes himself away in some wilderness,
to be alone and separated from the adulterous generation. Then follows a
description of the moral corruption of the people. The Lord answered him
and once more asks the question: "Shall not I visit them for these
things? saith the LORD; shall not my soul be avenged on
such a nation as this?" (See chapter 5:9, 29.)
Verses 10-16. Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a den of dragons.
The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because
they forsook His law, obeyed not His voice, and practiced idolatries.
Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be
scattered among the nations.
Verses 17-22. The time of wailing and mourning is at hand. "For
death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to
cut off the children from without and the young men from the street."
Pestilence was to sweep over them and enter into their habitations.
Hence the call to the professional wailers to sing the mournful dirges
of death. These wailing women are also called "wise women," for they
dabbled in magical, occult things, in familiar spirits and in
soothsaying.
Verses 23-26. The days were coming when judgment would strike Jews
and Gentiles, for the uncircumcised Gentiles and for Israel,
uncircumcised in heart. In view of these days of judgment the prophet
exhorts to stop their boasts in wisdom, in might and in riches, for all
availeth nothing. "But let him that glorieth glory in Me, that he
understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD which exercise
loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness, in the earth, for in these
things I delight, saith the LORD." May we also glory in Him and not in
the things of the dust, the temporal, the passing things, which are but
for a moment! Let us remember "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
CHAPTER 10
The Vanity of Idols
1. Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven (10:1-5)
2. The contrast: The vanity of idols and the Lord, the King of
Nations (10:6-18)
3. The affliction of the prophet and his prayer (10:19-25)
Verses 1-5. The heathen paid attention to the signs of heaven, such
as eclipses, comets, meteoric showers, etc. They were dismayed at these
things. All they did, their customs and observances in connection with
idol worship, was nothing but vanity.
Verses 6-18. Idols are nothing, but the Lord God of Israel is all.
He is the King of Nations, who rules over all. He is the true God, the
living God, the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth trembles and
the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. He made the
earth by His power; He established the world by wisdom; He stretched out
the heavens by His discretion. But what is man? Brutish in his knowledge.
Verses 19-25. Here we see how Jeremiah identified himself with the
afflictions and sorrows of Jerusalem. In his prayer he pleads that the
judgment might be only for correction and not for a complete and
perpetual consummation. "O LORD correct me, but with judgment; not in
thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." He calls for judgment upon
the nations. Well may we see in pleading Jeremiah, the weeping prophet,
who is afflicted in Jerusalem's affliction, who identified himself with
his people, a type and picture of Him who is greater than Jeremiah.
CHAPTER 11
The Broken Covenant and the Plot Against Jeremiah
1. The broken covenant (11:1-17)
2. The plot revealed and Jehovah's answer (11:18-23)
Verses 1-17. Jehovah had made a covenant with His people. He tells
the prophet about it and the responsibility which was connected with
that covenant. They were to obey His voice. Then should they be His
people and He their God. And of this covenant it was written, "Cursed be
the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant." The prophet
answered the Lord: "So be it LORD" (Amen). Then he is commanded to
proclaim this covenant and tell the people that they had broken the
covenant. They had followed the evil example of their fathers. They had
burned incense to the idol gods. Therefore the prophet again is told not
to pray for this adulterous generation, "for I will not hear them in the
time they cry unto Me in their trouble." Yet the Lord in spite of it all
still calls them "My Beloved," though they had broken the covenant and
worked lewdness. Verse 16 is used by the Spirit of God in Romans 11, the
chapter which begins with the assurance that God has not cast away His
people. The branches of the green olive tree are broken. Yet there is
hope; they are still beloved for the Father's sake.
Verses 18-23. The Lord revealed unto him their doings. He was
ignorant of it, like a lamb or an ox brought to the slaughter. They
wanted to cut him off from the land of the living. He calls for
vengeance upon them, which is in full keeping with the law dispensation
and God's righteous government.
Righteousness characterizes the saint as well as love, and has its
place where there are adversaries to that love and to the blessing of
the loved people. It is the Spirit of prophecy, not the gospel, no doubt
because prophecy is connected with the government of God, not with His
present dealings in sovereign grace. Hence in the Revelation vengeance
is called for by the saint. (Synopsis of the Bible.)
The men of Anathoth had intimidated him by saying, "Prophesy not in
the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand." The Lord answers
him that their young men should die by the sword, and their sons and
daughters by famine. No remnant of them should be left.
CHAPTER 12
The Prophet's Prayer and the House Forsaken, Yet Compassion
1. The prophet's prayer (12:1-6)
2. The house forsaken, yet compassion (12:7-17)
Verses 1-6. In his outburst of grief and in great mental perplexity
Jeremiah states the old question, why does the righteous man suffer, why
does the wicked prosper? And then the prayer for His intervention. Such
will be again the case with the godly remnant in the end of this present
age. They will suffer and be persecuted as godly Jeremiah was and pray
as Jeremiah prayed: "Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and
prepare them for the day of slaughter." The imprecatory psalms are of
the same prophetic meaning. Jehovah's answer tells him that greater
trials were in store for him (verses 5, 6).
Verses 7-17. The house is to be forsaken. The dearly beloved is to
be given into the hands of the enemies. The sword of the Lord would now
devour them. But there is the warning to the nations who touch His
inheritance. He will deal with them in judgment as He dealt with Judah.
Then we find the promise, "I will return and have compassion on them."
This is still future. The compassion for Israel comes in the day of His
return.
CHAPTER 13
Signs, Warnings, and Exhortations
1. The linen girdle and the filled bottles (13:1-14)
2. Hear and give glory (13:15-21)
3. The justice of the judgment (13:22-27)
Verses 1-14. The prophet enacts a sign, that of the linen girdle.
After he had put on the girdle, he was told to hide it in a hole of the
rock of the Euphrates. After many days, he was commanded to dig for the
girdle. It was found marred and profitable for nothing. Was this only a
vision, or did the prophet actually make the long journey to the
Euphrates and then repeat it after many days? The latter is quite
improbable, nor can the command be called a vision. The question is what
river is meant, the river Euphrates or another river by a similar name?
The Hebrew word for Euphrates is "Perath," and the word river is
generally added to this word. In the text here it is missing. Now, three
miles north of Anathoth there was a small river by the name of "Parah"
(Joshua 18:23). It probably means this place to which the prophet was
commanded to go. Both words in the Hebrew spring from the same root.
The meaning of this symbolical action is explained. A girdle
belonged to the priest. Israel was called to be the priestly nation. As
a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so the Lord had chosen Israel
to cleave unto Him, "that they might be unto Me for a people," and for a
name and for a glory. And as the girdle had become marred and profitable
for nothing, so even would their pride, that in which they gloried as
the chosen people, be marred.
The bottles filled with wine, dashed one against the other, are the
symbol of their sin intoxication and their destruction.
Verses 15-21. How patient and merciful is Jehovah! He interrupts
His judgment message by calling on the people, whom He still loves, to
give ear and to give glory to Jehovah. It is the utterance of the
prophet, the outpouring of His love towards His people. The prophet
addresses the king and the queen: "Humble yourselves." And then his
heart seems to break in anticipation of their obstinacy. "But if ye will
not hear, my soul shall weep in secret places on account of your pride,
and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the
LORD's flock is carried away captive."
Verses 22-27. Wherefore? they asked. And He answers, "For the
greatness of thine iniquity ... because thou hast forgotten Me and
trusted in falsehood." Woe unto thee, Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made
clean? When shall it be? But could they do it themselves? "Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do
good, that are accustomed to evil." The new heart is needed (Ezek. 36);
the new birth of which the Lord spoke to the teacher in Israel.
II. THE PROPHET'S MINISTRY BEFORE THE FALL OF JERUSALEM,
THE PROPHECIES OF JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION,
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF JEREMIAH,
HIS FAITHFULNESS AND His SUFFERING
CHAPTER 14
The Great Drought, the Sword, the Famine, and the Pestilence
1. The description of the drought (14:1-6)
2. The prophet's priestly intercession (14:7-9)
3. The answer (14:10-18)
4. The renewed prayer (14:19-22)
Verses 1-6. The vivid description of the great drought is given in
these verses. The little ones sent forth for water returned empty handed.
It is the picture of distress.
Verses 7-9. And now the prophet's voice as intercessor is heard.
Like Daniel (chapter 9), in his great prayer Jeremiah acknowledges the
nation's sin as his own. But he trusts in the Lord and knows that He is
"the hope of Israel," the Saviour. Blessed statements of faith which
came from His lips: "Thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us--we are called
by Thy Name--leave us not" (verse 9)! The Saviour and hope of Israel has
surely not given up His people, though judgment had to do its work.
Verses 10-18. They wandered away from Him, saith the Lord in
answering Jeremiah. Their iniquities will be remembered and their sins
visited. This is the demand of a righteous God. He is not going to hear
their cry; the sword of the famine and the pestilence will consume them.
Jeremiah tells the Lord about the message of the false prophets. They
had promised peace, just as the false teachers in Christendom do today.
But they prophesied lies in His name; He had not sent them, nor
commanded them nor had He spoken to them.
Verses 19-22. What soul stirring petitions these are. It is not the
impenitent nation which speaks, but the prophet is pleading in the place
of the people and for them.
CHAPTER 15
The Prophet's Deep Soul-Exercise
1. The answer (15:1-9)
2. The prophet's grief and sorrow and Jehovah's answer (15:10-21)
Verses 1-9. The preceding prayer is now answered and the Lord tells
Jeremiah that if Moses and Samuel, these two great men of intercessory
prayer, were pleading, judgment would not be averted. What is in store
for those who are appointed to death, for the sword, for the famine, for
captivity, will be accomplished. There is no escape. They will be
removed among all kingdoms on account of Manasseh's great sin (2 Kings
21:11-15). The terrors of judgment are described in verses 7-9. Their
children will be taken; widows increase; the mother of seven children
faints, because they are all taken from her.
Verses 10-21. Jeremiah is overwhelmed. He pronounces a "woe" upon
himself and declares that his mother has given birth to one who is a man
of strife, of contention to the whole land. He has faithfully discharged
his duty; he loved his people and they hated him beyond measure. Every
one cursed him, as if he were a wicked man. What anguish of soul this
implies! But then the Lord was near to cheer and comfort him, as He is
near to us when we are in sorrow and all is dark and we are in despair.
It would be well with him and with those, who, like Jeremiah, trust the
Lord. But the remnant, too, would suffer with the nation's portion
(13-14). This brings out another prayer from Jeremiah's heart. He pleads
for revenge upon his adversaries, and then prays, "Take me not away in
Thy longsuffering, know that for Thy sake I have suffered rebuke." But
while he prayed he also used the Word of God. "Thy words were found, and
I did eat them." He fed on the bread of life. The word was unto him the
joy and rejoicing of his heart. He knew from the Word that he was called
by His Name. And we also can turn to the Word and feed on it. But how
few can say, "Thy Word is the joy and rejoicing of my heart." That Word
on which Jeremiah fed, which filled his sorrowful heart, led him to
separation. It will lead us also to separation in the evil day of
departure from God and the threatening judgment. He sat alone; He
refused to have anything to do with the assembly of mockers, those who
denied His Word and His Name, who listened to the false prophets with
their false message. Verse 18 must be interpreted in the sense that
Jeremiah speaks as representing the godly remnant of Israel. There was
such a remnant then in the midst of the wicked mass, there will be such
a remnant again in the future, during the great tribulation, or, as
Jeremiah calls that time, "The time of Jacob's trouble." They suffer in
the trials and judgments; they are fearful, yet trusting. Jeremiah is
representative of this remnant. The answer the Lord gives in verses
19-21 must be explained in the same light. Verse 21 will find its final
fulfillment of the future remnant when the Lord returns and redeems them
from the hand of the wicked and the hand of the terrible, the two beasts
of Revelation 13.
The Coming Calamities: Restoration Promised, Ruin Imminent
on Account of Judah's Sin and Concerning the Sabbath (16-17)
CHAPTER 16
1. The coming calamities (16:1-13)
2. The coming days of restoration and blessing (16:14-21)
Verses 1-13. In view of the coming calamities Jeremiah is bidden to
remain unmarried and not to raise a family. The verses which describe
the coming calamities need no further annotations.
Verses 14-21. The great dispersion was announced by the Lord in the
preceding verse: "Therefore will I cast you out of this land, into a
land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there ye shall
serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor." But is
this to last forever? Is this dispersion permanent? Will they always be
homeless wanderers? The next verse gives the answer: "I will bring them
again into their land that I gave unto their fathers." They will be
brought back from the land of the north and from all lands where they
had been driven. It will be a greater deliverance than the deliverance
out of Egypt. Critics have found fault with these verses: "They are out
of place here, but whether inserted by accident, or whether to modify
the painful impression of the prophecy of judgment in which they are
inserted, we cannot say" (Prof. A.S. Peake). They are not out of place,
nor inserted by some unknown hand. The Lord declares His gracious
purposes which will yet be accomplished. That these verses were not
fulfilled in the return of the small remnant from Babylon is obvious.
They will be fulfilled in the future, when the house of Israel and the
house of Judah will be re-established in the land. Then the so-called
"lost tribes" will be found again by Him for whom they were never lost,
"For Mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not hid from My face
neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes." He will send fishers and
hunters to bring them forth. It is the same of which our Lord
speaks in Matt. 24:31. The elect of whom the Lord speaks are not a
spiritual Israel, but the elect nation Israel. Then the voice of the
prophet is heard in verse 19 with a blessed prophetic declaration: "The
Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say,
Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity and things wherein there
is no profit." It denotes the conversion of the world, which--in
prophecy never precedes the restoration of Israel, but always follows
that great coming event. (See Rom. 11:12, 15; Acts 15:14-17).
CHAPTER 17
1. Judah's sin (17:1-4)
2. The curse and the blessing (17:5-11)
3. The worship of Jeremiah (17:12-18)
4. Concerning the Sabbath (17:19-27)
Verses 1-4. The sin of Judah was idolatry, engraven with a pen of
iron, the point of a diamond, upon their heart (from whence it proceeded)
and upon the horns of their altars. They had destroyed but a few years
before the asherim (translated groves, a kind of sacred post), and now
their children turned back to the abominable heathen cults. His anger
and judgment must now be their portion.
Verses 5-11. A curse is pronounced upon him who trusteth in man,
who departeth from the Lord. For such a one there is no hope; he shall
not see good; he must be an outcast, like the heath in the desert. And
such is the natural condition of man, his heart is departed from the
Lord, he trusteth in himself, making flesh his arm to defend and to
uphold. But blessing is for the man who trusteth in the Lord, whose hope
the Lord is. Verse 8 contains the same truth as Psalm 1:3. It is a
description of the God-fearing in Israel, who knew the Lord, trusted
and hoped in Him. He had called them to this place of blessing; He had
encouraged them to trust in Him; He had manifested His glory and His
power in their midst. But they turned away from Him, they leaned not on
Him, but on the arm of flesh, on Egypt. The heart is the source of it,
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The question, "Who
can know it?" is answered, "I the LORD search the heart." He has sounded
the depths of it and in His omniscience knew the shameful history of
Israel, and all their backsliding. So He knew and knows what we are, yet
in sovereign love and grace He has loved us and bears with His own.
Verses 12-18. The worship of the prophet stands here also for the
worship and soul exercise of the godly remnant of the Lord's people.
The sanctuary of the godly is the glorious high throne, that throne
which we know as the throne of grace. In verse 14 there is expressed by
the prophet in behalf of the God-fearing the need of His salvation. They
mocked the prophet, "Where is the Word of the LORD? Let it come."
So they will hate the remnant of the future (Isa. 66:5). And we know the
prediction in Peter's second Epistle (2 Peter 3). Verse 18 corresponds
to the imprecatory psalms. What Jeremiah prays, was fulfilled upon that
evil generation; and some day the imprecatory psalms will be fulfilled
when the Lord deals again in judgment with the nation.
Verses 19-27. Kuenen and other critics deny the Jeremianic
authorship of this passage. It is not out of keeping with the message of
the prophet. The Sabbath of which he is commanded to speak is the
standard of Israel's spiritual condition, for it is the weekly reminder
of Israel's covenant relation with Jehovah. If they neglected the divine
command, as they always did in their departure from the Lord, it was the
outward evidence that they had broken the covenant. If they really
returned to the Lord they would show it by keeping the solemn Sabbaths
and the Lord would bless them. But they obeyed not. This passage as well
as others is used by the pernicious Seventh Day Adventistic cult, which
denies grace and turns back to the law. But the Sabbath has nothing to
do with the Church, nor has the Church anything to do with the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is an institution of the law in connection with Israel. The
great documents addressed to the church, the Epistles, never mention the
Sabbath once, nor is there anywhere in the Epistles an exhortation to
keep the Sabbath.
CHAPTER 18
The Potter and the Clay
1. In the potter's house and the message (18:1-17)
2. The plot against the prophet and his prayer (18:18-23)
Verses 1-17. He was commanded to go to the house of a potter and
watch his work. The vessel Jeremiah sees fashioned out of clay is marred;
it did not turn out well. Then the clay was taken up again and made in
another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
Then came the message: "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as
this potter? saith the LORD. Behold as the clay is in the potter's hand,
so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel." If the creature of the dust
can do as he pleases with the clay, how much more the Sovereign God.
The Holy Spirit evidently uses this in Romans 9:20-32.
If a nation is threatened with destruction and that nation turns to
the Lord, He will repent of the evil pronounced upon them. This is fully
illustrated in the case of Jonah's prediction, God-given as it was, of
Nineveh's overthrow. Nineveh repented and the judgment was not executed
upon that generation. But if the Lord has promised a nation good and
that nation does evil in His sight, He will repent of the good He had
promised unto them. Thus the potter's action is used to convey a great
lesson, the lesson of God's sovereignty, to do as He pleaseth, yet
always in perfect righteousness. If Israel had owned then the sin and
guilt and turned to the Lord, He would have acted in sovereign grace
towards them. Their answer was: "There is no hope; but we will walk
after our own devices, and we will every one do the imaginations of his
evil heart." What depravity and wicked boldness these words reveal! They
refused to believe the message of the Lord. They pushed aside the hand
which would snatch them out of the fire. They acknowledged the evil
heart and deliberately declared to continue in wicked defiance of
Jehovah. And is it any better in professing Christendom today? The
answer of the Lord, an answer of kindness and long-suffering follows.
Verses 18-23. They arose in rebellion against the messenger of
Jehovah. They hated him. They would smite him with the tongue, malign
him, bring false accusations against him. But the man of God does not
take up their contentions. Like Hezekiah when the enemy reviled him,
Jeremiah turned to the Lord. He tells the Lord all about it. Then he
prays for judgment to fall upon them. Here once more we must look upon
these words prophetically. Such expressions as used by the prophet here
will, during the great tribulation, come from the lips of the remnant of
Israel, who suffer from their enemies and who righteously call for
heaven's vengeance, which will fall upon these enemies when Jehovah, our
Lord, is manifested in glory.
CHAPTER 19
The Broken Bottle
1. The broken bottle and the message (19:1-13)
2. The fate announced in the court of the Lord's house (19:14-15)
Verses 1-13. He was to get a potter's earthen bottle accompanied by
elders and priests, and go to the valley of the son of Hinnom. There he
should proclaim the words Jehovah would breathe into him. The message is
another judgment message and needs no further comment. In Tophet, the
valley of Hinnom, they had worked their abominations, burnt their sons
with fire. Now it should become the valley of slaughter, so that their
carcasses should be eaten by the fowls and wild beasts. He would cause
them to eat the flesh of their loved ones. It was fulfilled during the
siege of Jerusalem (Lam. 4:10). Then he broke the bottle as a sign that
thus the people and the city should be broken.
Verses 14-15. When the prophet returned from the valley of Hinnom
he took his place in the court of the LORD's house and declared the fate of the city.
CHAPTER 20
Pashur.-Jeremiah's Perplexity and Complaint
1. Pashur and Jeremiah (20:1-6)
2. Jeremiah's great perplexity and complaint (20:7-18)
Verses 1-6. A great scene now follows the message in connection
with the broken bottle. The great Pashur, the chief governor in the
house of the LORD had heard of the message. He smites Jeremiah and puts
him in the stocks, which must have been some form of cruel torture by
which the victim was rendered helpless, besides being exposed to the
vulgarity of the people who passed by and would taunt him. In this
position Jeremiah remained all night before the high gate of Benjamin.
In the morning he was released. He then speaks as only an inspired
prophet can speak. His name Pashur (which means "most noble") should now
be "Magor-missabib," which means "terror on every side." The awful fate
of Pashur and his own is predicted. He is dumb, perhaps even then
terror-stricken, as he looks into the flashing eyes of the man of God
and listens to the fiery words.
Verses 7-18. What follows now is a most passionate outburst,
revealing an unspeakable emotion of the soul, as perhaps nowhere else in
the prophetic Scriptures. Even critics acknowledge this as "one of the
most powerful and impressive passages in the whole of the prophetic
literature, a passage which takes us, as no other, not only into the
depths of the prophet's soul, but into the secrets of his prophetic
consciousness." "LORD," he cries, "Thou has deceived me, and I was
deceived." The Revised Version has translated it, "Thou has persuaded
m," but that is not correct. He acknowledges himself deceived, or
enticed. He is troubled with doubt. He speaks of his great trials. He is
a laughing stock--he is a reproach and a derision all the day. He tried
to stop mentioning Him and not to speak any more in His name; but he
tried to turn back upon his commission. But then the
fire burned within him; his conscience became as a burning fire. He had
heard defaming, his best friends had said "We will denounce him." They
thought of taking revenge on him.
But suddenly faith is victorious. He must have remembered the words
of the Lord in connection with his commission, "For I am with thee saith
the LORD, to deliver thee" (chapter 1). And so he cries out, "The LORD
is with me." He prays to see His vengeance on his enemies, for unto Him
he had revealed His cause. And then the singing! "Sing unto the LORD,
praise ye the LORD; for He has delivered the soul of the needy from the
hand of the evil-doers." Such is the experience of the godly remnant in
fears an doubts, troubled on all sides, fleeing to Jehovah, till the
singing times come, when He appears for their deliverance and the
hallelujahs will sweep the earth and the heavens.
But his grief overwhelms him. Perhaps he thought again of all the
sneers and mockeries, of all the harsh words, the unfaithful friends and
the physical pain he endured. He is occupied with himself and the soul
struggle begins anew and culminates in a near collapse. He curses, as
Job did, the day in which he was born.
CHAPTER 21
The Prophetic Warning
1. Zedekiah's inquiry (21:1-2)
2. Jehovah's answer through Jeremiah (21:3-14)
Verses 1-2. It has been said that this chapter is historically
misplaced and therefore must be considered an evidence of the composite
authorship of this book. The Spirit of God for some reason unknown to us
has put it in this place. Zedekiah sent unto Jeremiah Pashur (a
different one from the Pashur in the preceding chapter) to inquire as to
Nebuchadrezzar, the King of Babylon. This is of course Nebuchadnezzar.
The form of his name found in Jeremiah is derived more correctly from
the Babylonian, which is "Nabukudurri-usur." Here the great king is
mentioned for the first time in Jeremiah. The wicked Zedekiah may have
remembered God's dealing with Hezekiah when the Lord annihilated the
army of Sennacherib, the Assyrian. Then Zedekiah said: "Peradventure the
LORD will deal with us according to all His wondrous works, that he may
go up from US."
Verses 3-14. Zedekiah (whose name was Mattaniah), the ungodly king,
who had been made king by Nebuchadrezzar after he had carried away
captives from Jerusalem, heard a message of judgment from Jeremiah. The
Babylonian king's army was again before the city, because Zedekiah had
revolted and broken his agreement with the king. How could Zedekiah even
imagine that a righteous Lord had a message of peace for him? The Lord
Himself will now fight against Jerusalem and its wicked king. The enemy
will do the appointed judgment work: "he shall smite them with the edge
of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy."
The king is to be taken captive. Then he addresses the people and the
house of David in no uncertain words, which need no further comment.
Concerning the Kings of Judah (22:1-23:8)
CHAPTER 22
1. The message in the house of the king of Judah (22:1-9)
2. Touching Shallum, the King of Judah (22:11-12)
3. Concerning Jehoiakim and his fate (22:13-19)
4. Concerning Coniah and his fate (22:20-30)
Verses 1-10. What a figure Jeremiah was as he stood, obedient to
the divine command, before the royal palace to deliver his God-given
message! The door of mercy still is open. Let them execute judgment, let
them stop oppressing the stranger, the widows and orphans, let them shed
no longer innocent blood, then the house of David shall prosper. If not,
the house shall become a desolation. The nations astonished at the
destruction and overthrow of the city will hear the answer that it is
"because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and
worshipped other gods and served them."
Verses 11-12. He is also called Jehoahaz (1 Chron. 3:15; 2 Kings
23:30, 31). He was carried away by Pharaoh-Necho into Egypt; he will
return.
Verses 13-19. This wicked king and his evil doings are described in
these verses. He was a cruel despot, who built his palaces by forced
labor; covetousness, shedding of innocent blood, oppression and violence
characterized his reign. Then his ignominious burial, the burial of an
ass, is predicted. It means that an ass has no burial and so Jehoiakim
would have no burial; he is the only king of Judah whose burial is not
recorded. It may be possible that Jeremiah added these words by divine
command, after this king had cut the roll to pieces and burned it in the
fire (Jer. 36). The prophet wrote the same words contained in the roll
(all these chapters beginning with chapter 2 constitute the roll the
king burned), and many others were added. Most likely because he had
done that wicked work in cutting the Word of God to pieces and casting
it into the fire, this special shameful end was announced. Beware you
cutters of the Bible, you mutilators of the Word of God, your end, too,
will be an ignominious end!
Verses 20-30. Coniah, also called Jehoiachin, Joiakim and Joachim,
after a brief reign of a few months had been carried away to Babylon
to die there. Then the prophet's voice breaks in with a mighty appeal,
"O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD." Every true believer
feels like shouting these words in the present days of departure from
God and rejection of His Word. Then there is a prediction as to Jeconiah,
"Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days;
for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David
and ruling any more in Judah." A curse was thus pronounced upon the
house of David in the line of Solomon. But there was still the line of
Nathan the son of David. Messiah, the Son of David, could therefore not
spring from the line of Solomon; he must come from the line of Nathan.
Joseph, the husband of the virgin Mary of Nazareth was a son of David
through the line of Solomon, the disinherited line; but Mary of Nazareth
was a daughter of David through the line of Nathan.
CHAPTER 23:1-8
1. The false shepherds (23:1-4)
2. The True Shepherd (23:5-8)
Verses 1-4. The word "pastors" means "shepherds." Ezekiel received
a larger message about these false shepherds, the hirelings who did not
feed the flock. (See annotations of Ezekiel 34.) The scattered remnant
of the Lord's flock (not the Church, but the remnant of Israel) will yet
be gathered out of all countries, be fruitful and increase, no longer
fearful, dismayed or in want. It is a prophecy concerning the time when
the Shepherd of Israel, their King as well, is manifested.
Verses 5-8. A great Messianic prophecy follows. "The Righteous
Branch," the Son of David, whose name is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"
(Jehovah Zdidkenu) is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the King who will
reign and prosper, executing judgment and justice in the earth. The
prophecy is unfulfilled. He came as the Son of David, the promised King.
He offered that kingdom to Israel; they rejected Him. But He is coming
again, and in that day of glory this great prediction will be accomplished.
His people Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:25-27). Their wonderful
restoration from the north and from all the countries will then take
place.
CHAPTER 23:9-40
Condemnation of the False Prophets
1. Jeremiah's lament on account of the false prophets (23:9-14)
2. The condemnation of these prophets (23:15-32)
3. Forgotten and forsaken (23:33-40)
Verses 9-14. The prophet is overwhelmed because of the wicked
prophets, because in the LORD's house wickedness was found. The false
prophets of Samaria had led the people into idolatry and the prophets of
Judah were guilty of all kinds of immoralities. Like priests, like
people; they all became unto the Lord as Sodom, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem like Gomorrah.
Verses 15-32. They will be fed with wormwood and will have to drink
gall. On account of their false message of peace (verses 17, 18), the
whirlwind of divine judgment will fall upon them and upon the head of
the wicked. They prophesied lies in the name of Jehovah; they were
prophets of the deceit of their own heart. They tried to make the people
forget the Name of Jehovah. Such is today still the work of apostate
teachers, who speak out of the deceit of their hearts, who prophesy lies
and who aim at the Name which is above every Name. How different is the
word of the Lord, from the idle dreams of these false prophets. "Is not
My word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh
the rock in pieces?" (verse 29). Three times the Lord declares He is
against these prophets (verses 30-32).
Verses 33-40. If they ask the question, "What is the burden of the
LORD?" the answer is to be, "I will cast you off." The burden, or word
of the Lord is not to be mentioned again to them. They will be utterly
forgotten and forsaken, with everlasting reproach and perpetual shame
upon them.
CHAPTER 24
The Two Baskets of Figs
1. The vision of the two baskets of figs (24:1-3)
2. The vision interpreted (24:4-10)
Verses 1-3. Jeconiah, with the choicest of the nation, had been
carried away into captivity. A large portion remained, and were not
taken away, and these attributed their escape from exile to some
goodness in them. At that time the prophet had a vision. He saw set
before the temple two baskets of figs. The one basket was filled with
good figs, the second basket with bad figs.
Verses 4-10. The good figs are symbolical of those who were carried
away into captivity. They were sent away for their good. He promises
them good things. They are going to return; He is going to build them;
He will plant them. More than that, He will give them a heart to know
that He is the Lord. "For they shall return unto Me with their whole
heart." They are never to be plucked up. This prophecy evidently goes
beyond the return of the small remnant from Babylon, yet partially at
least it was fulfilled. The bad figs are those who remained with
Zedekiah in Jerusalem, but they also should be removed into all the
kingdoms of the earth, "to be a reproach, a proverb, a taunt and a
curse.
CHAPTER 25
The Seventy Years' Captivity and the Judgment of the Nations
1. The retrospect (25:1-7)
2. The seventy years' captivity announced (25:8-11)
3. The punishment of Babylon and its king (25:12-14)
4. The wine-cup of fury for the nations (25:15-29)
5. The day of the LORD and wrath of God (25:30-38)
Verses 1-7. The prophet in the fourth year of Jehoiakim addresses
the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The fourth year
of Jehoiakim was also the first year of Nebuchadrezzar. In this eventful
year the battle of Carchemish was fought and Nebuchadrezzar defeated
Egypt. The supremacy of Babylon had been insured. At this critical time
the prophet gives a retrospect of his ministry among them. From the
thirteenth year of Josiah he had spoken to them, but they had not heard.
The Lord sent other servants, too, but they did not hear. He puts before
them their stubbornness and how they provoked the Lord to anger.
Verses 8-11. And now the solemn verdict is announced. The northern
power is coming against this land, headed by King Nebuchadrezzar, who is
here called for the first time by the Lord, "My servant." All mirth and
joy will be taken from them; the whole land shall be a desolation, and
they shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
Verses 12-14. When the seventy years are ended the Babylonian
nation and its king (Belshazar) would be punished for their iniquity.
All that is written in this book of Jeremiah, concerning Babylon is to
be accomplished (including the final desolation). Daniel in Babylon,
when he read the book of Jeremiah, dwelt perhaps on this passage, and
turned to the Lord in that remarkable prayer recorded in the ninth
chapter of the book which bears his name.
Verses 15-29. While the Lord thus judged Jerusalem, should the
other nations go unpunished? And He answers, "Ye shall not be unpunished,
for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith
the LORD of hosts" (verse 29). This prophecy is most remarkable. It
predicts a world war. All nations shall drink and be moved and be mad
because of the sword. It includes all the kingdoms of the world which
are upon the face of the earth (verse 26). Have we not seen something
like this during the past, most horrible war of history? And may this
not be the prelude to the day of the Lord, when these nations will have
to face the judge and judgment?
Verses 30-38. The Yom Jehovah, the day of the LORD, is now
announced by the prophet. It is that great future day ushered in by the
visible and glorious manifestation of the Lord. All the prophets speak
of that day as the day of consummation and glory. It is equally
prominent in the New Testament (Matt. 24:30; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; 2 Peter
3:7-10; Rev. 19:11-21, etc.). Jeremiah beholds Him coming from above,
with a shout, not the shout with which He calls His own together (1
Thess. 4:17), but the shout of judging wrath. He will plead with all
flesh. The slain of the Lord shall be many. The howling of the shepherds,
the false leaders, because their end is come, concludes this great
vision.
CHAPTER 26
Threatened with Death and His Deliverance
1. The temple like Shiloh, and Jerusalem to be a curse (26:1-7)
2. Threatened with death (26:8-11)
3. Jeremiah's defense (26:12-15)
4. History remembered and the prophet's deliverance (26:16-24)
Verses 1-7. We are now taken back to the beginning of the reign of
Jehoiakim. (Compare with chapter 7.) The Lord still waits in patience
for their repentance. With holy boldness the prophet stands in a place
where the worshippers pass to enter the temple and announces the message.
The temple is to be like Shiloh, that is forsaken (Psa. 78:60).
Jerusalem is to be a curse.
Verses 8-11. Then he was arrested for his faithfulness and
threatened with death, "Thou shalt surely die." The priests and the
prophets were his accusers before the princes. How often this has been
repeated in the history of God's true witnesses! During pagan Rome as
well as papal Rome, the false priests and false prophets hated and
despised God's witnesses and persecuted them. It is so in our times.
Verses 12-15. He makes his defense in a few dignified words. He
tells them he is Jehovah's messenger. He tells them that he is in their
hands, but warns them if they kill him they shed innocent blood. This
courage was born of faith. He knows that he is in His hands.
Verses 16-24. The princes and people were deeply impressed and
declared that he was not worthy of death. This encouraged certain elders
to speak, in whose heart some fear seems to have been left. They
remembered the prophet Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah, who spoke
similar words in the days of Hezekiah (Micah 3:12). Hezekiah did not
have Micah killed. They warned against so rash a deed. They also
mentioned the case of the prophet Urijah, who had also prophesied, as
Jeremiah did. He had fled to Egypt, but was brought back, then Jehoiakim
killed him. We do not know why his case is mentioned in this connection,
unless it is to show the difference between good Hezekiah and wicked
Jehoiakim. Then Ahikam, the father of Gedaliah, who was governor under
Nebuchadnezzar, stood by him, and he was delivered.
CHAPTER 27
The Optimism of the False Prophets Contradicted
1. The call of Nebuchadnezzar to be the servant of God (27:1-11)
2. The call to submit and to serve the king of Babylon (27:12-22)
Verses 1-11. It was in the earlier part of the reign of Zedekiah
(Jehoiakim in verse 1 is a clerical error, see verses 3 and 12) that
Jeremiah is commanded to make bonds and yokes to put them on his neck;
then he was to send them to the surrounding nations by the ambassadors
at the court of Zedekiah. The verses which follow are of much importance
and interest. God speaks as Creator, and in His sovereignty He appoints
Nebuchadnezzar as head over the nations and over the beasts of the field,
also over the fowls of heaven (Dan. 2:38), not permanently, but for a
time. God appointed a new form of government, because Jerusalem had
failed, and the theocratic government as vested in the house of David
was to pass away. An imperial head is chosen by the Lord from among the
Gentiles. He constitutes Nebuchadnezzar His servant; with him and his
rule begin the times of the Gentiles. He is the golden head in the dream-image
he saw, which young Daniel interpreted by Divine revelation. The times
of the Gentiles are fully revealed in Daniel's great prophecies. The
predicted end of these times are not passed into history; we are still
living in the times of the Gentiles. They end with the second, visible
coming of Christ, when Gentile world-dominion, as it started with
Nebuchadnezzar, will end, and the kingdom of heaven begins.
This fact--that God has committed power in this world to a man--is
very remarkable. In the case of Israel, man had been tried on the ground
of obedience to God, and had not been able to possess the blessing that
should have resulted from it. Now God abandons this direct government of
the world (while still the sovereign Lord above); and, casting off
Israel whom He had chosen out from the nations, grouping the latter
around the elect people and His own throne in Israel, He subjects the
world to one head, and committing power unto man, He places him under a
new trial, to prove whether he will own the God who gave him power, and
make those happy who are subjected to him. when he can do whatever he
will in this world.
Whoever refuses now the new governmental order will be punished by
the Lord; the nations that put their neck under the yoke of
Nebuchadnezzar, to serve him, will remain in their land.
Verses 12-22. He speaks to the king and to the priests and calls
them to submit to the new government established with Nebuchadnezzar.
He urges them not to believe the lying prophets with their false,
optimistic message, who promised smooth things. Every message they
uttered, contradicted the Word of God. It is the same in Christendom
today. The rationalistic critics have a message of unscriptural optimism
concerning the conditions of this age, which contradicts everything made
known in the prophetic Word. Part of the vessels from the temple had
been carried away. The false prophets said that these vessels would
shortly be returned. The Lord dispels this lying message, for He reveals
through His prophet that the remaining vessels shall also be taken to
Babylon.
CHAPTER 28
1. Hananiah, the false prophet (28:1-11)
2. The judgment of Hananiah (28:12-17)
Verses 1-11. One of these lying prophets became very bold, and
declared that he had a message from the Lord that the yoke of the
Babylonian king was to be broken, and that within two years the temple
vessels would be brought back. Jeremiah said "Amen"--let it be so! But
he knew it could not be so, for the Lord had spoken to him; he gives a
test. Then Hananiah became still more arrogant. Jeremiah had about his
neck the yoke (chapter 27:2). Hananiah took it off and broke it and
declared again that within two years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar should
be broken. What applause he must have earned from the unbelieving masses
about him!
Verses 12-17. Instead of yokes of wood there should be yokes of
iron, the prophet tells Hananiah. He exposes him as a deceiver whom the
Lord had not sent, and announces his fate, that he should die this same
year. He died in the seventh month of the same year.
CHAPTER 29
Jeremiah's Letter to the Exiles
1. Jeremiah's letter (29:1-23)
2. Concerning Shemaiah and his false prophecies (29:24-32)
Verses 1-23. King Zedekiah sent Elasah and Gemariah on a diplomatic
mission to King Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah used the occasion to send a
letter by them to the exiles. The letter first of all makes it clear
that their stay in Babylon will not be transitory. They are to settle
down, build homes, many, rear families, take wives for their sons and
husbands for their daughters. They were to seek the peace of Babylon,
for Babylon's peace would mean their own peace. The latter injunction
has often been forgotten by the Jews during the past 1900 years, since
their great dispersion; often have they fomented strife among the
nations where they are strangers.
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return. Some of these
false prophets had gone with them to Babylon and were present in the
prison camp on the banks of the river Chebar. We read in Ezekiel 11:3
that they ridiculed the Divine command and gave wicked counsel. They
felt themselves secure. Ezekiel continued the message of Jeremiah. (See
annotations of Ezekiel.) Once more the seventy years are mentioned and
what is to take place after they have expired. "For I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace and
not of evil, to give you an expected end." He promises an answer to
their cry, and if they seek Him, He will be found. How gracious and
merciful He is towards His own! In His own time all His gracious
purposes will be fully accomplished in that nation, as they were
partially accomplished in the return of a remnant after the exile. Verse
14 speaks of the larger return "gathered out from all the nations." But
those who persistently continued in disobedience, who listened to the
false prophets will suffer the predicted fate; for such there will be no
deliverance. Two of the false prophets are mentioned by name, Ahab and
Zedekiah (not the king). Besides being false prophets, they were
adulterers and whoremongers. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the
fire (22-23).
Verses 24-32. Shemaiah, a Nehelamite, which means "the dreamer,"
was also in Babylon, and when the captives received the letter from
Jeremiah, he answered the letter. The letter was received by a certain
Zephaniah, of whom he inquired, "Why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of
Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you?" When Zephaniah
received this letter he read it to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the
Nehelamite as a deceiver, and his judgment is announced.
The Glorious Future of the Nation (30-31)
CHAPTER 30
1. The time of Jacob's trouble (30:1-11)
2. Zion's desperate condition and the promise of deliverance
(30:12-17)
3. Restoration and glory (30:18-24)
Verses 1-11. The critics have made havoc with this great prophecy.
De Wette, Hitzig, and other rationalists, claim to have discovered that this chapter, and those
which follow, are the work of the spurious "second Isaiah." The critics,
with their present day echoes in different colleges, reject these
chapters as not being Jeremianic. They are totally wrong. This great
prophecy, which begins with the thirtieth chapter, is quite in order
after all these judgment messages, announcing the doom of Jerusalem and
of the nation. What then about the future, that future which all their
fathers had cherished, the promises which rested upon the covenant
Jehovah made with David? Was now everything to be blotted out and no
national hope left? The last siege of Jerusalem was in progress; soon
all the threatened judgments would pass fully into history. How
perfectly in order is it that now should be given a message of the
glorious future of the nation.
Jeremiah is commanded to write in a book all the words Jehovah had
spoken; quite sufficient evidence that Jeremiah is the author and that
this book is not a patchwork of different supplementers, redactors and
compilers.
The first promise in verse three is concerning the coming days in
which the people Israel and Judah will return to their God-given land to
possess it. Has this promise been fulfilled? Expositors generally say
that it was fulfilled in the return from the captivity. But this is not
so. Here is a promised return not only of the house of Judah, but a
return of the ten tribes also. This has never taken place. In spite of
the "British-Israel" hallucination, every sane Bible reader realizes
that the house of Israel is still scattered among the nations. This
restoration promise will be accomplished in the future. Then we hear
what will precede that restoration. It will be a time of great trouble,
even the time of Jacob's trouble (Matt. 24; Mark 13), the great
tribulation revealed in other portions of the prophetic Word, notably in
Daniel and Revelation. When that time comes "Jacob will be saved out of
it." The yoke of the last Gentile world-power (the revived Roman Empire,
the ten-horned Beast of Dan. 7 and Rev. 13) will then be broken (verse
8) and they will serve the true David, David's Lord and David's Son, our
Lord (verse 9). Then follows the message of comfort. How well history
has confirmed this one sentence of verse 11: "Though I make a full end
of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full
end of thee."
Verses 12-17. Here is a reminder of Zion's desperate condition and
shameful history and how He had to chastise His people and wound them
with the wound of an enemy. Such is still their lot and will be down to
the end of this age, a people scattered and afflicted, devoured and
spoiled by the nations. But when the time comes, the time of mercy for
Zion, her enemies will be dealt with. In arrogant unbelief, these
nations, so called "Christian nations," said "Zion is an Outcast"--"whom
no man seeketh after" (verse 17); but the Lord says, "I will restore
health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds."
Verses 18-24. The city then will be built again. The voices of
praise and joy will be heard once more. He will glorify and increase
them. He will be their God and they shall be His people. The whirlwind
will strike "the head of the wicked," the wicked false king, the false
Messiah, Antichrist. The next chapter is the continuation of this great
prophecy.
CHAPTER 31
1. The home-going of the nation (31:1-9)
2. The joy of salvation (31:10-14)
3. The preceding tribulation, sorrow and repentance (31:15-21)
4. Assurance (31:22-26)
5. The new covenant (31:27-34)
6. The everlasting nation (31:35-40)
Verses 1-9. Sovereign grace will bring them back and give them the
songs of salvation. It is true of Israel "I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee";--it
is equally true of us. What a day of joy it will be when they go back
home once more, never to leave the old homeland again! Then the watchmen
on mount Ephraim cry, "Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God." Can there be
anything more touching and beautiful than verses 8-9?
Verses 10-14. The nations are addressed. oh! that the great nations
of today might have an ear to hear this message, "He that scattered
Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock." His
promises made to Israel will not fail. The nations should understand, as
they do not, that Israel will yet become the head of all the nations of
the earth. What singing that will be in that day of which the prophet
speaks (verse 12). What rejoicing after their sorrow! What fullness will
be theirs!
Verses 15-21. Rachel weeping for her children (verse 15) is quoted
in Matthew 2 in connection with the killing of the boys in Bethlehem. It
has also a future fulfillment, when once more Satan will manifest his
power as the murderer during the tribulation. But the promise, "They
shall come again from the land of the enemy" and "Thy children shall
come again to their own border," clearly shows that captivity is
likewise meant from which Rachel's children (Joseph and Benjamin, i.e.,
Ephraim) shall return after the final tribulation and weeping. Physical
resurrection is not in view here. Therefore, the next verse speaks of
Ephraim moaning and in repentance. Then God's gracious answer "Is
Ephraim my dear son?--I will surely have mercy upon him."
Verses 22-26. Backsliding Israel is exhorted and the assurance is
given, "A woman shall compass a man." It refers to Israel as the woman,
the timid, weak, forsaken one, who now will compass a man: that is have
power given unto her to become the ruler. (Some have translated this
difficult passage, "The woman shall be turned into a man.") Then follows
the promise of assurance.
Verses 27-34. In the preceding verse we read that Jeremiah awoke,
so that this message must have come to him in a vision by night, and
sweet was his sleep. How refreshing must have been to his troubled soul
this wonderful prophecy! The great prediction in these verses is the one
concerning the new covenant. This covenant is not made with Gentiles,
nor even with the church as so often erroneously stated. It is the new
covenant to be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
This is fully confirmed in the Epistle to Hebrews (Hebrews 8:8-13). The
old covenant is the law-covenant, which the Lord did not make with
Gentiles, but with Israel exclusively. The new covenant is of grace. The
ground of this new covenant is the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, His blood, as we learn from His own words when He instituted the
supper. He died for that nation, and therefore all Israel will yet
receive the promised blessing of this new covenant. This prophecy is
therefore still unfulfilled, for Israel does not enjoy this new covenant
now. In the meantime, while Israel has not yet the blessings of this new
covenant, Gentiles, who by nature are aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, believing in Christ,
possess the blessings of this new covenant to the full. In that coming
day of Israel's return, the nation, Israel and Judah, will be born again,
know the Lord, and their sins will be remembered no more.
Verses 35-40. This word of Jehovah is a complete answer to those in
Christendom who think that God has cast away Israel, that they are no
longer the chosen people. The Lord makes a condition, "If heaven above
can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all they have done saith
the LORD." Neither has heaven been measured, neither has the depth of
the earth been searched out, nor will this ever be accomplished. What a
faithful covenant-keeping God He is! Verses 38-40 have never been
fulfilled in the past.
CHAPTER 32
Jeremiah in Prison
1. Shut up in the court of the prison (32:1-5)
2. The revelation of the Lord concerning Hanameel (32:6-15)
3. The prophet's prayer (32:16-25)
4. Jehovah's answer (32:26-44)
Verses 1-5. The siege of Jerusalem began in the ninth year of
Zedekiah's reign. It was in the tenth year, a year later (39:1) that we
find Jeremiah in prison. In order to understand this imprisonment
Jeremiah 37:11-21 must be consulted. He was first thrown as a prisoner
into the house of Jonathan the scribe. It was a dungeon, perhaps some
underground place. He was consigned there. It was a horrible place, for
Jeremiah was afraid he might die there (37:20). Zedekiah seems to have
been somewhat favorably inclined towards him. He asked him secretly to
his palace and after Jeremiah told the king, in answer to his question
about a word from the Lord, that the king should be delivered into the
hands of the king of Babylon, Zedekiah on his request released him from
the dungeon and put him into the court of the prison, and was kept by
the king's order from starvation (37:21). Here, in our chapter, is the
full text of his faithful message; had it been less faithful he might
have been released.
Verses 6-15. The coming of his cousin with the request to buy his
field in Anathoth is divinely announced. The right of redemption was
Jeremiah's. (See Leviticus 25:25.) Hanameel came, and Jeremiah,
realizing that it was of the Lord, bought the field, paying for it seventeen
shekels of silver. The sale was legally transacted and executed; there
being two rolls, one sealed, the other open. It was all delivered to
Baruch, the faithful secretary of the prophet, mentioned here for the
first time. He was instructed to put all in an earthen vessel. By his
action the prophet proved his simple faith in the promised return.
Verses 16-25. What a beautiful prayer it is which came from the
lips of the prisoner! He acknowledges first of all, as we all do in
believing prayer the power of God, that there is nothing too hard for
the Lord. Then he speaks of the loving kindness and righteousness of the
God of Israel, and mentions the past history of the nation. What the
Lord had predicted against the city and the nation had been done; the
city was given to the Chaldeans. "What Thou hast spoken is come to pass;
and behold Thou seest it." He then mentions the fact that the Lord had
told him to buy that field. Then the prayer is interrupted, like
Daniel's prayer.
Verses 26-44. The answer the Lord gave to praying Jeremiah is
twofold. Jeremiah had said in faith, "There is nothing too hard for the
LORD." The Lord answered him, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all
flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?" Then He announces first of
all the fate of the doomed city (verses 28-35). After this comes once
more the message of comfort and peace looking forward to that blessed
future when Israel is gathered out of all countries, brought back to the
land--when they shall be His people (verses 36-44).
CHAPTER 33
New Message of Restoration and Blessing
1. The call to pray and Jerusalem's overthrow (33:1-5)
2. Future blessing and glory (33:6-14)
3. The Branch of Righteousness; Jerusalem's new name (33:15-18)
4. Jehovah's faithfulness (33:19-26)
Verses 1-5. Jeremiah is still in prison, as we learn from the first
verse. The siege of Jerusalem is on. Then the Lord said, "Call unto Me,
and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which
thou knowest not." What an offer and what an assurance! Then the Lord
speaks of the great and mighty things, announcing first the overthrow of
Jerusalem. The demolished houses of Jerusalem are coming to be used in
the defense to serve against the mounds and the sword. There will be
great slaughter. (The Hebrew text of verses 4 and 5 has many
difficulties.)
Verses 6-14. The next great and mighty things revealed are the
future blessings and glory. Health and cure, abundance of peace and
truth, a complete return from the captivity of both Judah and Israel,
cleansing from all their iniquity, complete forgiveness, all are
promised; and let it be remembered none of these promises has been
realized. Verses 9-13 also concern the future restoration of the land
and the city. What a day is yet to come when "the voice of joy, and the
voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the
bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of Hosts" is
heard, when Zion sings her beautiful redemption songs. "Behold the days
come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have
promised unto the house of Israel and the house of Judah." The delay may
be long and still deferred according to His eternal purposes; but at the
appointed time these days will surely come.
Verses 15-18. "In those days" in the coming days, the days of
blessing and glory, when Christ comes the second time, He, the Branch of
Righteousness will occupy the throne of His father David. (See Luke
1:32.) Then salvation for His people will have come, and the city will
receive a new name, the name of Him whose glory covers it, "THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS." Likewise will the temple worship be restored. (See
annotations on Ezekiel's millennial temple.)
Verses 19-26. This is similar to 31:35, etc. His gifts and calling
are without repentance. The Davidic covenant stands. He does not cast
away His people.
CHAPTER 34:1-7
Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah
The besieging army was before the walls of Jerusalem when the
prophet is commanded to go to the king and tell him that the city will
soon be burned. He announced also Zedekiah's fate. He could not escape,
but would be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon. He would
see Nebuchadnezzar eye to eye, speak with him mouth to mouth, and then
be taken to Babylon. Ezekiel said he should not see Babylon (Ezek.
12:13). Both statements are true. He saw the king as a prisoner at
Riblah and there his eyes were put out (2 Kings 25:6, 7), and then he
was taken away to Babylon. Yet he was not to die by the sword, but in
peace. And Jeremiah discharged faithfully his message.
CHAPTER 34:8-22
The Message of Condemnation
The king had made a covenant that all Hebrew slaves should be
released (Exodus 21:1-6; Deut. 15:12-18). The princes and people agreed,
but afterwards broke the covenant. The message of condemnation tells
them, since they had done this, that the Lord will set them free to fall
a prey to the sword, the pestilence and famine. The text explains itself.
CHAPTER 35
The Faithful Rechabites and the Unfaithful Jews
1. The command concerning the Rechabites (35:1-11)
2. The lesson for the Jews (35:12-19)
The Rechabites were Kenites and were numbered with the children of
Israel (1 Chron. 2:55). During the reign of Jehoiakim the incident of
this chapter happened. The critics may rave against the "unchronological"
construction of Jeremiah jumping from one period into another, but there
we see the guiding hand of the Spirit in the arrangement of these events.
It is perfectly in order that this should come next to the chapter which
relates the broken covenant. A careful reading and study of this chapter
will bring out the lesson of their faithfulness to their father's
command, and the unfaithfulness of the Jews to God's command.
CHAPTER 36
The Indestructibility of the Word of God
1. The writing of the roll (36:1-4)
2. The reading of the roll (36:4-20)
3. The king cuts and burns the roll (36:21-26)
4. The indestructibility of the Word of God (36:27-32)
Verses 1-4. Once more we are taken back to the fourth year of
Jehoiakim. Jeremiah is now commanded to commit all the words Jehovah had
spoken to him to writing. It was for the purpose that the people might
hear of all the evil and that they might yet consider it and turn to the
Lord to be forgiven. How gracious and merciful He is! He then dictated
all the words to Baruch, who wrote them down. But, asks a critic, how
could he remember all he had spoken? The same Spirit who communicated
the messages to him, re-communicated them to the prophet.
Verses 4-20. Jeremiah was "shut in," which, however, does not mean
that he was a prisoner (see verse 19); it probably means that he was
not permitted to enter the LORD's house on account of some ceremonial
impurity. So he sent Baruch, his amanuensis, to read the scroll to the
people on the fasting day, and when all the people had come together,
Baruch read the roll at the entry of the new gate. Michaiah, one of the
sons of Gemariah, was deeply moved by what he had heard, went to the
place where the princes sat in counsel and told them what he had heard
from Baruch's lips. Baruch was then commanded to appear before the
princes to read the roll to them. What they heard frightened them. They
declared they would tell the king.
Verses 21-16. The king sent for the roll. The king listened to but
a few of the leaves. Then, energized by the devil, he pulled out his
penknife, cut the roll, and, to make sure that the roll would be
destroyed, he cast it into the open fire, and with keen satisfaction he
watched till the roll was consumed. Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah
tried to keep him from doing this evil deed, but he refused to listen to
them. These three had at least some reverence for the Word of God, and
therefore the Holy Spirit records their names. The king was not
satisfied with this. His satanic anger was so aroused that he wanted to
have Baruch and Jeremiah apprehended. Like the mad king Saul, he
probably thought of killing them both. But the Lord hid them.
What Jehoiakim did, has been done over and over again. It is being
done today as never before in the history of Christendom. It is being
done by the destructive critics, in colleges and universities; it is
done by the men who have produced the Shorter New Testament and the
Shorter Old Testament, by those who advocate an abridged Bible, by
others who, like the English writer Wells, want a new Bible. The same
power of darkness is behind all these wicked attempts to mutilate the
Word of God. Jehoiakim's work is nothing in comparison with these
twentieth century infidels, because these aim at the most precious, the
most blessed revelation of God, the doctrine of Christ. Their
condemnation will be far greater than that of the Jewish king.
Verses 27-32. But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might
just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Neither God nor His Word
can ever be affected by the efforts of men inspired by the enemy of the
truth of God. The Word of God endureth forever. It is, like God, eternal.
How the Bibles have been burned a thousand times over again! In pagan
Rome and papal Rome Satan has raged against the Bible. His Word lives on.
And now the devil, camouflaged as an angel of light, in the guise of
"devout scholarship" and "reverent criticism" tries it again. His Word
lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the
Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us. Jeremiah is told to take
another roll. Once more the Lord dictates the same words to him, and
Jeremiah again dictates them to Baruch, "with many like words,"
including a judgment message of the miserable end of the wicked king.
Jeremiah and Zedekiah and the Fall of Jerusalem (37-39)
CHAPTER 37
1. Jeremiah's warning (37:1-10)
2. Jeremiah's arrest (37:11-21)
Verses 1-10. To understand more fully these chapters it must be
remembered that the besieging army before the gates of Jerusalem was
temporarily withdrawn, because an Egyptian army had appeared against it.
This was no doubt an occasion for the false prophets to preach their
false hope, so that the people were deceived. Once more Zedekiah sent to
the prophet a deputation (21:1) after Nebuchadnezzar had made him king.
The occasion was on account of the withdrawal of the Chaldean army
(verse 5). They thought that it was surely a good sign and expected a
favorable message. The false hope with which they were deceiving
themselves was swept away by the word of Jehovah as it came to the
prophet (verses 7-10). There was no hope and after Zedekiah had rebelled
(see our annotations on 2 Kings 24-25), the king of Babylon came and
burnt the city with fire.
Verses 11-21. When the Chaldean army had left, Jeremiah went forth
to go to his hometown Anathoth, for what is not revealed. He may have
gone to claim his portion which belonged to him as priest. When, in the
gate of Benjamin a captain arrested him, charging the prophet with
desertion, he denied the charge. Such a charge could easily be made on
account of Jeremiah's former exhortation to submit to the Chaldeans. He
is put in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; but later the
dungeon is changed to the court of the prison. (See the annotations to
32:2.)
We give a diagram which illustrates the chronology of the siege of
Jerusalem and the fall of the city.
I. The Siege begun in the ninth year
39:1 Siege begun
34:10 Manumission of slaves
II. The Siege raised temporarily in the ninth or tenth year
37:3-10= =21:1-7 Jeremiah consulted by deputies from the king.
34:8-22 Re-enthralment of slaves.
37:11-16 Jeremiah seized, and imprisoned in Jonathan's house.
III. The Siege renewed in the ninth or tenth year
37:17-21= =32:1-5 =34:1-7 Jeremiah brought in tenth year to be
secretly consulted by the king: put afterwards in court of guard
32:6-44 Field bought by Jeremiah.
33:1-26 Further prophecy in court of guard.
38:1-3= =21:8-10 Jeremiah advises people to desert to Chaldeans.
38:4-6 Jeremiah put in miry dungeon.
38:7-13 Jeremiah restored by Ebed-melech to court of guard.
38:14-28 Jeremiah consulted by king in third entry of Temple:
remanded to court of guard.
IV. The Siege ended in the eleventh year
39:1-14 city taken and destroyed.
CHAPTER 38
1. Jeremiah in the dungeon and his rescue (38:1-13)
2. Jeremiah with Zedekiah: His last appeal (38:14-28)
Verses 1-13. Jeremiah is next accused of high treason. The charge
is based on his message, given to him by the Lord: "He that goeth forth
to the Chaldeans shall live." Like the conscientious objectors during
the past war, they accused him of being unpatriotic. "This man seeketh
not the welfare of this people, but the hurt." They demand his life. In
the sixth verse we see him in a deep dungeon, into which he was put by
means of ropes. And Jeremiah sank into the vile mire. This reminds us of
Him, our blessed Lord, who was also accused by false witnesses, and who
went Himself into the horrible pit and the miry clay, into the deepest
suffering and the jaws of death, to take us out of the dungeon, where
sin has put us. The wicked princes evidently meant to leave Jeremiah in
that dungeon to suffer a horrible death.
But the servant of the Lord was not in the hands of the princes,
but in the hands of his Master. God chooses for the deliverer a slave,
an Ethiopian, Ebed-melech (servant of the king). The heart of this
Ethiopian eunuch was touched with pity. He goes to the king, who seems
to have been ignorant about what had been done to Jeremiah and tells him
that Jeremiah is likely to starve to death in the filthy hole where they
had put him. The king commands the eunuch to act at once with
thirty men to deliver Jeremiah. With what tenderness, to spare the man
of God all needless pain, Ebed-melech carried out the king's wish (verse
12)!
Verses 14-28. This is a great dramatic scene. Zedekiah sends once
more for Jeremiah. We suppose the filth of the dungeon was still
clinging to the prophet's garments. The king wants to know something.
"Hide nothing from me," he demands. He may rest assured that the
prophet of holy courage hides nothing. But Jeremiah asks two questions:
"Wilt thou not surely put me to death? And if I give thee counsel, wilt
thou not hearken unto me?" The first question the king answers: "I will
not put thee to death." The second question he leaves unanswered. His
heart was hardened like Pharaoh's heart.
He gives him once more the message of Jehovah: Go forth to the king
of Babylon, acknowledge his authority, believe in My Word and thou shalt
live and thine house; then Jerusalem will not be burned. But if not,
then you cannot escape and the doom of the city is sealed. The king
shrinks from such a surrender. Terrors of an imaginary kind seize hold
on him. He fears the Babylonian king will deliver him into the hands of
the Jews who had deserted already, and that they would mock him and
ill-treat him. Jeremiah pleads once more. It is his final appeal: "Obey,
I beseech thee, the voice of the
LORD." But the king refuses. The final request he made of Jeremiah but
reveals his miserable character. The last interview has ended. Jeremiah
remains in the prison and was there when Jerusalem was taken.
CHAPTER 39
1. The fall of Jerusalem and the fate of Zedekiah (39:1-9)
2. Nebuchadnezzar's kindness to Jeremiah (39:10-14)
3. Ebed-melech's reward (39:15-18)
Verses 1-9. The Word of God comes true; the prophecy of Jeremiah is
vindicated! The mighty army of Nebuchadnezzar returned to the city; for
many months the siege goes on under indescribable suffering. How
horrible it must have been! Then the city fell and the victors rushed
in; the work of slaughter and burning began. According to Jewish
tradition it was on the ninth day of the month Ab. On the same date in
the year 70 of our era, the city was destroyed again and the temple
burned, announced some forty years before by one greater than Jeremiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Ever since, Jerusalem has been trodden down by
the Gentiles and is so still. The prophetic Word tells us of a final
great tribulation which will sweep over the land, and the restored,
unbelieving nation, and once more armies will gather before the city.
Zedekiah tried to escape with his men of war, but is captured.
Cruelly his boys are slaughtered in his sight--the last thing his eyes
beheld, for immediately after his eyes were put out. Bound with chains
he is led to Babylon. All the houses of Jerusalem go up in flames; the
walls are demolished and the remnant of the people are carried away
prisoners (52:4-16). The poorest are permitted to remain and were
treated mercifully. God remembers the poor and they are spared. For all
we know, these poor people, who had nothing, were the godly, those who
wept over the conditions and who cried to God for help. Their prayer,
the prayer of the needy, was answered.
Verses 10-14. And if the poor were remembered, the prophet was
likewise treated with great kindness. The Babylonian king commanded:
"Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him
even as he shall say unto thee." Nebuzar-adan found the great man of God
in the prison. The princes had to come and take him from the prison
house of humiliation. What an exaltation! He dwelt among the people. He
cast his lot with the poor, who had nothing. We doubt not Nebuchadnezzar
knew much of the history we have followed, that which transpired in
Jerusalem during the siege. Perhaps he even knew the great messages
concerning himself. But it was
the Lord who made him act as he did. His loving eye was open above His
servant, who had served so faithfully.
Verses 15-18. And now the deliverer of Jeremiah, the Ethiopian
eunuch, receives his reward. This message was previously given before
the city fell into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, when Jeremiah was still
in prison. It is put here into this place for a very definite purpose,
which once more answers the puerile charges of the critics.
It is when judgment comes that the faithful are rewarded. This is
the lesson. While the ungodly fell and were carried away, the poor
remained and were spared; Jeremiah is well treated, and Ebed-melech
receives his reward. So will it be when the Lord comes.
III. AFTER THE FALL OF JERUSALEM (40-45)
CHAPTERS 40-41
The Treachery in the Land and the Flight to Egypt
1. Jeremiah's choice (40:1-6)
2. Gedaliah and Ishmael's deed (40:7-41:3)
3. Ishmael's further atrocities and retreat (41:4-18)
Verses 1-6. The opening paragraph of this chapter tells us of the
choice which was given to Jeremiah. He was loosed from the prisoner's
chains and told by the captain of the guard "If it seems good unto thee
to come with me into Babylon, come and I will look well unto thee, but
if it seem ill unto thee to come with me to Babylon, forbear; behold all
the land is before thee, whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee
to go, thither go." Jeremiah decided to stay with his people in the land.
Verses 40:7-41:3. The history of this section is as follows:
Gedaliah had been made governor by the victorious king. When the
captains heard it they came to him at Mizpah and Gedaliah exhorted them
to loyalty to the Chaldeans. Then Gedaliah is warned that Baalis, the
King of Ammon, has sent Ishmael to assassinate him, but Gedaliah refuses
to believe the report. Then Johanan declares himself ready to kill
Ishmael, so that the dreadful results of the murder of the governor
Gedaliah might be averted. Gedaliah thinks it is all slander and forbids
it. In the seventh month Ishmael, with ten men, who are being
entertained by Gedaliah, murders him and all the Jews and Chaldeans,
who are present. It is a horrible story.
Verses 41:4-18. The next day Ishmael met eighty men who came from
the north; he invited them to come to Gedaliah, who was dead in his
house. When they came to the place he slew them, except ten men, who
offered to reveal to him hidden treasures of food. Then he carried off
all the rest of the people who were left in Mizpah, to go to the land of
Ammon. When Johanan and the captains heard of what Ishmael had done,
they pursued him unto Gibeon, but Ishmael with eight men escaped to the
Ammonites. Johanan took those whom they had rescued out of the clutches
of the monster Ishmael, and, fearing the Chaldeans, purposed to go to
Egypt.
CHAPTER 42
1. Jeremiah the intercessor (42:1-6)
2. The answer from Jehovah (42:7-22)
Verses 1-6. The remnant, the few who were left after the terrible
happenings recorded in the preceding chapter were now cast upon the Lord
and besought the prophet to pray for them: "That the LORD thy God may
show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do." They
believed in Jeremiah as a man of God. He promises to do so, and when the
answer comes he will not keep back anything.
Verses 7-22. The answer came ten days later. Then the word of the
Lord came unto Jeremiah. If he had spoken of himself, sat down and
thought out by himself what they were to do now he would have waited ten
days. But it was not his counsel, not his opinion or advice; the Lord's
answer to the divine counsel is that they should abide in the land and
that the king of Babylon would not hinder them in any way. Then the Lord
would plant them and build them up. The Lord promises them mercies and
salvation. But if they went down to Egypt, the Lord's anger would be
upon them and judgment would overtake them.
In their hearts they had a desire to go to Egypt. He who is the
searcher of hearts knew all about it. They used deceit, and now the Lord,
knowing that they would not obey, announced through the prophet that
they should die by the sword, the famine and the pestilence.
CHAPTER 43
1. The rebellion against Jeremiah (43:1-7)
2. Jeremiah's prediction about the conquest of Egypt (43:8-13)
Verses 1- 7. No sooner had Jeremiah finished communicating the
divine answer, but the captains and the proud men denounced him. They
charged him that he spoke falsely, that all he had said was at the
instigation of Baruch, that both were traitors. Then the leaders did not
obey the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land; they took the remnant
of Judah (verse 5 is explained by 40:11-12) all the people, including
Jeremiah and Baruch, to lead them down to Egypt, and finally they
settled in Tahpanhes (Daphne), which was in the northeastern part, on
the road out of Egypt to Palestine.
Verses 8-13. Then Jeremiah was commanded by the Lord to take great
stones and bury them at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, so
that all the men of Judah could be witnesses of it. In 1886 the
Egyptologist, Professor Petrie, excavated at Tahpanhes a brick pavement
before a kind of a palace, which probably was the place where Jeremiah
hid the stones. The ruin was Kasr el BintJehudi, which means, "the
palace of the daughter of Judah," the place evidently assigned to the
daughters of Zedekiah. (See verse 6.) The word brick-kiln means a
pavement of bricks. Then, after having buried the stones, he announced
that Nebuchadnezzar would come and set his throne there also, that he
would conquer Egypt, smite it and burn the idol temples there. Such an
invasion took place about 568 B.C., when the Egyptian King Amasis was
defeated. The pillars mentioned in verse 13 are obelisks, and
Beth-Shemesh means "the house of the Sun" (Heliopolis or On).
CHAPTER 44
1. The message to the Jews (44:1-10)
2. Their punishment (44:11-14)
3. Worshipping the queen of heaven (44:15-19)
4. Jehovah's answer (44:20-28)
5. The sign: Pharaoh-Hophra's Defeat (44:29-30)
Verses 1-10. The message is concerning all the Jews who were now
dwelling in Egypt. Besides being in Tahpanhes, they were also in Noph
(Memphis) and in Pathros, which was in the upper Egypt. Not long ago
ancient papyri in Aramaic were discovered which show that there was a
Jewish colony in that part of Egypt. Jeremiah reminds them in his
message how God had dealt with Jerusalem and Judah on account of their
idolatries, though He had sent prophets to warn them. And now they were
doing the same thing in Egypt. "You too bring now utter ruin upon
yourselves and all your own."
Verses 11-14. This announces their coming punishment. "Behold I
will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Israel." They
are to be punished as Jerusalem was.
Verses 15-19. What heart-hardness to say to the man of God, "We
will not hearken." They intended to perform their vows to worship "the
queen of Heaven." All they said was, it was well with us when we
worshipped the queen of Heaven in the homeland. The women seem to have
been concerned mostly in this, but they did so with the knowledge and
the consent of their husbands. See about the queen of Heaven and the
worship, chapter 7 and the annotations there. They claimed that all the
disaster which had come on them was the result of abandoning their evil
practices. What defiance and wickedness, the fruit of their unbelieving
hearts! Still greater is the defiance and wickedness of today, when the
cross and the gospel of Christ are deliberately rejected.
Verses 20-28. The answer is plain enough, and they heard what their
fate would be for their deliberate unbelief and disobedience. These are
solemn words, and the Lord said, "They shall know whose Word shall stand,
Mine or theirs." God's Word will always stand, and so will those who
stand by the Word of God and put their trust in it.
Verses 29-30. He gives them a sign that such will be the case.
Hophra is to be given into the hands of his enemies. This happened a
few years before Nebuchadrezzar defeated Amasis, who had succeeded
Hophra.
CHAPTER 45
This is the shortest chapter and contains a special message to
Baruch, the companion and secretary of the prophet Jeremiah. It must be
noticed that this did not take place in Egypt, where now the prophet and
his friend sojourned, but it was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Baruch
had just finished writing the words which Jeremiah dictated. It was no
doubt a strenuous task, and when Baruch laid down his pen, the work
having been finished, the Lord sent him a special message, showing that
He had not forgotten the faithful scribe. He, too, was deeply exercised
over the existing conditions; he shared the grief and sorrow of the
prophet. But there must have been a measure of disappointment in
Baruch's heart. Had he expected some special recognition? Was he seeking
something for himself, expecting great things? Had he planned and was he
lifted up with some high ambition? It would seem that such was the case,
for He who knows the thoughts of His creatures from afar said to him:
"And seeketh thou great things for thyself? Seek them not." It is the
very heart of the old nature to seek great things, to be ambitious for
earthly possessions and honors, to please oneself. God's people need to
watch against this more than against anything else. It is the very crime
of the devil, pride (1 Tim. 3:6). Every high ambition must be dethroned;
the only ambition worthy of a child of God is to please Him, who lived
on earth, never pleasing Himself, who made of Himself no reputation. How
it ought to ring in our hearts daily: "Seeketh thou great things? Seek
them not." Seek not recognition in this poor age; wait for His day. And
Baruch is assured of God's protection and care.
IV. THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE GENTILE NATIONS
CHAPTER 46
Concerning Egypt
1. Prophecy about Pharaoh-Necho (46:1-12)
2. Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Egypt (46:13-26)
3. A message of comfort (46:27-28)
Verses 1-12. This Pharaoh made an attempt to invade the territory
of the king of Babylon, but was defeated by Nebuchadrezzar in a battle
on the river Euphrates at Carchemish. This prophecy was given about
eighteen years before the fall of Jerusalem. All was literally fulfilled.
Verses 13-26. This was given after the fall of Jerusalem, when the
remnant had gone to Egypt. (See chapters 43 and 44.) This also was
fulfilled. Verse 26 promises a future restoration of Egypt. Compare this
with Isaiah's prophecy (19:19-25).
Verses 27-28. This blessed message of comfort also awaits its final
great fulfillment in the coming days of promised blessing for Jacob's
seed.
CHAPTER 47
Concerning the Philistines
This brief chapter is concerning the inhabitants of the borderland
of Canaan, called Philistia. This announced judgment was fulfilled a
short time after it was spoken by the prophet.
CHAPTER 48
Concerning Moab
1. The overthrow of Moab (48:1-10)
2. The humiliation of Moab (48:11-19)
3. Reaping what they sowed (48:20-28)
4. Destroyed on account of its pride (48:29-47)
With these divisions the chapter may be studied in detail. Moab was
of incestuous off spring (Gen. 19:37). Israel is now exhorted to flee
and save itself because Moab is to be destroyed. Moab's national deity
was Chemosh, who was also worshipped by the sister nation, the Ammonites.
Chemosh was probably the same as Molech. He is now to go forth into
captivity with his priests and princes. On verse 10 critics say: "This
bloodthirsty verse is surely not Jeremiah's." But they forget that the
whole prophecy is introduced with, "Thus saith the LORD," and the
critic's knife, which cuts out certain verses from this chapter,
mutilates the Word of God. There is no valid reason to brand this and
other verses as the work of some supplementer.
The chief places of Moab are mentioned. "The horn of Moab (horn the
emblem of power) is cut off and his arm is broken, saith the LORD." And
why this judgment? "For he has magnified himself against the LORD." They
were filled with pride, yea, they were exceedingly proud. The Lord
speaks of it thus: "His loftiness and his arrogancy and his pride and
his haughtiness of heart." How God detests pride! In both Testaments it
is marked out as the great abomination in the sight of God. Filled with
pride and haughtiness, they derided Israel, God's people; whenever
Israel was mentioned "they skipped for joy" (verse 27). Of verses 28 and
29, critics declare that they are mostly derived from Isaiah 15 and 16.
These two chapters contain a similar prophecy about Moab, but these
utterances by Jeremiah are not copied from Isaiah, but are a divine
repetition of the coming judgment of that people. "Woe be unto thee Moab!
the people of Chemosh perisheth! for thy sons are taken captives, and
thy daughters captive." This is the final word in this predicted
judgment of Moab. And thus Moab was broken.
The last verse speaks of a territorial restoration of Moab, not of
a restitution of that wicked generation, as some teach. We do not know
where a remnant of Moab is today, to possess in millennial times their
former land; nor do we know how the Lord is going to accomplish it.
But we know He will fulfill His own Word and we do not need to invent
some scheme of how it will be done.
CHAPTER 49
Concerning Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, and Elam
1. Concerning the Ammonites (49:1-6)
2. Concerning Edom (49:7-22)
3. Concerning Damascus (49:23-27)
4. Concerning Kedar and Hazor (49:28-33)
5. Against Elam (49:34-39)
Ammon was the younger brother of Moab, and, like the Moabites, the
Ammonites were a wicked people, though they had no cities like Moab, but
were restless wanderers; they were also the enemies of Israel. The
predicted judgment has come. Where is Ammon today? In what tribe or
nation is a remnant preserved? Only the Omniscient One knows. But their
captivity, like that of Moab, will be brought back again in the days
when Israel becomes the head of the nations.
Edom, springing from Esau, was the most outspoken enemy of Israel.
In our annotations on the prophecy of Obadiah we return to this chapter.
Their complete judgment is here announced. "For, lo, I will make thee
small among the nations and despised among men. Thy terribleness has
deceived thee and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the
clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill. Though thou
shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down
from thence, saith the LORD" (49:15-16). Here at least the critics
concede that this is a true description of the dwelling places of Edom
of old. "Its capital, Petra, lay in an amphitheater of mountains,
accessible only through a narrow gorge, called the Sik, winding in with
precipitous sides from the west; and the mountain sides round Petra, and
the ravines about it, contain innumerable rock-hewn cavities, some being
tombs, but others dwellings in which the ancient inhabitants lived"
(Canon Driver). No restoration for Edom is promised.
Damascus's anguish and sorrow is predicted next, followed by a
prophecy concerning various Arabian tribes; Kedar and Hazor are to be
smitten.
The final prediction is as to Elam. Elam was east of South
Babylonia and the lower Tigris, later known as Susians. This prophecy
was given at the beginning of Zedekiah's reign. Elam became an ally of
the Persian kingdom. Here her overthrow is foretold as well as her
restoration "in the latter days."
CHAPTERS 50-51
Babylon
These two final chapters contain a great prophecy concerning
Babylon, her overthrow and doom. The fifty-first chapter closes with the
statement "thus far are the words of Jeremiah." There is a direct
statement that Jeremiah wrote all these words. We find it at the close
of chapter 51:59-64. "Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should
come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against
Babylon." It would be a brazen infidelity which says Jeremiah did not
write all these words. Yet the almost universally accepted view of the
critics is that these chapters cannot be the work of Jeremiah. The
German infidel, Professor Eichhorn, the man who coined the phrase
"higher criticism," started this denial; Kuenen, Budde and others have
followed in his steps. Others have modified this radical view and
concede the possibility that Jeremiah may have been the author of these
two chapters. No believer in the Word of God can have a moment's doubt
as to this question.
An analysis of these two chapters would be difficult to make. We
therefore point out some of the leading parts of this great utterance.
The prophecy covers both the doom of Babylon as it has been and the doom
of another, the mystical Babylon, so prominent in the last book of the
Bible, in which also two chapters are devoted to Babylon. Some hold that
the literal Babylon is meant in Revelation; that the city in Mesopotamia
must be rebuilt; that it will finally become the one great world center
domineering the religious, commercial and political affairs of all the
world, and that when this has taken place Jeremiah's prophecy will be
fulfilled. A careful examination of this theory will show that it is
untenable. It would mean that all the great world-centers of today must
be wiped out first, and London, New York, and others would have to yield
their supremacy to the restored Babylon. The chapters in Revelation show
us clearly that a Babylon of a mystical nature is meant, which in spirit,
in worldly glory and corruption corresponds to the ancient Babylon.
This mystical Babylon is Rome. This has been the interpretation of the
chapters of Revelation from the earliest times and is still maintained,
with a few exceptions, by all sound and spiritual expositors of the Word
of God.
The message begins with the command to publish among the nations
the conquest of Babylon, that Bel (lord) is put to shame and that
Merodach (the chief god of Babylon, known as Marduk in Babylonian
inscriptions) is dismayed. The gods of Babylon are put to confusion on
account of the fall of the city. The disaster comes from the north
(Medo Persia, the conqueror of Babylon; Daniel 7). Verses 4-7 predict
the return of the nation thoroughly penitent. That the return of a small
remnant after the defeat of Babylon does not exhaust this prophecy is
obvious. The return promised here comes in the day when the times of the
Gentiles are over, when Babylon and the Babylon spirit will pass away,
when all false gods fall and the Lord is exalted in that day. Then the
lost sheep of Israel will be found and gathered again.
The invasion under Cyrus is described in verses 9-10. The fall of
the Babylon in Revelation is not brought about by an invasion such as is
described here, but by the ten horns of the beast, the revived Roman
empire (Rev. 17:16; Dan. 7).
Verse 13 announces the complete overthrow of the city, to become
the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land and a desert.
This ruin was not at once carried out, but gradually ancient Babylon
became all that. The ruins of this once powerful city have been located
north of Hilla, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants. Koldewey, of the
German Orient Society, laid bare by excavation many of the ruins,
showing that the city covered twelve square miles; great streets and
canals, and the ruins of the Marduk temple have been found. These ruins
can never be rebuilt (Isa. 47). There is nothing which indicates that
this once glorious city is to have a revival and then be destroyed once
more and remain a wilderness after its destruction at some future time.
In her fall Babylon only reaped what she had sown. "For it is the
vengeance of the LORD; take vengeance upon her; as she hath, do unto her"
(verse 15). The same verdict is pronounced upon the Babylon of the end
time, when Rome will once more have supremacy, when the present day
Babylon-spirit will concentrate in a great world federation. "Reward her
even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her
works; in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double" (Rev. 18:6).
The nations will then drink of the cup of God's wrath and judgment as
the literal Babylon did. Coupled with these judgment predictions are the
future blessings of Israel. When the Lord overthrows the final Babylon,
as seen in the book of Revelation, when the great whore is judged and
her seat, Rome, in Italy, goes up in smoke, then Israel's day of glory
and blessing breaks. "In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah,
the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them
whom I leave as a remnant" (50:20; see chapter 31:34; Micah 7:18, and
Romans 11:25-28). After still more predictions concerning the fall and
doom of Babylon (verses 21-32), we find another prophecy of comfort.
When the times of the Gentiles end with the complete dethronement of
Babylon in its mystical meaning as pictured in Revelation, the Redeemer
of Israel will arise to plead the cause of His people Israel. The
fiftieth chapter ends with an additional description of the desolation
of Babylon.
The fifty-first chapter is a continued prophecy of the doom and
utter desolation of the proud mistress of the nations. Much here
connects with Rev. 18. The remnant of Israel is addressed in verses 5
and 6. Compare with Rev. 18:4. It is the same command to flee Babylon,
a principle which is in force today as regards the true church and her
separation from ecclesiastical evil. The golden cup mentioned in verse
7 is also mentioned in Revelation in chapter 17:4, in the description of
papal Rome and her evil abominations. In the rest of the chapter God's
dealing in judgment is wonderfully told out, prophetic of that coming
day when the Lord will deal with the world in judgment. This must be the
reason why such an extended prophecy is given. It all goes beyond the
judgment of the literal Babylon. We call attention to the last verses of
this long chapter. We read there that the prophet, after he wrote down
all these words against Babylon, gave the book to Seraiah, chief
chamberlain of Zedekiah. This was before the fall of Jerusalem. Seraiah
was evidently the brother of Baruch (32:12). While Jeremiah knew the
significant position that Babylonia, and especially King Nebuchadnezzar,
had been given by the sovereign Lord, on account of which he urged
submission to the Chaldeans; he also knew even then, before Jerusalem
fell, of Babylon's fall and doom. Seraiah went to Babylon and he was to
read the roll there, probably not in public, but in private. After
reading, he was to speak certain words (verse 62), then bind a stone to
the roll and cast it into the Euphrates. When the roll was sinking he
was to say, "Thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise again." In our
New Testament book of prophecy we read: "And a mighty angel took up a
stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus
with violence that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found
no more" (Rev. 18:21). That great predicted end of all God-defiance and
opposition, typified by Babylon and its past glory, will surely come.
Jeremiah uttered his last word.
The last chapter of Jeremiah is not from his pen; some other
inspired writer was moved by the Holy Spirit to add the history of the
capture of Jerusalem and the fate of the people.
The substance of this appendix is found in 2 Kings 24:18-20 and
25:1-21, 27-30. The reader will find in the second book of Kings our
annotations on this history. But why is it added here once more?
Evidently to show how literally the judgment predictions and divine
warnings given through Jeremiah were fulfilled. For a time the false
prophets had their way; their lying messages, their words of delusion
and false hope were listened to and believed. The lot of the prophet of
God was a lonely lot; he was rejected and he suffered. Yea, often the
weeping prophet was discouraged and filled with gloom. But the time came
when he was vindicated and God's Word was vindicated, while the false
prophets were found out to be liars and deceivers.
In our own day we have the false prophets still with us, men and
women, who deny the truth and teach error. They speak of world
improvement, world betterment, and world conquest. What God has spoken
concerning "wrath and judgment to come" is set aside. Those who preach
and teach according to the infallible Word of God, who see no better
world, no universal righteousness and peace, are branded as pessimists.
The "day of the LORD" and the "coming of the Lord" are sneered at. But
as the Word of God spoken by Jeremiah was vindicated, so the Word of God
will be vindicated again, till all the enemies of the written Word, the
Bible, and the living Word, Christ, are silenced forever.