Bible Commentary

Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 22:1 Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, CHAPTER XXVI INTRODUCTORY "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."- Jeremiah 31:1 IN this third book an attempt is made to present a general view of Jeremiah’s teaching on the subject with which he was most preoccupied-the political and religious fortunes of Judah. Certain (30, 31, and, in part, 33) chapters detach themselves from the rest, and stand in no obvious connection with any special incident of the prophet’s life. These are the main theme of this book, and have been dealt with in the ordinary method of detailed exposition. They have been treated separately, and not woven into the continuous narrative, partly because we thus obtain a more adequate emphasis upon important aspects of their teaching, but chiefly because their date and occasion cannot be certainly determined. With them other sections have been associated, on account of the connection of subject. Further material for a synopsis of Jeremiah’s teaching has been collected from chapters 21-49, generally, supplemented by brief references to the previous chapters. Inasmuch as the prophecies of our book do not form an ordered treatise on dogmatic theology, but were uttered with regard to individual conduct and critical events, topics are not exclusively dealt with in a single section, but are referred to at intervals throughout. Moreover, as both the individuals and the crises were very much alike, ideas and phrases are constantly reappearing, so that there is an exceptionally large amount of repetition in the Book of Jeremiah. The method we have adopted avoids some of the difficulties which would arise if we attempted to deal with these doctrines in our continuous exposition. Our general sketch of the prophet’s teaching is naturally arranged under categories suggested by the book itself, and not according to the sections of a modern treatise on Systematic Theology. No doubt much may legitimately be extracted or deduced concerning Anthropology, Soteriology, and the like; but true proportion is as important in exposition as accurate interpretation. If we wish to understand Jeremiah, we must be content to dwell longest upon what he emphasised most, and to adopt the standpoint of time and race which was his own. Accordingly in our treatment we have followed the cycle of sin, punishment, and restoration, so familiar to students of Hebrew prophecy. NOTE SOME CHARACTERISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF JEREMIAH This note is added partly for convenience of reference, and partly to illustrate the repetition just mentioned as characteristic of Jeremiah. The instances are chosen from expressions occurring in chapters 21-52. The reader will find fuller lists dealing with the whole book in the "Speaker’s Commentary" and the "Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges." The Hebrew student is referred to the list in Driver’s "Introduction," upon which the following is partly based. 1. "Rising up early": Jeremiah 7:13 ; Jeremiah 7:25 ; Jeremiah 11:7 ; Jeremiah 25:3-4 ; Jeremiah 26:5 ; Jeremiah 29:19 ; Jeremiah 32:33 ; Jeremiah 35:14-15 ; Jeremiah 44:4 . This phrase, familiar to us in the narratives of Genesis and in the historical books, is used here, as in 2 Chronicles 36:15 , of God addressing His people on sending the prophets. 2. "Stubbornness of heart" (A.V. imagination of heart): Jeremiah 3:17 ; Jeremiah 7:24 ; Jeremiah 9:14 ; Jeremiah 11:8 ; Jeremiah 13:10 ; Jeremiah 16:12 ; Jeremiah 18:12 ; Jeremiah 23:17 ; also found Deuteronomy 29:19 and Psalm 81:15 . 3. "The evil of your doings": Jeremiah 4:4 ; Jeremiah 21:12 ; Jeremiah 23:2 ; Jeremiah 23:22 ; Jeremiah 25:5 ; Jeremiah 26:3 ; Jeremiah 44:22 ; also Deuteronomy 28:20 ; 1 Samuel 25:3 ; Isaiah 1:16 ; Hosea 9:15 ; Psalm 28:4 ; and in slightly different form in Jeremiah 11:18 and Zechariah 1:4 . "The fruit of your doings": Jeremiah 17:10 ; Jeremiah 21:14 ; Jeremiah 32:19 ; also found in Micah 7:13 . "Doings, your doings," etc., are also found in Jeremiah and elsewhere. 4. "The sword, the pestilence, and the famine," in various orders, and either as a phrase or each word ocurring in one of three successive clauses: Jeremiah 14:12 ; Jeremiah 15:2 ; Jeremiah 21:7 ; Jeremiah 21:9 ; Jeremiah 24:10 ; Jeremiah 27:8 ; Jeremiah 27:13 ; Jeremiah 29:17-18 ; Jeremiah 32:24 ; Jeremiah 32:36 ; Jeremiah 34:17 ; Jeremiah 38:2 ; Jeremiah 42:17 ; Jeremiah 42:22 ; Jeremiah 44:13 . "The sword and the famime," with similar variations: Jeremiah 5:12 ; Jeremiah 11:22 ; Jeremiah 14:13 ; Jeremiah 14:15-16 ; Jeremiah 14:18 ; Jeremiah 16:4 ; Jeremiah 18:21 ; Jeremiah 42:16 ; Jeremiah 44:12 ; Jeremiah 44:18 ; Jeremiah 44:27 . Cf. similar lists, etc., "death . . . sword . . . captivity," in Jeremiah 43:11 : "war . . . evil . . . pestilence," Jeremiah 28:8 . 5. "Kings . . . princes . . . priests . . . prophets," in various orders and combinations: Jeremiah 2:26 ; Jeremiah 4:9 ; Jeremiah 8:1 ; Jeremiah 13:13 ; Jeremiah 24:8 ; Jeremiah 32:32 . Cf. "Prophet . . . priest . . . people," Jeremiah 23:33-34 . "Prophets . . . diviners . . . dreamers . . . enchanters . . . sorcerers," Jeremiah 27:9 . CHAPTER XXIX RUIN Jeremiah 22:1-9 ; Jeremiah 26:14 "The sword, the pestilence, and the famine,"- Jeremiah 21:9 and passim. "Terror on every side."- Jeremiah 6:25 ; Jeremiah 20:10 ; Jeremiah 46:5 ; Jeremiah 49:29 ; also as proper name, MAGOR-MISSABIB, Jeremiah 20:3 . WE have seen, in the two previous chapters, that the moral and religious state of Judah not only excluded any hope of further progress towards the realisation of the Kingdom of God, but also threatened to involve Revelation itself in the corruption of His people. The Spirit that opened Jeremiah’s eyes to the fatal degradation of his country showed him that ruin must follow as its swift result. He was elect from the first to be a herald of doom, to be set "over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow." { Jeremiah 1:10 } In his earliest vision he saw the thrones of the northern conquerors set over against the walls of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. { Jeremiah 1:15 } But Jeremiah was called in the full vigor of early manhood; he combined with the uncompromising severity of youth its ardent affection and irrepressible hope. The most unqualified threats of Divine wrath always carried the implied condition that repentance might avert the coming judgment; and Jeremiah recurred again and again to the possibility that, even in these last days, amendment might win pardon. Like Moses at Sinai and Samuel at Ebenezer, he poured out his whole soul in intercession for Judah, only to receive the answer, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight and let them go forth." { Jeremiah 15:1 } The record of these early hopes and prayers is chiefly found in chapters 1-20, and is dealt with in "The Prophecies of Jeremiah," preceding. The prophecies in Jeremiah 14:1 - Jeremiah 17:18 seem to recognise the destiny of Judah as finally decided, and to belong to the latter part of the reign of Jehoiakim, and there is little in the later chapters of an earlier date. In Jeremiah 22:1-5 the king of Judah is promised that if he and his ministers and officers will refrain from oppression, faithfully administer justice, and protect the helpless, kings of the elect dynasty shall still pass with magnificent retinues in chariots and on horses through the palace gates to sit upon the throne of David. Possibly this section belongs to the earlier part of Jeremiah’s career. But there were pauses and recoils in the advancing tide of ruin, alternations of hope and despair; and these varying experiences were reflected in the changing moods of the court, the people, and the prophet himself. We may well believe that Jeremiah hastened to greet any apparent zeal for reformation with a renewed declaration that sincere and radical amendment would be accepted by Jehovah. The proffer of mercy did not avert the ruin of the state, but it compelled the people to recognise that Jehovah was neither harsh nor vindictive. His sentence was only irrevocable because the obduracy of Israel left no other way open for the progress of Revelation, except that which led through fire and blood. The Holy Spirit has taught mankind in many ways that when any government or church, any school of thought or doctrine, ossifies so as to limit the expansion of the soul, that society or system must be shattered by the forces it seeks to restrain. The decadence of Spain and the distractions of France sufficiently illustrate the fruits of persistent refusal to abide in the liberty of the Spirit. But until the catastrophe is clearly inevitable, the Christian, both as patriot and as churchman, will be quick to cherish all those symptoms of higher life which indicate that society is still a living organism. He will zealously believe and teach that even a small leaven may leaven the whole mass. He will remember that ten righteous men might have saved Sodom; that, so long as it is possible, God will work by encouraging and rewarding willing obedience rather than by chastising and coercing sin. Thus Jeremiah, even when he teaches that the day of grace is over, recurs wistfully to the possibilities of salvation once offered to repentance. { Jeremiah 27:18 } Was not this the message of all the prophets: "Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Jehovah hath given unto your fathers"? { Jeremiah 25:5 ; Jeremiah 25:15 } Even at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign Jehovah entrusted Jeremiah with a message of mercy, saying: "It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repent Me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings." { Jeremiah 26:3 ; Jeremiah 36:2 } When the prophet multiplied the dark and lurid features of his picture, he was not gloating with morbid enjoyment over the national misery, but rather hoped that the awful vision of judgment might lead them to pause, and reflect, and repent. In his age history had not accumulated her now abundant proofs that the guilty conscience is panoplied in triple brass against most visions of judgment. The sequel of Jeremiah’s own mission was added evidence for this truth. Yet it dawned but slowly on the prophet’s mind. The covenant of emancipation (Chapter 11) in the last days of Zedekiah was doubtless proposed by Jeremiah as a possible beginning of better things, an omen of salvation, even at the eleventh hour. To the very last the prophet offered the king his life and promised that Jerusalem should not be burnt, if only he would submit to the Chaldeans, and thus accept the Divine judgment and acknowledge its justice. Faithful friends have sometimes stood by the drunkard or the gambler, and striven for his deliverance through all the vicissitudes of his downward career; to the very last they have hoped against hope, have welcomed and encouraged every feeble stand against evil habit, every transient flash of high resolve. But, long before the end, they have owned, with sinking heart, that the only way to salvation lay. through the ruin of health, fortune, and reputation. So, when the edge of youthful hopefulness had quickly worn itself away, Jeremiah knew in his inmost heart that, in spite of prayers and promises and exhortations, the fate of Judah was sealed. Let us therefore try to reproduce the picture of coming ruin which Jeremiah kept persistently before the eyes of his fellow country men. The pith and power of his prophecies lay in the prospect of their speedy fulfilment. With him, as with Savonarola, a cardinal doctrine was that "before the regeneration must come the scourge," and that "these things wilt come quickly." Here, again, Jeremiah took up the burden of Hosea’s utterances. The elder prophet said of Israel, "The days of visitation are come"; { Hosea 9:7 } and his successor announced to Judah the coming of "the year of visitation." { Jeremiah 23:12 } The long deferred assize was at hand, when the Judge would reckon with Judah for her manifold infidelities, would pronounce sentence and execute judgment. If the hour of doom had struck, it was not difficult to surmise whence destruction would come or the man who would prove its instrument. The North (named in Hebrew the hidden quarter) was to the Jews the mother of things unforeseen and terrible. Isaiah menaced the Philistines with "a smoke out of the north," { Isaiah 14:30 } i.e., the Assyrians. Jeremiah and Ezekiel both speak very frequently of the destroyers of Judah as coming from the north. Probably the early references in our book to northern enemies denote the Scythians, who invaded Syria towards the beginning of Josiah’s reign; but later on the danger from the north is the restored Chaldean Empire under its king Nebuchadnezzar. "North" is even less accurate geographically for Chaldea than for Assyria. Probably it was accepted in a somewhat symbolic sense for Assyria, and then transferred to Chaldea as her successor in the hegemony of Western Asia. Nebuchadnezzar is first introduced in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; after the decisive defeat of Pharaoh Necho by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, Jeremiah prophesied the devastation of Judah by the victor; it is also prophesied that he is to carry Jehoiachin away captive, and similar prophecies were repeated during the reign of Zedekiah. { Jeremiah 16:7 ; Jeremiah 28:14 } Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldeans very closely resembled the Assyrians, with whose invasions the Jews had long been only too familiar; indeed, as Chaldea had long been tributary to Assyria, it is morally certain that Chaldean princes must have been present with auxiliary forces at more than one of the many Assyrian invasions of Palestine. Under Hezekiah, on the other hand, Judah had been allied with Merodach-baladan of Babylon against his Assyrian suzerain. So that the circumstances of Chaldean invasions and conquests were familiar to the Jews before the forces of the restored empire first attacked them; their imagination could readily picture the horrors of such experiences. But Jeremiah does not leave them to their unaided imagination, which they might preferably have employed upon more agreeable subjects. He makes them see the future reign of terror, as Jehovah had revealed it to his shuddering and reluctant vision. With his usual frequency of iteration, he keeps the phrase "the sword, the famine, and the pestilence" ringing in their ears. The sword was the symbol of the invading hosts, "the splendid and awful military parade" of the "bitter and hasty nation" that was "dreadful and terrible." { Habakkuk 1:6-7 } "The famine" inevitably followed from the ravages of the invaders, and the impossibility of ploughing, sowing, and reaping. It became most gruesome in the last desperate agonies of besieged garrisons, when, as in Elisha’s time and the last siege of Jerusalem, "men ate the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and ate every one the flesh of his friend." { Jeremiah 19:9 } Among such miseries and horrors, the stench of unburied corpses naturally bred a pestilence, which raged amongst the multitudes of refugees huddled together in Jerusalem and the fortified towns. We are reminded how the great plague of Athens struck down its victims from among the crowds driven within its walls during the long siege of the Peloponnesian war. An ordinary Englishman can scarcely do justice to such prophecies; his comprehension is limited by a happy inexperience. The constant repetition of general phrases seems meagre and cold, because they carry few associations and awaken no memories. Those who have studied French and Russian realistic art, and have read Erckmann-Chatrain, Zola, and Tolstoi, may be stirred somewhat more by Jeremiah’s grim rhetoric. It will not be wanting in suggestiveness to those who have known battles and sieges. For students of missionary literature we may roughly compare the Jews, when exposed to the full fury of a Chaldean attack, to the inhabitants of African villages raided by slave hunters. The Jews, therefore, with their extensive, firsthand knowledge of the miseries denounced against them, could not help filling in for themselves the rough outline drawn by Jeremiah. Very probably, too, his speeches were more detailed and realistic than the written reports. As time went on, the inroads of the Chaldeans and their allies provided graphic and ghastly illustrations of the prophecies that Jeremiah still reiterated. In a prophecy, possibly originally referring to the Scythian inroads and afterwards adapted to the Chaldean invasions, Jeremiah speaks of himself: "I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; for my soul heareth the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?" { Jeremiah 4:21 } Here, for once, Jeremiah expressed emotions that throbbed in every heart. There was "terror on every hand"; men seemed to be walking "through slippery places in darkness," { Jeremiah 23:12 } or to stumble along rough paths in a dreary twilight. Wormwood was their daily food, and their drink maddening draughts of poison. { Jeremiah 23:15 } Jeremiah and his prophecies were no mean part of the terror. To the devotees of Baal and Moloch Jeremiah must have appeared in much the same light as the fanatic whose ravings added to the horrors of the Plague of London, while the very sanity and sobriety of his utterances carried a conviction of their fatal truth. When the people and their leaders succeeded in collecting any force of soldiers or store of military equipment, and ventured on a sally, Jeremiah was at once at hand to quench any reviving hope of effective resistance. How could soldiers and weapons preserve the city which Jehovah had abandoned to its fate? "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn back the weapons in your hands, with which ye fight without the walls against your besiegers, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, and will gather them into the midst of this city. I Myself will fight against you in furious anger and in great wrath, with outstretched hand and strong arm. I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence." ( Jeremiah 21:3-6 .) When Jerusalem was relieved for a time by the advance of an Egyptian army, and the people allowed themselves to dream of another deliverance like that from Sennacherib, the relentless prophet only turned upon them with renewed scorn: "Though ye had smitten the whole hostile army of the Chaldeans, and all that were left of them were desperately wounded, yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city." { Jeremiah 37:10 } Not even the most complete victory could avail to save the city. The final result of invasions and sieges was to be the overthrow of the Jewish state, the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity of the people. This unhappy generation were to reap the harvest of centuries of sin and failure. As in the last siege of Jerusalem there came upon the Jews "all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah son of Baraehiah," { Matthew 23:35 } so now Jehovah was about to bring upon His Chosen people all the evil that He had spoken against them ( Jeremiah 35:17 ; Jeremiah 19:15 ; Jeremiah 36:31 )-all that had been threatened by Isaiah and his brother prophets, all the curses written in Deuteronomy. But these threats were to be fully carried out, not because predictions must be fulfilled, nor even merely because Jehovah had spoken and His word must not return to Him void, but because the people had not hearkened and obeyed. His threats were never meant to exclude the penitent from the possibility of pardon. As Jeremiah had insisted upon the guilt of every class of the community, so he is also careful to enumerate all the classes as about to suffer from the coming judgment: "Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes"; { Jeremiah 34:21 } "the people, the prophet, and the priest." { Jeremiah 23:33-34 } This last judgment of Judah, as it took the form of the complete overthrow of the State, necessarily included all under its sentence of doom. One of the mysteries of Providence is that those who are most responsible for national sins seem to suffer least by public misfortunes. Ambitious statesmen and bellicose journalists do not generally fall in battle and leave destitute widows and children. When the captains of commerce and manufacture err in their industrial policy, one great result is the pauperism of hundreds of families who had no voice in the matter. A spendthrift landlord may cripple the agriculture of half a county. And yet, when factories are closed and farmers ruined, the manufacturer and the landlord are the last to see want. In former invasions of Judah, the princes and priests had some share of suffering; but wealthy nobles might incur losses and yet weather the storm by which poorer men were overwhelmed. Fines and tribute levied by the invaders would, after the manner of the East, be wrung from the weak and helpless. But now ruin was to fall on all alike. The nobles had been flagrant in sin, they were now to be marked out for most condign punishment-"To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required." Part of the burden of Jeremiah’s prophecy, one of the sayings constantly on his lips, was that the city would be taken and destroyed by fire. { Jeremiah 34:2 ; Jeremiah 34:22 ; Jeremiah 37:8 } The Temple would be laid in ruins like the ancient sanctuary of Israel at Shiloh. (chapters 7 and 26.) The palaces { Jeremiah 6:5 } of the king and princes would be special marks for the destructive fury of the enemy, and their treasures and all the wealth of the city would be for a spoil; those who survived the sack of the city would be carried captive to Babylon. { Jeremiah 20:5 } In this general ruin the miseries of the people would not end with death. All nations have attached much importance to the burial of the dead and the due performance of funeral rites. In the touching Greek story Antigone sacrificed her life in order to bury the remains of her brother. Later Judaism attached exceptional importance to the burial of the dead, and the Book of Tobit lays great stress on this sacred duty. The angel Raphael declares that one special reason why the Lord had been merciful to Tobias was that he had buried dead bodies, and had not delayed to rise up and leave his meal to go and bury the corpse of a murdered Jew, at the risk of his own life. Jeremiah prophesied of the slain in this last overthrow: "They shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the ground; their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth." When these last had done their ghastly work, the site of the Temple, the city, the whole land would be left silent and desolate. The stranger, wandering amidst the ruins, would hear no cheerful domestic sounds; when night fell, no light gleaming through chink or lattice would give the sense of human neighbourhood. Jehovah "would take away the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle." { Jeremiah 25:10 } The only sign of life amidst the desolate ruins of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah would be the melancholy cry of the jackals round the traveller’s tent. { Jeremiah 9:11 ; Jeremiah 10:22 } The Hebrew prophets and our Lord Himself often borrowed their symbols from the scenes of common life, as they passed before their eyes. As in the days of Noah, as in the days of Lot, as in the days of the Son of Man, so in the last agony of Judah there was marrying and giving in marriage. Some such festive occasion suggested to Jeremiah one of his favourite formulae; it occurs four times in the Book of Jeremiah, and was probably uttered much oftener. Again and again it may have happened that, as a marriage procession passed through the streets, the gay company were startled by the grim presence of the prophet, and shrank back in dismay as they found themselves made the text for a stern homily of ruin: "Thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, I will take away from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride." At any rate, however, and whenever used, the figure could not fail to arrest attention, and to serve as an emphatic declaration that the ordinary social routine would be broken up and lost in the coming calamity. Henceforth the land would be as some guilty habitation of sinners, devoted to eternal destruction, an astonishment and a hissing and a perpetual desolation. { Jeremiah 25:9-10 } When the heathen sought some curse to express the extreme of malignant hatred, they would use the formula, "God make thee like Jerusalem." { Jeremiah 26:6 } Jehovah’s Chosen People would become an everlasting reproach, a perpetual shame, which should not be forgotten. { Jeremiah 23:40 } The wrath of Jehovah pursued even captives and fugitives. In chapter 29 Jeremiah predicts the punishment of the Jewish prophets at Babylon. When we last hear of him, in Egypt, he is denouncing ruin against "the remnant of Judah that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there." He still reiterates the same familiar phrases: "Ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence"; they shall be "an execration, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach." We have now traced the details of the prophet’s message of doom. Fulfilment followed fast upon the heels of prediction, till Jeremiah rather interpreted than foretold the thick coming disasters. When his book was compiled, the prophecies were already, as they are now, part of the history of the last days of Judah. The book became the record of this great tragedy, in which these prophecies take the place of the choric odes in a Greek drama. Jeremiah 22:9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them. CHAPTER XXVI INTRODUCTORY "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."- Jeremiah 31:1 IN this third book an attempt is made to present a general view of Jeremiah’s teaching on the subject with which he was most preoccupied-the political and religious fortunes of Judah. Certain (30, 31, and, in part, 33) chapters detach themselves from the rest, and stand in no obvious connection with any special incident of the prophet’s life. These are the main theme of this book, and have been dealt with in the ordinary method of detailed exposition. They have been treated separately, and not woven into the continuous narrative, partly because we thus obtain a more adequate emphasis upon important aspects of their teaching, but chiefly because their date and occasion cannot be certainly determined. With them other sections have been associated, on account of the connection of subject. Further material for a synopsis of Jeremiah’s teaching has been collected from chapters 21-49, generally, supplemented by brief references to the previous chapters. Inasmuch as the prophecies of our book do not form an ordered treatise on dogmatic theology, but were uttered with regard to individual conduct and critical events, topics are not exclusively dealt with in a single section, but are referred to at intervals throughout. Moreover, as both the individuals and the crises were very much alike, ideas and phrases are constantly reappearing, so that there is an exceptionally large amount of repetition in the Book of Jeremiah. The method we have adopted avoids some of the difficulties which would arise if we attempted to deal with these doctrines in our continuous exposition. Our general sketch of the prophet’s teaching is naturally arranged under categories suggested by the book itself, and not according to the sections of a modern treatise on Systematic Theology. No doubt much may legitimately be extracted or deduced concerning Anthropology, Soteriology, and the like; but true proportion is as important in exposition as accurate interpretation. If we wish to understand Jeremiah, we must be content to dwell longest upon what he emphasised most, and to adopt the standpoint of time and race which was his own. Accordingly in our treatment we have followed the cycle of sin, punishment, and restoration, so familiar to students of Hebrew prophecy. NOTE SOME CHARACTERISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF JEREMIAH This note is added partly for convenience of reference, and partly to illustrate the repetition just mentioned as characteristic of Jeremiah. The instances are chosen from expressions occurring in chapters 21-52. The reader will find fuller lists dealing with the whole book in the "Speaker’s Commentary" and the "Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges." The Hebrew student is referred to the list in Driver’s "Introduction," upon which the following is partly based. 1. "Rising up early": Jeremiah 7:13 ; Jeremiah 7:25 ; Jeremiah 11:7 ; Jeremiah 25:3-4 ; Jeremiah 26:5 ; Jeremiah 29:19 ; Jeremiah 32:33 ; Jeremiah 35:14-15 ; Jeremiah 44:4 . This phrase, familiar to us in the narratives of Genesis and in the historical books, is used here, as in 2 Chronicles 36:15 , of God addressing His people on sending the prophets. 2. "Stubbornness of heart" (A.V. imagination of heart): Jeremiah 3:17 ; Jeremiah 7:24 ; Jeremiah 9:14 ; Jeremiah 11:8 ; Jeremiah 13:10 ; Jeremiah 16:12 ; Jeremiah 18:12 ; Jeremiah 23:17 ; also found Deuteronomy 29:19 and Psalm 81:15 . 3. "The evil of your doings": Jeremiah 4:4 ; Jeremiah 21:12 ; Jeremiah 23:2 ; Jeremiah 23:22 ; Jeremiah 25:5 ; Jeremiah 26:3 ; Jeremiah 44:22 ; also Deuteronomy 28:20 ; 1 Samuel 25:3 ; Isaiah 1:16 ; Hosea 9:15 ; Psalm 28:4 ; and in slightly different form in Jeremiah 11:18 and Zechariah 1:4 . "The fruit of your doings": Jeremiah 17:10 ; Jeremiah 21:14 ; Jeremiah 32:19 ; also found in Micah 7:13 . "Doings, your doings," etc., are also found in Jeremiah and elsewhere. 4. "The sword, the pestilence, and the famine," in various orders, and either as a phrase or each word ocurring in one of three successive clauses: Jeremiah 14:12 ; Jeremiah 15:2 ; Jeremiah 21:7 ; Jeremiah 21:9 ; Jeremiah 24:10 ; Jeremiah 27:8 ; Jeremiah 27:13 ; Jeremiah 29:17-18 ; Jeremiah 32:24 ; Jeremiah 32:36 ; Jeremiah 34:17 ; Jeremiah 38:2 ; Jeremiah 42:17 ; Jeremiah 42:22 ; Jeremiah 44:13 . "The sword and the famime," with similar variations: Jeremiah 5:12 ; Jeremiah 11:22 ; Jeremiah 14:13 ; Jeremiah 14:15-16 ; Jeremiah 14:18 ; Jeremiah 16:4 ; Jeremiah 18:21 ; Jeremiah 42:16 ; Jeremiah 44:12 ; Jeremiah 44:18 ; Jeremiah 44:27 . Cf. similar lists, etc., "death . . . sword . . . captivity," in Jeremiah 43:11 : "war . . . evil . . . pestilence," Jeremiah 28:8 . 5. "Kings . . . princes . . . priests . . . prophets," in various orders and combinations: Jeremiah 2:26 ; Jeremiah 4:9 ; Jeremiah 8:1 ; Jeremiah 13:13 ; Jeremiah 24:8 ; Jeremiah 32:32 . Cf. "Prophet . . . priest . . . people," Jeremiah 23:33-34 . "Prophets . . . diviners . . . dreamers . . . enchanters . . . sorcerers," Jeremiah 27:9 . CHAPTER XXVIII PERSISTENT APOSTASY "They have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them."- Jeremiah 22:9 "Every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his heart."- Jeremiah 23:17 THE previous chapter has been intentionally confined, as far as possible, to Jeremiah’s teaching upon the moral condition of Judah. Religion, in the narrower sense, was kept in the background, and mainly referred to as a social and political influence. In the same way the priests and prophets were mentioned chiefly as classes of notables-estates of the realm. This method corresponds with a stage in the process of Revelation; it is that of the older prophets. Hosea, as a native of the Northern Kingdom, may have had a fuller experience and clearer understanding of religious corruption than his contemporaries in Judah. But, in spite of the stress that he lays upon idolatry and the various corruptions of worship, many sections of his book simply deal with social evils. We are not explicitly told why the prophet was "a fool" and "a snare of a fowler," but the immediate context refers to the abominable immorality of Gibeah. { Hosea 9:7-9 : cf. Jdg 19:22 } The priests are not reproached with incorrect ritual, but with conspiracy to murder. { Hosea 6:9 } In Amos, the land is not so much puni

Do no wrong. Jeremiah 22:3 Wrong W. Birch. The meaning of the word "wrong" is, something that is twisted from the straight line. Do you say you have not done wrong? When you set yourself up as a pattern of goodness, and at the same time turn up your nose at your erring acquaintance, it leads one to think that your angelic profession may cover the filthy rags of human sin. Some people profess too much. If they would acknowledge to some fault and confess that occasionally they are common metal like everybody else, we should respect them. People who will not permit you to think that they have ever done wrong, are often very unfeeling in their dealings with a person that has "made a fool of himself." The man who feels himself to be a wrong-doer, is the most compassionately helpful to those that have fallen. When I hear anybody speaking harshly or ridiculing somebody who has done wrong and been found out, I fear that the only way to save them is for God to let them also fall into the mire of iniquity. Bear patiently with wrong-doers, and give them time to repent. Had they possessed your light, your education, your good parents and your virtuous surroundings, they might have lived a nobler life. When a man or a woman has done wrong, do not cast a stone at them; let us, if we can, lead them on to the path of right. 1. Let me urge that you do no wrong in your intentions. Let us weigh well our motives. Before doing any act, we should consider its intent, and ask ourselves, "What is my intention? Is it the glory of God, the good of man, or only my own advantage — my own indulgence?" When the intention is wholly selfish it is pretty sure to cause disappointment and misery; but when the intention is unselfish, it is likely to result in happiness both to ourselves and others. 2. It is also a matter of course that every true Christian should do no wrong in his practice. We profess much; let us seek to practise what we profess. I do not suppose that we are at present on such a high level as that shown in the spirit of the life of Christ; but let us aim at it, and though we fall, let us rise and try again. A farmer one day went to his landlord, Earl Fitzwilliam, saying, "Please, your lordship, the horses and hounds last week quite destroyed my field of wheat. The earl said "I am very sorry; how much damage do you think they did?" The farmer replied, "Well, your lordship, I don't think £50 would make it right." The earl immediately wrote out his order for £50 and handed it to the farmer, saying, "I hope it will not be so bad as you think." So they parted. Months afterwards, the same old farmer came to the hall again, and when admitted into the library, said, "Please, your lordship, I have brought back that £50." The earl exclaimed, "Why, what for?" The farmer said, "Well, because I find that the trodden field of wheat has turned out to be a better crop than any of the others. So I have brought the money back." The earl exclaimed, "This is as it should be; it is doing right between man and man." He tore up the order and wrote another, saying, "Here, my good friend, is an order for a hundred pounds; keep it by you till your eldest son is twenty-one and then give it him as a present from me, and tell him how it arose." Now I think the honest farmer sets a good example to us all No doubt the tempter whispered in the ear of his soul, "The earl will never miss that £50. Why, farmer, you don't mean to say you are going to give the morley back!" But the honest old John Bull of a farmer replied, "It would be wrong, you know, for me to keep that £50." Do no wrong to your neighbour, either in competition of business, or in your social and political relationship. Every man has a weak side to his character, and a tendency to do wrong in some direction. In other words, every man is a spiritual invalid who wants a heavenly prescription to restore him to health. Now, when your body is ill, you send for a doctor who counts your pulse and asks where your pain is, and how you feel. If you do not tell him all the truth, he does not know how to treat you. In the same way, when we are spiritually sick, we should confess all the symptoms of our sin-disease to the Great Physician of heaven. Let us be humble and honest enough to tell Him our sins. ( W. Birch. ) Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him. Jeremiah 22:10, 11 The prophet and the exile B. Moffett, M. A. I. "THE DEAD," probably Josiah, for whom a long mourning was kept ( 2 Chronicles 35:24 ; Zechariah 12:11 ). Shallum is Jehoahaz ( 2 Kings 23:33 ). II. The chapter, even the text, suggests THE PICTURE OF THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE PROPHET AND THE SYMPATHY OF THE PROPHETS. 1. Jeremiah had begun to work when a better time seemed to dawn ( Jeremiah 1:2 ). His hopes had been baffled, his words neglected, by "the guilt that scorns to be forgiven." Could human lot be more sad than thus to foresee the coming ruin, and to be helpless to avert it? 2. The true prophet, in spite of the people's sin, sympathises with them ( 1 Samuel 12:20-22 ). The Prophet of prophets did so. The king's captivity was only a type and foretaste of that of the nation. III. THE LOVE OF ONE'S COUNTRY IS FREELY RECOGNISED IN SCRIPTURE ( Psalm 137 ; Psalm 102 ). National life is an ordinance of nature. National as real as home affections. The sorrows and joys which they bring are alike used for our discipline by Him who knows whereof we are made. IV. THE CAPTIVITIES, TERRIBLE AS THEY WERE, SERVED GOOD ENDS. 1. To wean the people from idolatry. 2. To draw them nearer to God. All affliction used aright does so. 3. To turn the people more to prayer, which seems to have become more common after the Babylonian captivity ( Isaiah 66:1, 2 ; Daniel 6:10 ; Daniel 9:3, 19 ). V. THE DEAD ARE IN THE HANDS OF GOD, BEYOND OUR REACH. Weep rather for those who are living, torn away from the city of God. 1. Those who have been ensnared by their own sins and carelessness. 2. Those who are brought up in vice through circumstances of birth. Slaves of worse than Egyptian bondage ( John 8:34 ). 3. Those of our own countrymen who, from duty or circumstances, are in foreign lands, and away from outward tokens of the Church. But should we merely mourn for these, and do nothing for them? VI. Jeremiah a forerunner of the Lord, and A TYPE OF HIS SERVANTS IN WITNESSING TO THE TRUTH, and in the endurance of persecution and disappointment of hope. ( B. Moffett, M. A. ) Did not thy father eat and drink. Jeremiah 22:15, 16 God's expostulation with Jehoiakim Job Orion, D. D. I. GOD REMEMBERETH THE PIETY AND USEFULNESS OF OUR ANCESTORS, AND OBSERVETH HOW FAR WE RESEMBLE THEM. The Eternal Mind cannot possibly forget anything. All things past, as well as present, are naked and open before His eyes. He remembers all the way in which our fathers walked; the secret piety of their hearts; the evidences of it in their lives, and all the service they did for God and their generation. He remembered how piously Josiah walked, and mentions it to his honour. God hath a kind remembrance of His faithful servants, when they are departed out of this world; and is "not unrighteous, to forget any work and labour of love" which they have performed. Let it be further observed, that God takes notice how far we resemble them. Thus He chargeth it upon Jehoiakim, that he had not trod in his father's steps. God can and will make a just estimate, what our religious advantages are, compared with theirs, and what improvement we make of these advantages. He observeth every instance of declension from that which is good, and the principles from which our departures from God and religion flow. II. YOUNG PERSONS OFTEN FORSAKE THE RELIGION OF THEIR FATHERS, THROUGH PRIDE, AND LOVE OF ELEGANCE, POMP, AND SHOW. This was the case of Jehoiakim. No doubt it is lawful for persons of rank and fortune to build themselves houses and to beautify them; provided it be suitable to their circumstances, and no injury to justice or charity. But it was pride that led Jehoiakim to covet so much splendour, and practise so much injustice. This is a sin that easily besets the young, and often leads them to forsake the ways and the God of their fathers. They set out beyond their rank and circumstances, and begin where their wiser fathers ended. And this their pride and vanity leads them to forsake the religious profession of their fathers. Thus Jehoiakim, it is probable, turned idolater. He forsook the God of Israel, and persecuted His faithful prophets. Hence so many among us forsake the principles and profession of their ancestors; because the favour and preferments of the world and public fashion are not on that side. Set out in life, young friends, with moderate desires, wishes, and expectations. Be content with your rank and station. Endeavour to cultivate and strengthen religious principles and dispositions. Never compliment any at the expense of truth and conscience. Thus you will be able "to do justice and mercy," and will retain that steadfastness in religion which is true politeness, and improve in that humility which is the brightest ornament. III. IT IS A GREAT DISHONOUR AND REPROACH TO ANY TO FORSAKE THE GOOD WAYS OF THEIR FATHERS. Having fully known their manner of life, their devotion, purity, temperance, patience, charity, and love to God's house and ordinances, they must act a very mean and scandalous part, if they neglect these virtues, and show themselves blind to the lustre of such good examples. How justly may such be expostulated with, as Jehoiakim was in the text! Did thy father, young man, do justice and judgment, and assist the poor and needy? Was he sober, diligent, grave, and devout? And will it be to thy credit to be giddy, dishonest, idle, extravagant, and an associate with rakes and sots? Did thy mother, young woman, fill up her place honourably? Was she active, prudent, serious, and good tempered? Did she sanctify God's Sabbath, and labour to keep thee from pride and levity, and dangerous acquaintance? And wilt thou forget all this, and run into every fashionable folly? Will this be for thy reputation and comfort? But there is a more weighty thought than this, yet to be urged; and that is, if you act thus, you will forfeit the favour of God. There are terrible threatenings, in the context and other places of this prophecy, against this wicked Jehoiakim. All his wealth, pomp, and power could not shield him from the judgments of God. A few years after this prophecy, the King of Babylon seized him, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon; but, being released upon his promise of allegiance, he afterwards rebelled, was slain in a sally out of Jerusalem, and was "buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (ver. 19), and had no child "to sit upon the throne of David" ( 2 Chronicles 36:6 ; Jeremiah 36:30 ). If you forsake the religion of your pious ancestors, it will be to your shame. IV. THE WAY OF RELIGION IS THE WAY OF WISDOM, HONOUR, AND HAPPINESS. 1. The way of religion is the way of wisdom ( Psalm 111:10 ). With this the New Testament agreeth ( 1 John 2:3, 4 ). Many think themselves wiser than their good fathers; and perhaps they may have juster notions of religion, and be more free from superstition and enthusiasm. Yet, "while they profess to know God," they may "in works deny Him," and "love the praise of man more than the praise of God." And thus they prove that they are not so wise as their fathers. 2. The way of religion is also the way of honour. Josiah was universally esteemed while living, and much lamented when dead. The prophet Jeremiah lamented for him. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him, and "made them an ordinance in Israel," that his remembrance should be kept up by some annual form of lamentation ( 2 Chronicles 35:25 ). Luxury and extravagance, splendour and show, are not the way to be truly honourable. The just, the generous, the friendly man, he who is strictly religious, and soberly singular, and who studies to do good to others, though he hath a mean house, and dresseth and liveth plain, this man will be held in reputation. 3. The way of religion is the way of happiness. It is the way to enjoy prosperity, and to have comfort in it. While we do well, it will certainly be well with us. If our views extended no further than the present life, it is our wisdom and interest to be steadfastly religious. But when we consider ourselves as in a state of trial for another world, and that our future state will be either happy or miserable forever, according to our present behaviour, it must be the greatest folly and madness to neglect religion, to sacrifice it to anything else, or not to make it the main business of our lives. ( Job Orion, D. D. ) With the burial of an ass. Jeremiah 22:18, 19 Dishonoured in death J. Parker, D. D. Jehoiakim was king, and yet not one word of thanks do we find, nor one word of love, nor one word of regret expressed concerning his fate. We should learn from this how possible it is to pass through the world without leaving behind us one sacred or loving memory. He that seeketh his life shall lose it. A man that sacrifices daily to his own ambition, and never sets before himself a higher ideal than his own gratification, may appear to have much whilst he actually has nothing, may even appear to be winning great victories, when he is really undergoing disastrous defeats. What is a grand house if there be not in it a loving heart? What are walls but for the pictures that adorn them? What is life but for the trust which knits it into sympathetic unity? What is the night but for the stars that glitter in its darkness? There is an awful process of retrogression continually operating in life. Experienced men will tell us that the issue of life is one of two things: either advancement, or deterioration; continual improvement, or continual depreciation: we cannot remain just where we are, adding nothing, subtracting nothing, but realising a permanence of estate and faculty. The powers we do not use will fall into desuetude, and the abilities which might have made life easy may be so neglected as to become burdens too heavy to be carried. It lies within a man's power so to live that he may be buried with the burial of an ass: no mourners may surround his grave; no beneficiaries may recall his charities; no hidden hearts may conceal the tender story of his sympathy and helpfulness. A bitter sarcasm this, that a man should be buried like an ass! ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The doom of the defrauder, libertine, and assassin T. De Witt Talmage. After a life of private or public iniquity, a man's death is not deplored. The obsequies may be pretentious — flags, wreaths, catafalques, military processions; but the world feels that a nuisance has been abated; he is cast forth by reason of the contempt of men; figuratively, if not literally, he is "buried with the burial of an ass." I. There is the romance of FRAUD. The heroes of this country are fast getting to be those who have most skill in swallowing "trust funds," banks, stocks, and moneyed institutions. I thank God when fortunes thus gathered go to smash. They are plague struck, and blast a nation. I like to have them made loathsome and an insufferable stench, so that honest young men may take warning. II. Next, I speak of the romance of LIBERTINISM. Society has severest retribution for the impurity that lurks about the cellars and alleys of the city. It cries out against it. It hurls the indignation of the law at it. But society becomes more lenient as impurity rises towards affluence and high social position, until, finally, it is silent, or disposed to palliate. Where is the judge, or the sheriff, or the police, who dare arraign for indecency the wealthy villain? Would God that the romance which flings its fascinations over the bestialities of high life might be gone! Whether it has canopied couch of eiderdown, or sleep amid the putridity of the low tenement house, four families in a room, God's consuming vengeance is after it. III. Next,. I speak of. the romance of ASSASSINATION. God gives life, and He only has a right to take it away; and that man who assumes this Divine prerogative has touched the last depth of crime. Society is alert for certain forms of murder. For garroting, or the beating out of life with a club, or axe, or slung shot, the law has a quick spring and a heavy stroke. But let a man come to wealth or social pretension, and then attempt to avenge his wrongs by aiming a pistol at the header heart of another, and immediately there are sympathies aroused. If capital punishment be right, then let the life of the polished murderer go with the life of the ignorant and vulgar assassin. Let there be no partiality of hemp, no aristocracy of the gallows. ( T. De Witt Talmage. ) The ignominious burial of the wicked T. Thain Davidson, D. D. Christ tells the story of a prosperous farmer who was clean intoxicated with success, and could not entertain a thought but of his gains, — how the very night that he had decided on the enlargement of his premises, a voice from heaven called his soul away; and whatever monument with flattering title his friends may have erected over his grave, God wrote his epitaph, in one word of four letters, "Fool." "Buried with the burial of an ass." No one will for a moment suppose that a splendid catafalque and imposing funeral obsequies betoken the close of a noble and honourable life. Ah! many a man is laid in one of yonder cemeteries with every form of ceremonial pomp, with gilt, and nodding plumes, and long rows of carriages and costly wreaths; and if the truth were told, a nuisance is being got rid of; the world will be better now that he is gone. Well might the artless child, who had been wandering among the tombstones, and reading the epitaphs, turn to its mother and say, "Mother, where are all the bad people buried?" ( T. Thain Davidson, D. D. ) A kings humiliating burial John Trapp. Our Richard II, for his exactions to maintain a great court and favourites, lost his kingdom, was starved to death at Pomfret Castle, and scarce afforded common burial. King Stephen was interred in Faversham monastery; but afterwards his body, for the gain of the lead wherein it was coffined, was cast into the river. ( John Trapp. ) I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. Jeremiah 22:21 Influence of prosperity W. H. Lewis, D. D. In heaven, the more abundantly God's bounties are dispensed, the more is He loved and adored; but on earth, the richer His gifts, the more will He be neglected and disobeyed. A striking proof of our depravity, that constant prosperity hardens, and is unfavourable to piety. I. ABUNDANT EARTHLY BLESSINGS DO TEND TO MAKE THE HEART REBELLIOUS TOWARDS GOD. 1. Scripture teachings are emphatic on this matter ( Deuteronomy 8:12-14 ; Hosea 13:6 ; Proverbs 30:8, 9 ). 2. Experience confirms Scripture. In many instances we see that the highest human virtues and holiest saints of God were unable to withstand the influence of prosperity. They could endure affliction, and profit thereby; as certain liquors ripen in the shade, which under the noonday beams turn to acidity and corruption. 3. It is doubtful whether there ever was a single instance of piety which could pass uninjured through the ordeal of unmingled prosperity. The tone of religion is lowered amid riches and honours. Where simplicity and humility of spirit are preserved amid prosperity, it is owing to some hidden trouble, which like the cord on the feet of the aspiring bird keeps the proud spirit lowly and abased. II. WHAT, THEN, MUST BE THE EFFECT OF PROSPERITY ON THOSE WHO HAVE NO RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE TO COUNTERACT IT, AND WHO ARE AVOWEDLY LOVERS OF THE WORLD AND ITS PLEASURES? 1. They will not heed the messages of God. 2. Religion, with its sober realities, is despised." 3. Those favoured of fortune are the most pitiable objects in the world. III. THEY WHO HAVE WORLDLY PROSPERITY SHOULD BE LED TO SELF-INQUIRY AS TO ITS EFFECT ON THEMSELVES. 1. Are you the same simple-hearted and sincere follower of Jesus as when you began to lay the foundation of your worldly exaltation? 2. What a caution is here to those who are seeking prosperity! Can you discover a means of preserving a lowly spiritual mind amid prosperity? Unless so, there is no alternative but that you must suffer adversity to keep you humble, or become worldly and spiritually hardened. 3. They who have become more indisposed to hear the voice of God should awake to their peril. 4. Prosperous ones may well regard their ease with apprehension. ( W. H. Lewis, D. D. ) Prosperity baneful S. Thodey. I. THE EXACTNESS WITH WHICH GOD OBSERVES ALL THAT RELATES TO HUMAN CHARACTER AND CONDUCT. 1. All our relative circumstances are immediately before His eye; and He notices with tender and faithful scrutiny the various effects which His merciful dispensations have upon the mind. 2. The circumstances of human life, however produced, are undoubtedly under the guidance of providence, and therefore subservient to a wise and perfect design. Each man's history is arranged and adapted with utmost precision to the growth of permanent character. II. THE TENDENCY OF UNSANCTIFIED PROSPERITY TO RENDER US INSENSIBLE TO THE CLAIMS OF RELIGION AND SEPARATE US STILL FURTHER FROM GOD. 1. Uninterrupted comfort tends to lessen our confidence in God: to form in the mind a feeling of self-confidence: a security nothing can shake: so much so that religion can make no entrance into the mind. 2. It hardens the heart. God would have every temporal blessing raise the inquiry, "Lord, what is man?" But wicked and irreligious men are only concerned for enjoyment, and for scope for their ambition. They feed and grovel like swine beneath the oak, without looking up to the boughs that bore the fruit, or the hand that shakes it down. 3. Then comes pride. Nebuchadnezzar. God is forgotten, prayer neglected. 4. Leaves a dulness and lethargy of mind. All Divine threatenings, warnings, promises unheeded. III. VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH GOD REBUKES THIS TENDENCY AND HUMBLES MEN. God speaks to men in various ways, and He distinctly marks the various impressions produced upon the mind by His communications. He speaks to us by His Word and ordinances, by the instructions we receive in religious education, by the various dispensations of His providence, by affliction, by mercies. ( S. Thodey. ) The perverseness of prosperity Anon. Why is prosperity so perverse? I. BECAUSE PROSPERITY OFTEN TENDS TO HARDNESS OF HEART. II. BECAUSE PROSPERITY OFTEN GROWS PROUD AND SELF-SUFFICIENT. Religion and the Bible are well enough for the poor, who need comfort, but what do they want with it, who have "more than heart could wish"? III. BECAUSE PROSPERITY IS OFTEN IMMERSED IN CARES OR PLEASURES. There is no room for religion. The voices of the counting house, the mart of commerce, the shop; or the voices of the pleasure takers, who call men to partake of their pastimes, so fill their ear that they will not obey the voice of God. "I have my nest in the cedars." ( Anon. ) The Christian prospering in business A. J. Morris. The voice of God to the prosperous, which they are in danger of not hearing, concerns — I. HUMILITY. 1. This humility will be shown towards God. There is a natural tendency in wealth to foster a spirit of sinful self-sufficience and independence of God. Many things conspire to this. Wealth is power. Not only the labour of the hands, but the thoughts, the will, and consciences of men may be bought. Wealth not only gives a sort of independence, but a sort of sovereignty. And, thus, it is an object of esteem and reverence. Now, whatever natural religion may teach us, it is certain that the Bible teaches, that "God giveth power to get wealth," and that we have nothing "which we have not received." Now, how comprehensive is the claim for humility involved in all this! It makes every difference, whether we be the authors of our wealth, or whether it be the gift of God. If we receive all, the more we have, the more we have received. The prosperous Christian should realise this; and, realising this, he will be grateful. The bounty of Providence will endear the thought of God. In proportion to his joy will be his thankfulness. 2. This feeling of dependence will respect the future, will influence the mode of regarding the continuance of good things. He who feels deeply that we are in the hands of God; that we are in a state of probation; that the great purpose of God is to try us, to reveal us, to exercise us, and especially to sanctify us; that we deserve nothing, while we receive everything; and that crosses and afflictions are often among the most gracious methods of Divine discipline; will regard the fluctuations of life as Divine dispensations. He will not say only, "It is the course of things," "It is the lot of man," "It must be expected," "It can't be helped," but he will say also, "It is the will of God." 3. Another aspect of this humility will be towards men. In pleading for humility in the rich Christian, I do not advocate an impossible equality, or a forgetfulness of outward distinctions. But I mean, that the feeling of human brotherhood and of Christian respect and affection should be displayed towards all; and that the favours of Providence should only bind us to a more careful regard to the will of our common Father, and a more delicate respect to the feelings of our brethren. II. SPIRITUALITY. 1. Spirituality is opposed to extravagance. He who prizes the manliness and integrity of his soul; he who would not render himself unfit for the possible reverses of life; he who would maintain a taste for the most exalted pleasures; he who is duly alive to the perilous corruption within him, ever ready, like a magazine of powder, to ignite from the smallest spark, or, like a river, on the removal of a little portion of embankment, to burst forth with desolating violence; he will err on the side rather of defect than of excess, and "deny himself" too much rather than smooth the way and strengthen the temptations of "the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life." 2. Spirituality is opposed to worldliness. He is worldly who "walks" not "with God; whose conversation is not in heaven; whose affections are not "set on things above"; who has no keen eye for the mysteries of the kingdom, no quick ear for its voices, no delicate sensibility to its impressions. Have you not many before your minds who have become worldly through prosperity 3. Spirituality is opposed to indolence. Prosperity says, "Take thine ease"! and men are but too ready to comply with the suggestion. The man well-to-do contributes to societies that perform the works in which he was engaged. He now works by proxy. He assigns his sphere to others. He is not idle; he supports all good things. But, my brother, the power to do this is additional to the powers you used to have, not instead of them. You did good then by personal service. That obligation remains. The ability to give does not destroy the ability to labour, and the purse cannot answer the demand for activity and effort. III. BENEVOLENCE. The very means of riches, the common way and method of getting rich, should teach this lesson. Why has God appointed commerce? Why given to men different faculties and spheres? Is it not all designed to impress the doctrine of brotherhood, and to draw out affections and promote deeds in keeping with it? The prosperous Christian should be a liberal Christian. It is not enough that he continue his gifts; he must increase them Proportion is God's rule. He estimates what we part with according to what we keep. A healthy saint will delight in being able to relieve his brethren, and one of the chief charms of prosperity, will be the power it gives him to be a minister for good. His first care will be his own, the needy kindred whose trials he may soothe by generous gifts, or whom he may more worthily and wisely serve by enabling them to serve themselves. His next will be the welfare of those by whose assistance he has succeeded. He will not think his duty done by a mere payment of wages; but will seek to promote their physical and mental and moral well-being. ( A. J. Morris. ) The danger of self-confidence Plain Sermons by Contributors to the Tracts for the Times. Christians are taught, at least in words, to believe that riches and, indeed, any kind of worldly prosperity are exceedingly dangerous to us — that they prove, very often, too great a trial for men's principles; a snare in which they are entangled to their own destruction. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God," to submit himself to the mortifying precepts of the Gospel. The word in the text translated "prosperity" signifies properly "calmness, tranquillity, self-satisfaction." It does not merely mean the possession of money, and other such advantages, but also any state or business of life, which makes a person unwilling to apply to his heart or his conscience those truths of the Gospel especially, which might lessen his confidence about himself, and him spiritual estate. When "God speaks to men in this their" fancied prosperity, "how often in the pride...of their hearts do they refuse to hear." They will "not hear, because they will not consider." Thus, for instance, when things go well with a man, and he has sufficient to maintain himself and his family comfortably his case is one of great difficulty and danger. There is this which makes prosperity a greater danger to us than adversity, that it renders us less willing to listen to the voice of truth and conscience. When worldly things have gone well with a person, and he has yet neglected his eternal interests, there is still hope that adversity may bring him back to his God. But if things have gone ill with a man, and yet he is still worldly-minded and irreligious, what hope is there that prosperity will effect what adversity could not do? The reason is, because worldly business, especially if it be at an successful, is apt to intoxicate the mind, as a dram, and to make a man unable to collect his thoughts and fix them steadily on any object which is not some way or other connected with his immediate interests. But adversity, and suffering, if the heart be not quite hardened against the convictions of conscience, as they make us feel our frailty and dependency, so they have a natural tendency to make us look beyond this present scene for support and con. solation. Let it also be considered, that a life of prosperity, and ease, and freedom from trouble, is the least suited for the exercise of those graces and virtues which are peculiarly Christian, and by which our souls are to be fitted for an entrance into that blessed land where sin and sorrow shall be lab more. It is quite certain and unquestionable, that the Gospel of Christ is uniformly addressed to us, as to persons on their trial and probation for an everlasting reward, — to persona who have it in their power to refuse or to receive the gracious offers made to them, — to persons who are to be through life exercised and disciplined, and led on by degrees towards that perfection of holiness from which our nature was degraded by the transgression of our first parents. Here, then, we may see and acknowledge the great danger of a life of prosperity, ease, and self-satisfaction; and, at the same time, the real benefit of adversity, suffering, and self-distrust. If, then, our gracious God have spoken to us in our prosperity, and we have refused to hear; if He have spoken to us in adversity, and our hearts have been somewhat softened at His gracious chastisement, then let us learn to bless Him for all His dispensations, indeed, but most of all for His punishments. ( Plain Sermons by Contributors to the Tracts for the Times. ) Man in material prosperity Homilist. I. ADDRESSED BY ALMIGHTY GOD. 1. Be humble. "Charge them that are rich," etc. Through the depravity of the heart, wealth has a tendency to fill the soul with self-sufficiency and pride. 2. Be spiritual. Through the depravity of the heart, wealth is often used so to pamper the appetites as to carnalise the soul. 3. Be generous. There is a tendency in wealth so to feed selfishness. II. REFUSING AN AUDIENCE WITH HIS MAKER. Material indulgence deadens the moral tympanum of the heart. "I will not hear" though Thou speakest in nature, in Providence, in the Bible, in conscience, in a thousand holy ministries, I will not hear. Why? — 1. Because I am happy as I am. I have all that I want; not only to supply my need

22:1-9 The king of Judah is spoken to, as sitting upon the throne of David, the man after God's own heart. Let him follow his example, that he may have the benefit of the promises made to him. The way to preserve a government, is to do the duty of it. But sin will be the ruin of the houses of princes, as well as of meaner men. And who can contend with destroyers of God's preparing? God destroys neither persons, cities, nor nations, except for sin; even in this world he often makes it plain for what crimes he sends punishment; and it will be clear at the day of judgement. 22:10-19 Here is a sentence of death upon two kings, the wicked sons of a very pious father. Josiah was prevented from seeing the evil to come in this world, and removed to see the good to come in the other world; therefore, weep not for him, but for his son Shallum, who is likely to live and die a wretched captive. Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied. Here also is the doom of Jehoiakim. No doubt it is lawful for princes and great men to build, beautify, and furnish houses; but those who enlarge their houses, and make them sumptuous, need carefully to watch against the workings of vain-glory. He built his houses by unrighteousness, with money gotten unjustly. And he defrauded his workmen of their wages. God notices the wrong done by the greatest to poor servants and labourers, and will repay those in justice, who will not, in justice, pay those whom they employ. The greatest of men must look upon the meanest as their neighbours, and be just to them accordingly. Jehoiakim was unjust, and made no conscience of shedding innocent blood. Covetousness, which is the root of all evil, was at the bottom of all. The children who despise their parents' old fashions, commonly come short of their real excellences. Jehoiakim knew that his father found the way of duty to be the way of comfort, yet he would not tread in his steps. He shall die unlamented, hateful for oppression and cruelty. 22:20-30 The Jewish state is described under a threefold character. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety. Very fearful on alarm of trouble. Very much cast down under pressure of trouble. Many never are ashamed of their sins till brought by them to the last extremity. The king shall close his days in bondage. Those that think themselves as signets on God's right hand, must not be secure, but fear lest they should be plucked thence. The Jewish king and his family shall be carried to Babylon. We know where we were born, but where we shall die we know not; it is enough that our God knows. Let it be our care that we die in Christ, then it will be well with us wherever we die, thought it may be in a far country. The Jewish king shall be despised. Time was when he was delighted in; but all those in whom God has no pleasure, some time or other, will be so lowered, that men will have no pleasure in them. Whoever are childless, it is the Lord that writes them so; and those who take no care to do good in their days, cannot expect to prosper. How little is earthly grandeur to be depended upon, or flourishing families to be rejoiced in! But those who hear the voice of Christ, and follow him, have eternal life, and shall never perish, neither shall any enemy pluck them out of his almighty hands.