| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Jeremiah
Chapter Four
Jeremiah 4
Chapter Contents
Exhortations and promises. (1-2) Judah exhorted to
repentance. (3-4) Judgements denounced. (5-18) The approaching ruin of Judah.
(19-31)
Commentary on Jeremiah 4:1,2
(Read Jeremiah 4:1,2)
The first two verses should be read with the last
chapter. Sin must be put away out of the heart, else it is not put away out of
God's sight, for the heart is open before him.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4:3,4
(Read Jeremiah 4:3,4)
An unhumbled heart is like ground untilled. It is ground
which may be improved; it is our ground let out to us; but it is fallow; it is
over-grown with thorns and weeds, the natural product of the corrupt heart. Let
us entreat the Lord to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit
within us; for except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
heaven.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4:5-18
(Read Jeremiah 4:5-18)
The fierce conqueror of the neighbouring nations was to
make Judah desolate. The prophet was afflicted to see the people lulled into
security by false prophets. The approach of the enemy is described. Some
attention was paid in Jerusalem to outward reformation; but it was necessary
that their hearts should be washed, in the exercise of true repentance and
faith, from the love and pollution of sin. When lesser calamities do not rouse
sinners and reform nations, sentence will be given against them. The Lord's
voice declares that misery is approaching, especially against wicked professors
of the gospel; when it overtakes them, it will be plainly seen that the fruit
of wickedness is bitter, and the end is fatal.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4:19-31
(Read Jeremiah 4:19-31)
The prophet had no pleasure in delivering messages of
wrath. He is shown in a vision the whole land in confusion. Compared with what
it was, every thing is out of order; but the ruin of the Jewish nation would
not be final. Every end of our comforts is not a full end. Though the Lord may
correct his people very severely, yet he will not cast them off. Ornaments and
false colouring would be of no avail. No outward privileges or profession, no contrivances
would prevent destruction. How wretched the state of those who are like foolish
children in the concerns of their souls! Whatever we are ignorant of, may the
Lord make of good understanding in the ways of godliness. As sin will find out
the sinner, so sorrow will, sooner or later, find out the secure.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 4
Verse 1
[1] If
thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt
put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
If — If thou wilt return,
return; make no longer delay.
Remove —
Thou shalt not go out of thine own land into exile.
Verse 2
[2] And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in
righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall
they glory.
Swear —
This is put here for the whole worship of God, acknowledging and owning God as
the only God; which is strongly exprest by this act.
In truth —
That the matter and substance of it be true.
In judgment —
Deliberately, advisedly, and reverently.
In righteousness —
That none be injured by it, that the things we engage be both lawful and
possible, and that we look to the performance.
The nations —
This shall be a means to work upon the Heathen nations, to come into the same
way of worship. They shall think themselves happy to be incorporated with thee,
that it may be with them according to that promise, Genesis 12:3.
Glory —
Whereas before they gloried in their idols, they shall glory in God alone.
Verse 3
[3] For
thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow
ground, and sow not among thorns.
For —
The Lord turns now his speech from Israel to Judah.
Break up —
Prepare your hearts by making them soft, tender, and pliable, fit to embrace my
word. A metaphor taken from plow-men.
Thorns —
Rid your hearts and hands of what may hinder you of embracing my word.
Verse 4
[4]
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart,
ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like
fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Circumcise —
Put away your corruptions.
Heart —
Let it be inward, not outward in the flesh only.
Verse 5
[5] Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the
trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and
let us go into the defenced cities.
The trumpet —
The Lord being now about to bring enemies upon them, speaks in martial
language, warning them of the nature of their approaching judgment.
Verse 6
[6] Set
up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the
north, and a great destruction.
Retire —
Make haste away.
Verse 7
[7] The
lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his
way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities
shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
The lion —
Nebuchadnezzar, so called from his fierceness and strength.
Verse 9
[9] And
it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king
shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be
astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
The heart —
They shall have no heart to do any thing, they shall not be able to help their
people, either by their counsel or arms.
Prophets —
False prophets that had nothing but visions of peace for them.
Verse 10
[10] Then
said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and
Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the
soul.
Deceived —
Hast suffered them to be deceived by their false prophets.
Whereas — To
persuade them it should be well with them, when the sword is at the door, not
only ready to take away the comforts of life, but even life itself.
Verse 11
[11] At
that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the
high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor
to cleanse,
At that time —
There shall be tidings brought both to the country and city.
A dry wind — A
drying wind, such as shall blast and scorch where it comes, without any rain or
moisture. It points at the stormy and furious irruption of the Babylonian army.
In the plain —
Where there is no stop in the way to break its fury.
Toward —
Directly, and designedly, coming in the way leading to my people.
Not —
Not such a gentle wind, as is made choice of to separate the chaff from the
wheat; but so boisterous and violent, that it shall sweep away, and lay waste,
all together.
Verse 12
[12] Even
a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence
against them.
Full —
Heb. Fuller than they. A wind too strong for them.
Shall come — It
shall presently come to me, to receive my commission, and do my will.
Verse 13
[13]
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind:
his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
As clouds —
Denoting the suddenness of them, when not expected, clouds often rising on a
sudden, and overspread the whole face of the heavens; or the great swiftness
with which Nebuchadnezzar should march against them.
As a whirlwind —
Which, besides the swiftness, denotes also the confusion and amazement that they
will cause.
Verse 14
[14] O
Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How
long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
Wash — As
a means to prevent the judgments that are impending.
Vain thoughts —
Vain fancies of safety.
Verse 15
[15] For
a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
From Dan —
Dan was the first place the Chaldeans came to, being the utmost boundary of
Canaan northward. Ephraim was the innermost border of Israel in the north of
Judea, intimating the march of the Babylonians thro' all Israel.
Verse 16
[16] Make
ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers
come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
Make mention — These
words are a proclamation, summoning the nations by the Chaldeans.
Watchers —
Chaldean soldiers, who shall so carefully encompass Jerusalem, that none shall
escape.
Give out —
They give a shout, encouraging the soldiers to battle.
Verse 17
[17] As
keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been
rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
As keepers —
They will watch that none relieve them, and that none get out to escape.
Verse 18
[18] Thy
way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy
wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
Bitter —
Thy wickedness hath been the cause of bringing such a bitter enemy against
thee, which hath reached unto thy very heart.
Verse 19
[19] 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.
My bowels —
Here begins the complaint of the prophet.
My heart — Is
disturbed within me.
Because — I
have heard in the spirit of prophecy; it is as certain, as if I now heard the
trumpet sounding.
Verse 20
[20]
Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly
are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
Destruction —
Good Josiah slain, and four of his successors carried away, or slain.
My tents —
The enemy makes no more of overthrowing my stately cities, than if he were
overturning tents made of curtains.
Verse 23
[23] I
beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and
they had no light.
I beheld — I
Jeremiah saw this in a vision.
It — The land was squalid,
and ruined, like the first chaos, for which reason possibly he calls Judah the
earth, in allusion to Genesis 1:2.
The heavens — He
seems to proceed in his metaphor of the chaos. Every thing above and below
seemed to be wrapped up in dismal blackness.
Verse 24
[24] I
beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Trembled — He
proceeds in his figurative expressions. Behold how the very mountains of Judea
tremble! Moved - As easily as dust, or feathers in a whirl-wind.
Verse 25
[25] I
beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
No man —
All being either slain, or carried captive, or fled.
Verse 27
[27] For
thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make
a full end.
Yet — In
the midst of judgment he will remember mercy.
Verse 28
[28] For
this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have
spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back
from it.
Mourn —
Expressions to set forth the dreadfulness of the judgment; he makes the
elements to personate mourners.
Verse 31
[31] For
I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that
bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that
bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul
is wearied because of murderers.
In travail —
When the scripture would express any exquisite sorrow, it doth it by a woman in
travail.
First child —
Which is usually the most painful.
Spreadeth her hands —
According to the use of persons in great anguish, clapping or wringing their
hands together.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
04 Chapter 4
Verse 1-2
Verses 1-31
Verses 1-4
If thou wilt return,. . .and if thou wilt put away thine
abominations . . . then shalt thou not remove.
The pleadings of God
A strange ministry is that of Almightiness. It is
almightiness--almost. So we come upon a mysterious “if” in all the history of
God’s administration. “If thou wilt return”--why not make them return? Here man
is stronger than God. We have seen in innumerable instances how true it is that
God, who can handle universes, can do nothing with the heart He has made except
with the heart’s consent. Behold God, then, as a pleader. “If thou wilt return,
O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto Me: and if thou wilt put away thine
abominations out of My sight,”--if thou wilt swear, “The Lord liveth, in truth,
in judgment, and in righteousness,”--if thou wilt do these things, the issue
will be glorious; it will also be beneficent, it will have an evangelistic
effect upon the world. The meaning is, the heathen nations round about shall
see thy return, and they will begin to own the power of God. That is the
converting force that must be brought to bear upon the whole of the nations.
The Church must be so beautiful as to attract attention. When Christians do
right, pagans will believe; when Christians claim their uniqueness of quality
and exemplify it, the men who get up arguments against Christianity will be
ashamed of their own ingenuity, and run away from the things their hands have
piled, saying, We cannot build fortresses against such quality of character.
This is true missionary work. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Putting away of sin
A great warrior was once persuaded by his enemies to put on a
beautiful robe which they presented him. Not suspecting their design, he
wrapped himself tightly in it, but in a few moments found that it was coated on
the inside with a deadly poison. It stuck to his flesh as if it had been glued.
The poison entered into his flesh, so that in trying to throw off the cloak, he
was left torn and bleeding. But did he for that reason hesitate about taking it
off? Did he stop to think whether it was painful or not? Did he say, Let me
wait and think about it awhile? No! he tore it off at once, and threw it from
him, and hastened away from it to the physician. This is the way you must treat
your sins if you would be saved. They have gone into your soul. If you let them
alone you perish. You must not fear the pain of repentance. You must east them
from you as poison, and hasten away to Jesus Christ. Do this, or your sins will
consume you like fire. (T. Meade.)
And thou shalt swear.
On swearing
I. The command.
Did Christ countermand this? (Matthew 5:34.) The Son forbid in the
Gospel what the Father bids in the law? God bids thee swear, so thy oath be
truthful and needful; Christ forbids swearing which is truthless and needless.
II. The form. God
bade us swear; now He tells us how. “The Lord liveth.” It is, then, impiety to
swear by creatures. God prevents all evasion by the name He here gives--“the
Lord”; not any god the swearer would substitute, as some swear by angels,
called in Scripture “Elohim,” and superstition worships them as gods.
III. Three
particulars.
1. “In truth.” Perjury is impious--makes that which is the sign and
seal of truth, the cloak of falsehood.
2. “In judgment.” Swear not upon guess only.
3. “In righteousness.” To any act against right or religion bind not
thyself, let not any bind thee. (R. Clerke, D. D.)
Break up your fallow
ground, and sow not among thorns.--
Soul agriculture
I. Proper
attention to the soil.
1. Variety of condition.
2. Capability of improvement.
II. Proper
attention to the seed.
1. Care in selection of true spiritual seed. The Gospel--
2. Attention must also be paid to its growth.
III. Proper
attention to the season.
1. Youth.
2. The season of moral seriousness, when the heart has been softened.
(Homilist.)
The life of the sinner a foolish agriculture
The people referred to as sowing among thorns are those, perhaps,
who are endeavouring by religious study and effort to get the seeds of Divine
good into them when their hearts remain full of worldly things.
I. A grand evil.
Sowing precious seed in bad soil involves three things.
1. Loss of seed. The precious grain has been thrown away.
2. Loss of labour. All the efforts employed go for nothing.
3. Loss of hope. All the bright anticipations of a glorious future
frustrated.
II. An urgent duty.
“Break up your fallow ground.” This means in one word evangelical repentance
for sin.
1. This in moral, as well as material, agriculture is hard work. A
skilful ploughman, a strong plough and a vigorous team are necessary. It is
hard work to repent.
2. This in moral, as well as in material, agriculture is
indispensable work. (Homilist.)
The fallow ground broken
I. The necessity
of fallowing the ground is obvious to all who are practically acquainted with
tillage: and such as are experimentally informed on the subject of the evil and
barrenness of their own hearts, will admit the absolute requirement of a
similar mental process. All your carnal hopes, and criminal opposition to the
Divine will, must be completely eradicated.
II. The nature of
this part of a farmer’s business will well Illustrate the correspondent toil of
a believer. No attempt to cleanse the heart, however disagreeable, is
intentionally neglected by the sincere believer--no effort is relied upon; all
is subservient to the expected influences of heaven.
III. The advantages
of this procedure. Those who make thorough work with their own hearts, will
find that their religious joys and better hopes, though delayed, shall be most
vigorous; their subsequent sufferings from the grieving thorn and pricking
brier shall be fewer; and a richer harvest shall at length crown their toil.
1. If you desire permanent prosperity and joy in the Holy Ghost,
break up the fallow ground--sow not among thorns.
2. Be personal in this labour. Turn your eyes from others to
yourself.
3. Remember your own unworthiness, and the poverty of your unassisted
endeavours. (W. Clayton.)
Ploughing and sowing
This season of spring, with its ploughing, and sowing, and opening
of life, typifies the time which God has given for forming in us enlightened
principles and virtuous habits, holy motives and pure desires, and for becoming
possessed of the grace and goodness which Jesus has to impart, in order that we
may grow up into the Divine life of God, which shall abide with us through old
age as the source of true enjoyment, and as the first beginnings of eternal
glory. The ploughshare of the Divine Word must pierce into us, and break up our
hardness and indifference, and make us impressible and movable, to fit us for
bringing forth the fruits of righteousness. For example, the seedtime of life,
like that of spring, regulates and determines the moral results which the
future shall unfold, whether in time or in eternity. Our life on earth is the
scene of moral causes and operations--the sowing time of our spirit--the period
for the earnest cultivation of our moral nature; and it is to us all the more
important, because it is far-reaching in its effects, stretching beyond the
present earthly existence into eternity, bearing the flowers and blossoms of
spiritual beauty and grace, a manifestation of Deity in humanity. And if these
moral causes do not operate--if the seed time of life be wasted--if the
cultivation of the moral nature be neglected, equally true the effects of such
a life are eternal, stretching beyond the present earthly existence, and
bearing into eternity the fruits of moral depravity and corruption. Now, this
cultivation of our moral nature is no easy task. Even in matters connected with
this life, if we neglect any duty from time to time, or if we delay entering
upon any employment necessary to our material or social well-being, indolence
increases, disinclination to perform the duty strengthens, dislike to the
employment springs up, until habit entirely unfits us for action. In the same
way, to ignore religious truth in its relation to our heart, and to neglect
religious duties, is to deepen false impressions, strengthen ignorant
prejudices, and confirm evil habits. This also is certain, that if good seed is
not germinating in our hearts, thorns of evil are, do what we will. If, for
instance, our mind is not exercised with religious truth, and no effort made on
our part to understand intelligently the revelation which God has made of human
salvation; or if the heart be unopened to the power of the Divine Spirit and
the moral impressions of Divine truth; and if we continue to refuse accepting
Christ as the Saviour of our soul; then our mental and moral nature will become
as hard-baked fallow ground, almost impenetrable to the ploughshare of heaven.
The indifference of the mind to religious truth keeps the heart spiritually
cold, and the coldness of the heart induces in the mind a distaste for
spiritual things. On the other hand, any powerful awakening in connection with
religion or religious truth, whether it affect the mind alone, or the heart
alone, or both together, is in the highest sense beneficial to our soul.
Whatever acts on the mind so as to turn it in upon itself, whatever makes the
soul depend upon God, and believe in an invisible spiritual world as a reality,
though accompanied with strong excitement or inward conflict, is good, and
leads to spiritual power. Besides, the precise form of treatment that does good
to one spiritual nature, is not always successful with every other, even in
like circumstances, any more than the same culture would be successful with
different soils in the same climate. We cannot, therefore, project our own
feelings and experience into the mind and soul of others, as if we were
examples of the only way in which Divine grace and power plough all human souls
for the seed of salvation. This breaking up of our moral nature is nothing else
than the softening of our hearts under the influence of Divine truth--a humble,
penitent spirit, a constant sense of the evil of sin, a willingness to be
reconciled to God, whom our transgressions have offended, and an earnest desire
after a holier life in God. It is only in such a heart as this that Divine
truth will take root, and grow up and bring forth fruit. As the ground must be
broken before the tiny fibrils of the root can descend into the earth, which
they do, as by a sensitive instinct, in search of vegetable nourishment and
life; so the spiritual nature must be humbled and made penitent--broken under a
sense of sin, and under the operation of Divine law--in order that the seed of
the Divine Word may hide itself deep down into the subsoil of the soul, until
it establishes itself firmly there. While the tangled threads of the root are
shooting themselves downwards, and gathering strength and nourishment from the
soil, the blade in spiral form shoots itself upwards to the light, and the leaf
opens, then comes the ear, and then the full corn in the ear, ripe for the
sickle of harvest. In the same way Divine truth and heavenly principles,
spiritual thought, emotion, and life descend and ascend, as by an unchangeable
law. In every truly spiritual life there is this two-fold operation--a movement
upwards and downwards, a working within and without, a meditative disposition
expressing itself in active habits, believing prayer, conjoined with earnest
effort in doing good. (W. Simpson.)
The duty of moral cultivation
Our nature at its largest is but a small farm, and we had need to
get a harvest out of every acre of it, for our needs are great. Have we left
any part of our small allotment uncultivated? If so, it is time to look into
the matter and see if we cannot improve this wasteful state of things. What
part of our small allotment have we left fallow? We should think very poorly of
a farmer who for many years allowed the best and richest part of his farm to
lie altogether neglected and untilled. An occasional fallow has its benefits in
the world of nature; but, if the proprietor of rich and fruitful land allowed
the soil to continue fallow, year after year, we should judge him to be out of
his wits. The wasted acres ought to be taken from him and given to another
husbandman who would worthily cherish the generous fields, and encourage them to
yield their harvests. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A fallow field
Do you know what happens to a fallow field? how it becomes caked
and baked hard as though it were a brick? All the friable qualities seem to
depart, and it hardens as it lies caked and unbroken; I mean, of course, if
year succeed year, and the fallow remains untouched. And then the weeds! If a
man will not sow wheat, he shall have a crop for all that, for the weeds will
spring up, and they will sow themselves, and in due time the multiplication
table will be worked out to a very wonderful extent; for these seeds,
multiplying a hundredfold, as evil usually does, will increase and increase
again, till the fallow field shall become a wilderness of thorns and briars and
a thicket of dock nettle and thistle. If you do not cultivate your heart, Satan
will cultivate it for you. If you bring no crop to God, the devil will be sure
to reap a harvest. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 3-31
Verses 11-13
A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the
daughter of My people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.
Untempered judgments
The prophet intimates that God will one day send a judgment upon
His people comparable only to the sirocco of the desert. The harvestman
welcomes almost all the winds of the summer time but this. Their gentle
currents lend themselves to the winnowing processes that are necessary to
complete the toil of the year. But the sirocco comes with no element of helpfulness
or beneficent service in its terrible wings. It is the agent of unmixed ruin,
overthrow, death; the symbol of judgment without mercy. The successive
invasions that were soon to close in upon the Holy Land were to be of this
unmixed character. The flower of one generation was to perish in the overthrow.
Whole districts were to be depopulated and re-peopled by alien races. The wind
that came from the desert Came to crash and to scorch and to destroy. It was
“not to fan, nor to cleanse.” Some men claim that all judgment must be
ultimately puttying. This inspired utterance however assures us that there is
such a thing in the Divine economy as punishment that is purely punitive and
not disciplinary.
I. Let us inquire
if this penal element has a place in the best human governments. If we work out
to its logical conclusion the theory that all punishment must be disciplinary
only, we shall be bound to adopt methods of procedure in our law courts more
grotesque than the most audacious caricature has ever imagined. We must have no
short sentences if all penalty is to be educating. We have no right to
discharge a man, however slight his transgression, till he has given sufficient
assurance that his character has been entirely transformed. Judge and jury would
no longer need to concern themselves with the particular category into which
his crime came. The only question for them to ask would be, how far does the
root of evil go down in this man’s character? and what amount of force will be
necessary to pull it up? Some men, who are incapable of amendment through pain,
can perhaps be stirred to better desires, or at least taken away from their
criminal tendencies, by wholesome excitements. Experts would have to step into
the witness box. In some cases it might be found that a garrotter would be more
sensibly improved by wholesome excitements than by flogging. Carlyle inveighed
from time to time against this unhealthy sentimentalism which would sap the
foundation of all human and Divine law alike. In the “Life of Bishop
Wilberforce” reference is made to a party at which Monckton Milnes, Thomas
Carlyle, and other distinguished men were present. The conversation turned upon
the question of capital punishment. Mr. Monckton Milnes was arguing against
death-penalties, on the ground that we could not know how far the offender was
responsible and consciously wrong. Carlyle broke out, “None of your
heaven-and-hell amalgamation companies for me! We do know what is wickedness. I
know wicked men I would not live with: men whom under some conceivable
circumstances I would kill or they should kill me. No, Milnes; there is no
truth or greatness in that. It’s just poor, miserable littleness. There was far
more greatness in the way of your German forefathers, who, when they found one
of those wicked men, dragged him to a peat bog, and thrust him in, and said,
“There! go in there. There is the place for all such as thee:”
II. If this penal
element is admitted into human governments, upon what conceivable principle can
it be excluded from the Divine? Many causes combine to weaken the sense we have
of our own authority to punish wrong-doing. It is a strictly delegated
authority. We always feel ourselves bound to greater restraint and
circumspection in the exercise of delegated than original rights. We often feel
ourselves incompetent judges of all that has transpired. We judge and punish in
dim twilights. That tends to make us hesitating and indeterminate. And then the
sense of our own authority to judge and to punish is weakened by the recollection
we have of our own desert of punishment in many things. Unless the offence is
very flagrant, we fear to incriminate ourselves by judging another. And yet,
notwithstanding all these things, we are absolutely sure of our clear abstract
right to punish even in cases where the punishment has no educating purpose to
fulfil to the individual, whatever it may have to the community. How much
stronger is God’s right! His authority is original, and not delegated. He
guarantees in every soul He judges the sufficiency of the past training and
discipline. He dwells in the perfect light. His judgment can never be unnerved
by the fear of error.
III. Disciplinary
are distinguished from penal judgments, not so much by any quality in the
judgments themselves, as by the temper of those who become the subjects of such
judgments. The question whether purely penal elements can enter into God’s
government is one that must be looked at from the standpoint of the
transgressor rather than that of the Judge. Are there incorrigible elements in
human nature? As a matter of fact, judgments very often fail to sober and to
purify here. There are men who can never be taught wisdom by the longest
succession of business reverses. There are men who, humanly speaking, can never
be taught common morality, however heavy the penalties they are made to pay for
its breach. There are worldly men whom no number of sicknesses and providential
bereavements can discipline into religiousness. Where there are unreformable
elements in human character, disciplinary judgment necessarily passes into the
purely punitive stage. It is often argued that the keener judgments of the life
to come will produce penitence in those who have continued stubborn under the
milder judgments of the present life. There is not only no proof of that, but
nothing even to suggest that it is probable. We cannot predicate anything from
the cumulative power of pain. The wind does not become purifying by mere
increase of the force with which it blows. After reaching a certain pitch of
violence it can neither “fan nor cleanse.”
IV. The judgment
that has passed out of the disciplinary into the penal stage for the individual
is still disciplinary in its significance for the race at large. The wind that
blows to crush and to scorch and to uproot in one zone of the earth, after it
has passed into new latitudes, and been tempered by the seas over which it
travels, may become a wind of winnowing beneficence. The penal visitation of
one generation may become the saving chastisement of the generation that
follows it. We must not get into the habit of supposing that God’s purposes
ever terminate in the individual. That mystery of unending punishment, which
seems to frustrate the Divine purpose of mercy to the individual, may fulfil a
purpose of gracious admonition to the race. The law of vicariousness pervades
the moral universe just as widely as the law of gravitation overspreads the
natural universe. There is a priesthood of vicarious judgment as well as of
mercy. As great fires are kindled in times of plague to burn up the germs of
infection floating in the air, so the atmosphere of God’s universe may need to
be kept pure by the flames of a quenchless Gehenna. (T. G. Selby.)
Verse 14
Wash thine heart from wickedness.
Purity necessary to salvation
I. The natural
depravity of the human heart.
1. This doctrine requires definition. Depravity of the heart
includes--
2. This doctrine demands evidence.
II. The spiritual
purity which the lord requires.
1. The possibility of obtaining purity of heart. This appears from--
2. The important duty of seeking purity of heart.
III. The absolute
necessity of personal holiness.
1. A necessary property of religion.
2. A necessary meetness for heaven. (Sketches of Four Hundred
Sermons.)
The heart to be kept pure
“You have seen,” said Spurgeon, “the great reservoirs provided by
our water companies, in which the water to supply thousands of houses is kept.
Now the heart is the reservoir of man, and our life is allowed to flow in its
proper season. That life may flow through different pipes--the mouth, the hand,
the eye; but still all the issues of hand, of eye, of lip derive their source
from the great fountain and central reservoir, the heart; and hence there is
great necessity for keeping this reservoir in a proper state and condition,
since otherwise that which flows through the pipes must be tainted and
corrupt.” How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?--Vain thoughts:--
I. Characteristics.
Those thoughts are vain--
1. From which we do not and cannot reap any good.
2. Which cannot associate in any agreement with useful and valuable
ones.
3. Which have to be kept out in order for the mind to attend to any
serious or good purpose.
4. Which dwell largely and habitually on trifling things.
5. Which trifle with important things.
6. Which are fickle, not remaining with any continuance on a subject.
7. When the mind has some specially favourite trifle, some cherished,
idolised toy.
8. Which continually return to things justly claiming a measure of
attention, when the thinking of them can be no advantage.
9. When the mind dwells on fancies of how things might be or might
have been, when the reality of how they are is before us.
10. Which men indulge concerning notions and schemings of worldly
felicity.
II. Corrective.
1. Have specified subjects of serious interest to turn to when
thought reverts to these vanities.
2. Make a sudden charge of guilt on your mind when vain thoughts prevail.
3. Have recourse to the direct act of devotion.
4. Interrupt and stop them by the question, What is just now my most
pressing duty?
5. Have recourse to some practical occupation, matter of business, or
a visit to some house of mourning.
6. Constrain your habitual thinking to go along with the thoughts of
those who have thought the best, by reading the most valuable books.
7. Think to a certain purpose--towards a purposed end.
8. Reflect on how many things we have to do with which vain thoughts
interfere; and also, what would have been the result of good thoughts instead
of so many vain.
9. Discipline of the thoughts greatly depends on the company a man
keeps (Proverbs 13:20).
10. If the complaint be urged, that this discipline involves much that
is hard and difficult, we answer, It is just as hard as to do justice to a
rational and immortal spirit placed here a little while by God for its
improvement, and then to go where appoints. Hard, but indispensable. (John
Foster.)
Bad lodgers, and how to treat them
I. Here are
certain bad lodgers.
1. Many thoughts may be called vain because they are proud, conceited
thoughts. Thus, whenever a man thinks himself good by nature, we may say of his
thoughts, “Vanity of vanities: all is vanity.” If you are unrenewed, and dream
that you are better than others because your parents were godly, it is a vain
thought. Every thought of self-righteousness is a vain thought; every idea,
moreover, of self-power--that you can do this and do that towards your own
salvation, and that at any time when it pleases you you can turn and become a
Christian, and so there is no need to be in a hurry, or to seek the help of the
Holy Spirit:--that also is a vain thought.
2. Another sort of vain thoughts may be ranged under the head of
carnal security. The poet says, “All men think all men mortal but themselves,”
and often as the saying is quoted never was a proverb more generally true.
3. I know another set of thoughts: they are better looking, but they
are equally vain, for they promise much and come to nothing: they are vain
because they are fruitless. These vain thoughts are like the better order of
people in Jerusalem--good people after a sort--that is to say, they really
thought that as God threatened them with judgments, they would turn to Him.
Certainly they would. They had no intention of being hard hearted. Far from it;
they owned the power of the prophet’s appeal; they felt a degree of awe in the
presence of the just God as He threatened them, and of course they meant--they
meant to wash their hearts, and they meant to put away all their forbidden
practices; not just yet, but by and by. Some men brood so long over their
future intentions that they all of them become addled eggs, and nothing
whatever is hatched. O man, “whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it,” do it,
do it “with thy might.”
II. Now, let me
show what bad lodgers they are.
1. First, they are deceitful. The man that says, “When I have a more
convenient season I will send for thee,” does not send for Paul any more: he
never intended to do so. A man says, “Tomorrow”; but tomorrow never comes. When
that comes which would have been “tomorrow” it is “today”; and then he cries,
“Tomorrow,” and so multiplies lies before God.
2. Vain thoughts are bad lodgers, for they pay no rent; they bring in
nothing good to those who entertain them. There is the ledger of
self-righteousness, for instance: what good does self-righteousness ever do to
the man who entertains it? It pretends to pay in brass farthings: it pretends
to pay, but the money is counterfeit. What good does it do to any man to
harbour in his mind the empty promise of future repentance? It often prevents
repentance.
3. The next reason for the ejectment of these lodgers is this: that
they are wasting your goods and destroying your property. For instance, every
unacted resolution wastes time, and that is more precious than gold. It also
wastes thought, for to think of a thing and to leave it undone is a waste of
reflection. It is a waste of energy to be energetic about merely promising to
be energetic; it is a great waste of strength to be forever resolving to be
strong, and yet to remain weak.
4. Worst of all, these vain thoughts are bad lodgers because they
bring you under condemnation. There have been times when to entertain certain
persons was treason, and many individuals have been put to death for harbouring
traitors. Rebels condemned to die have been discovered in a man’s house, and he
has been condemned for affording them a hiding place. Now, God declares that
these vain thoughts of yours are condemned traitors. Are you going to harbour
them any longer?
III. Let us see what
to do with these bad lodgers.
1. The first thing is to give them notice to quit at once. Let there
be no waiting. When a man is converted it is done at once. There is a line,
thin as a razor’s edge, which divides death from life, a point of decision
which separates the saved from the lost.
2. Suppose that these vain thoughts will not go just when you bid
them begone. I will tell you what to do to get rid of them: starve them out.
Lock the door, and let nothing enter upon which they can feed.
3. The best way in all the world that I know of to get rid of vain
thoughts out of your house--these bad lodgers that have gone in and that you
cannot get out--is to sell the house over their heads. Let the house change
owners. When you have dope that, you know, it will be the new owner that will
have the trouble of turning them out; and He will do it. I recommend every
sinner here that wants to find salvation to give himself up to Christ. Ah, now
the stronger than they are has come, and He will bind the strong ones, and He
will fling them out of window, and so break them to pieces with their fall that
they shall never be able to crawl up the stairs again. He knows how to do it.
He can expel them; you cannot. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Vain thoughts
Heart compared to house, to entertain and lodge guests; into
which, before conversion, all the light wanton thoughts that post up and down
in the world have open access; while they, like unruly gallants, revel day and
night, and defile those rooms they lodge in. “How long?” whilst I, with My
Spirit, and Son, and train of graces, stand and knock, and cannot find admittance?
I. What is meant
by thoughts?
1. The internal acts of the mind; reasonings, resolutions,
consultations, desires, cares, etc.
2. What vanity is.
II. The particulars
wherein this vanity of the thinking, meditating power of man consists.
1. In regard to thinking what is good.
2. The readiness of the mind to think on evil and vain things.
III. Remedies
against vain thoughts.
1. Get the heart furnished and enriched with a good stock of
sanctified and heavenly knowledge in spiritual truths.
2. Endeavour to preserve and keep up lively, holy, and spiritual
affections in the heart.
3. Get the heart possessed with deep and powerful apprehensions of
God’s holiness, majesty, omniscience, and omnipresence.
4. In the morning when thou awakest, as did David (Psalms 119:18), prevent the vain thoughts
the heart naturally engenders by filling it with thoughts of God.
5. Have a watchful eye upon thy heart all day; though vain thoughts
crowd in, let them know that they pass not unseen.
6. Please not thy fancy too much with vanities and curious flights (Job 31:1; Proverbs 4:25).
7. Be diligent in thy calling (2 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Timothy 5:13); only, encumber not
the mind too much (Luke 10:41).
8. In thy calling and all thy ways commit thy goings to the Lord (Proverbs 16:3). (T. Goodwin, B. D.)
Vain thoughts
I. What are vain
thoughts?
1. Unprofitable imaginations.
2. Unscriptural opinions.
3. Unholy desires.
4. Unseasonable ideas.
II. The solemn
inquiry. “How long?”
1. Shall it be till some temporal judgment be sent to awaken you out
of your carnal security?
2. Till habit rivets these vain thoughts, and makes repentance and
conversion harder than ever?
3. Till the grieved Saviour forsakes thee, and the resisted Spirit
ceases to strive with thee?
4. Till the sentence goes forth, cut it down, why cumbereth it the
ground? (J. Jowett, M. A.)
The vanity of man as a thinker
I. It is the glory
of man that he can think.
1. Thought brings the outward universe into man’s soul, and thus
makes it his own.
2. Thought enables us to subordinate the outward world to our
service.
3. By the power of thought we construct new universes.
4. Thought determines our condition.
II. It is the curse
of man that he thinks wrongly.
1. Vain thoughts find a lodgment in the minds of some. If the
thoughts cherished be vain, the life pursued will be vain. In order in some
measure to estimate the amount of vain thought cherished by men, let us do
three things. Compare the true theory of happiness with the conduct which men
pursue in order to obtain it; the true theory of greatness with the efforts
which they put forth in order to realise it; and the true theory of religion
with their conduct in relation to it.
2. The expulsion of vain thoughts is a matter of urgent importance.
Vain thoughts
I. The evil of
permitting vain thoughts to lodge within us. By vain thoughts may be meant all
unlawful desires, vile affections, wicked tempers, and mischievous imaginations
of every kind. If these, or any other evil thoughts to which we are subject,
lodge in our breasts, they must render our persons abominable to God, corrupt
all our performances, and produce many bitter fruits.
II. The necessity
of washing our hearts from wickedness. As it would be madness in the husbandman
to sow his seed upon ground that was covered with thorns, so it is equally
foolish to expect the fruit of good living in any person whose heart lies
fallow, unbroken, and overspread with the cares of the world, the deceitfulness
of riches, and the lusts of other things, which our Saviour calls thorns. (W.
Richardson.)
The place of thought in the making of character
Anyone who has visited lime stone caves has noticed the stalactite
pillars, sometimes large and massive, by which they are adorned and supported.
They are nature’s masonry of solid rock formed by her own slow, silent, and
mysterious process. The little drop of water percolates through the roof of the
cavern and deposits its sediment, and another follows it, till the icicle of
stone is formed, and finally reaching to the rock beneath, it becomes a solid
pillar, a marble monument which can only be rent down by the most powerful
forces. But is there not going forward oftentimes in the caverns of the human
heart a process as silent and effective, yet infinitely more momentous? There
in the darkness that shrouds all from the view of the outward observer, each
thought and feeling, as light and inconsiderable perhaps as the little drops of
water, sinks downward into the soul, and deposits--yet in a form almost
imperceptible--what we may call its sediment. And then another and another
follows, till the traces of all combined become more manifest; and if these
thoughts and feelings are charged with the sediment of worldliness and worldly
passion, then all around the walls of this spiritual cavern stand in massive
proportions the pillars of sinful inclination and the props of iniquity, and
only a convulsion like that which rends the solid globe can rend them from
their place and shake their hold. (American National Preacher.)
Bad lodgers
John Huss, seeking to reclaim a very profane wretch, was
told by him that his giving way to wicked, wanton thoughts was the original of
all those hideous births of impiety which he was guilty of in his life. Huss
answered him, that although he could not keep evil thoughts from courting him,
yet he might keep them from making a lodging place in his heart; as, he added,
“though I cannot prevent the birds from flying over my head, yet I can keep
them from building nests in my hair.”
Vain thoughts
A true Christian, who, by experience, knows what it is to deal
with his own heart, finds it infinitely more difficult to beat down one sinful
thought from rising up in him than to keep a thousand sinful thoughts from
breaking forth into open act. Here lies his chief labour, to fight against phantasm
and any apparitions, such as thoughts are; he sets himself chiefly against
these heart sins, because he knows that these are the sins that are most of all
contrary to grace, and do most of all weaken and waste grace. Outward sins are
but like so many caterpillars that devour the verdure and flourishing of grace;
but heart sins are like so many worms that gnaw the very root of grace. (Bp.
E. Hopkins.)
Verses 19-26
I am pained at my very heart.
The prophet’s lamentations over his people’s doom
I. The complaint
or lamentation itself.
1. The parts affected. The soul and inward man.
2. The grief of those parts.
3. The passage or vent.
II. The ground or
occasion of his lamentation.
1. The tidings or report itself.
2. The conveyance of it to the prophet.
(a) God’s excellency: He speaks.
(b) Man’s duty: he hears.
3. The improvement or use he makes of it.
(a) This is the aim of a revelation.
(b) We should endeavour to bring revelations for others to our own
spiritual advancement and profit.
(a) An or at his people’s obstinacy.
(b) Fear of the coming judgment.
(c) Grief at his people’s state and doom (T. Herren, D. D.)
The alarm of war.
War
“The alarm of war.” A dreadful alarm; one that conjures up horrors
and miseries that can scarcely be too deeply coloured. It sends a shudder
through the system to think of the wealth of faculty and of resource that is
expended over the problem how men can most effectually blow up and slay their
fellows, and spread ruin and devastation upon the earth. Strip the thing of all
the plumage of romance; look at it in its naked literalness, and it is simply
horrible. That is true, too true, undeniably true. But let us learn a lesson.
What capacities of heroism, of lofty patriotism, of courageous and unstinting
self-sacrifice are called forth by the sound of the trumpet! Well, if only this
potency of action, this burning enthusiasm, could be transferred to the Holy
War that we are called to wage--ay, what then? Who are the real world heroes?
An Alexander, a Napoleon? No, not the wakeful conquerors whose path has been as
the whirlwind, but the men and women of whom the world often heard little, for
the world does not know its best benefactors--the men and women who have broken
the chains of the slave; who have lifted the poor from the dunghill; who have
spoken the word of truth for which the soul of man was waiting; who have helped
their kind to nobler and higher life; and all and only for God and for
humanity. To them the statues and the monuments should be reared, and the
canvas animated, and the laurel entwined. They are your leaders, O Christian
people. Their fight is your fight, and it is His fight who is the Captain of
our salvation. If I were to say to you in regard to this highest and noblest
warfare, as Marshal Blanco said to the Cuban Spaniards, “Do you swear to follow
in this fight?” would you reply “Yes, we do”? I suppose you would. But just
pause. Have you ever parted with a single comfort, with an enjoyment, with
something that you feel to be good, if not necessary for your well-being; a
something to which you are quite entitled; to secure an unselfish end; to
better some cause; to get more into the inner place of human soul; to spread the
knowledge of God’s Christ and of your Father’s kingdom in our world? Oh, that
as we raise the vision of one kind of war that is blistered all over with
mourning, lamentation, and woe, oh, that there might rise upon our souls the
vision of that other war that has no such blisters, that is written all over
with the characters of true, noble, glorious life or death! Oh, that this
vision might take some shape and some consistency and some solidarity within
us. There is no life that is worth anything that is not a fighting life. God
made us to fight; He set us in the world to fight. The enemy is around us,
before us, without us, aye, and within us. I ask, who of you are ready, humbly,
reflecting, but earnestly, to lift up your hand to Him, your risen Lord, who is
beckoning you, and say, “By Thy help, Lord, I will. Here am I. I have been but
a laggard; I have been content to fight in the rear. Take me on to the van, and
let me have some worthy part with Thee in this great holy war. Here am I,
Prince of Peace, send me.” (J. M. Lang, D. D.)
The alarm of war
I. Of hearing the
sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war.
1. We ought to have our ears open to the voice of God in the
dispensations of His providence (Micah 6:9).
2. When we hear the sound of the trumpet, and the alarm of war, we
ought to consider the causes of these alarms. The prophets often denounce war
as a judgment of God against His people, or against the Gentiles. In publishing
such threatenings they, for the most part, speak of the sins that have provoked
God to afflict His creatures with this calamity; and when they do not specify
the grounds of the Lord’s controversy, as in chap. 49, they leave no room to
doubt that God is justly displeased. God has just reason, for our sins at
present, not only to threaten, but to punish us with His vengeance. We ought to
wonder at His forbearance, that He has not long since caused the sword to reach
unto the whole of the nation, to avenge the quarrel of His covenant.
3. The probable or possible consequences of these alarms of war ought
to come under our view when we hear the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of
war. When we make that preparation which religion enjoins against possible
evils, if these evils should not overtake us, we are no losers, but gainers.
The fear of evil has often been productive of much good. “Happy is the man who
feareth always,” and especially in times when there is peculiar cause of fear;
“but he who hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”
II. The impression
which the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war ought to make upon us.
1. Those external scenes of distress which are the consequences of
war must give pain to a heart that is not contracted and hardened by a reigning
selfishness of spirit.
2. Souls precipitated into an eternal world must awaken awful
sensations in those who believe that, when the dust returns to the earth as it
was, the spirit returns to God who gave it.
3. The influence that wars may have upon the interests of religion is
a source of anxious concern to the lovers of God (Lamentations 1:9; Lamentations 2:6-7; Lamentations 2:9). Amidst the ravages of
war, even in our own times, we have too often heard of the alienation or
destruction of houses ordinarily employed in the services of religion. Should
God, in His wrath, refuse us His help against those who threaten the subversion
of our liberties, who can foresee what dismal consequences in the state of
religion would ensue?
4. God’s indignation, apparent in the alarms of war, ought to impress
every mind with deep concern.
III. What
improvement is to be made of the sound of the trumpet and of the alarm of war?
1. Let us consider our ways, and inquire how far we are chargeable
with those provocations of the Divine majesty which expose us to danger from
our enemies. When God threatens judgments, He observes our behaviour. He
returns and repents when men are ready to acknowledge their offences, and to
forsake them; but woe to those who are at ease in their sins, and never inquire
what are the causes of the Lord’s contendings with them.
2. We ought to humble ourselves before God, on account of our
iniquities. Observe in what manner Ezra and Daniel bewailed and confessed their
own iniquities, and the iniquities of their people (Ezra 9:1-15; Daniel 9:1-27). What would we think of a
child that did not mourn when his father was justly displeased with him? We
would think that he was cursed with a disposition that totally disqualified him
for enjoying the sweetest pleasures that man can taste. By this similitude the
Scripture teaches us how unnatural a thing insensibility to the chastisements
of the Divine hand ought to be reputed (Numbers 12:14).
3. Supplications for pardoning and reforming grace ought to accompany
our humiliation. We are greatly encouraged to pray by the many examples of
successful petitioners for public mercies in Scripture. The ways of God are
everlasting. He delights in mercy. He puts words into our mouth for imploring
His mercy. He hath left us many promises of merciful returns to our prayers,
that we may be encouraged to come boldly to His throne of grace for mercy to
ourselves, to our friends and brethren, to the Church, to our king and country.
4. We are warned by the sound of the trumpet and the alarms of war to
make God our refuge, and the Most High our habitation. To trust to ourselves is
the fruit of atheism. If there is a God, He rules in the army of heaven and
amongst the inhabitants of the earth; and He does according to His pleasure. He
sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as
grasshoppers. He bringeth the princes of the earth to nought; He maketh its
judges as vanity. “But the name of the Lord is a strong tower of defence,” some
may say, “only for the righteous (Proverbs 18:10). And we are conscious of
so many evils, that we have no reason to hope for protection from the Holy One,
who takes no pleasure in wickedness, and will not suffer evil to dwell with
Him.” It is true, the Lord our God is holy; but it is true likewise, that He is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and
sin. “Him that cometh unto Me,” says Jesus, “I will in no wise cast out.” You
have perhaps heard some ridiculous stories of men that, by some magical secret,
were rendered invulnerable in battle. You would not be afraid to encounter the
most formidable armies if you were masters of such a secret; but, if thou canst
believe, “all things are possible to him that believeth.” “He that liveth, and
believeth in Me, shall never die.” Who is he that can kill those who cannot
die? The words, you will say, must be figuratively understood; for who is the
man that liveth, and shall not see death? But, however they are to be
understood, they are true and faithful sayings of the Amen, the faithful and
true Witness, of Him that liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore, and
holds the keys of the spiritual world, and of death. You are called to mourning
in days of danger, but not to that kind of mourning which swallows up the soul.
You are called to mourn, that you may rejoice; to be afflicted for your sins,
that you may flee from wrath to Christ, and find in Him safety, security, and
joy.
5. The sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war is a loud call to us
to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well. Our faith in God is a delusion if
we hold fast our iniquities. Our faith in Christ, if it is genuine, will purify
our hearts and lives. We are exposed to danger, not only from our own personal
sins, but from the sins of our fellow subjects; and therefore we ought not only
to forsake sin, but to use all our influence to turn other sinners from the
error of their ways. It is a righteous thing with God, that those who do not
duly oppose the prevalence of sin should share in the miseries which it brings.
We ought not only to renounce all iniquity, but to live in the habitual
practice of every duty which God requires. (G. Lawson.)
Verse 20
Suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
Sudden sorrow
Jeremiah was describing the havoc of war, a war which was
devastating his country and bringing untold miseries upon the people. How
grateful we ought to be that war is not raging in our own land. Blessed be the
Lord, who has given centuries of peace to the fertile hills and valleys of His
chosen isle. There are, however, in this land, and in all lands, whether at war
or peace, many calamities which come suddenly upon the sons of men, concerning
which they may bitterly lament, “How suddenly are my tents spoiled and my
curtains in a moment.” This world at its best is not our rest. There is nothing
settled below the moon. We call this terra firma, but there is nothing
firm upon it; it is tossed to and fro like a troubled sea evermore. We are
never for any long time in one stay; change is perpetually operating. Nothing
is sure but that which is Divine; nothing is abiding except that which cometh
down from heaven.
I. A sudden
spoiling happens to human righteousness.
1. Let us look at the history of human righteousness, and begin in
the garden of Eden, and lament the fall. Adam in his perfection could not
maintain his righteousness, how can you and I, who are imperfect from the very
birth, hope to do so?
2. A second instance of this very commonly occurs in the failure of
the moralist’s resolutions. See yonder young people, tutored from their
childhood in everything that is good: their character is excellent and
admirable, but will it so abide? Will not the enemy despoil their tents?
3. Another liability of human righteousness is one which I must not
call a calamity, seeing it is the commencement of the greatest blessing: I mean
when the Spirit of God comes to deal with human righteousness, by way of
illumination and conviction. Here we can speak of what we know experimentally.
How beautiful our righteousness is, and how it flourishes like a comely flower
till the Spirit of God blows upon it, and then it withers quite away, like the
grass in the hot sirocco. The first lesson of the Holy Ghost to the heart is to
lay bare its deceivableness, and to uncover before us its loathsomeness, where
we thought that everything was true and acceptable. I would ask all who are
under conviction of sin to answer this question, “When thou art spoiled, what
wilt thou do?” May you reply, “We know what we will do. We will flee from self
to Jesus. Our precious things are removed, and our choice treasure is taken
from us; therefore do we take the Lord Jesus to be our all in all.”
4. But there will come to all human righteousness one other time of
spoiling, if neither of those should happen which I have mentioned before.
Remorse will come, and that very probably in the hour of death, if not before.
II. The words of our
text are exceedingly applicable to the spoiling of all earthly comforts.
1. Sudden destruction to all our earthly comforts is common to all
sorts of men. It may happen to the best as well as to the worst. As darts the
hawk upon its prey, so does affliction fall upon the unsuspecting sons of Adam.
As the earthquake on a sudden overthrows a city, so does adversity shake the
estate of mortals.
2. Sudden trial comes in various forms. Here below nothing is certain
but universal uncertainty. One way or another, God knoweth how to bring the rod
home to us, and to make us smart till we cry out, “How suddenly are my tents
spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.”
3. Now this might well be expected. Do we wonder when we are suddenly
deprived of our earthly comforts? Are they not fleeting things? When they came
to us did we receive a lease of them, or were we promised that they should last
forever? All that we possess here below is God’s property; He has only loaned
it out to us, and what He lends He has a right to take back again. We hold our
possessions and our friends, not upon freehold, but upon lease terminable at
the Supreme Owner’s option; do you wonder when the holding ceases?
4. Since these calamities may be expected, let us be prepared for
them. “How?” say you. Why, by holding all earthly things loosely; by having
them as though you had them not; by looking at them as fleeting, and never
expecting them to abide with you.
5. Let us take care to make good use of our comforts while we possess
them. Since they hastily fly by us, let us catch them on the wing, and
diligently employ them for God’s glory. Let us commit our all to the custody of
God, who is our all in all. Such a blessed thing is faith in God that if the
believer should lose everything he possesses here below he would have small
cause for sorrow so long as he kept his faith.
6. But let us solemnly remind you that in times when we meet with
sudden calamity God is putting you to the test, and trying the love and faith
of those who profess to be His people. “When thou art spoiled, what writ thou
do?” You thought you loved God: do you love Him now? You said He was your
Father, but that was when He kissed you; is He your Father now that He chastens
you?
III. There may come
a sudden spoiling of life itself. In a moment prostrated by disease and brought
to death’s door, frail man may well cry out, How suddenly are my tents spoiled,
and my curtains in a moment!”
1. It is by no means unusual for men to die on a sudden.
2. Not one man or woman here has a guarantee that he or she shall
live till tomorrow. It is almost a misuse of language to talk about life
insurance, for we cannot insure our lives; they must forever remain uninsured
as to their continuance here. “When thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?” When
on a sudden the curtains of our tent shall rend in twain, and the tent pole
shall be snapped, and the body shall lie a desolate ruin, what shall we then
do? I will tell you what some of us know that we shall do. We know that when
the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. As poor, guilty sinners we
have fled to Christ for refuge, and He is ours, and we know that He will surely
keep what we have committed to Him until that day: therefore are we not afraid
of all that the spoilers can do. We are not afraid of the spoiler; but, O
worldling, when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The wailing of the bereaved
I. Our first
sorrowful theme is sudden bereavements. Alas! alas! how soon may we be
childless; how soon may we be widowed of the dearest objects of our affections!
Ah! this were a sad world indeed, if the ties of kindred, of affection, and of
friendship all be snapped; and yet it is such a world that they must be
sundered, and may be divided at any moment.
1. Let us learn to sit loose by our dearest friends that we have on
earth. Let us love them--love them we may, love them we should--but let us
always learn to love them as dying things. Oh, build not thy nest on any of
these trees, for they are all marked for the axe. See thou the disease of
mortality on every cheek, and write not “eternal” upon the creature of an hour.
2. Take care that thou puttest all thy dear ones into God’s hand.
Thou hast put thy soul there, put them there. Thou canst trust them for
temporals for thyself, trust thy jewels with Him. Feel that they are not thine
own, but that they are God’s loans to thee; loans which may be recalled at any
moment--precious benisons of heaven, not entailed upon thee, but of which thou
art but a tenant at will.
3. Further, you who are blessed with wife and children and friends,
take care that you bless God for them. Sing a song of praise to God who hath
blessed you so much more than others.
4. And then permit me to remind you that if these sudden bereavements
may come, and there may be a dark chamber in any house in a moment, and the
coffin may be in any one of our habitations, let us so act to our kinsfolk and
relatives as though we knew they were soon about to die.
II. Sudden death,
as we view it more particularly in relation to ourselves. There are a thousand
gates to death. How many there be who have fallen dead in the streets! How many
sitting in their own homes! Well, our turn must come. Perhaps we shall die
falling asleep in our beds after long sickness, but probably we shall be
suddenly called in such an hour as we think not to face the realities of
eternity. Well, if it be so, if there be a thousand gates to death, if all
means and any means may be sufficient to stop the current of our life, if
really, after all, spiders’ webs and bubbles are more substantial things than
human life, if we are but a vapour, or a dying taper that soon expires in
darkness, what then?
1. Why, first, I say, let us all look upon ourselves as dying men,
let us not reckon on tomorrow. Oh! let us not procrastinate; for taken in
Satan’s great net of procrastination, we may wait, and wait, and wait, till
time is gone, and the great knell of eternity shall toll our dissolution.
2. And then take care, I pray you, that you who do know Christ not
only live as though you meant to die, but live while you live. Oh, what a work
we have to do, and how short the time to do it in!
3. And let us learn never to do anything which we should not wish to
be found doing if we were to die. We are sometimes asked by young people
whether they may go to the theatre, whether they may dance, or whether they may
do this or that. You may do anything which you would not be ashamed to be doing
when Christ shall come.
III. The sudden
change which a sudden death will cause. You see yonder Christian man, he is
full of a thousand fears,--he is afraid even of his interest in Christ, he is
troubled spiritually, and vexed with temporal cares. You see him cast down and
exceeding troubled, his faith but very weak; he steps outside yon door, and
there meets him a messenger from God, who smites him to the heart, and he is
dead. Can you conceive the change? Death has cured him of his fears, his tears
are wiped away once for all from his eyes; and, to his surprise, he stands
where he feared he should never be, in the midst of the redeemed of God, in the
general assembly and church of the first-born. If he should think of such
things, would he not upbraid himself for thinking so much of his trials and of
his troubles, and for looking into a future which he was never to see? See
yonder man, he can scarcely walk, he has a hundred pains in his body, he is
more tried and pained than any man. Death puts his skeleton hand upon him, and
he dies. How marvellous the change! No aches now, no casting down of spirit, he
then is supremely blest, the decrepit has become perfect, the weak has become
strong, the trembling one has become a David, and David has become as the angel
of the Lord. But what must be the change to the unconverted man? His joys are
over forever. His death is the death of his happiness--his funeral is the
funeral of his mirth. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Wise to do evil.--
Readier to do evil than good
This is a mystery, and yet nothing is more palpable and provable.
How easily we learn to go down to hell! What a toil it is in all life to climb,
until we get into the meaning of it, and become real mountaineers; then we say,
Let us go upward, for we feed upon the very wind, we grow strong by the very
exercise; we pant to stand upon the highest pinnacles of nature. But how easy
it is not to obey! how easy not to go to church! How delightfully easy to throw
off the yoke and to terminate the discipline of life! Employers of labour know
this; labourers themselves are well acquainted with it; all schoolmasters and
trainers of the young would assent to the proposition instantly and without
reserve, and every living man would say, That is true. If that is true, the
whole point is yielded. Why should it be true? The direct contrary ought to be
the case: it ought to be hard to be crooked and rough and foolish and vain and
worldly. It ought to be almost impossible for a man made in the image and
likeness of God to drink himself to death, to rob his neighbour, to play the
fool, to sleep with the devil. Given creation at the beginning, and it never
could occur to the finite intellect as a possibility that man should think one
ignoble thought, utter one untrue word, commit himself to one dishonourable policy;
the exclamation would be, It is impossible! But we have done it I We have
broken all the ten commandments one by one; we have shattered them in their
totality; we have run away from God. We have done miracles which have astounded
the heavens. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Godlessness is supreme folly
Do you count him a wise man who is wise in anything but in his own
proper profession and employment, wise for everybody but himself, who is
ingenious to contrive his own misery and to do himself a mischief, but is dull
and stupid as to the designing of any real benefit and advantage to himself?
Such a one is he who is ingenious in his calling but a bad Christian, for
Christianity is more our proper calling and profession than the very trades we
live upon; and such is every sinner who is “wise to do evil, but to do good has
no understanding.” (J. Tillotson.)
Piety-the truest wisdom
If any man’s head or tongue should grow apace, and all the rest of
the body not grow, it would certainly make him a monster; and they are no other
that are knowing and talkative Christians, and grow daily in these respects,
but not at all in holiness of heart and life, which is the proper growth of the
children of God. (H. G. Salter.)
Verse 30
Though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou
make thyself fair.
Hypocrisy discovered
This renting of the face is, literally, enlarging of the eyes
through kohl or antimony--a trick of artificial beauty. And the poor creature
has taken out her best clothes, painted herself with the fairest colours, done
all she could from the outside, and behold the issue is: “Thy lovers will
despise but after all is over men feel that this is unreal, untrue, utterly rotten
at the core; they say this is “a goodly apple rotten at the heart.” Let us
understand the, that whether we be discovered now or then, we shall be
discovered. The hollow man shall be sounded, and shall be pronounced void. Thou
art weighed in the balances, and found wanting; and thou, poor fool, hast
covered up the hectic flush of consumption with indigo that will wash off, or
with some other colour that can be cleansed away; thou hast made thyself look
otherwise than as thou art: but all that is external shall be taken from thee,
and thou shalt be seen in thy naked hideousness and ghastliness. This is right!
The revelation will be awful; but it ought to be made, or heaven itself will be
insecure. Oh, what disclosures then! The canting hypocrite without his cloak;
the skilful mocker who has lost his power of jesting; the knave who always said
a grace he had committed to memory before he cut the bread he had stolen; the
preacher who knew the right, and yet the wrong pursued; the fair speaker, who
knew the very subtlety of music as to persuasion, and yet decoyed souls down
the way at the end of which is hell. Then the other revelation will also be
made. There may be men of rough manners who shall prove to have been all the
while animated by a gentle spirit; there may be those who have been regarded as
Philistines who are God’s gentlemen; there may be those who have been thought
as unworthy of courtesy who shall be set high among the angels. (J. Parker,
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》