Bible Commentaries

CONTENTS

The same subject is prosecuted in this Chapter. The utter destruction of Babylon is declared, and the Lord's judgments upon her determined.

I beg the Reader particularly to take notice of this last verse. Amidst all the chastisements of the Lord, and the permission given to the enemies of the Church to oppose her, the Lord's own testimony is here given, that neither Israel nor Judah had been forsaken of the Lord of hosts, though their land had been filled with sin. Oh what a word of comfort is here to all precious souls, under the various exercises of their pilgrim state!

Again I beg the Reader to remark, how the Lord points to his discriminating grace. The portion of Jacob is not like others. This people, saith Jehovah, I have formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise, Isaiah 43:21.

Is not this command to the people of God, to go out of Babylon, the same as gospel precepts, 2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Revelation 18:4.

If the Reader will compare what is here said, with what is said of mystic Babylon in the New Testament, he will soon perceive what a striking resemblance there is between things temporal and spiritual. Re 17 and Re 18.

Here the subject closeth, both to Jeremiah's prophecy, and the predictions against Babylon; and a solemn close it is. The best and truest explanation we find to the whole is in the Book of Revelation; to which I refer. Revelation 18:20-21. What follows, in the following Chapter, is purely the history of the event, so that as this scripture saith, Thus far and no farther respecting prophecy, are the words of Jeremiah. The Lord God of the Prophet be adored for what he gave this faithful servant of his to record!

REFLECTIONS

HERE Reader! we arrive to the termination of Jeremiah's prophecy, and have seen how sure the word of the Lord is, in destruction to his enemies, and in grace and faithfulness to his people. And we who have lived to see, not only the whole accomplishment of the things predicted, but the introduction of that blessed era of his gospel, in whose kingdom all the great events of salvation to God's people are founded, and by whom all nations of the earth are blessed, may well bow down, with thanksgiving and praise, for this precious portion of the word of his grace. Blessed be the Lord for his servant's ministry! And blessed he the Lord for having such precious scriptures handed down to us, for our instruction! And blessed be the Lord, who teacheth us to profit by the ministry of his servants!

Farewell Jeremiah! thou faithful servant of the most High God! painful indeed were thine exercises, to have thy ministry so despised and scorned; and thy person treated with such indignity and suffering. But sure was thy reward: and Jesus, in whose name thou didst minister, did not leave thee without witness in the most perilous times. Oh! that the Lord Jesus, in all ages of his Church, would grant tokens to his faithful ones, as to Jeremiah, when opposed by false prophets: and to the Hananiahs and Pashurs of the present day, speak in his decision, that they may be Magor-missibibs in terror all around. Lord take thine own blessed cause, unto thine own Almighty arm; and in the ordination of thy ministers, as in the case of Jeremiah, make them as a defenced city, an iron pillar and brazen walls, that they may be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Yea, make them what thou wouldest have them to be, and make them more than conquerors, through thy grace helping them, that Jesus may be glorified in their instrumentality, and the souls of thy people made joyful through them, in the Lord our God.