Bible Commentaries

CONTENTS

This Chapter opens with the cry of the Prophet over the sins and calamities of the people. Jeremiah having poured out his soul upon this occasion, and wept before the throne, prosecutes his Sermon, in calling upon the people to hear the Lord's decrees concerning them.

How blessed is it to behold faithful ministers, who enter into a deep concern for their people. What a beautiful portrait is here undesignedly drawn of Jeremiah. How endeared is that servant of the Lord, or ought to be, who takes part in all that concerns Zion. But Reader! while looking at the servant, let us not overlook the Master. Yea, blessed Jesus! doth not my meditation take wing and behold thee in thine unequalled sorrow over Jerusalem? Luke 13:34.

I read this verse alone, in order that we may not lose the beauty and the blessedness of it. What a delightful representation is here made of the Lord's pity for his people? Doth it not seem as if the Lord was looking round for a way for them, and waiting to be gracious? He appears as if he said, How shall I give thee up? Isaiah 30:18; Hosea 11:8-9.

It is blessed to remark, that in all the Lord's chastisements, he hath one uniform object in view for their reform. All his dispensations are to bring his people back to himself. Hence the wise among them are called upon to consider; and the wormwood and gall given them are, that from the bitterness they find in the effects of sin, they may be brought to recollect the sweet dispensations of the Lord. Hosea 2:6-7; Luke 15:14-19.

Perhaps these mourning women means true weepers, and the cunning women those which were counterfeit. And the counterfeit would have found cause to change their cries into real sorrow, had they foreseen the greatness of the calamities coming upon them. Death entering into the windows, became an affliction, light, and patiently to be borne, as it related to the present life, compared to what the Prophet described, of the miseries at the siege, and in the captivity. See La 4 throughout.

These precious verses seem to come in like a parenthesis: and yet not to be used with a parenthesis, being so precious, in the midst of a gloomy description of a degenerate and rebellious people. The blessed truths they contain can need no comment. Jesus is both the wisdom of God, and the power of God, and the riches of God. And in the knowledge and understanding of Him, there is enough to glory. And we are sure, that God the Father glorieth, and taketh delight in the glory of his dear Son. Matthew 3:17.

It is blessed to see the Old Testament truths corresponding with New Testament doctrines. Both the circumcised and the uncircumcised are all one in Christ Jesus. And without him, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, availeth anything. Galatians 6:15; Gal_3:26 to the end.

REFLECTIONS

MY soul! look at the Prophet in his tender concern for Israel! Look at the Lord God of the Prophets in his unparalleled compassion over our nature, and then ask, what must be the hardened state of the human heart, in the contemplation of the sins and sorrows of life, unmoved and unconcerned? Oh! who that beholds the vast domain of Satan's empire, but must cry out, oh! that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears! Precious Lord Jesus! though my habitation is in the midst of deceit, and I am constrained to dwell in the midst of Kedar, yet Lord, do thou melt my soul, and try me, and in thy faithfulness, cause me to be found faithful!

Where shall I find relief in such views of the general, yea the universal, depravity of human nature, but in thee, who art the Lord my righteousness? Thou art indeed the wisdom, the power, the grace, the goodness of God, and art made so to all thy people. Henceforth, Lord! grant that I may never glory but in thee. Thou wilt be wisdom to me, for in thee are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge! Thou art my might, for thou art my light, and the strength of my life, and my portion forever. And thou art riches, yea durable riches and righteousness. And all these art thou made of God to thy people, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Never then blessed Jesus may I henceforth glory but in thee, the Lord my God.