Bible Commentaries

Jeremiah 2:6-8

There are three shameful possibilities in life.

I. The possibility of dishonouring the great memories of life. The great memories of life are dishonoured (1) when the vividness of their recollection fades; (2) when their moral purpose is overlooked and misunderstood; (3) when their strengthening and stimulating function is suspended.

II. The possibility of under-estimating the interpositions of God.

III. The possibility of the leading minds of the Church being darkened and perverted. The priests, the pastors, and the prophets, all out of the way. How easy it is for such men to succumb in periods of general corruption is too evident from universal history. The leader is often but the adroit follower. (1) Such men should watch themselves with constant jealousy; (2) such men should never be forgotten by those who pray.

Parker, Pulpit Analyst, vol. ii., p. 569.

References: Jeremiah 2:10-11.—Parker, The Ark of God, p. 77. Jeremiah 2:11.—J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 345. Jeremiah 2:12, Jeremiah 2:13.—W. A. Essery, Ibid., vol. i., p. 481.

Jeremiah 2:13

Consider some of the cisterns, and see whether it be not strictly true that they can hold no water.

I. The cistern of Sensualism. Not even the sensualist himself can always succeed in so utterly hoodwinking himself as to believe that the passions have a right to govern us. The flimsy, gaudy curtains of his sophistry are often burnt up around him by the fire of a kindling conscience, and he has to weave fresh concealments which in their turn will be consumed. He forgets that from their very nature the passions can never yield a constant happiness. Every stroke he puts to this cistern will put him farther from his aim; the more he strives to make it hold water the less certainly it will hold it, and if he continues his abortive labour until death his cistern will be his sepulchre, for he that liveth in pleasure is dead while he liveth.

II. The cistern of Wealth. The love of wealth for its own sake is a passion, and grows with that it feeds on, swelling far more rapidly than the acquisitions it makes, and therefore leaving the man who is the victim of it, day by day more in arrears of his aim.

Would you learn the weakness of wealth as well as its power? Look at the narrow limits within which after all its efficacy is bounded. If there are times when one feels that money answereth all things, there are times when one feels still more keenly that it answereth nothing.

III. The cistern of Intellectualism. Even the intellectual man is not satisfied; if he gets fresh light he seems only to realise more fully the fact that he is standing on the border of a vaster territory of darkness; that if he solves one mystery it serves but to show a thousand more.

IV. The cistern of Morality. This cistern, too, has chinks and cracks. "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified." Christ said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." He is the Fountain of living waters.

E. Mellor, The Hem of Christ's Garment, p. 236.

Along the journey of life there are many "cisterns," and one fountain. The children of Israel—in their passage through the desert—had one fountain all the way, and always the same. And to us it is the like. Let us see the difference between the fountain and the cisterns.

I. God makes fountains, or, for the word means the same thing, springs. Cisterns man makes. And therefore because God makes the fountain, it is of living waters. This is exactly what those thoughts and feelings and pleasures are which come straight from God Himself.

II. The water from the fountain follows a man wherever he goes, and just suits his appetite, and is sweetest and best with him at the last. The water from the cistern is always low and never reaches the margin of your real heart, and when you want it most, it is gone—is not.

III. Cisterns, the world's waters, lie in open places; the fountain is in the shade. Cisterns are of flimsy make; fountains are in the rock. You must go to Jesus if you want the Fountain.

J. Vaughan, Sermons, 15th series, p. 237.

I. The evils of which we are here accused: (1) departure from our Creator; (2) seeking our happiness in the creature rather than in the Creator.

II. The light in which these evils are here represented: (1) their folly; (2) their guilt; (3) their danger. (a) Let us return to the Fountain of living waters. (b) Having returned, let us avoid the cisterns.

G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 145.

References: Jeremiah 2:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 356; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p, 203. Jeremiah 2:19.—J. Keble, Sermons on Various Occasions, p. 384.

Jeremiah 2:22

The nitre here mentioned was a mineral substance, and the soap was a vegetable substance, both employed for the purpose of removing spots; and the meaning is, "Adopt what means you may, and all the means within your power, still your sin will remain, it will strike through again, and be as fresh as the day on which it was committed. This is true of sin in both its aspects of guilt and stain; as guilt or wrong you cannot remove it, and as a blot you cannot remove it."

I. Who can expiate it as a matter of right? It does not require much thought to teach us that God could never give, to any of His creatures, the power of expiation, consistent with the stability of His own throne and government. To grant that a man has power to expiate a sin would be to grant that he has a right to insult God, and to sin whenever he desires. A man would have the right to sin because he could pay.

The commands of God are not the offspring of His will, as if they were capricious and might at any moment be changed or even reversed. The commands of God are God Himself in expression, and not merely the power of God or the will of God. They express His own eternal nature, and they appeal to our moral nature.

God's commands contemplate and secure, in so far as they are obeyed, our happiness. In other words, they not only enjoin the right way, but the happy way. To sin, therefore, is not only to disobey, but to disarrange. If, therefore, the line of obedience to the Divine will is also the line of blessedness to yourself, do you not see that there can be no expiation for disobedience?

II. What expiation can there be which you can offer? (1) Will punishment for a certain time be an expiation? Many mistake altogether the meaning of punishment. They treat it as if there were something virtuous in the endurance of it, when, in fact, there is no virtue at all. The first meaning of punishment is the expression of the disapproval and righteous anger of the lawgiver. (2) It may be said that suffering is not the only nitre and soap by means of which men seek to wash off the guilt of sin; that there is repentance and future amendment, and that these are sufficient as a set-off against any amount of transgression. Repentance does not mean sorrow only for sin. Repentance is a change of mind and heart and life; and in the dispensation under which we live, repentance is connected with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Saviour did not admit the value and sufficiency of any repentance, which was separated from faith in Him. Repentance does not bear our sins; Christ bears our sins. We are not bidden to look within us; we are bidden to look without us, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

E. Mellor, In the Footsteps of Heroes, p. 79.

References: Jeremiah 2:22, Jeremiah 2:23.—W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, vol. i., p. 37. Jeremiah 2:25.—H. F. Burder, Sermons, p. 249. Jeremiah 2:28.—Parker, The Ark of God, p. 301. Jeremiah 2:32.—Spurgeon, Ser?nons, vol. xxvii., No. 1634; S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 20. Jeremiah 3:1.—J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 365. Jeremiah 3:4.—E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, 1st series, p. 23; J. Vaughan, Sermons. 15th series, p. 133; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 145; D. E. Ford, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 411. Jeremiah 3:12, Jeremiah 3:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1833. Jeremiah 3:12, Jeremiah 3:14, Jeremiah 3:22.—Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 265. Jeremiah 3:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 762; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 204; S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 1. Jeremiah 3:15.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 90. Jeremiah 3:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1621. Jeremiah 3:17.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 317.