Bible Commentaries

Jeremiah 49:30-31

I. "Dwell deep." Have great principles as the base of your character; have root in yourselves; see that you are not mere waifs and strays, the sport of every wind, but that you have laid hold of the very substance of life so firmly that not even storms may be able to shatter or destroy your being. Depth of life is not mystery of life; it is not unreasoning hope; it is intelligence, it is faith, it is reality. No life can be deep that is not truly religious. Religion leads us to the infinite; it challenges our strongest powers; it lures even weakness itself towards might and courage; it speaks the word of hope and inspiration when we imagine that our whole task is exhausted. To dwell in Christ is to dwell deeply.

II. "Dwell without care." We may accept this exhortation in two different yet coincident senses. We are not to dwell carelessly, yet are not to dwell fearfully; our independence of care is to arise from trust in the love and sufficiency of God. It is possible to dwell without care, simply because we undervalue life; it is possible to dwell without care, because we hold life in subjection to the Divine will and in perfect confidence in Divine love. Our care begins and ends with God. We must be right with Him. To be right with God is to sit upon His throne, and to view the affairs of life as God views them; to regard them in their entirety and to be superior to their influence. The uncarefulness to which the Christian is called is an expression of profound trust in his heavenly Father.

III. "Dwell alone. By this exhortation is not intended a call to hermitic seclusion, to misanthropy, to churlish loneliness, or the like. Yet it may be so interpreted as to make its application of the most excellent advantage to us. Solitude is needful to the highest culture of life. When we seek to be alone, it should be that our view of the Father may be more distinct and impressive. We must never seek for the loneliness which shuns the Divine Presence, for if we find it we find the devil clothed in redoubled power. Beware of Godless solitude; it is as the very gate of hell.

Parker, City Temple, 1870, p. 341.

Reference: Jeremiah 50:4, Jeremiah 50:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1752.