Bible Commentaries

Jeremiah 50:5

Those who would make their future different from the past must cultivate two things; first, the spirit of inquiry; secondly, a spirit of determination.

I. Like these Israelites—for the words are written figuratively—we have been going "from mountain to hill," that is, from one form of idol worship to another, till we have forgotten our resting-place. There is but one resting-place for the creature, and that is the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, apprehended by the soul, fled to, clung to, trusted. They who would find rest must find it in God. There is always something beautiful in the spirit of inquiry. The very face of the inquirer shines. That kindling of the eye as a man listens—the man who has a thirst for knowledge—the man whose soul is set on finding its way into some new region of science, or into some new joy, is a touching sight to the looker-on; and it is an inspiring influence to the teacher who feels that he has a message. Of all inquiries the way to Zion is. first and foremost. Whatever form inquiry takes, this is its meaning. Even intellectual inquiry is often either the escape from, or a substitute for, this. We all believe in a hereafter—in a heaven; the way to it is our question.

II. But it is not immaterial to find it added, that they who ask the way to Zion must also have their faces thitherward. The spirit of inquiry must be also the spirit of resolution and determination. For there is an inquiry about the way which is all speculation. There may even be a questioning about the way to Zion with the back turned upon it, instead of the face. There once was a rich young man who said to Jesus Christ: "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" but when the terrible words came, "Go and sell.... come and follow," then he went away sorrowful. There was inquiry, but there was no determination. He asked the way to Zion, but his face was not thitherward.

C. J. Vaughan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 17.

References: Jeremiah 50:5.—Preacher's Lantern, vol. i., p. 258. Jeremiah 50:23.—E. P. Hood, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 193.

Jeremiah 50:34

Among the remarkable provisions of the Mosaic law there were some very peculiar ones affecting the next-of-kin. The nearest living blood-relation to a man had certain obligations and offices to discharge under certain contingencies, in respect of which he received a special name, and which is sometimes translated in the Old Testament "Redeemer," and sometimes "Avenger" of blood. In the text Jehovah is represented as having taken upon Himself the functions of the next-of-kin, and is the Kinsman-Redeemer of His people.

I. Notice, first, the qualifications and offices of the "Goel." The qualifications may be all summed up in one—that he must be the nearest living blood-relation of the person whose Goel he was. His offices were three. The first was connected with property (Leviticus 25:25, Revised Version). The second was to buy back a member of his family fallen into slavery. The third was to avenge the blood of a murdered relative.

II. Notice the grand mysterious transference of this office to Jehovah. This singular institution was gradually discerned to be charged with lofty meaning and to be capable of being turned into a dim shadowing of something greater than itself. You will find that God begins to be spoken of in the later portions of Scripture as the Kinsman-Redeemer. I reckon eighteen instances, of which thirteen are in the second half of Isaiah. The reference is, no doubt, mainly to the great deliverance from captivity in Egypt and Babylon, but the thought sweeps a much wider circle and goes much deeper down than these historical facts. There was in it some faint apprehension of the deeper sense in which it was true that God is the next-of-kin to every soul, and ready to be its Redeemer.

III. We have the perfect fulfilment of this Divine office by the man Christ Jesus. Christ is our Kinsman. He is doubly of kin of each soul of man, both because in His true manhood He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and because in His divinity He is nearer to us than the closest human kindred can ever be. By both He comes so near to us that we may clasp Him by our faith, and rest upon Him, and have Him for our nearest Friend; our Brother. Because He is man's Kinsman He buys back His enslaved brethren; He brings us back our squandered inheritance, which is God. He will keep our lives under His care, and be ready to plead our cause.

A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, Aug. 20th, 1885.

References: Jeremiah 51:50.—Spurgeon. My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 285. Jeremiah 51:51.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 231.