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Jeremiah
Chapter Thirty-three
Jeremiah 33
Chapter Contents
The restoration of the Jews. (1-13) The Messiah promised;
happiness of his times. (14-26)
Commentary on Jeremiah 33:1-13
(Read Jeremiah 33:1-13)
Those who expect to receive comforts from God
must call
upon him. Promises are given
not to do away
but to quicken and encourage
prayer. These promises lead us to the gospel of Christ; and in that God has
revealed truth to direct us
and peace to make us easy. All who by sanctifying
grace are cleansed from the filth of sin
by pardoning mercy are freed from the
guilt. When sinners are thus justified
washed
and sanctified in the name of
the Lord Jesus
and by the Holy Spirit
they are enabled to walk before God in
peace and purity. Many are led to perceive the real difference between the people
of God and the world around them
and to fear the Divine wrath. It is promised
that the people who were long in sorrow
shall again be filled with joy. Where
the Lord gives righteousness and peace
he will give all needful supplies for
temporal wants; and all we have will be comforts
as sanctified by the word and
by prayer.
Commentary on Jeremiah 33:14-26
(Read Jeremiah 33:14-26)
To crown the blessings God has in store
here is a
promise of the Messiah. He imparts righteousness to his church
for he is made
of God to us righteousness; and believers are made the righteousness of God in
him. Christ is our Lord God
our righteousness
our sanctification
and our
redemption. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. But in this world prosperity
and adversity succeed each other
as light and darkness
day and night. The
covenant of priesthood shall be secured. And all true believers are a holy
priesthood
a royal priesthood
they offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable
to God; themselves
in the first place
as living sacrifices. The promises of
that covenant shall have full accomplishment in the gospel Israel. In Galatians 6:16
all that walk according to the
gospel rule
are made to be the Israel of God
on whom shall be peace and
mercy. Let us not despise the families which were of old the chosen people of
God
though for a time they seem to be cast off.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 33
Verse 2
[2] Thus
saith the LORD the maker thereof
the LORD that formed it
to establish it; the
LORD is his name;
The Lord —
The maker thereof
of Jerusalem
or of these promises
his name is Jehovah; he
hath a sufficiency in himself to make good his word.
Verse 5
[5] They come to fight with the Chaldeans
but it is to fill them with the
dead bodies of men
whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury
and for all
whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
They —
The Jews sally out and fight with their enemies
but to no purpose
but to fill
their houses with their own dead bodies
whom I will cause in my anger to be
slain.
Verse 6
[6]
Behold
I will bring it health and cure
and I will cure them
and will reveal
unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
I will cure —
The miserable disturbed state of a nation being compared to wounds and
sickness
the restoring of it to a peaceable prosperous state is fitly called
its health and cure. I will bring them again to a quiet and peaceable state in
which they shall abide many days.
Verse 9
[9] And
it shall be to me a name of joy
a praise and an honour before all the nations
of the earth
which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall
fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure
unto it.
They shalt fear —
And not only so but shall fear to engage against a nation so beloved and
favoured by me.
Verse 12
[12] Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place
which is desolate
without man and without beast
and in all the cities thereof
shall be an
habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
Is desolate —
That is
a great part of which is
and the other part shall soon be desolate.
Verse 13
[13] In
the cities of the mountains
in the cities of the vale
and in the cities of
the south
and in the land of Benjamin
and in the places about Jerusalem
and
in the cities of Judah
shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that
telleth them
saith the LORD.
Shall pass — So
as to keep tally of them
as they were wont to do both morning and evening in
those countries.
Verse 15
[15] In
those days
and at that time
will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow
up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
The branch —
The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David
were most of them
unrighteous men
but God promises that after the captivity
they should have a
branch of David who would execute judgment and righteousness in the land
for
the protection and government of those that feared him.
Verse 16
[16] In
those days shall Judah be saved
and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is
the name wherewith she shall be called
The LORD our righteousness.
Saved — It
is the opinion of some that a spiritual salvation and security is promised
under these expressions
but by the most and best interpreters
a temporal
salvation. This was typical of that spiritual and eternal salvation which is
promised to the true Israel of God; as their rest in Canaan typified that rest
which remaineth for the people of God.
The Lord our righteousness — There is no such name any where given
either to the Jewish or Christian
church
as the Lord our righteousness
but the full import of that name is
spoken of Christ
Isaiah 45:23
which text is applied to Christ
Romans 14:11; Philemon 2:10.
Verse 17
[17] For
thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the
house of Israel;
David —
That is
apparently a promise relating to Christ
for David's line had failed
long since
had it not been continued in Christ
whose kingdom is and shall be
an everlasting kingdom.
Verse 18
[18]
Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt
offerings
and to kindle meat offerings
and to do sacrifice continually.
A man —
That is
a ministry to abide in the church to the end of the world
nor is it
unusual for God in the Old Testament to express promises to be fulfilled under
the gospel by expressions proper to the Old Testament.
Verse 20
[20] Thus
saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day
and my covenant of the
night
and that there should not be day and night in their season;
My covenant —
The same with the ordinances mentioned
chap. 31:35. God's law established in the course of
natural causes
by virtue of which the day and night
orderly succeed one
another. The succession of the gospel ministry in the church of God to abide
for ever
shall be as certain as the succession of darkness and light.
Verse 22
[22] As
the host of heaven cannot be numbered
neither the sand of the sea measured: so
will I multiply the seed of David my servant
and the Levites that minister
unto me.
Of David —
Christ is himself called David
whose seed and whose Levites are multiplied in
the multiplying of Christians and of faithful ministers under the gospel
which
are the things here promised.
Verse 24
[24]
Considerest thou not what this people have spoken
saying
The two families
which the LORD hath chosen
he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised
my people
that they should be no more a nation before them.
The two families —
The families of David and Aaron.
Despised —
Spoken scornfully of my people
as if they should never be a nation more
having rulers of themselves
and a ministry.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
33 Chapter 33
Verses 1-26
Verses 1-9
The Word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time
while he
was yet shut up in the court of the prison.
A Divine message sent into a prison
I. A true child of
God and an honoured prophet in disgrace and affliction (verse 1). Let not the
child of God think that his sorrows are always because of his Sins.
II. Though despised
of man
the prophet was honoured of God (verses 1
2).
1. To receive communications from the Divine mind is the highest
honour.
2. He whom God honours and owns as His child need not fear what man
can do.
III. Divine
consolation to an afflicted servant (verse 3).
1. The most precious of all privileges
that of prayer: “Call unto
Me.”
2. The most marvellous of all assurances: “And I will answer thee.”
3. The most encouraging of all promises: “I will show thee great and
mighty things.”
IV. The adversity
and prosperity of nations are under the control of God (verses 4-7).
1. It is impossible properly to construe the history of a nation
without reference to the moral government of God.
2. National prosperity or adversity has always been in the line of
national virtue or vice.
V. The essential
conditions of national as well as individual healing (verses 8
9).
1. It is essential that God come to do the work. “I will cleanse
”
&c.
2. It is essential that
God work upon our moral natures. “I will cleanse them from all their
iniquity.”
3. It is essential that God work upon our moral natures by the
assurance of the forgiveness of sin. “I will pardon all
” &c.
4. This moral and spiritual cleansing and pardon are essential for
the appreciation of the Divine goodness: “And they shall fear
” &c.
5. This spiritual healing shall manifest forth the glory of God: “It
shall be to Me a name
” &c. (D. C. Hughes
M. A.)
The method of Divine procedure
The prophet
when the Word of the Lord came unto him
was
in a good hearing place
“shut up in the court of the prison.” Shut up
unjustly
it was no prison to him
but a sanctuary
with God’s altar visibly in
it
and God Himself irradiating the altar with a light above the brightness of
the sun. How hardly shall they that have riches hear the Gospel. Their ears are
already filled; their attention is already occupied. What keen ears poverty has
I What eyes the blind man has!--inner eyes
eyes of expectation. We should have
had no world worth living in but for the prison
the darkness
the trouble
the
blindness
the sorrow
which have constituted such precious elements in our
lot. There would have been no poetry written if there had been no sorrow.
Jeremiah heard more in the prison than he ever heard in the palace. God knows
where His children are. There are a thousand prisons in life. We must not
narrow words into their lowest meanings
but enlarge them into their broadest
significance
He is in prison who is in trouble
who is in fear
who is in
conscious penitence
without having received the complete assurance of pardon;
he is in prison who has sold his liberty
is lying under condemnation
secret
or open; and he is in prison who has lost his first love
his early enthusiasm
that was loaded with dew like a flower in the morning. Whatever our prison is
God knows it
can find us
can send a word of His own directly to us
and can
make us forget outward circumstances in inward content and peace and joy. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Verse 3
Call unto Me
and I win answer thee.
An invitation a promise-a revelation
I. A gracious
invitation--“Call unto Me” implies all the constituents of successful prayer.
1. Penitence.
2. Contrition.
3. Humility.
4. Importunity.
5. Restitution.
6. Faith.
II. A precious
promise--“And I will answer thee.” The invitation accepted
its conditions
complied with
always brings the answer.
1. God’s word pledged.
2. God’s nature pledged.
3. Confirmed by the experience of His saints.
III. A glorious
revelation--“And will shew thee
” &c.
1. The greatness of God’s love.
2. The power of Jesus to forgive sin.
3. The worth of the soul.
4. The joys and comforts of religion.
5. The victory of faith in death. (J. T. Davies.)
Prayer
I. The invitation
to prayer.
1. Whose is it?
2. To whom is the invitation addressed?
3. What is the tenor of the invitation?
II. The promise.
1. It is general.
2. It is special. Apply
The golden key of prayer
God s people have always in their worst conditions found out the
best of their God. Those who dive into the sea of affliction bring up rare
pearls.
I. Prayer
commanded.
1. This is great condescension. So great is the infatuation of man on
the one hand
which makes him need a command to be merciful to his own soul
and so marvellous the condescension of God on the other that He issues a
command of love.
2. Our hearts so despond over our unfitness and guilt that but for
the command we might fear to approach.
3. It is remarkable how much more frequently God calls us to Him in
Scripture than we find there our sinfulness denounced!
4. Nor by the commands of the Bible alone are we summoned to prayer
but by the motions of His Holy Spirit.
II. An answer
promised.
1. God’s very nature
as revealed in Jesus Christ
assures us that He
will accept us in prayer.
2. Our own experience leads us to believe that God will answer
prayer; e.g.
the conversion of many a child has been an answer to
parents’ pleadings with God.
3. Yet God does not always give the thing we ask. Lord Bolingbroke
said to the Countess of Huntingdon
“I cannot understand
your ladyship
how
you can make out earnest prayer to be consistent with submission to the Divine
will.” “My lord
” she said
“that is a matter of no difficulty. If I were a
courtier of some generous king
and he gave me permission to ask any favour I
pleased of him
I should be sure to put it thus: ‘Will your majesty be
graciously pleased to grant me such and such a favour; but at the same time
though I much desire it
if it would in any way detract from your majesty’s
honour
or if in your majesty’s judgment it should seem better that I did not
have this favour
I shall be quite as content to go without it as to receive
it.’ So you see I might earnestly offer a petition
and yet might submissively
leave it with the king.”
III. Encouragement
to faith.
1. Promised to God’s prophet
this specially applies to every
teacher. The best way for a teacher or learner in Divine truth to reach the
deeper things of God” is to be much in prayer. Luther says
“Bene orare est
bene studuisse”--To have prayed well is to have studied well
2. The saint may expect to discover deeper experience and to know
more of the higher spiritual life
by being much in prayer.
3. It is certainly true of the sufferer under trial; if he waits on
God he shall have greater deliverance than he ever dreamed of (Lamentations 3:57).
4. Here is encouragement for the worker. We know not how much
capacity for usefulness there is in us. More prayer will show us more power.
5. This should cheer us in intercession for others.
6. Some are seekers for your own conversion. Pray
and see if God
will not “show you great and mighty things.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Prayer encouraged
The text belongs to every afflicted servant of God. It
encourages him in a threefold manner.
I. To continue in
prayer. “Call unto Me!”
1. Pray
though you have prayed (see Jeremiah 32:16
&c.).
2. Pray concerning your present trouble. In Jeremiah 32:24
the prophet mentions “the
mounts” which were raised against Jerusalem
and in Jeremiah 32:4 of this chapter the Lord
answers on that very point.
3. Pray though you are still in prison after prayer. If deliverance
tarries
make your prayers the more importunate.
4. Pray; for the Word of the Lord comes to you with this command.
5. Pray; for the Holy Spirit prompts you
and helps you.
II. To expect
answers to prayer. “I will answer thee
and shew thee.”
1. He has appointed prayer
and made arrangements for its
presentation and acceptance. He could not have meant it to be a mere farce:
that were to treat us as fools.
2. He prompts
encourages
and quickens prayer; and surely He would
never mock us by exciting desires which He never meant to gratify.
3. His nature is such that He must hear His children.
4. He has given His promise in the text; and it is often repeated
elsewhere: He cannot lie
or deny Himself.
5. He has already answered many of His people
and ourselves also.
III. To expect great
things as answers to prayer
“I will shew thee great and mighty things” We are
to look for things--
1. Great in counsel; full of wisdom and significance
2. Mighty in work; revealing might
and mightily effectual.
3. New things
to ourselves
fresh in our experience and therefore surprising. We may expect
the unexpected.
4. Divine things: “I will shew thee.”
Prayer and its answer
A young engineer was being examined
and this question was
put to him: “Suppose you have a steam-pump constructed for a ship
under your
own supervision
and know that everything is in perfect order
yet
when you
throw out the hose
it will not draw; what should you think? I should think
sir
there must be a defect somewhere.” “But such a conclusion is not
admissible; for the supposition is that everything is perfect
and yet that the
pump will not work.” “Then
sir
” replied the student
“I should look over the
side of the ship to see if the river had run dry.” Even so it would appear that
if true prayer is not answered the nature of God must have changed.
Instant in prayer
Sir Walter Raleigh one day asking a favour from Queen
Elizabeth
the latter said to him
“Raleigh
when will you leave off begging?”
To which he answered
“When your Majesty leaves off giving.” Ask-great
things of God. Expect great things from God. Let His past goodness make us “instant
in prayer.”
Prayer the soul’s wings
Thomas Brooks
alluding to the old classical myth of Daedalus
who
being imprisoned in the island of Crete
made wings for himself
by which
he escaped to Italy
says
“Christians must do as Daedalus
who
when he could
not escape by a way upon earth
went by a way of heaven.” Holy prayers are the
wings of the soul’s deliverance. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Calling unto God
What is this calling unto God? Is it a verbal exercise? Is it a
mere act of exclamation! Nothing can be further from the meaning. It is a call
that issues from the heart; it is the call of need
it is the cry of pain
it
is the agony of desire
it is enclosure with God in profound and loving
communion. If we have received no answers
it is because we have offered no
prayers. “Ye have not because ye ask not or because ye ask amiss
” you have
been praying obliquely instead of directly; you have been vexing yourselves
with circumlocution when your words ought to have been direct appeals
sharp
short
urgent appeals to Heaven: to such appeals God sends down richness of
dew
wealth of blessing
morning brighter than noonday. God will shew His
people “great and mighty things.” There is nothing little. The bird in the
heavens upon its trembling wing is only little to us
it is not little
to God. He counts the drops of dew
He puts our tears into His bottle
He
numbers our sighs
and as for our groans
He distinguishes one from the other;
these are not little things to Him
they are only little to our ignorance
and
folly
and superficiality. God looks at souls
faces
lives
destinies
and the
least child in the world He rocks to sleep and wakes in the morning
as if He
had nought else to do; it is the stoop of Fatherhood
it is the mystery of the Cross. As to these
continual revelations
they ought to be possible. God is infinite and eternal
man is infinite and transient in all his earthly relationships; it would he
strange if God had told man everything He has to tell him
it would be the
miracle of miracles that God had exhausted Himself in one effort
it would be
incredible that the eternal God had crushed into the moment which we call time
every thought that makes Him God. Greater things than these shall ye do; when
He
the Paraclete
is come
He will guide you into all truth; grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; add to your faith
until you
scaffold yourselves up into brotherly love and charity
for from that pinnacle
the next step is right into heaven. The question is
Are we in need of further
revelation? Do we call for it? We may call for it speculatively
and no answer
will he given; we may ask for it for the sake of mere intellectual delectation
and the heavens will be dumb and frowning: but if we try to outgrow God
then
we shall know what God is in reality; He challenges the sacred rivalry
He
appeals to our emulation to follow Him and study Him
and try to comprehend
Him
and then how like a horizon He is
for we think we can touch Him in yonder
top
but having climbed the steep the horizon is still beyond. To cleverness
God has nothing to say; to vanity He is scornfully inhospitable; but to the
broken heart
to the contrite spirit and the willing mind
to filial
tender
devout
obedience
He will give Himself in infinite and continual donation: To
this man will I look
for I see My own image in him
My own purpose is
vitalised in his experience--the man who is of a humble and contrite heart
and
who trembleth at My word
not in servility
but in rapture and wonder at its
grandeur and tenderness.” (J. Parker
D. D.)
God’s gracious answers to our prayers
When poor men make requests to us we usually answer them as the
echo does the voice; the answer cuts off half the petition. We shall seldom
find among men Jael’s courtesy
giving milk to those that ask water
except it
be
as this was
an entangling benefit
the better to introduce a mischief.
There are not many Naamans among us
that
when you beg of them one talent
will force you to take two; but God’s answer to our prayers is like a
multiplying glass
which renders the request much greater in the answer than it
was in the prayer. (J. Reynolds.)
Answers to prayer should be eagerly expected
One of the heathen poets speaks of Jupiter throwing certain
prayers to the winds
--dispersing them in empty air. It is sad to think that we
often do that for ourselves. What would you think of a man who had written and
folded and sealed and addressed a letter
flinging it out into the street and
thinking no more about it? Sailors in foundering ships sometimes commit notes
in sealed bottles to the waves for the chance of them being some day washed on
some shore. Sir John Franklin’s companions among the snows
and Captain Allen
Gardiner dying of hunger in his cove
wrote words they could not be sure anyone
would ever read. But we do not need to think of our prayers as random messages.
We should therefore look for a reply to them and watch to get it. (J. Edmond.)
And shew thee great and
mighty things
which thou knowest not.--
Prevailing prayer
There are different translations of these words. One version
renders it
“I will shew thee great and fortified things.” Another
“Great and
reserved things.” Now
there are reserved and special things in Christian
experience: all the developments of spiritual life are not alike easy of
attainment. There are the common frames and feelings of repentance
and faith
and joy
and hope
which are enjoyed by the entire family; but there is an
upper realm of rapture
of communion
and conscious union with Christ
which is
far from being the common dwelling-place of believers. We have not all the
higher privilege
of John
to lean upon Jesus’ bosom; nor of Paul
to be caught up into the third heaven.
There are heights in experimental knowledge of the things of God which the
eagle’s eye of acumen and philosophic thought hath never seen: God alone can
bear us there; but the chariot in which He takes us up
and the fiery steeds with
which that chariot is dragged
are prevailing prayers. Prevailing prayer is
victorious over the God of mercy. “By his strength he had power with God: yea
he had power over the angel
and prevailed: he wept
and made supplication unto
Him: he found Him in Bethel
and there He spake with us.” Prevailing prayer
takes the Christian to Carmel
and enables him to cover heaven with clouds of
blessing
and earth with floods of mercy. Prevailing prayer bears the Christian
aloft to Pisgah
and shows him the inheritance reserved; it elevates us to
Tabor and transfigures us
till in the likeness of our Lord
as He is
so are we also in this world.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 6
Behold I will bring it
health and cure.
This passage
in its more immediate application
relates to the city
and people of Jerusalem
and conveys a promise to the unhappy nation of the
Jews of blessings which are yet in store for them.
The Great Physician
I. The visit which
this Good Physician pays to the poor patient who has need of Him. The patient
is a wretched being
who
in a spiritual point of view
is diseased from head
to foot
and hath “no soundness in him.” He has the disease of human nature
the disease which you and I have--sin. He has become painfully alive to the
humiliating fact that there is no good thing in him--that all his doings have
been evil--and that the sentence of death eternal hangs over his soul. He
cannot heal himself. His fellow-sinners cannot heal him. Is not then his case
desperate? It would be so indeed were it not for a voice from heaven which
saith of this poor sinner
“I will bring him health and cure.” Every word is a
word of comfort to that sinner’s soul. There is comfort in the first word
“I”--I will do it. For who is it that speaks? It is Jesus
the great
the
mighty Saviour of the soul--that famous
that renowned Physician who hath
healed already such a multitude of sinners
and hath never lost a single
patient. There is comfort in the next word
“I will bring”--for
alas! this
sinner cannot fetch his cure. But look at the last words of the sentence
and
behold still more abundant comfort for this perishing transgressor. “I will
bring
” saith the Lord--What? A medicine? A healing application that will be
likely to avail--that may conduce towards recovery? No
but--Oh
bold words!
words only fit for an Almighty Saviour!--I will bring him health and
cure--something so sovereign in its virtue
so sure
so swift in its effects
that
the moment it is tried upon the patient
he is well; not only in part
restored; not only altogether freed from his disease; but well--in full
in
perfect health. The balm which the Physician brings to cure the sinner with is
the blood which He hath shed for them
the life which He hath given for them
the full
the perfect and sufficient sacrifice which He hath offered up for
them. And this balm
is not medicine only--for that may heal or not heal; that
is a mere experiment upon a broken constitution
and may be ineffectual; but
the balm which Jesus brings the sinner may well be styled “health and cure”;
for it is everything at once which the sinner’s case requires. This precious
blood “cleanseth from all sin.” But we have not yet attended this Good
Physician to His patient. We have not yet ascertained
I mean
how He may be
said to “bring” this “health and cure” to the poor sinner’s soul. It is when He
opens that sinner’s eyes to view Him as a Saviour--when
by His word or by His
ministers
He sets His love before that sinner’s soul
and by His Holy Spirit
makes him see it.
II. Observe the
Good Physicial actually curing the poor patient He attends. There is a
difference between a remedy brought near
and a remedy applied; and there is a
difference again between Christ’s “bringing health and cure” to the sinner
and
that sinner’s being cured. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation” is said
to “appear unto all men”; but we know that all men to whom it appeareth are not
saved by it. Many men perceive that Christ is their Physician
yet will not
take His remedy; and many men believe that they have used the remedy when they
have only done so in appearance. The patient we have endeavoured to describe is
a really humbled and awakened soul
and the Lord
who brings him health
gives
him faith also
to be healed. He believes in Jesus as a Saviour. He casts his soul
on Him for pardon and righteousness.
III. Now proceed to
the blessings my text describes Him as bestowing on the poor patients He has
healed. “I will reveal to them
” says He
“the abundance of peace and truth.”
1. We may regard this peace and truth as the privileges of the
redeemed sinner. When our poor sick bodies are recovered unexpectedly from a
painful and a dangerous disease
how do we rejoice in our newly acquired
health! How are our fears calmed and our anxieties removed! but these natural
emotions are not to be compared for a moment with the spiritual feelings and
experiences of the pardoned sinner; no sooner hath the Good Physician healed
the soul than what doth He reveal to it? “The abundance of peace and truth.”
Peace--for “being justified by faith
he hath peace with God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” Christ “revealeth” also to him “the abundance of truth.” He
enjoys
through the Spirit which Christ sends him
a glorious and most
comfortable apprehension of the truth of God--of the truth of His grace
of the
truth of His covenant
of the truth of His promises.
2. Consider this “abundance of peace and truth” as referring also to
the character acquired by the believer in consequence of his faith. Christ may
be said to have revealed to His people the “abundance of peace” in that He hath
given them a peaceful spirit--in that He hath sent that Dove-like Messenger to
rest upon their souls who is “first pure
then peaceable
” and who makes the
hearts He enters like Himself. And Christ may be said also to have revealed to
him “the abundance of truth
” by enabling him to walk in truth. He is “an
Israelite indeed in whom is no guile
” no crooked policy
no artful management.
His aim is
on all occasions
to be “a child of the light and of the day”--“sincere
and without offence unto the day of Christ”--“having no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness
but rather reproving them.” (A. Roberts
M. A.)
Health for the soul
I. The patient and
his disease. The patient is man; the disease is sin. We see the disease equally
in the most refined as in the most ignorant. It stares us in the face when we
read of an African negress sacrificing a fowl to her little image; and it shows
itself equally when we read of a Grecian philosopher proposing before his death
the sacrifice of a cock to Esculapius. We see the ignorance of the true God; we
see at the same time such a consciousness of sin that something must be done to
appease the apprehension which they have of the reality of a God. But we need a
closer application of the subject. You may all of you say perhaps
“I have
never been guilty of idolatry; I am neither Mohammetan
nor Socialist
nor
Communist
nor an infidel.” Let us look
then
at some of the peculiar features
of the disease of sin
and see whether it is not preying upon you as it is upon
other men in the world. Now
it is well illustrated by the effect which
sickness produces upon our body. For instance
sickness produces languor
through the whole body; and this is exactly God’s account of the effect of sin
(Isaiah 1:5-6). Take the faculties of man.
Take his understanding. The understanding
we are told
“is darkened
” so that
man is no longer wise to do good; he is only wise to do evil. Again
look at
his will. The will of man has a wrong bias. Once
I cannot doubt
it was true
of Adam
as spoken of our Lord in the fortieth Psalm
“I delight to do Thy
will
O God; yea
it is within my heart.” I cannot doubt there was a time when
that was the natural expression of Adam’s heart; but now it is not the
expression of any man’s heart until he is renewed by the Holy Ghost. But again:
sickness takes away our desire for what is wholesome. So it is with sinners.
They “put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter”; they call darkness light
and light darkness
and evil good
and good evil: whereas the spiritual man
delights in the law of God after the inward man renewed by the Holy Ghost.
Another effect produced by sickness upon the frame is
that it takes away the
comfort of life. There is no enjoyment in anything put before the sick man
enfeebled by disease
anything in which he was once able to take delight. Yea
life itself often becomes a burden. Now
what is the burden? Why
sin is the burden;
it is this
only you do not know it; it is this which at times poisons the joy
even of the most thoughtless--the consciousness of sin
the consciousness of
your opposition to a holy God.
II. The physician
and the cure. “Behold I will bring it health and cure”--“I”--Jesus. And it has
been Jesus always. The remedy may have been stated more distinctly under the
Gospel than under the law
but not more really. It was Jesus always
it was the
precious blood of Jesus always
pointed at in the very first premise that was
made by God
that “the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.” And
salvation has always been shut up in that seed. It may have been expressed
sometimes as being Abraham’s seed
sometimes the seed of Isaac
and sometimes
the seed of Jacob
but it had only one meaning; as the apostle said in the
third chapter of Galatians
“Not unto seeds
as of many; but as of one
and to
thy seed
which is Christ.” There is the Physician that God has always
revealed. And what is His character? I cannot give you a better picture of Him
than He has given of Himself in the parable of the good Samaritan. The wounded
man had no charges; he had nothing to pay; the good Samaritan paid for all It
is so with Jesus. The only fee
if I may so speak with reverence of Jesus
is--all He asks of us is
that we should trust Him
that we should believe in
Him. He holds out to us in the Gospel perfect cure of all our disease
whatever
it may be
and however aggravated; and He only says
“Let Me cure you.” And
when I point you to this Good Samaritan as a Physician
I would have you
remember that He is the only One. I call this another inexpressible mercy
that
the poor sinner’s mind
anxious for relief
is not distracted in the Gospel by
choosing between physicians. As the sun is clear in the firmament of heaven at
noonday
so does Jesus shine forth as the Sun of Righteousness “with healing in
His wings “to every poor sinner. And observe how He brings this before you. He
says
“Direct your attention
‘behold
’ take notice
‘I will bring you health
and cure.’” Here is purpose
here is determination
here is sovereign will. “I
will cure
I will heal
I will reveal abundance of peace and truth.” We may
ask
then
if the way be so simple
“why is not the health of the daughter of
my people recovered!” “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician
there?” Yes
there is balm
there is the blood of Jesus; there is a Physician
there is Jesus Himself. Then “why is not the health of the daughter of my
people recovered!” I will put before you some reasons. Some are not healed
because they do not know they are sick. There is often very great mischief
going on in our frames without our knowing it. That is the way in which mortal
diseases get hold of a man. Then some are not healed because they love their
disease. Yea
they love sin. We read of a very celebrated man
St. Augustine
that there was a time when his conscience was so harassed by the oppression of
sin
at the same time that his affections were set upon the enjoyment and
indulgence of it
that he declared he was afraid his prayers should be heard
when he prayed for deliverance from sin. Now I would ask whether that is not
the ease with many. Some
again
are not healed because they are not willing to
be healed. Our Lord says
“Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.”
Again
some hearts are not healed because they will not take the Gospel
remedies. What are the two great remedies that Jesus proposes? Repentance
towards God
and faith towards Himself. But these are bitter and nauseous
draughts to the natural man. There is one other reason which I would give why
some are not healed--because they put no confidence in the Physician. Here is
the root of all the evil--a want of faith. If they trusted Him
they would trust
His word; and if they trusted His Word
they would take His remedies. (J. W.
Reeve
M. A.)
Verse 8
I will cleanse them from all their iniquity.
Our Cleanser
(with Psalms 19:12):--Many think that Jesus
came into the world to forgive our sins; which is true
but it is only a part
of the truth; for the New Testament reveals that He came to save us from our
sins. Forgiveness is a great thing; but cleansing from sin is greater. Any
kindly hearted man can forgive an injury; but only an omnipotent God can wash
the love of sin from our nature. The Bible reveals that God has both the will
and the power to give a clean heart.
I. It is a needful
prayer. “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.”
1. Do not our secret thoughts need cleansing?
2. Our secret imaginations need to be cleansed. Children build fairy
castles in the air
and tenant them with the pure
the brave
and the true; but
as we grow older
our airy castles begin to be peopled with those whose actions
are tainted with sin; and when we arrive at manhood
the unconverted soul
builds castles in its imagination in which iniquity abounds without any obstacle
to hinder it.
3. Our secret desires need cleansing. If there were no desire for
sin
there would be no transgression; and we
therefore
need to pray
continually
“Lord
cleanse my sinful desires! Let my longings be washed from
their bias to transgression!”
4. Our secret habits need cleansing. When a man yields to a sinful
habit it is difficult to break it off. You need superhuman power; and that
power shall be granted to all who sincerely ask of God. The sculptor who forms
a figure in marble does it gradually by thousands of chisel strokes; and in the
same way
when you are forming your soul either for goodness or badness
it is
a gradual work. As no man is made an angel in a moment
so no man is made a
devil in a moment. It is a work of time. It is first a thought
then a picture
in the mind
then a desire
then a hesitating step
and afterwards the boldness
of habit. It is hard work battling against a world inclined to sin; it is more
difficult to resist a loved one who tempts us; but the hardest battle ever man
can fight in this world is when he struggles against his soul’s inclination to
think or do evil. And I feel persuaded that no man can cleanse his secret
faults without the help of God. But however bad your secret sins may be
you
can be purified. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Christ has unfurled
the flag of liberty
and His Spirit now calls on every man who is bound by sin
to cry to Him for life!
II. Unbelief
hinders us from being cleansed. Some men say
“Nobody can be saved from all their
secret faults!” But if the Lord say He will cleanse us from all our iniquity
is it not a wicked thing to doubt it? Perhaps
somebody remarks
“Well
I used
to think I might be cleansed from sin
and I tried
but failed every time.” Now
let me ask you a question. Were you not a great deal happier when you were
seeking to
conquer your secret faults than you are now? You reply
“Yes
I was
happier; but why did I not succeed?” A man who is trying to crush down the sin
of his heart is happier than he who is content with the slavery of sin. If he
do not succeed
the reason is that he is trying to do for himself what cannot
be done without God. Ask the Lord to cleanse. It is your work to bring your
soul in faith and prayer to Him
and it is His work to cleanse it.
III. How does the
Lord cleanse us? The Jews in times of old were cleansed by being sprinkled with
the blood of a beast. But this is not the way in which we are cleansed from
secret faults. The Spirit of Christ can enter our souls and can cleanse us from
sin. (W. Birch.)
A threefold disease and a twofold cure
Jeremiah was a prisoner in the palace of the last King of Judah.
The long
national tragedy had reached almost the last scene and the last act.
The besiegers were drawing their net closer round the doomed city. The prophet
never faltered in predicting its fall
but he as uniformly pointed to a period
behind the impending ruin
when all should be peace and joy. His song was
modulated from a saddened minor to triumphant jubilation. The exiles shall return
the city shall be rebuilt
its desolate streets shall ring with hymns of
praise
and the voices of the bridegroom and the bride. The land shall be
peopled with peaceful husbandmen
and white with flocks. There shall be again a
King upon the throne; sacrifices shall again be offered. That fair vision of
the future begins with the offer of healing and cure
and with the exuberant
promise of my text. The first thing to be dealt with was Judah’s sin; and that
being taken away
all good and blessing would start into being
as flowerets
will spring when the baleful shadow of some poisonous tree is removed.
I. A threefold
view of the sad condition of humanity. Observe the recurrence of the same idea
in our text in
different words. “Their iniquity whereby they have sinned against Me.”. . .
“Their iniquity whereby they have sinned
and whereby they have transgressed
against Me.” You see there are three expressions which roughly may be taken as
referring to the same ugly fact
but yet not meaning quite the same--“iniquity
or iniquities
sin
transgression.” Suppose three men are set to describe a
snake. One of them fixes his attention on its slimy coils
and describes its
sinuous gliding movements. Another of them is fascinated by its wicked beauty
and talks about its livid markings
and its glittering eye. The third thinks
only of the swift-darting fangs
and of the poison-glands. They all three
describe the snake
but they describe it from different points of view. And so
it is here. “Iniquity
” “sin
” “transgression” are synonyms to some extent
but
they do not cover the same ground. They look at the serpent from different
points of view. First
a sinful life is a twisted or warped life. The word
rendered’ “iniquity
” in the Old Testament
in all probability
literally means
something that is not straight; that is bent
or
as I said
twisted or warped.
That is a metaphor that runs through a great many languages. I suppose “right”
means the very same thing--that which is straight and direct; and I suppose
that “wrong” has something to do with “wrung”--that which has been forcibly
diverted from a right line. We all know the conventional colloquialism about a
man being “straight
” and such-and-such a thing being “on the straight.” All
sin is a twisting of the man from his proper course. Now there underlies that
metaphor the notion that there is a certain line to which we are to conform.
The schoolmaster draws a firm
straight line in the child’s copybook; and then
the little unaccustomed hand takes up on the second line its attempt
and makes
tremulous
wavering pot-hooks and hangers. There is a copyhead for us
and our
writing is
alas! all uneven and irregular
as well as blurred and blotted.
There is a law
and you know it; and you carry in yourself--I was going to say
the standard measure
and you know whether
when you put your life by the side
of that
the two coincide. This very prophet has a wonderful illustration
in
which he compares the lives of men who have departed from God to the racing about
in the wilderness of a wild dromedary “entangling her ways
” as he says
crossing and recrossing
and getting into a maze of perplexity. Ah! is that not
something like your life? All sin is deflection from the straight road
and we
all are guilty of that. Let me ask you to consult the standard that you carry within yourselves.
It is easy to imagine that a line is straight. But did you ever see the point
of a needle under a microscope? However finely it is polished
and apparently
regularly tapering
the scrutinising investigation of the microscope shows that
it is all rough and irregular. The smallest departure from the line of right
will end
unless it is checked
away out in the regions of darkness beyond. The
second of them
rendered in our version “sin
” if I may recur to my former
illustration
looks at the snake from a different point of view
and it declares that all sin
misses the aim. The meaning of the word in the original is simply “that which
misses its mark.” Now
there are two ways in which that thought may be looked at. Every wrong thing
that we do misses the aim
if you
consider what a man’s aim ought to be. “Man’s chief end is to
glorify God
and to enjoy Him for ever.” That is the only aim which corresponds
to our constitution
to our circumstances. And so
whatever you win
unless you
win God
you have missed
the aim. Anything short of knowing Him and loving Him
serving Him
being
filled and inspired by Him
is contrary to the destiny stamped upon us all.
Then there is another side to this. The solemn teaching of this word is not confined to that
thought
but also opens out into this other
that all godlessness
all the low
sinful lives that so many of us live
miss the shabby aim which they set before
themselves. I do not believe that any man or woman ever got as much good
even
of the lowest kind
out of a wrong thing as they expected to get when they
ventured on it. If they did they got something else along with it that took all
the gilt off the gingerbread. The drunkard gets his pleasurable oblivion
his
pleasurable excitement. What about the corrugated liver
the palsied hand
the
watery eye
the wrecked life
the broken hearts at home
and all the other
accompaniments? There is an old story that speaks of a knight and his company
who were travelling through a desert
and suddenly beheld a castle into which
they were invited
and hospitably welcomed. A feast was spread before them
and
they each ate and drank his fill. But as soon as they left the enchanted halls
they were as hungry as before they sat at the magic table. That is the kind of
food that all our wrong-doing provides for us. “He feedeth on ashes
” and
hungers after he has fed. And now
further
there is yet another word here
carrying with it important lessons. The expression which is translated in our text
“transgressed
” literally means
“rebelled.” And the lesson of it is
that all sin is
however
little we think it
a rebellion against God. That introduces a yet graver
thought than either of the former has brought us face to face with. Behind the
law is the Lawgiver. When we do wrong
we not only blunder
we not only go
aside from the right line
we lift up ourselves against our Sovereign King.
Sins are against God; and
dear friends
though you do not realise it
this is
plain truth
that the essence
the common characteristic
of all the acts
which
as we have seen
are twisted and foolish
is that in them we are setting
up another than the Lord our God to be our ruler. We are enthroning ourselves
in His place. Does not that thought make all these apparently trivial and
insignificant things terribly important? Treason is treason
no matter what the
act by which it is expressed. It may be a little thing to haul down a
union-jack from a flagstaff
or to tear off a barn-door a proclamation with the
royal arms at the top of it
but it may be rebellion. And if it is
it is as
bad as to turn out a hundred thousand men in the field
with arms in their
hands.
II. The twofold
bright hope which comes through this darkness. “I will cleanse . . . I will
pardon.” If sin combines in itself all these characteristics that I have
touched upon
then clearly there is guilt
and clearly there are stains; and
the gracious promise of this text deals with both the one and the other. “I
will pardon.” What is pardon? Do not limit it to the analogy of a criminal
court. When the law of the land pardons
or rather when the administrator of
the law pardons
that simply means that the penalty is suspended. But is that
forgiveness? Certainly it is only a part of it
even if it is a part. What do
you fathers and mothers do when you forgive your child? You may use the rod or
you may not; that is a question of what is best for the child. Forgiveness does
not lie in letting him off the punishment; but forgiveness lies in the flowing
to the child
uninterrupted
of the love of the parent’s heart. And that is
God’s forgiveness. Do you need pardon? Do you not? What does conscience say?
What does the sense of remorse that sometimes blesses you
though it tortures
say? I know not any gospel that goes deep enough to touch the real sore place
in human nature
except the Gospel that says to you and me and all of us
“Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world!” But
forgiveness is not enough
for the worst results of past sin are the habits of
sin which it leaves within us; so that we all need cleansing. Can we cleanse
ourselves? Let experience answer. Did you ever try to cure yourself of some
little trick of gesture
or manner
or speech? And did you not find out then
how strong the trivial habit was? You never know the force of a current till
you try to row against it. You may have the stained robe washed and made
lustrous white in the blood of the Lamb. Pardon and cleansing are our two
deepest needs. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Our sins swallowed up
You see the Thames as it goes sluggishly down through the arches
carrying with it endless impurity and corruption You watch the inky stream as
it pours along day and night
and you think it will pollute the world. But you
have just been down to the seashore
and you have looked on the great deep
and
it has not left a stain on the Atlantic. No
it has been running down a good
many years and carried a world of impurity with it
but when you go to the
Atlantic there is not a speck on it. As to the ocean
it knows nothing about
it. It is full of majestic music. So the smoke of London goes up
and has been
going up for a thousand years. One would have thought that it would have
spoiled the scenery by now; but
you get a look at it sometimes. There is the great blue sky which
has swallowed up the smoke and gloom of a thousand years
and its azure
splendour is unspoiled. It is wonderful how the ocean has kept its purity
and
how the sky has taken the breath of the millions and the smoke of the furnaces
and yet it is as pure as the day God made it. It is beautiful to think that
these are only images of God’s great pity for the race. Our sins
they are like
the Thames
but
mind you
they shall be swallowed up--lost in the depths of
the sea
to be remembered against us no more. Though our sins have been going
up to heaven through the generations
yet
though thy sins are as crimson
they
shall be as wool
as white as snow. (W. L. Watkinson.)
I will pardon all their
iniquities.
The pardon of sin
I. The pardon of
sin which Almighty God
in infinite mercy and grace
is now offering to sinners
in the Gospel
is a full pardon--that is
it comprehends and extends to every sin
however sinful
and includes all sins
however numerous. It was foretold in
ancient prophecy that when the Messiah should come “to make His soul an
offering for sin
” He should
by His atoning death
“finish transgressions
make an end of sins
make reconciliation for iniquity
and bring in everlasting
righteousness.” Our blessed Saviour having come
as it wee thus written of Him
and having suffered the “just for us the unjust
” the Gospel testimony of His
vicarious sufferings declares that His expiatory death has made a full and
perfect atonement for all the sins of His people--that He has thereby fully
reconciled them to God--that “His blood cleanseth them from all sin”--that “He
is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through Him.”
II. The pardon
proclaimed in the Gospel is free--it is vouchsafed by an infinitely gracious
God
suspended on no condition whatever to be performed by the sinner as the
meritorious ground of its bestowal. It is this absolute freeness of the
forgiveness of sin proclaimed in the Gospel that makes it worthy of an
infinitely gracious God’s bestowal
and good news to poor
miserable
and
wretched sinners. Were it otherwise
it could be no rest to an awakened and
alarmed conscience--to a weary and heavy sin-laden soul.
III. The pardon
proclaimed to sinners in the Gospel is Everlasting. This makes it a complete
pardon. (A. M‘Watt.)
Verse 9
They shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the
prosperity that I procure unto it.
Chastened happiness
Our text suggests at the outset the remark that all the
good things which make up prosperity are to be traced unto the Lord. These
benefits are not from beneath
but from above; let them not be passed by in
ungrateful silence
but let us send upward humble and warm acknowledgments. He
who forgets mercy deserves that mercy should forget him. Remark next
that
temporal mercies are always best when they come in their proper order. Blessed
be God if He has given to us first the fruits of the sun of grace
and then the
fruits put forth by the moon of providence. The main thing is to be able to
sing
“Bless the Lord
who forgiveth all thine iniquities
who healeth all thy
diseases
” and after that it is most pleasant to add
“Who satisfieth thy mouth
with good things.” What shall I say of the happiness of those persons who have
spiritual and temporal blessings united
to whom God has given both the upper
and the nether springs
so that they possess all things needful for this life
in fair proportion
and then
far above all
enjoy the blessings of the life to
come? Such are first blessed in their spirits and then blessed in their basket
and in their store. In their case double favour calls for double praise
double
service
double delight in God. And yet
and yet
and yet
if we are very happy
to-day
and though that happiness be lawful and proper
because it arises both
out of spiritual and temporal things in due order
yet in all human happiness there lurks a danger.
There is a wealth which hath a sorrow necessarily connected with it
and I ween
that even when God maketh rich and addeth no sorrow therewith
yet He makes
provision against an ill which else would surely come. The text speaks of
goodness and prosperity procured for us
and then tells us that all danger
which might arise out of it is averted by a gracious work upon the heart. The
Lord sends a chastened joy. “They shall fear and tremble.” I Let us think a
little about the toning down of our great joys.
1. In the cup of salvation there are drops of bitterness
and so must
it be
for
unmixed delight in this world would be dangerous. When the sea is smooth the
ship makes poor sailing. Men are bird-limed by their rest and ease
and have
small care to fly heavenward. We are apt to lose our God among our goods
Is it
not so? If the world’s roses had no thorns should we not think it paradise
and
forego all desire for the gardens above?
2. Unmixed joy would be fallacious
because there is no such thing
here below. If a man should become perfectly contented with the things of this
world
it would be the result of a false view of things. This is an error
against which we should pray; for this world cannot fill the soul
and if a man
thinks he has filled his soul with it
he must be under a gross delusion. As to
spiritual joy
I say that in no man’s experience can it be long without
admixture and yet be true. Never at any moment can a Christian be in such a
position that he has not some cause either for dissatisfaction with himself
or
fear of the tempter
or anxiety to he faithful in service.
3. Unmixed delight on earth would be unnatural. When the Dutch had
the trade of the East in their hands they were accustomed to sell birds of
paradise to the untravelled people of these realms. These specimen birds had no
feet
for they had craftily removed them
and the merchants declared that the
species lived on the wing and never alighted. There was so much of truth in the
fable that had they been really and veritably “birds of paradise” they would
not have found a place for their feet upon this globe. Truly
birds of paradise
do come and go
and flit from heaven to earth
but we see them not
neither can
we build tabernacles to detain them. While you are here expect reminders of the
fact that this is not your rest.
II. The feelings by
which this sobering effect is produced. “They fear and tremble for all the
goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.” Why fear and
tremble?
1. Is not this in part a holy awe of God’s presence? “Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling
for it is God which worketh in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. The argument for fear and trembling is
the work of God in the soul. Because God is working m you there must be no
trifling. If the eternal Deity deigns to make a workshop of my nature
I too
must work
but it must be with fear and trembling.
2. But next to that there arises up in the mind of every favoured
Christian a deep repentance for past sin. Have you not felt as if you could
never open Four mouth any more because of all your unkindness to your heavenly
Friend? Such penitent
reflections keep the Lord’s people right
by creating a
fear and trembling m the presence of His overflowing goodness.
3. Has not your deepest sense of unworthiness come upon you when you
have been conscious of superlative mercy? We tremble and are afraid
because of
the unutterable grace which has met our utter unworthiness
and rivalled it
until grace has gotten unto itself the victory.
4. Have you never noticed how the Lord brings His people to their
bearings
and keeps them steady
under a sense of great love
by suggesting to
their hearts the question
“How can I live as becometh one who has been
favoured like this? “Did you ever feel that the glory of the palace of love
made you afraid to dwell in it?
5. And have you never felt a fear lest God’s goodness should be
abused by you? He who has never questioned his own condition had better make an
immediate inquiry. He who has never felt great searchings of heart needs to be
searched with candles. No man’s hell shall be more terrible than that of the
self-confident one who made so sure of heaven that he would not take the
ordinary precaution to ask whether his title-deeds were genuine or no.
6. One more thought may also occur to the most joyous believer. He
will say
“What if after rejoicing in all this blessedness I should lose it?”
“What
” cries one
“do you not believe in the final perseverance of the
saints?” Assuredly I do
but are we saints! There’s the question. Moreover
many a believer who has not lost his soul has
nevertheless
lost his present
joy and prosperity
and why may not we?
III. The measure in
which you and I can enter into this experience. We have hundreds of us
perceived the benefits of the dark lines and shadings of life’s picture
and we
see how fit and proper it is that trembling should mingle with transport. As
the fruit of experience I have learned to look for a hurricane soon after an
unusually delightful calm. When the wind blows hard
and the tempest lowers
I
hope that before long there will be s lull; but when the sea-birds sit on the
wave
and the sail hangs idly
I wonder when a gale will come. To my mind there
is no temptation so bad as not being tempted at all. The worst devil in the
world is when you cannot see the devil at all
because the villain has hidden
himself away within the heart
and is preparing to give you a fatal stab. Since
there is an everlasting arm that never can he palsied
since there is a brow
that knows no wrinkle
and a Divine mind that is never perplexed
we go forward
in hope
and cast ourselves upon our eternal Helper once again. You have heard
of the ancient giant Antaeus
who could not be overcome
because as often as
Hercules threw him to the ground
he touched his mother earth
and rose
renewed. Such be your lot and mine
often to be cast down
and as often to rise
by that downcasting. “When I am weak then am I strong.” Let us glory in
infirmity
because the power of Christ doth rest upon us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 10-13
The voice of Joy
and the voice of gladness.
Joy after desolation
We are called upon to realise the fullest meaning of desolation.
Think of a forsaken city
think of being afraid of the sound of your own
footfall! Even in that desolation there comes an overpowering sense of society
as if the air were full of sprites
ghostly presences. What s singular sense
there is too of trespass
encroachment
of being where you have no right to
be--as if you were intruding upon the sanctuary of the dead--as if you were
cutting to the life some spiritual ministry
conducting itself mysteriously but
not without some beneficent purpose. You have broken in upon those invisible ones
who are watching their dead; you want to escape from the solitude--in one sense
it is too sacred for you
wholly too solemn; you would seek the society of your
kind
for other society is uncongenial
unknown
and is felt to be a criticism
intolerable
a judgment overwhelming. Yet if you do not fasten your attention
upon the possibilities of desolation
darkness
forsakenness
loneliness
how
can you appreciate what is to follow? May we not then hasten to inquire what is
to follow? Can God work miracles here? It is just here that He works His
grandest miracles; it is when all light dies out that He comes forth in His
glory; it is when we say
There is no more road
the rock shuts us out
our
progress is stayed
--it is then that a path suddenly opens in rocky places
and
footprints disclose themselves for the comfort and inspiration of the lone
traveller. Notice how exactly God’s miracles fit human circumstances. They
overflow them
but they first fill all their cavities and all the opportunities
which they create and present. Thus God displaces darkness by light; thus God
does not drive away the silence with noise but with music: it is no battering
of rude violence that brings back human intercourse into plains that have been
swept with human desolation; it is a festival
a banquet
a wedding scene
and
already the forsaken valley vibrates as if under the clash of wedding bells.
What was the quality of the joy that was wrought? It was profoundly religious.
The voices that were uplifted were to say
“Praise the Lord of hosts: for the
Lord is good; for His mercy endureth for ever.” There are times when men must
praise the Lord. The heart leads the judgment; the uppermost feeling
elevated
and sanctified
tells the whole man what to do
uses the understanding as one
might use some inferior creature to help him in carrying out the purposes of
life. What is this highest faculty
what is this mysterious power
that takes
to itself understanding
imagination
conscience
will
and all elements of
energy? It is religious emotion; not sentimentalised and frittered away into
mere vapour
but high
intelligent
noble feeling
glowing
passionate
enthusiasm
a consecration without break or flaw or self-questioning
a
wholeness of consent and devotion to the supreme purpose of life. When this
desolation is banished
when this wedding feast is held
by what picture is the
safety of the people represented? By a very tender one. We had in England
shepherds who long ago spoke of taking care of their flocks under the idiom of
“telling their tale” counting the flock one by one. There shall be no hurrying
crowding into the fold
but one shall follow another
and each shall be looked
at in its singularity; there shall be nothing tumultuous
indiscriminate
promiscuous; every process of providence is conducted critically
individually
minutely: so there is no hope for a man getting into the fold without the
Shepherd seeing him; every sheep of the flock has to pass under the hand of him
that telleth his tale. Until we realise the personality of the Divine
supervision we shall flounder in darkness and our prayers will be mere
evaporations
bringing back no answer
no blessing
no pledge from heaven. This
is the picture presented by the prophet. Not one tittle of this providential
order has been changed; the whole mystery of human life is to be found within
its few lines. Consider what desolation good men have been called upon to
realise. Never let us shut our eyes to the suffering aspect of human life. On
the contrary
let us dwell upon it with attentive solicitude
that we may
wonder
and learn to pray and trust. Say nought to the mocker
for he is not
worth heeding
but say to the poor suffering heart itself
Wait: joy cometh in
the morning: it is very sore now; the wind is very high
the darkness is very
dense; our best plant poor heart! is to sit down and simply wait for God: He
will come we cannot tell when
in the early part of the night
or not until the
crowing of the cock
but come He will; it hath pleased Him to keep the times and
seasons wholly to Himself
without revelation to narrow human intellects; let
us then wait
and there is a way of waiting that amounts to prayer: poor heart!
we have no words
we could not pray in terms
because we should be mocked by
the echo of our own voice
but there is a way of sitting still that by its
heroic patience wins the battle. Consider what changes have been wrought in
human experience. You thought you could never sing again when that last
tremendous blow was dealt upon your life
yet you are singing more cheerfully
now than you ever sung in any day of your history; you thought when you lost
commercial position that you never really could look up again
for your heart
was overpowered
and behold
whilst you were talking such folly
a light struck
upon your path
and a voice called you to still more strenuous endeavour
and
to-day you who saw nothing before you but the asylum of poverty are adding
field to field and house to house. You have been raised again from the very
dead
you have forgotten your desolation
and you are now sitting like guests
invited by heaven’s own King at heaven’s great banqueting table. Hold on; the
end will judge all things. Hope stead lastly in God; prayer is sweetest in the
darkness; when there seems to be no road over which to travel up to heaven
then it works its miracles
it finds a pathway in the night-cloud. What is the
joy that is depicted in this text? It is religious joy. The joy created by
religion is intelligent. It is not a bubble on the stream
it has reason behind
it; it is strengthened and uplifted
supported and dignified
by logic
fact
reality. Religious joy is healthy. It is not spurious gladness
it is the
natural expression of the highest emotions. Religious joy is permanent. It does
not come for a moment
and vanish away as if it were afraid of life and afraid
of living in this cold earth-clime; it abides with men. Let us know by way of application that there
is only one real deliverance from desolateness. That is a Divine deliverance.
Let us flee then to the living God; let us be forced to prayer. (J. Parker
D. D.)
And of them that shall
bring the sacrifice Of praise.
In what sense praise is a sacrifice
If I wanted to use
which I do not
mere theological
technicalities
I should talk about the difference between sacrifices of
propitiation and sacrifices of thanksgiving. But let us put these well-worn
phrases on one side
as far as we can
for a moment. Here
then
is the fact
that all the world over
and in the Mosaic ritual
there was expressed a double
consciousness--one
that there was
somehow or other
a black dam between the
worshipper and his Deity
which needed to be swept sway; and the other
that
when that barrier was removed there could be an uninterrupted flow of
thanksgiving and of service. So on one altar was laid a bleeding victim
and on
another were spread the flowers
of the field
the fruits of the earth
all things gracious
lovely
fair
and
sweet
as expressions of the thankfulness of the reconciled worshippers. One
set of sacrifices expressed the consciousness of sin; the other expressed the
joyful recognition of its removal. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Thanksgiving unstinted
The sacrifice is thanksgiving. Then there will be no reluctance
because duty is heavy. There will be no grudging because requirements are
great. There will be no avoiding of the obligations of the Christian life
and
rendering as small a percentage by way of dividend as the Creditor up in the
heavens will accept. If the offering is a thank-offering
then it will be given
gladly. The grateful heart does not hold the scales like the scrupulous retail
dealer
afraid of putting the thousandth
part of an ounce more in than will be accepted.
“Give all thou canst--high heaven rejects the love
Of nicely calculated less or more.”
(A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Praise to Christ should be spontaneous and unrestrained
If there is in us any deep
real
abiding
life-shaping
thankfulness for the gift of Jesus Christ
it is impossible that our tongues
should cleave to the roof of our mouths
and that we should be contented to
live in silence. Loving hearts must speak. What would you think of a husband that never
felt any impulse to tell his wife that she was dear to him; a mother that never
found it needful to unpack her heart of its tenderness
even in perhaps
inarticulate croonings over the little child that she pressed to her heart? It
seems to me that a dumb Christian
a man that is thankful for Christ’s
sacrifice
and never feels the need to say so
is as great an anomaly as either
of these I have
described. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Verse 15-16
This is the name wherewith she shall be called
The Lord our
Righteousness.
The justified Church
It is no slip of the pen--“She shall be called”: it is no
mistranslation
or unguarded statement
as might be imagined. It is a
deliberate name
based on a great and an everlasting principle; and it is just
as true
“she shall be called the Lord our Righteousness
” as it is true that
“He
” that is
Christ
“shall be called the Lord our Righteousness.” Why?
Because there is a spiritual and yet real identity between Christ and this
redeemed and believing throng. He and they are one in time
and will continue
one in eternity. Nay
so completely is the Church knit to its Head
that it is
said she is “the fulness of Christ”; as if Christ were not complete in heaven
complete in His mediatorial glory
complete in His happiness
until there be
added to Him those He has ransomed by His blood
prepared by His Spirit
and at
last brought
as the fruits of His grace
to the triumphs of His throne. You
will also recollect
that in Scripture
the relationship that subsists between
Christ and His Church
is represented as being the relationship which subsists
between the husband and the wife. Her responsibilities He has assumed Himself
that they may be absorbed
and disappear before His Cross. It is thus
that a
transfer
an exchange
takes place between Christ and His Church--by concentrating
all her responsibility on Him; He being answerable for her sins
answerable for
her defects
answerable to a perfect law and to a holy God; and she receiving
from Him that glorious and everlasting name
which is the Open Sesame at the
gates of heaven
and which shall he heard loudest in the songs and hallelujahs
of the ransomed
around the throne. Whatever name
I would observe next
is given in Scripture
to anything
is a reality. Therefore
when it is said
“This is the name by
which she
” the Church
“shall be called
” it does not imply that it is the
investiture of that Church with a mere empty and evanescent honour
but the
stamp
the imprimatur of an everlasting and indelible reality; so that the
Church
in herself all rags
is made in Christ “the Righteousness of God.” In
discussing the subject matter of this name
I would lay before you the
following facts
in order to show you the absolute necessity of our being “called
” or
being made
“the Lord our Righteousness
” before we can ever expect to see God
in happiness. Let me observe
then
there has been
is now
and ever will be
what is called a law. The law of God is just to God Himself what the sunbeam is
to the sun--what the rivulet is to the fountain--what the effect is to the
cause--what the blossom or the leaf is to the stem or the root. God’s law is
indestructible
--the everlasting stereotype
which can no more be destroyed
than the Eternal Himself can be dethroned from the supremacy of the universe.
Setting out
then
with the postulate
that there is
and must be
such a thing
as God’s moral law
--the language of which is
Do
and live
--Do not
and
die
--we proceed
in the second place
to notice
that every member of this
justified Church
with every child of Adam
has broken and violated that law.
The next inquiry is
How can man be saved
and this law retain its unbending
and awful strictness? Shall the whole race perish? for the whole race have broken God’s
law. Blessed be God
His love and mercy would not suffer this. If not
shall
God’s holy law be abrogated and annulled in whole or in part! His justice
His
truth
His holiness cannot suffer that. Here
then
is the question
which no
earthly OEdipus can solve; the labyrinth
which no human wisdom can unthread.
Ancient philosophers
who saw dim and shadowy the attributes of the Eternal
even they were perplexed with difficulty here; and Socrates himself admitted
that it was extremely difficult to see how God could possibly receive to heaven
them that His holiness must see to be sinful. Having thus noticed the
impossibility of finding anything that could meet our case
let me ask again
Shall God be unjust
in order that sinners may be saved; or shall God be
unmerciful
and this
in order that His law may remain just? God so loved us
that He would not let us perish; and yet God is so just
that He would not let
His law be violated; how then can it be
how shall it be
that God shall remain
infinitely just
infinitely holy
infinitely true
and yet that His love shall
rush forth
and fill men’s souls with its fulness
and the wide world with the
multiplication of its trophies? The answer is given
“This is the name by which
He” (Christ) “shall be called
the Lord our Righteousness”; and “this is the
name by which she” (the Church) “shall be called
” through an interest in Him
“the Lord our Righteousness.” By that atonement which Christ consummated on the
Cross
and in virtue of that righteousness which Christ achieved by His life
it now comes to pass
that God may be just whilst He justifies the ungodly that
believe. This righteousness of Christ
which constitutes the only title of the
believer
is called in Scripture by various names. It is called “the
righteousness of Christ
” because He perfected and consummated it. It is called
“the righteousness of God
” because He devised it
and it is His mode of
justifying the sinner.
It is called the righteousness of faith
because faith receives it; and it is
also called our righteousness
because it is made ours by the free and
sovereign gift of God.
1. Let me now observe of this righteousness that it is a perfect
righteousness. When Christ exclaimed on the Cross
in the language partly of
agony
and partly of triumph
“It is finished
” He announced in these accents
that that moment there was provided a perfect robe
of perfect and of spotless
beauty
for every sinner under heaven
who would put forth the hand of faith
and appropriate it “without money and without price.”
2. This righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Death shall not
tarnish it
the grave shall not corrupt it
the wear and tear of life shall not
destroy it.
3. This righteousness is ours
to the exclusion of all other
whatever. Christ says to the queen on the throne
and to the meanest beggar by
the wayside
“Ye must both be saved by putting on the same perfect
righteousness
or ye must be lost for ever.”
4. This righteousness is ours by imputation. Our sins were
transferred to Him
and He endured the consequences of them; His righteousness
is transferred to us
and we realise the fruits of it.
5. This righteousness is received by faith
and by faith alone. There
are three things to be noticed; first
the spring; secondly
the water; and thirdly
the pipe that conveys the water. The spring
in this instance
is the love of
God; the element
that justifies us
is the righteousness of Jesus; and faith
is the channel
or the conduit
by which that righteousness is conveyed to us
and made ours. It is the mere medium
not the merit; it is the mere hand that
receives; and in no sense has it any part or share of the merit or glory.
6. I would observe of this righteousness that it insures
wherever it
is
everlasting glory. “Whom He justifies
” “He glorifies.” Where He begins
He
finishes; what He commences by grace
that He consummates and creams in glory.
The Church’s glory
derived from her Lord
is the righteousness of Christ; her
beauty is that moral and spiritual beauty
which derived from heaven
defies
the assaults of earth and hell
making its heirs the meet companions of Christ
at heaven’s high festival.
7. This Church
thus justified in the righteousness of Christ
is
in
the next place
free from all condemnation. All things minister peace and
blessedness to her who is at friendship with God
and identified with Jesus.
For “this is the name by which she shall be called
the Lord our
Righteousness.”
8. This way of salvation excludes all boasting. Just because man is
saved wholly through grace--wholly through the righteousness of another
and
his very name is the name of another
therefore
this redeemed
elect
ransomed
Church will east her crown before the throne of God and of the Lamb
and say
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
” &c.
9. I observe that this mode of justification does not make void the
law of God. “Nay
” says the apostle
“we rather establish the law.” You have in
this fact clear and decisive evidence that it is the elevation of the Cross
that makes all the moralities rise and cling and coil around it
and bloom and
blossom. The Gospel alone in fact can give true and high-toned morality.
10. This righteousness is that alone in which we may glory. There is
nothing but the Gospel that is worth glorying in. There is a moth in the
fairest robe--there is a worm in the goodliest cedar--there is disease in the healthiest
frame and rust on the purest gold. None of these things can satisfy men’s souls
with happiness. There is no glorying but in the righteousness of Christ
that
is bright
pure
enduring
the prolific source of all that is good. (J.
Gumming
D. D.)
Christ
the perfection of righteousness
Matthew Arnold
one of the prominent leaders of modern
Agnosticism
thus speaks of Christ in his Literature and Dogma: “Christ
came to reveal what righteousness really is . . . Nothing will do except
righteousness; and no other conception of righteousness will do except Christ’s
conception of it; His method and secret.” And in another part of the same book
he writes: “For our race
as we see it now
and as ourselves we form a part of
it
the true God is and must be perfect.” (Great Thoughts.)
If ye can break My covenant of the day
and My covenant of the
night . . . Then may also My covenant be broken with David My servant.
God’s great day-and-night engine
as a witness against skepticism
“Day and night in their season” are God’s perpetual challenge to
unbelief
His sublime witnesses to the perpetuity of His Church. The
doubters in Jeremiah’s time saw
or thought they saw in the captivity of Israel
already accomplished
and that of Judah foretold as nigh at hand
the complete
breakdown of all God’s plans and promises as to His people and His Church. They
said: “The two families (Judah and Israel) which the Lord did choose
Tie hath
even cast them off.” “There’s an end of all our fine expectations! Prophecy
breaks down! God can’t keep His contract! Religion is a failure! We told you
so!” But what does God say to them in reply? “Thus saith the Lord If My
covenant of day and night stand not
if I have not appointed the ordinances of
heaven and earth; then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob
and of David My
servant
” &c. Thus God reminds the sceptic and the doubter that His
covenant with His Church is as firm as that with day and night. We of to-day
are in the midst of a sceptical age
and some good people are alarmed at the
growth of doubt
and at coldness and troubles in the churches. They firmly
believe in the truth of Christianity
but they seem to have lost something of
their faith in its conquering power. “What does God mean by His covenant of day
and night”? It was equal to saying: “If you can stop the daily rotation
I have given to this earth
then you may stay the onward rolling wheels of My
Messiah’s chariot from the conquest of the world!” That’s what God meant
and
He has thus far made good His word. Judah
like Israel
for her sins
went into
captivity. But unlike Israel
Judah was brought back to do God’s work for ages
longer; and perhaps for more work in the future than we now understand. The
Church lives and grows. Tier ministers are thousands of thousands. “As the host
of heaven cannot be numbered
neither the sand of the sea measured
” no more
can her people. The earth rolls onward
bringing “day and night in their
season
” and the sun hears the missionary Angelus chiming around the globe. Let
us study this sublime illustration. Look at the daily rotation of this globe
and imagine the power necessary to produce and maintain this rotation. Suppose
we see what God’s oath of day and night means when represented by steam
mechanics. Let us build our engine and run this revolving globe a while by
steam power. The earth is not a fiat fly-wheel set upon its edge
but a massive
sphere
8000 miles in diameter. So
by the ratio of size of shaft to size of
paddle-wheel on a large steamboat
the earth must be slung on a steel shaft
about 250 miles in diameter and 10
000 miles long. It must be driven by an
engine whose cylinder should measure 1200 miles bore and 2000 miles stroke
having a piston-rod 100 miles thick and 2500 miles long
working by a
connection-rod 3000 miles long on a crank of 1000 miles arm
with a wrist 200
miles long and 50 miles thick. The piston of this engine will make but one
revolution daily; but to do that it will travel 4000 miles
at an average
velocity of nearly three miles a minute. The working capacity of this engine
will be about fourteen thousand million (14
000
000
000) horse-power. It must
be controlled by an automatic governor of infallible accuracy
and supplied
with inexhaustible fuel and oil; and so run on
day and night
never starting a
bolt
nor heating a journal
nor wearing out a box
age after age. The iron
bed-frame for this machine must be 10
000 miles square and 4000 miles high
and
not tremble a hair under the stroke that drives the equatorial rim of this
fly-wheel globe up to a steady velocity of seventeen and one-half miles a
minute
twenty times the velocity of a lightning express train! Who’ll take the
contract to build and run this engine? The vast mass must fly through space in
the earth’s orbit around the sun
with a velocity of more than 1100 miles a
minute. The Armstrong 100-ton steel rifle sends its 2000-pound steel projectile
at the rate of 1600 feet per second clean through a solid wrought-iron plate 22
inches thick. But God fires this globe
8000 miles in diameter
through space
with 60 1/2 times the velocity of the monster projectile
and 2000 times that
of an express train at 34 miles per hour. And our engine that gives it its
day-and-night rotation must fly with it at that speed
and never lose a stroke!
And these are very slow among the velocities of the starry worlds. And yet
these velocities only represent what God does every moment by the abiding force
of that first impulse He gave to this silent spinning globe when He shot it
from His creating hand like a top from a boy’s finger! Now
imagine the infidel
trying to seize
in its mighty sweep
the flying crank that runs this globe
to
stop its revolution! What then? Did you ever see a man caught and whirled and
mangled on a little factory shaft
reduced to a shapeless pulp in a moment?
Even so it has ever been with those who have tried to stop the engine of
Christianity. (G. L. Taylor
D. D.)
Divine plans of action unalterable
I. The Almighty
both in the material and spiritual departments of His universe acts from plan.
1. The text speaks of a “covenant” with material nature as well as
with David.
2. The Infinite One acts evermore from plan.
II. The plan on
which God conducts the material universe is manifestly beyond the power of His
creatures to alter.
1. This is a blessing to all. If men could alter the order of nature
what would become of us!
2. This is an argument for the Divinity of miracles
if miracles are
changes in the order of nature.
III. The
unalterableness of His plan in material nature illustrates the unalterableness
of His plan in the spiritual department of action. It is not impossible for God
to reverse the order of nature
but it is impossible for God to act contrary to
those principles
of absolute truth and justice which He has revealed (Homilist.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》