| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Jeremiah
Chapter Forty-seven
Jeremiah 47
Chapter Contents
The calamities of the Philistines.
The Philistines had always been enemies to Israel; but
the Chaldean army shall overflow their land like a deluge. Those whom God will
spoil
must be spoiled. For when the Lord intends to destroy the wicked
he
will cut off every helper. So deplorable are the desolations of war
that the
blessings of peace are most desirable. But we must submit to His appointments
who ordains all in perfect wisdom and justice.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 47
Verse 1
[1] The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet
against the Philistines
before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
Before — In the time of the Philistines prosperity.
Verse 4
[4] Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the
Philistines
and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth:
for the LORD will spoil the Philistines
the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
The day — Which God hath set
and appointed for their ruin.
Caphtor — Tyre and Sidon were neighbours to the Philistines
and
so were often called to their help. The Philistines and Caphtorim were related
for their first progenitors
Philistim and Caphtorim
were both the sons of
Mizriam the son of Ham
one of the sons of Noah.
Verse 5
[5] Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the
remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
The remnant — Those who lived in the valleys
near Ashkelon.
But thyself — Why will you afflict yourselves
when all your mourning will do you no good.
Verse 6
[6] O thou sword of the LORD
how long will it be ere thou
be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard
rest
and be still.
O thou sword — Perhaps they are the words of the
prophet
lamenting the havock which he made among the Philistines by the
Chaldeans.
Verse 7
[7] How can it be quiet
seeing the LORD hath given it a
charge against Ashkelon
and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
How — God lets the prophet know that he had given this sword
its commission
and therefore it could not stop 'till Ashkelon and the people
on the sea-shore were destroyed by it.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
47 Chapter 47
Verses 1-7
Verse 5
How long wilt thou cut thyself?
The tender inquiry of a friend
Travellers in the East tell us that among the most melancholy
scenes they witness is the following:--Men inflict upon themselves very
grievous
voluntary wounds
and then exhibit themselves in public. They even
disfigure themselves with gashes m me presence of excited throngs. I am
speaking of what has occurred even within
the last few years among the Moslems. When some
great prophet or emir is coming that way
a certain number of fanatical
Mahometans take swords
spears
and other sharp instruments
and gash
themselves terribly therewith
cutting their breasts
their faces
their heads
and all parts of their bodies. Frequently they have taken care to dress
themselves in white sheets
in order that
as the blood flows copiously from
their bodies
it may be the more clearly seen
that they may become the more
ghastly spectacles of misery
or the more fully display the religious
excitement under which they labour. As everything in the East remains for ever
the same
thin Moslem superstition carries us back to the olden times whereof
we read in the Old Testament
when the priests of Baal
having cried in vain to
their idol
cut themselves with lances and with knives. Our translators were
probably afraid to write the harsher words
and so they translated the passage
“knives and lances
” but they might have written swords and spears sharp
instruments of a desperate character. Thus they displayed their inward zeal
and thus
perhaps
they hoped to move the pity of their god. The Lord expressly
forbade His people
the Jews
to perpetrate such folly. They were not even to
shave the corners of their beards
or to hack their hair
as the Orientals do
in the hour of their grief; and then they were further prohibited from injuring
their bodies by the command (Leviticus 19:28). Men in Eastern lands
not only in connection with fanaticism
but in reference to domestic affairs
will cut themselves to express their grief and anguish
or to make other people
believe that they are feeling
such grief and anguish. We may congratulate ourselves that we are free from at
least one foolish custom. The prophet here speaks to the Philistines who were
about to endure the tremendous judgments of God
and
indeed
to be crushed Out
as a nation by the Egyptians and the Chaldeans; and he says to Philistia “How
long wilt thou cut thyself?” How long would they continue to bring upon
themselves such terrible judgments?
I. I shall ask
this question very despairingly--“How long wilt thou cut thyself?”--for many
are cutting themselves very terribly
and will have to feel the wounds thereof
for a long time
neither can we induce them to cease therefrom.
1. I allude
first
to some professors of religion who have been
Church members for ten
twenty
or more years
and yet have practically done
nothing at all for the Saviour. If they were really to awaken to a sense of
their neglect
I do not know how long- they would be in anguish
or how deep
would be their distress; for if Titus mourned that he had lost a day when he
had done no good action for twenty-four hours
and he but a heathen
what would
happen to a Christian if he were really to see his responsibility before God
and to feel that he has not only lost a day but a year--perhaps many years? Have
not some of you well-nigh lost a whole lifetime?
2. The same may be applied
and applied very solemnly
too
to those
who backslide--who
in addition to being- useless
are injurious
because their
example tends to hinder others from coming to Christ. Oh
if any of you that
name the name of Jesus
and have been happy in His service
and have enjoyed
high days and holy days in His presence
turn aside
I shall use this
lamentation over you! You will do yourselves terrible injury
and I shall
shudder as I see the edged tools of sin in your reckless hands. Every sin is a
gash in the soul. The Lord will bring you back and save you
as I believe; but
oh
how long will you cut yourselves?
3. There is one thing which comes after these
and comes in
connection with them. If you and I should know that souls have been lost--lost
as far as we are concerned--through our neglect
how long- shall we cut
ourselves on that account? Fathers
if you have never sought to bring your
children to repentance
how will you excuse yourselves? If you have never
prayed with them
or wept with them--if you have never even instructed them in
the things of God
what flattering unction will you lay to your guilty
consciences? What will you say
mother
if your daughter passes into eternity unforgiven
and you have never tried to lead her to Jesus?
4. One other most solemn use may be made of this question” God grant
that it may never be so
but if any one of you should die in his sins
how long
will you regret it
think you? Oh
thou who hast lost eternal life
how long
wilt thou cut thyself? If thou shouldst miss Christ
and miss mercy
and miss
heaven
and miss eternal glory
if there were naught else
how long wilt thou
bemoan thyself? With what depth of anguish wilt thou smart to have lost all
this--to have
in fact
lost all which makes up life and joy!
II. i shall ask
this question hopefully
trusting that in many their sorrow is nearing- its
end.
1. This text may be very profitably and prudently applied to those
who have been bereaved
and who
being bereaved
sorrow
and sorrow to excess.
“How long wilt thou cut thyself?” Is not thy child in Jesus’ bosom? Has not thy
friend gone among the angels
to join the sweet singers of God? Is it not a
gain to the departed
though it be a loss to thee
that they are translated to
the place of everlasting bliss?
2. Turning to quite another character
I would use the same
expression for another purpose. There are some persons with whom God is dealing
in great love
and yet they are very rebellious. “How long wilt thou cut
thyself?” Already they have met with great disasters and misfortunes: they will
meet with many more when the dogs are out hunting
they run in packs. The
plagues of Egypt are ten at least
and every one who plays the Pharaoh may expect
the full number.
3. I might use this expression even to the Jewish nation itself. Ah
God
through what seas of trouble have they had to swim since the day when they
said
“His blood be on us
and on our children”!
4. But
now
all this has rather kept me from my main design
which
is to speak to those dear friends of ours who are afflicting their souls with
needless fears. No good can possibly come by a continuance in their unhappy
moods: they are cutting themselves quite needlessly. They might at once have
peace
and rest
and joy if they were willing to accept the Lord s gracious way
of salvation. Despairing and desponding are not commanded in the Gospel
but
they are forbidden by it. Do not cultivate these gross follies
these deadly
sins. Do not multiply these poisonous weeds--this hemlock and this darnel--as
if they were fair flowers of paradise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 6
Put up thyself into thy scabbard
rest
and be still.
War overruled for God’s glory
Notwithstanding all the boasted improvements of modem times
in
knowledge and refinement
wars have not been less frequent than formerly
when
mankind were in a rude and barbarous state. In making this reflection
the
philosopher may profess his astonishment
but the genuine Christian will weep.
Such are the mournful and ruinous effects which sin has produced in the world.
Not only has it filled men’s minds with enmity against God
but also with
implacable enmity and revenge against one another.
I. Whence it is
that the sword of war may be called the sword of the Lord.
1. Because the seasons in which this sword is drawn are governed or
appointed by the Lord. The kindling of war
or the settling of peace
are
appointed by the providence of that God who ruleth over all the earth. The
direction of cabinets
the ambition of princes
of governors
of statesmen
are
only the instruments which God employs with a powerful and a holy hand
to
execute His will.
2. Because it receives its direction from the Lord. When God gives
the commission
when He opens the brazen gates of destruction
no country
no
city is secured against the ravages of war; and when His providence forms a
wall of protection around a country
no army can prevail
no weapon formed
against it can prosper
for the Almighty God Himself is its fortress
its
pillar
and its strength.
3. Because the execution done by it is of the Lord. It is a saying of
King William
who had himself been in many battles
that “every bullet had its
billet”; intimating that it was under God’s direction whom to miss and whom to
strike.
4. Because God sanctifies and glorifies Himself in its operation. In
the management of war
the reputation of kings and statesmen
of generals or
soldiers
is considered
but this is only a secondary consideration. The glory
of the Lord
whom the Scriptures call a Man of War
is illustrated and made
conspicuous in the eyes of the world. The slayer and those who are slain are
His creatures and subjects
and the instruments which defend the one and kill
the other are His sword.
II. The reason why
all God’s people so ardently long to see the sword of war sheathed and at rest.
1. Conviction that the wrath of God bringeth upon man the punishment
of the sword
will cause the saints to long earnestly for its being sheathed
and at rest.
2. All God’s people will earnestly long to see the sword of war in
-its scabbard and at rest
when they reflect what multitudes of men are hurried
by it into eternity without thought or preparation.
3. God’s people earnestly long to see the sword of war sheathed and
at rest
when they reflect on the unparalleled distresses and miseries
inflicted on those countries which are the seat of war. Gracious persons are
deeply affected with the miseries of their fellow-creatures
even though they
he enemies.
4. God’s people earnestly desire to see the sword of war sheathed and
at rest
that Christ’s Gospel may be propagated throughout the whole world
and
its Divine power and influence felt by all nations. (James Hay
D. D.)
The sword of the warrior the sword of the Lord
As patriots
prophets felt the miseries which they denounced; as
mourners
they lamented the sins which brought on these miseries; and as men
they wept over the graves of the enemies by whom their country had been
harassed and wasted.
I. The sword of
the warrior is the sword of the Lord.
1. The seasons in which the sword is drawn and sheathed are appointed
by the Lord. The direction of cabinets
the ambition of princes
and the
caprices of statesmen in these affairs
are subordinated by His invisible
influence to His own will
without violating the order of second causes
or
breaking in upon the freedom of rational agents.
2. The sword of the warrior is put in commission by the Lord.
3. The direction of the sword of the warrior is from the Lord. The
seat of war is marked out
and its bounds circumscribed
in the purpose of the
will of God; and thither the warrior marches without mistaking his way
whether
it he to the shore of Tyrus
the valley of Jehoshaphat
the plains of Blenheim
the heights of Saratoga
or the mountains of Armageddon.
4. The execution done by the sword of the warrior is of the Lord. “A
sparrow falleth not to the ground without our heavenly Father
” and in the day
of battle
no soldier loses his life without His knowledge and
predetermination.
5. By the sword of the warrior the Lord sanctifies and magnifies
Himself. According to the states of the sufferers wars of conquest and
extirpation are corrections and punishments
and whichever of the sides gains
or loses the victory
the supremacy of Jehovah over all is main
rained
and
the glory of His justice and holiness displayed and magnified. The cause in
which the sword is drawn is always sinful on one side
and frequently sinful on
both sides. But whatever be the quality of the cause
the views of men
or the
issues of the contest
the Lord will not lose His end. He rules in the seat of
war
and commands on the day of battle.
II. The reasons for
which mourners in Zion long to see this sword sheathed.
1. Compassion for those who are delivered to the sword
or subjected
to the insolence and rage of fierce and lawless men whose tender mercies are
cruelty.
2. Knowledge of the consequences of driving men unprepared into
eternity.
3. The peace of God
which rules in the hearts of mourners in Zion
inclines and constrains them to cry for the sheathing of the sword of the
warrior.
4. Convictions that the wrath of God bringeth upon men the punishment
of the sword
dispose mourners in Zion to long for its being put up into the
scabbard. (A. Shanks.)
The means of terminating war
I. The evils of
protracted war.
1. War is a tremendous evil.
2. Well might the prophet desire its speedy termination.
II. The reason of
its continuance.
1. War is one of those judgments with which God punishes the sins of
men.
2. Till He has effected His purposes by it
no human efforts can bring it to a close.
III. Means of its
termination.
1. The intention of God’s chastisements is to bring us to repentance.
2. On the attainment
of this end He will instantly remove HIS judgments from us.
IV. Some hints
respecting those heavy judgments which God has denounced against sinners in
another world
and respecting the best means of averting them from our souls. (C.
Simeon
M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》