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Lamentations
Chapter One
Lamentations 1
Chapter Contents
The miserable state of Jerusalem
the just consequences
of its sins. (1-11) Jerusalem represented as a captive female
lamenting
and
seeking the mercy of God. (12-22)
Commentary on Lamentations 1:1-11
(Read Lamentations 1:1-11)
The prophet sometimes speaks in his own person; at other
times Jerusalem
as a distressed female
is the speaker
or some of the Jews.
The description shows the miseries of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem became a
captive and a slave
by reason of the greatness of her sins; and had no rest
from suffering. If we allow sin
our greatest adversary
to have dominion over
us
justly will other enemies also be suffered to have dominion. The people
endured the extremities of famine and distress. In this sad condition Jerusalem
acknowledged her sin
and entreated the Lord to look upon her case. This is the
only way to make ourselves easy under our burdens; for it is the just anger of
the Lord for man's transgressions
that has filled the earth with sorrows
lamentations
sickness
and death.
Commentary on Lamentations 1:12-22
(Read Lamentations 1:12-22)
Jerusalem
sitting dejected on the ground
calls on those
that passed by
to consider whether her example did not concern them. Her
outward sufferings were great
but her inward sufferings were harder to bear
through the sense of guilt. Sorrow for sin must be great sorrow
and must
affect the soul. Here we see the evil of sin
and may take warning to flee from
the wrath to come. Whatever may be learned from the sufferings of Jerusalem
far more may be learned from the sufferings of Christ. Does he not from the
cross speak to every one of us? Does he not say
Is it nothing to you
all ye
that pass by? Let all our sorrows lead us to the cross of Christ
lead us to
mark his example
and cheerfully to follow him.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Lamentations》
Lamentations 1
Verse 1
[1] How doth the city sit solitary
that was full of people!
how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations
and
princess among the provinces
how is she become tributary!
A widow — She that had a king
or rather a God
that was an
husband to her
now was forsaken of God
and her king taken from her.
Verse 3
[3] Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction
and
because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen
she findeth no
rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
Because — Because of the servitude and oppression exercised
among them: oppression by their rulers
and servitude more generally; keeping
their servants beyond the year of jubilee
when they ought to be set at
liberty.
The straits — Those that pursued them overtook
them in places where they could not escape.
Verse 4
[4] The ways of Zion do mourn
because none come to the
solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh
her virgins are
afflicted
and she is in bitterness.
She — Persons of all ages and ranks are in bitterness.
Verse 10
[10] The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her
pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary
whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
Pleasant things — Has laid violent hands on them.
The things of the sanctuary were always pleasant things to those that feared
God.
Verse 11
[11] All her people sigh
they seek bread; they have given
their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see
O LORD
and consider;
for I am become vile.
Bread — Even in a land that ordinarily flowed with milk and
honey
they were at a loss for bread to eat.
Given — And gave any thing for something to satisfy their
hunger.
Vile — Miserable or contemptible.
Verse 12
[12] Is it nothing to you
all ye that pass by? behold
and
see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow
which is done unto me
wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
Is it nothing — The prophet speaks in the name of
the Jewish church.
Verse 13
[13] From above hath he sent fire into my bones
and it
prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet
he hath turned me
back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
Fire — A judgment as consuming
and afflictive as fire.
Verse 14
[14] The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they
are wreathed
and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall
the
Lord hath delivered me into their hands
from whom I am not able to rise up.
Is bound — Put upon my neck on account of my transgressions.
Wreathed — My punishments are twisted as cords; I have a
complication of judgments upon me
sword
famine
pestilence
captivity.
Verse 15
[15] The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in
the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men:
the Lord hath trodden the virgin
the daughter of Judah
as in a winepress.
An assembly — God had called an assembly of
Chaldeans against the city
to crush the inhabitants of it.
Trodden — God had trodden upon the Jews as men use to stamp
grapes in a wine-press.
Verse 16
[16] For these things I weep; mine eye
mine eye runneth down
with water
because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me:
my children are desolate
because the enemy prevailed.
The comforter — God.
Verse 17
[17] Zion spreadeth forth her hands
and there is none to
comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob
that his adversaries
should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.
Jerusalem — Is become loathsome and filthy.
Verse 19
[19] I called for my lovers
but they deceived me: my priests
and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city
while they sought their meat to
relieve their souls.
Deceived — They did not answer my expectation.
Verse 20
[20] Behold
O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are
troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled:
abroad the sword bereaveth
at home there is as death.
Death — By famine and pestilence.
Verse 21
[21] They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort
me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast
done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called
and they shall be like
unto me.
They — The neighbouring nations.
Like me — But thou hast foretold their destruction also
and
hast by me proclaimed it: and thou shalt in that day bring them into as sad a
condition as I am in now.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Lamentations》
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-7
That was fall of people!
Reverses of fortune
The picture in this verse is strong by contrasts: solitary
and
full of people; a widow
once a queen great among the nations; a princess
receiving homage
now stooping in the act of paying tribute to a higher power.
No nest is built so high that God’s lightning may not strike it. To human vision
it certainly does appear impossible that certain estates can ever be turned to
desolation; the owners are so full of health and high spirits
and they
apparently have so much reason to congratulate themselves upon the exercise of
their own sagacity and strength
that it would really appear as if no bolt
could shatter the castle of their greatness. Yet that castle we have teen torn
down
until there was not one stone left upon another. We are only strong in
proportion as we spend our strength for others
and only rich in proportion as
we invest our gold in the cause of human beneficence. The ruins of history
ought to be monitors and guides to those who take a large view of human life.
Is not the whole of human history a succession of ruins? Where is Greece? Rome?
proud Babylon? the Seven Churches of Asia? We do not despair when we look at
the ruins which strew antiquity; we rather reason that certain institutions
have served their day
and what was good in them has been transferred into
surviving activities. In the text
however
we have no question of ruin that
comes by the mere lapse of time. Such ruin as is here depicted expresses a
great moral catastrophe. Judah did not go into captivity because of her
excellency or faithfulness; she was driven into servitude because of her
disobedience to her Lord. What was true of Judah will be true of every man
amongst us. No man can sin
and prosper. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Changes in the outward estate of the Church
1. God often alters the outward estate of His Church in this world.
2. It is our duty to strive with ourselves to be affected with the
miseries of God’s people (2 Chronicles 11:28-29). For we are
fellow members of one body
whereof Christ is the Head (1 Corinthians 12:25-26).
3. God sometimes giveth His Church an outward estate that flourisheth
both in wealth and peace.
4. The outward flourishing state of God’s Church lasts not always
but is often changed into affliction and adversity.
5. God often changes the condition of His servants in this life from
one extreme to another. Joseph; Job; Israel
6. It is a great blessing of God for a nation to be populous (Genesis 12:2).
7. God often makes His people in their prosperity most admired of
all.
8. God often humbles His servants under all His foes and their
adversaries
because of their disobedience to His word (Deuteronomy 28:36).
How is she become as a
widow!--
Desolation
It would not be just to read into the image of widowhood ideas
collected from utterances of the prophets about the wedded union of Israel and
her Lord; we have no hint of anything of the sort here. Apparently the image is
selected in order to express the more vividly the utter lonesomeness of the
city. It is clear that the attribute “solitary” has no bearing on the external
relations of Jerusalem--her isolation among the Syrian hills
or the desertion
of her allies
mentioned a little later (Lamentations 1:2); it points to a more ghostly
solitude
streets without traffic
tenantless houses. The widow is solitary
because she has been robbed of her children. And in this
her desolation
“she
sits.” The attitude
so simple and natural and easy under ordinary
circumstances
here suggests a settled continuance of wretchedness; it is
helpless and hopeless. The first wild agony of the severance of the closest
natural ties has passed
and with it the stimulus of conflict; now there has
supervened the dull monotony of despair. It is a fearful thing simply to sit in
sorrow. The mourner sits “in the night
” while the world around lies in the
peace of sleep. The darkness has fallen
yet she does not stir
for day and
night are alike to her--both dark. In this dread night of misery her one occupation
is weeping. The mourner knows how the hidden fountains of tears which have been
sealed to the world for the day will break out in the silent solitude of night;
then the bravest will “wet his couch with his tears.” The forlorn woman
“weepeth sore”; to use the expressive Hebraism
“weeping she weepeth.” “Her
tears are on her cheeks”; they are continually flowing; she has no thought of
drying them; there is no One else to wipe them away. This is not the frantic
torrent of youthful tears
soon to be forgotten in sudden sunshine
like a
spring shower; it is the dreary winter rain
falling more silently
but from
leaden clouds that never break. The woe of Jerusalem is intensified by reason
of its contrast with the previous splendour of the proud city. This thought of
a tremendous fall gives the greatest force to the portrait. It is
Rembrandtesque; the black shadows on the foreground are the deeper because they
stand sharply out against the brilliant radiance that streams in from the
sunset of the past. The pitiableness of the comfortless present lies in this
that there had been lovers whose consolations would now have been a solace; the
bitterness of the enmity now experienced is its having been distilled from the
dregs of poisoned friendship. Against the protests of her faithful prophets
Jerusalem had courted alliance with her heathen neighbours only to be cruelly
deserted in her hour of need. It is the old story of friendship with the world
keenly accentuated in the life of Israel because this favoured people had
already seen glimpses of a rich
rare privilege
the friendship of heaven. This
is the irony of the situation; it is the tragic irony of all Hebrew history. (W.
F. Adeney
M. A.)
She weepeth sore in the night.
Lonely sorrow
1. According to the measure of God’s correcting hand upon us
must
our grief be.
2. Weeping for sin and its punishment is such a sign of true
repentance as we must labour to show forth
especially in time of calamity.
3. It is a grievous plague to lack comforts in affliction; the
contrary whereof is a great blessing.
4. It is an intolerable grief to have friends become foes.
5. God often leaveth His people destitute of all outward help and
comfort
to teach us to rest upon Him alone at whose disposition all things
are
and not upon any outward thing
seem it never so glorious to our outward
eyes. (J. Udall.)
All her friends have dealt
treacherously with her.
Adversity the test of friendship
We do not know our friends until we are in some extremity.
Fair-weather friends are not to be implicitly trusted. You cannot know a man
until you have had occasion to test him by some practical sacrifice; until you
have opposed a man you do not know what his temper is; until you have
disappointed a man you cannot tell the extent of his good nature; until you
have seen a man in trial you know nothing whatever of his grace or his virtue.
Many persons shine the more brightly because of the surrounding darkness; they
have no genius for conversation
they cannot display themselves in public
they
are but poorly feathered and coloured
so that they have nothing to attract and
gratify the attention of curiosity: but how full of life they are when their
friends are in trouble
how constant in watchfulness
how liberal in
contribution
how patient under exasperation! These are the men to trust! As we
should never see the stars but for the darkness
so we never should see real
friendship but for our affliction and sorrow. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction.
Afflictive dispensations
1. The outward things of this life are the soonest lost; and being
enjoyed
the most uncertain.
Learn to make least account of them
as things without which we
may be perfectly happy. Endeavour most of all to obtain the true knowledge and
fear of God
which is the treasure laid up in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20).
2. It is natural for a man to seek to better his outward estate
and
his duty to seek far and near for the freedom and rest of conscience (2 Chronicles 11:13-17).
3. It is better to live anywhere than in our own country where our
governors seek to oppress us
for their hatred being assisted with their might
will never let us live in any tolerable peace.
4. Of two evils
we may and ought to choose the less
to avoid the
greater.
5. It is grievous and dangerous to dwell among the ungodly.
6. When God means to punish
He stirs up means; but when He means it
not
the means shall not prosper.
7. There is no place or means to escape God’s hand
when He means to
punish.
8. There is no kind of people so generally and so evil entreated in
their adversity as the godly.
9. This people seemeth to be utterly overthrown for ever
and yet
they returned unto their land and became a commonwealth again. So is it often
with the Church of God (Psalms 139:1
etc.). This teaches us--
The ways of Zion do mourn
because none come to the solemn feasts.
The decay of religion mournful
1. The overthrow of the commonwealth bringeth with it the overthrow
of the Church’s outward peace.
2. When the things that God hath given us here are not applied to the
appointed use
we have just cause to mourn
seeing our sins have caused the let
thereof (Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Isaiah 13:19
etc.).
3. The earth and earthly things do often admonish men of their sins
either by denying that comfort which naturally they bring with them (Leviticus 18:25)
or bringing grief or
punishment with them (Micah 2:10).
4. All God’s creatures mourn when God is disobeyed
and rejoice when
He is obeyed by His people.
5. The service of God is not tied to any place
but upon condition of
their obedience that dwell therein (Jeremiah 26:4).
6. It is a great grief to God’s ministers to be deprived of their
ministry or to see it unprofitable to the Church.
7. The ministers must be guides to the people
to lead them to
mourning (when there is cause)
as also to all other duties.
8. They that seem most exempt from it must mourn at the decay of
religion.
9. The greatest loss that can befall God’s people is the loss of the
exercise of the Word and Sacraments. Because God hath appointed them to be the
means of begetting and confirming faith in us. (J. Udall.)
All her gates are
desolate.
Religious desolation
A pathetic picture indeed is this
that the feast is spread and no
man comes to the banqueting table; every gate is open in token of welcome and
hospitality
yet no wandering soul asks for admittance; the priests once so
noble in the service of song
the virgins once so beautiful as images of
innocence
now stand with hands thrown down
with eyes full of tears
with
hearts sighing in expressive silence their bitterness and disappointment. All
this can God do even to His chosen place
and to altars on which He has written
His name. Officialism is no guarantee of spiritual perpetuity. Pomp and
ceremony
with all their mechanical and external decorations and attractions
are no pledge of the presence of the Spirit of the Living God. The sanctuary is
nothing but for the Lord’s presence. Eloquent preaching is but eloquent noise
if the Spirit of the Lord be not in it
giving it intellectual value
spiritual
dignity
and practical usefulness. Not by might
nor by power
but by My
Spirit
saith the Lord; because men have forgotten this doctrine
they have
trusted to themselves and have seen their hopes perishing in complete and
bitter disappointment. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Her adversaries are the chief
her enemies prosper.
The adversaries of the good
1. The cause apparent of all the miseries of God’s people is the
prospering and prevailing of their enemies.
2. It often comes to pass that the wicked prosper in all things of
this life
and the godly contrary (Psalms 73:4; Job 21:7).
3. It is the natural disposition of the wicked towards the godly to
oppress them in action and hate them in affliction.
4. The wicked never prevail against the godly
further than the Lord
giveth strength unto them (Job 1:11-12; 1 Kings 22:22; Matthew 8:31-32). This teaches us--
5. All our afflictions come from the Lord
who is the chief worker
thereof.
6. It is the sin of the godly that causeth the Lord to lay all their
troubles upon them (Daniel 9:6; Nehemiah 1:6).
7. When God withdraweth His strength from His servants
they fall
into many grievous sins
one after another.
8. When God meaneth to punish man
He will not spare to deprive him
of that which is more dear unto him.
9. The wicked bear such malice unto the truth that when they get the
advantage they spate neither age nor sex
thinking to root out the godly from
under heaven. (J. Udall.)
And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.
Departing glory
1. The Church of God doth esteem the exercises of religion e most
excellent and glorious thing that can be had in this life.
2. The weakening of the rulers is the height of misery upon the rest of
the members of that body.
3. That people hath a heavy judgment upon them whose guides are
destitute and deprived of necessary courage.
4. They that have the greatest outward privilege do often come the
soonest into distress when God punisheth for sin (Amos 6:7). (J. Udall.)
Sin ruinous and destructive
We do our utmost to protect great buildings from fire and tempest
and yet all the time those buildings are liable to another peril not less
severe--the subtle decay of the very framework of the structure itself. The
tissue of the wood silently and mysteriously deteriorates
and calamity as dire
as a conflagration is precipitated. The whole of the magnificent roofing of the
church of St. Paul in Rome had to be taken out at enormous expense because of
the dry rot. Scientific men
by microscopic and chemical methods
have
investigated the causes of this premature decay
and after patient search they
have discovered not only the fungi which destroy the wood tissue
but also the
spore that acts as the seed of the fungus. So this obscure
malign vegetation
goes on in the heart of the wood
destroying the glory and strength of minister
and palace. Character is liable to a similar danger. All evils do not come from
the outside. Some of the worst possibilities of loss
weakness
and ruin emerge
from within; the destroying agents work obscurely and stealthily
and are
almost unsuspected until they nave wrought fatal mischief.
Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction
and of her
miseries
all her pleasant things.
The action of the memory in pain
I. It generally
refers to the “pleasant things” of the past. This it does by a necessary law of
its nature--the law of contrast. All men must meet with trials sooner or
later--physical
social
moral
etc. Now in the painful memory reverts to the
pleasant. It is ever so. Men under the infirmities of age revert to the bright
joys of youth hood; the rich man who has sunk into bankruptcy reverts to the
days when he had more than heart could wish; souls in perdition recall the
sunny day of grace.
II. Its reference
to the “pleasant things” of the past always intensifies the sufferings of the
sufferer. There are two things that tend to this:
The memory of pleasant
things in the time of trial:--
1. In the time of affliction we do better consider of the blessings
that our prosperity yielded unto us
than when we enjoyed them.
2. The time of adversity is fit
wherein we may best recount the
prosperity that in former times we have enjoyed.
3. God often maketh an men adversaries to His children
that they may
learn to rest on Him alone.
4. The enemies of religion do inquire into the decay of God’s Church
and rejoice at it.
5. It is a certain note of an enemy to religion
to mock and deride
the exercises of the same. (J. Udall.)
The mockery of bad men
What would the nightingale care if the toad despised her singing!
She would still sing on
and leave the cold toad to his dank shadows. And what
care I for the sneers of men who grovel upon earth? I will sing on in the ear
and bosom of God. (H. W. Beecher.)
Jerusalem
hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed.
The captivity
of Judah
The
emphatic word is “therefore.” It rings with sad and solemn cadence through the
most mournful of all the books of the Bible. It is the epitaph of the nation to
which once the conquest of the world was possible
but whose persistent
resistance to the will of God secured at last its complete destruction The
processes by which it ruined itself are those by which individuals are destroyed.
This “therefore” is the monumental inscription over a dead nation
which may
serve as a warning and guide to every living soul.
I. The sins which brought about the downfall of Judah.
1. Unbelief. They refused to see God
and they gradually lost the
power to see Him. When they found that their kings could not be trusted
could
not take care of them° they trusted
not to God
but to other nations. One day
they were vassals of the king of Egypt; the next
of the king of Babylon
Nothing but trust in God can make men free. As soon as we begin to doubt his
word
and trust in human opinions
we expose ourselves to become the prey of
untrustworthy powers. No confidence in our own learning or judgment
no trust
in the boastful words of others
can ever take the place of confidence in the
simple Word of God
and leave us sound and safe.
2. Pride. They could not accept God’s way. They could not wait for
other nations to be uplifted and join them. They chose to join other nations.
Doubtless they said it would more quickly bring the world to God; that to be
singular would only repel men
and make God repulsive to them. They preferred
their way to the way of God
ostensibly because They thought their way was
wiser
really because they could not bear to lose esteem in the eyes of tree
world God’s way is the same now. He still calls disciples a peculiar people. He
still says
“Come ye out from among them and be ye separate.” He still finds
only occasionally a hearty response. But to these who do respond with willing
love
what wonderful rewards He gives!
3. Sensuality. Outward contamination soon resulted in inward
corruption. Vice belongs with separation from God
and association with the
world. In time it will as surely follow as it is sure that man is made subject
to temptation.
4. Idolatry. When men or nations become polluted
they seek to make
religion justify their wickedness. Often the most self-indulgent are those most
devoted to their ideas of religion. They make their gods responsible for their
sins
and therefore treat them with greatest care.
II. The consequences of Judah’s sins.
1. Blindness. They could not see the ruin they were approaching. When
we cease to lay bare our sins and call them by their real names
we cease to
feel them. We enter into moral darkness. The light of the world shines as
before
but there is nothing in us which answers to that light. All knowledge
of what we ought to do rests on some knowledge of what God is and does. We
speak of seeing God
and though He is not visible to the bodily eye
there is
no other description which expresses our perception of His character and
presence surrounding us in all our ways. Men have eyes which behold Him; eyes
which He Himself has opened to that light which is not the light of the sun
but which is the light of the celestial city. But when men turn away from that
light
His character becomes to them distorted and unreal.
2. Untrustworthiness. When they became false to God they became false
to all trusts. They substituted forms for righteousness
and increased them in
proportion as they lost the spirit of truth.
3. Misery. The consequences of sin were seen too late. They were not
foreseen.
Lessons--
1. The captivity of Judah was the fault of her religious men. Beware
of seeking to justify what your conscience condemns by appeals to God in
prayer
or by observing forms of worship.
2. Outward reformation but slightly arrests the progress of
destruction. We cannot hope for much from the reform which aims only at
self-protection. It is not deep
honest
hearty
unless we choose to renounce
sins because we hate sin
and follow God because we love His ways.
3. Sin destroys the choicest qualities of human character.
4. The one thing necessary is to keep the eye on God. (A. E.
Dunning.)
Sin’s dire
consequence
Sin
produceth all temporal evil. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned
therefore she is
removed. It is the Trojan horse; it hath sword and famine and pestilence within
it. (T. Watson.)
Sin the cause
of affliction
1. Their sins the cause of their afflictions being again mentioned
unto them
teacheth this doctrine: that it is necessary whensoever we are
afflicted
to recount often our sins to have procured the same to fall upon us.
2. It is peculiar to the godly to impute the cause of all their
miseries unto their own sins. The wicked either lay the cause upon other
things
or extenuate their fault
blaming God for rigour; or else break out
into raging impatience or blasphemy.
3. It is our sin that depriveth us of any good thing we have
heretofore enjoyed.
4. When we truly fear and serve the Lord
He honoureth us in the
sight of men (1 Samuel 2:30).
5. It is our sin that maketh us odious and contemptible amongst men.
6. The estimation that the godly have among worldlings is only whilst
they are in outward prosperity.
7. The wicked
that have no knowledge or consciousness of their own
faults
can see the offences of the godly
and upbraid them with them.
8. There is nothing that maketh men so filthily naked as sin.
9. The godly do take to heart with earnest affection the crosses that
the Lord layeth upon them.
10. The godly are sometimes brought into so hard estate as that they
are in men’s judgment utterly deprived of all the signs of God’s favour. (J.
Udall.)
Verses 8-11
Jerusalem hath grievously
sinned; therefore she is removed.
The captivity of Judah
The emphatic word is
“therefore.” It rings with sad and solemn cadence through the most mournful of
all the books of the Bible. It is the epitaph of the nation to which once the
conquest of the world was possible
but whose persistent resistance to the will
of God secured at last its complete destruction The processes by which it
ruined itself are those by which individuals are destroyed. This “therefore” is
the monumental inscription over a dead nation
which may serve as a warning and
guide to every living soul.
I. The
sins which brought about the downfall of Judah.
1. Unbelief.
They refused to see God
and they gradually lost the power to see Him. When
they found that their kings could not be trusted
could not take care of them°
they trusted
not to God
but to other nations. One day they were vassals of
the king of Egypt; the next
of the king of Babylon Nothing but trust in God
can make men free. As soon as we begin to doubt his word
and trust in human
opinions
we expose ourselves to become the prey of untrustworthy powers. No
confidence in our own learning or judgment
no trust in the boastful words of
others
can ever take the place of confidence in the simple Word of God
and
leave us sound and safe.
2. Pride.
They could not accept God’s way. They could not wait for other nations to be
uplifted and join them. They chose to join other nations. Doubtless they said
it would more quickly bring the world to God; that to be singular would only
repel men
and make God repulsive to them. They preferred their way to the way
of God
ostensibly because They thought their way was wiser
really because
they could not bear to lose esteem in the eyes of tree world God’s way is the
same now. He still calls disciples a peculiar people. He still says
“Come ye
out from among them and be ye separate.” He still finds only occasionally a
hearty response. But to these who do respond with willing love
what wonderful
rewards He gives!
3. Sensuality.
Outward contamination soon resulted in inward corruption. Vice belongs with
separation from God
and association with the world. In time it will as surely
follow as it is sure that man is made subject to temptation.
4. Idolatry.
When men or nations become polluted
they seek to make religion justify their
wickedness. Often the most self-indulgent are those most devoted to their ideas
of religion. They make their gods responsible for their sins
and therefore
treat them with greatest care.
II. The
consequences of Judah’s sins.
1. Blindness.
They could not see the ruin they were approaching. When we cease to lay bare
our sins and call them by their real names
we cease to feel them. We enter
into moral darkness. The light of the world shines as before
but there is
nothing in us which answers to that light. All knowledge of what we ought to do
rests on some knowledge of what God is and does. We speak of seeing God
and
though He is not visible to the bodily eye
there is no other description which
expresses our perception of His character and presence surrounding us in all
our ways. Men have eyes which behold Him; eyes which He Himself has opened to
that light which is not the light of the sun
but which is the light of the
celestial city. But when men turn away from that light
His character becomes
to them distorted and unreal.
2. Untrustworthiness.
When they became false to God they became false to all trusts. They substituted
forms for righteousness
and increased them in proportion as they lost the
spirit of truth.
3. Misery.
The consequences of sin were seen too late. They were not foreseen.
Lessons--
1. The
captivity of Judah was the fault of her religious men. Beware of seeking to
justify what your conscience condemns by appeals to God in prayer
or by
observing forms of worship.
2. Outward
reformation but slightly arrests the progress of destruction. We cannot hope
for much from the reform which aims only at self-protection. It is not deep
honest
hearty
unless we choose to renounce sins because we hate sin
and
follow God because we love His ways.
3. Sin
destroys the choicest qualities of human character.
4. The
one thing necessary is to keep the eye on God. (A. E. Dunning.)
Sin’s dire consequence
Sin produceth all temporal
evil. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned
therefore she is removed. It is the
Trojan horse; it hath sword and famine and pestilence within it. (T. Watson.)
Sin the cause of
affliction
1. Their
sins the cause of their afflictions being again mentioned unto them
teacheth
this doctrine: that it is necessary whensoever we are afflicted
to recount
often our sins to have procured the same to fall upon us.
2. It is
peculiar to the godly to impute the cause of all their miseries unto their own
sins. The wicked either lay the cause upon other things
or extenuate their
fault
blaming God for rigour; or else break out into raging impatience or
blasphemy.
3. It is
our sin that depriveth us of any good thing we have heretofore enjoyed.
4. When
we truly fear and serve the Lord
He honoureth us in the sight of men (1 Samuel
2:30).
5. It is
our sin that maketh us odious and contemptible amongst men.
6. The
estimation that the godly have among worldlings is only whilst they are in
outward prosperity.
7. The
wicked
that have no knowledge or consciousness of their own faults
can see
the offences of the godly
and upbraid them with them.
8. There
is nothing that maketh men so filthily naked as sin.
9. The
godly do take to heart with earnest affection the crosses that the Lord layeth
upon them.
10. The
godly are sometimes brought into so hard estate as that they are in men’s
judgment utterly deprived of all the signs of God’s favour. (J. Udall.)
Verse
9
She remembereth not her last end: therefore she came down
wonderfully.
The wicked surprised by their own destruction
There are certain great principles in the Divine administration
the operation of which gives a degree of uniformity to the Divine proceedings.
For instance
it is the manner of our God to visit with signal destruction
those who have proudly set at naught His authority in a course of prosperous
wickedness. Such was His treatment of Jerusalem. So it has been with
individuals. Nebuchadnezzar
Herod
etc. Destruction came upon them
not only
in a terrible form
but at an hour when they did not expect it. The same thing
will hold true
in a greater or less degree
of all sinners
as it respects
their final doom; while it will be especially true of those who have sinned
against great light
and with a high hand. The destruction which will overtake
sinners at last will be to them a matter of awful surprise. It will be at once
unexpectedly dreadful
and dreadfully unexpected.
I. God’s wrath against the
wicked is constantly accumulating. If the first sin you ever committed provoked
God
do you think that the second provoked Him less; and that as He saw you
become accustomed to sin
He came to think as little of it as yourself
and has
not even charged your sin against you? Do you not remember that the Bible
speaks of the sinner treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath?
II. The destruction which will
come upon sinners will be to them a matter of fearful surprise
inasmuch as in
the present life God’s wrath
for the most part
seems to slumber; at least
they perceive no direct expression of it. It is true
indeed
that God is
giving them warnings enough
both in His Word and providence; and if they did
not close their ears against them
they could not fail to be alarmed; and they
will never be able
in the day of their calamity
to charge God with having
concealed from them their danger. Nevertheless
He treats them here as
probationers for eternity; He sets life and death before them
but He does not
unsheath His sword
and point it at the sinner’s heart. He does not find that the
elements are armed for his destruction. The thundercloud rises
and rolls
and
looks terrific
as if it were borne along by an avenging hand
but the
lightning that blazes from it passes him by unhurt. In short
not one of the
vials of God’s wrath can be said to be open upon him. There is nothing which he
interprets as an indication of anything dreadful in the future. Now
must not
all this be a preparation for a fearful surprise at last?
III. Not only have the wicked
during the present life
received no signal expressions of Divine vengeance
but they have been constantly receiving expressions of the Divine goodness; and
this is another circumstance which will serve to increase the surprise that
will be occasioned by their destruction. What a fearful transition will it be
from this world
in which there are so many blessings
to a world in which
existence itself becomes a curse! Oh
will not the sinner feel that he has
“come down wonderfully”?
IV. God sometimes not only
gives to the wicked a common share of temporal blessings
but distinguishes
them by worldly prosperity; hence another reason of the surprise which they
will experience at last. Think of the rich
and the great
and the noble of
this world
who have been accustomed to receive a homage which has sometimes
fallen little short of idolatry
finding themselves in the prison of despair
with no sound but the sound of their own wailing--with no society but the
society of the reprobate! Have not these persons come down wonderfully?
V. The destruction which will
finally overtake the wicked will be to them a matter of great surprise
inasmuch as they will
in some way or other
have made confident calculation
foe escaping it. It will be found
no doubt
that many of them had flattered
themselves with the hope that the doctrine of future punishment might turn out
to be false; and some will have been left through their own perverseness to
believe the lie
that the good and the bad will at last be equally happy. There
will be others who will have wrought themselves into a conviction that
destruction might be averted by some easier means than those which the Gospel
prescribes
and may have chosen to trust to the orthodoxy of their creed
or
the kindness of their temper
or the morality of their life. There will be
others who will have intended ultimately to escape destruction by becoming true
Christians
but who were looking out for some more convenient season. One thing
will be certain in respect to all
--they will have intended to come out well at
last. Not an individual among all the sufferers in hell but will have expected
finally to be saved. Lessons.
1. How blinding is the influence of depravity.
2. It is a most awful calamity to relapse into a habit of
carelessness after being awakened.
3. There is no class of men so much to be pitied as those who are
perhaps most frequently the objects of envy
and none whose condition is so
much to be envied as those whose circumstances are often looked upon as the
most undesirable.
4. Who of you will turn a deaf ear to the warning which this subject
suggests
to flee from the wrath to come? (W. B. Sprague
D. D.)
Sin unremembered
1. They that be hardened in sin by despising destruction
do grow to
forget those things which continual experience and the light of reason daily
call to remembrance.
2. The forgetfulness of the reward of sin throweth men headlong into
iniquity; but the remembrance of it stayeth us from many evils (Amos 6:3; Psalms 16:8). (J. Udall.)
Forgetfulness of the end
I. Why is man so forgetful of
his end?
1. His instinctive repugnance to it.
2. The difficulty of realising it.
3. The commonness of the occurrence of the event.
4. The prevalent expectation of long life.
5. The secular engrossments of life.
6. The systematic efforts to render man oblivious of the subject.
II. Why should man remember
his end?
1. That we may duly estimate our sinful condition.
2. To moderate our attachments to this passing life.
3. To stimulate us to a right preparation for the event.
4. To enable us to welcome the event when it comes. (Homilist.)
The end in view should control conduct
If the lazy student would only bring clearly before his mind the
examination room
and the unanswerable paper
and the bitter mortification when
the pass list comes out and his name is not there
he would not trifle and
dawdle and seek all manner of diversions as he does
but he would bind himself
to his desk and his task. If the young man that begins to tamper with purity
and in the midst of the temptations of a great city to gratify the lust of the
eye and the lust of the flesh
because he is away from the shelter of his
father’s house
and the rebuke of his mother’s purity
could see
as the older
of us have seen
men with their bones full of the iniquity of their youth
or
drifted away from their home to die down in the country like a rat in a hole
do you think the temptations of the streets and low places of amusement would
not be stripped of their fascination? If the man beginning to drink was to say
to himself
“What am I to do in the end” when the craving becomes physical
and
volition is suspended
and anything is sacrificed in order to still the domineering
devil within
do you think he would begin? I do not believe that all sin comes
from ignorance
but sure I am that if the sinful man saw what the end is
he
would
in nine cases out of ten
be held back. “What will you do in the end?”
Use that question
dear friends
as the Ithuriel spear which will touch the
squatting tempter at your ear
and there will start up
in its own shape
the
fiend. (A. Maclaren.)
O Lord
behold my
affliction.--
Refuge in distress
1. The only refuge in distress is to fly to the Lord by faithful and
fervent prayer.
2. This prayer being made by the prophet in the name of the people
teacheth us: it is a great blessing of God to that people that hath a minister
who is both able and willing not only to teach them the truth
but also to be
their mouth to direct them.
3. God so pitieth His people that the view of their miseries moveth
Him to help them
even when all men are against them.
Verse 10
The adversary hath spread
out his hand upon all her pleasant things.
Spoliation
1. The wicked are usually merciless towards the godly
spoiling them and theirs in most cruel manner
if the Lord restrain them not (Psalms 53:4; Psalms 137:7).
2. The outward things of this world are uncertain
and made subject
to the violence of the wicked.
3. The outward things and means of God’s service are often made a
prey to the enemies; especially upon our abusing of them (Jeremiah 7:13; Luke 19:44).
4. The injuries that the wicked do unto the godly in their sight
are
more grievous unto them than those that they do only hear of.
5. The wicked make havoc of and scorn all the exercises of religion.
6. The outward ordinances of God are of reverent account to them that
fear His name.
7. Those that be open wicked ones are not (without their open
repentance) to be admitted to the holy exercises of religion. (J. Udall.)
Verse 11
All her people sigh
they seek bread.
Grief at losses
I. It is awful for
the godly to be grieved with and take to heart their worldly losses--
2. For the preservation of the life
we must be willing to forego the
dearest of these outward blessings.
3. In all our miseries we must seek relief only at God’s hands.
4. No extremity can drive the godly from trusting in God
and praying
to Him (Job 13:15; Psalms 44:17). (J. Udall)
They have given their
pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul.--
Surrender of luxuries for necessaries
Our forefathers gave five marks or more for a good book; a load of
hay for a few chapters of St. James or of St. Paul
in English
saith Mr. Foxe.
The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus for his discovering
voyage to the West Indies
when he had showed his maps
though our Henry VII
loath to part with money
slighted his offers
and thereby the gold mines were
found and gained to the Spanish crown. Let no man think much to part with his
pleasant things for his precious soul
or to sacrifice all that he hath to the
service of his life
which
next to his soul
should be most dear to him. Our
ancestors in Queen Mary’s days were glad to eat the bread of their souls in
peril of their lives. (J. Trapp.)
Is it nothing
to you
all ye that pass by?
Zion’s appeal
1. The whole passage evidently expresses a deep yearning for
sympathy. Mere strangers
roving Bedouin
any people who may chance to be
passing by Jerusalem
are implored to behold her incomparable woes. The wounded
animal creeps into a corner to suffer and die in secret
perhaps on account of
the habit of herds
in tormenting a suffering mate. But among mankind the
instinct of a sufferer is to crave sympathy
from a friend
if possible; but if
such be not available
then even from a stranger. This sympathy
if it is real
would help if it could; and under all circumstances it is the reality of the
sympathy that is most prized
not its issues. It should be remembered
further
that the first condition of active aid is a genuine sense of compassion
which
can only be awakened by means of knowledge and the impressions which a
contemplation of suffering produce. Evil is wrought not only from want of
thought
but also from lack of knowledge; and good-doing is withheld for the
same reason. Therefore the first requisite is to arrest attention. We are
responsible for our ignorance and its consequences wherever the opportunity of
knowledge is within our reach.
2. The appeal to all who pass by is most familiar to us in its later
association with our Lord’s sufferings on the Cross. But this is not in any
sense a Messianic passage; it is confined in its purpose to the miseries of
Jerusalem. Of course there can be no objection to illustrating the grief and
pain of the Man of Sorrows by using the classic language of an ancient lament
if we note that this is only an illustration.
3. In order to impress the magnitude of her miseries on the minds of
the strangers whose attention she would arrest
the city
now personified as a
suppliant
describes her dreadful condition in a series of brief
pointed
metaphors. Thus the imagination is excited; and the imagination is one of the
roads to the heart. Let us look at the various images under which the distress
of Jerusalem is here presented.
4. The most terrible trait in these pictures
one that is common to
all of them
is the Divine origin of the troubles. Yet there is no complaint of
barbarity
no idea that the Judge of all the earth is not doing right. The
miserable city does not bring any railing accusation against her Lord; she
takes all the blame upon herself. The grief is all the greater because there is
no thought of rebellion. The daring doubts that struggle into expression in Job
never obtrude themselves here to check the even flow of tears. The melancholy
is profound
but comparatively calm
since it does not once give place to
anger. It is natural that the succession of images of misery conceived in this
spirit should be followed by a burst of tears. Zion weeps because the comforter
who should refresh her soul is far away
and she is left utterly desolate
(verse 16).
5. Here the supposed utterance of Jerusalem is broken for the poet to
insert a description of the suppliant making her piteous appeal (verse 17). He
shows us Zion spreading out her hands
that is to say
in the well-known
attitude of prayer. She is comfortless
oppressed by her neighbours in
accordance with the will of her God
and treated as an unclean thing; she who
had despised the idolatrous Gentiles in her pride of superior sanctity has now
become foul and despicable in their eyes!
6. After the poet’s brief interjection describing the suppliant
the
personified city continues her plaintive appeal
but with a considerable
enlargement of its scope. She makes the most distinct acknowledgment of the two
vital elements of the case--God’s righteousness and her own rebellion (verse
18). These carry us beneath the visible scenes of trouble so graphically
illustrated earlier
and fix our attention on deep seated principles. Although
it cannot be said that all trouble is the direct punishment of sin
and
although it is manifestly insincere to make confession of guilt one does not
inwardly admit
to be firmly settled in the conviction that God is right in
what He does even when it all looks most wrong
that if there is a fault it
must be on man’s side
is to have reached the centre of truth.
7. Enlarging the area of her appeal
no longer content to snatch at
the casual pity of individual travellers on the road
Jerusalem now calls upon
all the “peoples”--i.e.
all neighbouring tribes--to hear the tale of
her woes (verse 18). The appeal to the nations contains three particulars. It
deplores the captivity of the virgins and young men; the treachery of allies--“lovers”
who have been called upon for assistance
but in vain; and the awful fact that
men of such consequence as the elders and priests
the very aristocracy of
Jerusalem
had died of starvation after an ineffectual search for food--a lurid
picture of the horrors of the siege (verses 18
19).
8. In drawing to a close the appeal goes further
and
rising
altogether above man
seeks the attention of God (verses 20-22). This is an
utterance of faith where faith is tried to the uttermost. It is distinctly recognised
that the calamities bewailed have been sent by God; and yet the stricken city
turns to God for consolation. Not only is there no complaint against the
justice of His acts; in spite of them all
He is still regarded as the greatest
Friend and Helper of the victims of His wrath. This apparently paradoxical
position issues in what might otherwise be a contradiction of thought. The ruin
of Jerusalem is attributed to the righteous judgment of God
against which no
shadow of complaint is raised; and yet God is asked to pour vengeance on the
heads of the human agents of His wrath! The vengeance here sought for cannot be
brought into line with Christian principles; but the poet had never heard the
Sermon on the Mount. It would not have occurred to him that the spirit of
revenge was not right
any more than it occurred to the writers of maledictory
Psalms. There is one more point in this final appeal to God which should be
noticed
because it is very characteristic of the elegy throughout. Zion
bewails her friendless condition
declaring
“there is none to comfort me.”
This is the fifth reference to the absence of a comforter (see 1:2
9
16
17
21). The idea may be merely introduced in order to accentuate the description
of utter desolation. And yet when we compare the several allusions to it
the
conclusion seems to be forced upon us that the poet has a more specific
intention. Our thoughts instinctively turn to the Paraclete of St. John’s
Gospel. (W. F. Adeney
M. A.)
A Jeremiad
I. An earnest expostulation. If there is anything in all the world
that ought to interest a man
it is the death of Christ. Yet do I find men
learned men
spending year after year in sorting out butterflies
beetles
and
gnats
or in making out the various orders of shells
or in digging into the
earth and seeking to discover what strange creatures once floundered through
the boundless mire
or swam in the vast seas. I find men occupied with things
of no sort of practical moment
yet the story of God Himself is thought to be
too small a trifle for intelligent minds to dwell upon it. O reason! where art
thou gone? O judgment! whither art thou fled? It is strange that even the
sufferings of Christ should not attract the attention of men
for generally
if
we hear any sad story of the misfortunes of our fellow creatures
we are
interested. How is it earth does not stretch out her hands and say
“Come and
tell us of the God that loved us
and came down to our low estate
and suffered
for us men and for our salvation”? It ought to interest us
if nothing more. Is
it nothing to you
all ye that pass by? And should it not be more than
interesting? Should it not excite our admiration? You cannot read of a man
sacrificing himself for the good of his fellow creatures without feeling at
once that you wish you had known that fine fellow
and you feel instinctively
that you would do anything in the world to serve him if he still lives
or to
help relatives left behind if he has died in a brave attempt. Is it nothing to
you that Jesus should die for men? If I had no share in His blood
I think I
should love Him. The life of Christ enchants me; the death of Christ binds me
to His Cross. Even were I never washed in His blood
and were myself cast away
into hell
if that were possible
I still feel I must admire Him for His love
to others. Yea
and I must adore Him
too
for His Godlike character
His
superhuman love in suffering for the sons of men. But why
why is it that such
a Christ
so lovely and so admirable
is forgotten by the most of mankind
and
it is nothing to them?
II. A solemn question. The Lord Jesus Christ may be represented here
as bidding men see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow
which is done
unto Him.
1. Truly the sufferings of Jesus were altogether unique; they stand
alone. History or poetry can find no parallel. King of kings and Lord of lords
was He
and the government was upon His shoulders
and His name was called
Wonderful
the Counsellor
the Mighty God
the Everlasting Father
the Prince
of Peace. All the hallelujahs of eternity rolled up at his august feet. But He
was despised and rejected of men
a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief
and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him
not. Never one so falsely accused. Oh! was ever grief like His! exonerated yet
condemned! adjudged to be without fault
yet delivered up to His direst foes!
treated as a felon
put to death as a traitor; immolated on a gibbet which bore
triple testimony to His innocence by its inscription. With none to pity
no one
to administer comfort
forsaken utterly
our Saviour died
with accessories of
sorrow that were to be found in no other decease than that which was
accomplished at Jerusalem. Still
the singularity of His death lies in another
respect.
2. There was never sorrow like unto the sorrow which was done unto
Christ
because all His sorrow was borne for others. His Godhead gave Him an
infinite capacity
and infused a boundless degree of compensation into all the
pangs He bore. You have no more idea of what Christ suffered in His soul than
you have
when you take up in a shell a drop of sea-water
power to guess from
that the area of the entire boundless
bottomless ocean. What Christ suffered
is utterly inconceivable. Was ever grief like Thine? Needless question;
needless question; all but shameful question; for were all griefs that ever
were felt condensed into one
they were no more worthy to be compared therewith
than the glowworm’s tiny lamp with the ever-blazing sun. If Christ be thus
alone in suffering
what then?
3. Why
let Him stand alone in our love. High
high
set up Christ
high in your heart. Love Him; you cannot match His love to you; seek at least
to let your little stream run side by side of the mighty river. If Christ be
thus alone in suffering
let us seek to make Him
if we can
alone in our
service. I wish we had more Marys who would break the alabaster box of precious
ointment upon His dear head. Oh! for a little extravagance of love
a little
fanaticism of affection for Him
for He deserves ten thousand times more than
the most enthusiastic devotees ever dream of rendering.
4. If He be thus so far beyond all others in His sorrow
let Him also
be first and foremost in our praise. If ye have poetic minds
weave no garlands
except for His dear brow. If ye be men of eloquence
speak no glowing periods
except to His honour. If ye be men of wit and scholarship
oh seek to lay your
classic attainments at the foot of His Cross! Come hither with all your
talents
and yield them to Him who bought you with His blood. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
“Is it nothing to you?”
The crucified
Christ is still amongst us. We may even now by faith behold the Lamb of God in
the very act of sacrificing Himself for the sin of the world. There are many
who do not pass by the Cross on which He hangs. Come joy or sorrow
come honour
or disgrace
whether others join you or whether you should be alone
in life
and in death
you are resolved in penitential love and joyful obedience to
dwell beneath the shadow of the Cross of Christ. But there are others who “pass
by.” There are scorners and scoffers now
as in the times of old. All who live
profligate and wicked lives; all who deliberately indulge in fleshly lusts; the
licentious
the intemperate
the covetous
the proud
the revengeful; all who
cherish some secret sin and will not give it up; all such “pass by”; for the
sight of the great Example of self-sacrifice so condemns those who are resolved
on a life of self-indulgence
and the sufferings He endured to save from sin so
reproach those who determine to commit sin
that they cannot find any pleasure
in their wickedness except as they banish Him from their thoughts; and so they
“pass by.” It is possible that none of you may be fairly classed either with
scorners or profligates. But nevertheless you may pass by Christ. Here are some
in holiday attire
tripping and dancing along. Listening to the syren voice of
pleasure
they wander off
some in one direction
some in another
in quest of
new delights and fresh excitements. They often come within reach of the Cross
but they do not even see it
or they look at it so listlessly that it produces
no effect. Others rush past
eager to grasp the phantom forms which beckon them
onward and still fly before them. Here comes one bending beneath a heavy load
which eagerly he increases
as ever and anon he picks up some shining bit of
earth and adds it to his store. Stooping down and gazing intently on the
ground
he does not see the Cross. Miserable man! Eager to multiply riches
which increase your cares and which you must soon lose
you neglect the only
true
the imperishable treasure
and pass by! Now approach a sorrowful company
in dark attire
their cheeks bedewed with tears
their heads bowed down with
grief. Oh
why do you not look up to that great Example of suffering
that
Brother in adversity? You are passing by Him who is able to remove at once the
heaviest portion of your burden
and by His sympathy to wipe your tears and
heal your wounds! Others approach who have often been here before. They stopped
at first
and admired
and went on; but now the Cross is too familiar to
attract their notice. Here come others apparently determined to remain. They
are much interested in the Cross. One sits down to sketch it. Another examines
the wood of which it is made. A third measures its height and thickness. It is
possible to be profound theologians and eloquent preachers
and yet pass by
Christ. Others approach who are too intent in contemplating themselves to
consider the crucified One. Not confessing themselves to be sinners
they pass
by the Saviour
as having no need of Him. At length others come who resolve not
to pass by. They are arrested by the sight of that patient sufferer; they
wonder
they admire
they regret their former ignorance and folly
they will
amend their lives
they will abandon their sins
they will remain beside the
Cross; but it shall be--tomorrow! And so they also pass by! In order to pass by
Christ it is not necessary to insult. Ye who have never yet really mourned for
sin and forsaken it; who are not earnestly seeking Christ and relying on Him as
your only Saviour; who do not imitate His example and obey His commands; ye who
are not
for His sake
crucifying the flesh
dying with Christ to sin
that you
may live with Christ in holiness; whatever your external behaviour
in heart
you are amongst those to whom Jesus appeals
“Is it nothing to you all ye that
pass by?” Do not say it is nothing to you because you are not included in the
favoured few for whom Christ died. He is the “propitiation for the sins of the
whole world
” and therefore for yours! You helped to fasten Christ to the
Cross. Every sin was a blow of the hammer to drive in the nails. Is this
nothing to you? On the Cross God proclaims that He is ready to pardon you and
receive you home as His child; and that for this He gave Jesus to die for you.
Is this nothing to you? Will you refuse to give heed to the earnest appeal of
Him who beseeches you to be saved? What is anything to you if not Christ? If
you heard a cry of “Fire
” you might selfishly say
“It is nothing to me.” But
suppose it was your own house in flames? Sinner! it is your own soul which is
in jeopardy
and it is for you that Jesus dies. (Newman Hall
D. D.)
The appeal of the
Saviour’s sorrows
There is a most
striking and close parallel between the sufferings of Jerusalem here
impersonated as crying
“Is it nothing to you
all ye that pass by?” and those
endured by our Saviour
Jesus Christ.
1. The city that was in ruins
was
of all earth’s cities
the one
most intimately associated with God. The suffering Saviour was “the only
begotten Son of God”; He alone
of all living beings
could say
“I and the
Father are one.”
2. The misery of Jerusalem consisted largely in the wrongs and
insults of foes. “Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty
the
joy of the whole earth?” And as His enemies passed by the suffering Saviour on
Calvary
they wagged their heads
and said
“He saved others
etc.
3. The misfortunes of Jerusalem were greatly aggravated
because her
friends dealt treacherously with her
and became her enemies. The suffering
Saviour was betrayed by one disciple
denied by another
and at last “they all
forsook Him and fled.”
4. In her sorrows
Jerusalem cried unto God “who had left her
and
delivered her into the hand of her enemies
” The suffering Saviour too appealed
to God in the profoundly awful cry
“My God
My God
why hast Thou forsaken
Me?”
5. Jerusalem was enduring the greatest misfortunes that history
records of any city in any war. The suffering Saviour bore agony that no other
being could endure. Every man has to “bear his own burden
” but “the Lord laid
on Him the iniquity of us all.”
I. Those who sorrow claim our special attention.
1. Because by sorrow sympathy is excited. Even those men who are most
depraved are quickened to sympathise by any suffering that is placed before
them in the peculiar phase they can understand. The best men will be quickened
to sympathise with it in whatever form it appears. Christ was. No sort of sorrow
was beneath His compassion
nor beyond the limits of HIS sympathy.
2. Because sorrow will generally teach us some lesson. The asking of
“Why” this sorrow? How can it be destroyed? will often lead to the discovery of
the profoundest and most necessary truths. Parents endure sorrow and suffering
that their sons may learn lessons; neighbours
that their neighbours; nations
that surrounding nations may. But if the son will thoughtlessly “pass by” the
sorrow of his parent; or the neighbour will “pass by” that of the neighbour; or
the nation will “pass by” that of the nation--the son
the neighbour
the
nation
must sorrow for themselves.
II. Of all who ever have sorrowed
Jesus Christ preeminently claims
our attention.
1. He sorrowed more intensely than all others. He held Himself back
from no grief
shrank from no abyss
refused no cross. Others have crowned
themselves with royalty. He put the crown of sorrows upon his own brow. The
solitariness of the Saviour’s sufferings
moreover
gives Him preeminence in
grief. Others have known the creeping shadows of loneliness; He its midnight.
2. As a sorrower
He taught infinitely more important lessons than
all others.
The sufferings of Christ
demand the attention of all
I. Let us
first
inquire into the true meaning of these words; and
in order to that
examine the connection in which they stand. Jerusalem is here
represented as speaking
in the character of a female person
and that of a
widow
bitterly lamenting her desolate condition
and calling for compassion.
Whether any sorrow was like unto her sorrow at this period
we cannot
determine
nor is this material. It was
undoubtedly
very great; and it was
not unnatural for them to suppose it peculiar and unexampled. This is a common
ease
both with bodies of people and individuals. Persons
when exercised with
heavy and complicated afflictions
are very apt to suppose no sufferings equal
to their own
and no sorrow like theirs. It is also very common and very
natural for persons under heavy afflictions to feel it as a high aggravation
that they have none to sympathise with them under their troubles
or to show
any disposition to afford them relief.
1. This is a very grievous and pitiable condition for any to be in.
2. To exercise sympathy towards the afflicted is what may most
reasonably be expected
and the neglect of it is highly culpable.
II. How applicable the description in the text is to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
III. There are many who may be said to pass by with unconcern
as if
all this was nothing to them and they had no concern in it.
1. What think yon of the great number of those who are called by the
name of Christ
who never set themselves seriously to contemplate His
sufferings: who never
or but seldom
attend the preaching of Christ crucified;
or who
though they may sometimes hear the doctrine of the Cross
never bestow
a serious thought about the ends and designs of the Saviour’s sufferings
or
the concern which they themselves have in them?
2. And what shall we say of those persons
who even profess faith in
Christ and love to His name
and attend the ordinary worship of His house with
apparent decency
who yet neglect to fulfil His dying command to commemorate
His sufferings and death in that peculiar ordinance
in which we have a visible
representation of them
designed to perpetuate the memory of them in the world
and affect the heart with a sense of His love. (S. Palmer.)
Behold
and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow.
Searchings of heart
The greatest
natures are capable of the greatest sorrow. It is utterly inconceivable to man
of how much sorrow a nature like that of Jesus is capable. What sorrow would be
ours if
for a single day
we were endowed with a power of vision which enabled
us to see underneath all the coverings of life
into the heart of things; if
all persons were laid bare to us
and we saw the stern reality below the veneer
and polish and dress and shows of things! Let us not forget that the sufferings
of our Lord historically recorded
are but part of His sufferings. The apostle
speaks of “filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.” There
are sorrows for the Son of Man still
for He has identified Himself with us
and become one with us. Does not His Church cause Him sorrow? Is it not like
raw material
so very hard to His hand as to be almost incapable of being
moulded into any shape or form of beauty? Does He not sorrow over our
ignorance? Our mental dulness? Our pride of knowledge which is often worse than
ignorance? Our unloveliness of spirit and unlovableness? Our hard thoughts of
others? Do not these things cause Him sorrow? Again
our want of patience in
doing His work? Our expecting to reap on the very day we sow? Does not our Lord
sorrow over our legalism--that old Jewish spirit of slavishness to mere forms
and customs which are of human device--the letter which killeth; the rigidity
which knows not how to bend or adapt itself to weakness and feebleness and
infirmity? Must He not sorrow over our sectarianisms--our thinking more of mere
sectional names than of the real unity which underlies all these? Yea
sometimes
must not our very prayers be a source of sorrow to Him? Yes
truly
our Lord may well say
as He looks into the hearts of the members of His
professing Church
“Behold
and see if there be any sorrow like unto My
sorrow.” When
in a court of justice
a man’s own witnesses seem to damage his
cause
the ease is indeed painful And yet
our Lord’s deepest
profoundest
tenderest sorrow does not arise from any inconsistencies
or defects
or
blunders
or ignorances
or wilfulnesses which He sees among those who believe
in Him
trust Him and look to Him
many of whom do their feeble
blundering
best
to serve Him. For
every man who names the name of Christ
and departs
from iniquity
honours Christ. His chief sorrow is not over His Church
with
all its multiplied inconsistencies
ignorances
and wilfulnesses
but over
others; over you young man
to whom He has given a godly father and mother
who
daily pray for you
though you hear it not
who love you with a love that
as
far as a finite thing can represent an infinite thing
is like the love of God.
Over you also
fathers and mothers
men and women bearing the holiest names
that this world knows; into whose arms a gift has been placed than which this
earth can furnish none so marvellous or wonderful--have you appreciated that
gift at its true value? Have you realised that the flesh was only a platform
for an immortal spirit to stand upon! Must there not be sorrow in the heart of
Christ as He sees fathers and mothers treating children as though they were
mere animal forms
or
at the most
mere children of this world
to be trained
for this world
everything nurtured in them except that which is highest
that
which is distinctive
that which makes them men? When our Lord looks from the
height of His infinite knowledge upon the world of fathers and mothers
and
sees how
by their example
they are bending their children’s souls away from
Him
how often must His feeling be like to that expressed in these words
“Is
any sorrow like unto My sorrow?” Does not this line of reflection touch every
one of us? What sorrow greater than that of being perpetually misunderstood?
And who knows this sorrow as the Son of God knows it? Have we not misunderstood
Him most egregiously? Have we not thought of Him as the condemner? Yet is He
the Saviour. Have we not resisted the Holy Spirit’s movements in our souls?
Have we not almost forced ourselves into darkness? And all this has been so
much of sorrow poured into the lot of the Son of Man. Yet still He broods over
us
with a love that many waters cannot quench. (R. Thomas.)
Everyone disposed to think
his afflictions peculiarly severe
I. The afflicted are very apt to imagine that God afflicts them too
severely.
1. There are many degrees and shades of difference in those evils
which may be properly called afflictions. But those who suffer lighter troubles
are very apt to let their imagination have its free scope
which can easily
magnify light afflictions into great and heavy ones. So that mankind commonly
afflict themselves more than God afflicts them.
2. There is another way
by which the afflicted are apt to magnify
their afflictions. They compare their present afflictions
not only with their
past prosperity
but with the afflictions of others; which leads them to
imagine that their afflictions are not only great
but singular
and such as
nobody else has suffered; at least
to such a great degree.
II. This is a great and unhappy mistake.
1. None that are afflicted ever know that God lays His hand heavier
upon them than upon others. Mankind are extremely apt to judge erroneously
concerning the nature and weight of their own afflictions
and the nature and
weight of the afflictions which others around them suffer. They have a high
estimation of the good which they see others enjoy
but a low estimation of the
evil they suffer. And
on the other hand
they cherish a low idea of their own
prosperity
and a high idea of their own adversity.
2. The afflicted never have any reason to imagine that God afflicts
them too severely
because He never afflicts them more than they know they
deserve. Every person has sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every sin
deserves punishment; and it belongs to God to inflict any punishment that sin
deserves.
3. The afflicted have no reason to think that God afflicts them too
severely
because He never afflicts them more than they need to be afflicted.
God afflicts some to draw forth the corruption of their hearts
and make them
sensible that they are under the entire dominion of a carnal mind
which is
opposed to His character
His law
His government
and the Gospel of His grace
and of course exposed not only to His present
but His future and everlasting
displeasure. This is suited to alarm their fears
and excite them to flee from
the wrath to come. God afflicts others to try their hearts
and draw forth
their right affections
and give them sensible evidence of their having the
spirit of adoption
and belonging to the number of His family and friends
and
thereby removing their past painful doubts and fears. And He afflicts others
to give them an opportunity to display the beauties of holiness
by patience
submission
and cordial obedience in the darkest and most trying seasons.
4. The afflicted have no reason to think that God afflicts them too
severely
because He never afflicts them any more than His glory requires Him
to afflict them.
Improvement--
1. It is very unwise
as well as criminal
for the afflicted to brood
over and aggravate the greatness of their affliction.
2. If the afflicted have no reason to think hard of God
or indulge
the feeling that He corrects them too severely
then as long as they do indulge
such a thought and feeling
they can receive no benefit from the afflictions
they suffer.
3. If the afflicted have no reason to think that God afflicts them
too severely
then they always have reason to submit to Him under His
correcting hand.
4. It appears from what has been said
that men may derive more
benefit from great than from light afflictions. They are suited to make deeper
and better impressions on the mind.
5. It is as easy to submit to heavy as to light afflictions. As there
are greater and stronger reasons to submit to heavy than to lighter evils
so
these reasons render it mere easy to submit to heavy than light afflictions.
6. If men are apt to think that God afflicts them too severely
then
their afflictions give them the best opportunity to know their own hearts. (N.
Emmons
D. D.)
Instructive sorrows
1. The godly in all their afflictions must look unto the Lord the
striker
and not respect the rod wherewith He smiteth.
2. Corrections laid upon others ought not to be neglected
but duly
considered of
as the rest of God’s works.
3. Man is not to be proud though God do many things by him and for
him that seem both strange and commendable.
4. The wicked have no cause to rejoice when they prevail against the
godly
though they do so usually.
5. The godly endure more trouble in this world
both inwardly and
outwardly
than any other.
6. It is a usual thing with us
to think our own troubles more heavy
and intolerable than any others suffer.
7. The afflictions that God layeth upon His servants are and ought to
be grievous unto them for the present time (Hebrews 12:11).
8. Though our sins do always deserve it
and our foes do daily
desire
yet can no punishment befall the godly till God see it meet to lay it
upon them.
9. The anger of God is hot against sin
even in His dearest servants.
10. God doth not always afflict His servants
but at such special
times as He seeth it meetest for them. (J. Udall.)
Good Friday
I. Some of the particulars in which our Saviour’s sufferings were
above those of all others.
1. He endured bodily torture the most severe.
2. Jesus suffered still deeper sorrows of the soul. All that pierces
our hearts with sorrow was heaped on Christ. What so grievous as the treachery
of a friend? And Judas
His own familiar friend
betrayed Him. What so bitter
as to be forsaken? Yet all His disciples forsook Him and fled. Mockery and
scorn and reviling are more cruel than the pains of the body; and He suffered
them all
though He had done no sin
neither was guile found in His mouth. Often
man has much to soothe his dying moments; the eye of love watches by his
pillow
and the hand of affection tries to lighten his pains. But this was
denied to Jesus. When He died
malice and hatred were by
to pour fresh
bitterness into His cup of death.
3. But will not God support Him? will not His Heavenly Father’s
presence and consolation supply the place of all others? No: Christ is in the
sinner’s stead; He is made sin for us
and His Father’s countenance is turned
away.
II. How are we to think of what Christ has done and suffered? Why are
we come together on this day
if it concerns us not? This day is our day of
redemption. Hope
this day
has risen to a lost and sinful world. The things we
hear and read of today are no vain story of years gone by: they are our very
life. You who are passing by
as it were
in the carelessness and
thoughtlessness of youth
young men and young women! you are called today to
think of Jesus Christ. He speaks to you
and says
Behold
and see if there be
any sorrow like unto My sorrow
which I have borne for you. It is for your
redemption. He will count all His sorrows as lightly borne
if you will let Him
save your souls alive. Go to Him now in the first and best of your days. Give
them to God
and not to sin; and so will He be with you in all your journey
through this evil world
so shall you enjoy true peace of conscience. You who
are passing by in manhood! to you also Jesus speaks. What are His sorrows to
you? Do you find time and leisure to think of Him amidst the business
the
labour
the burdens of life? Do you know anything of the power of His Cross?
Has it led you to hate sin? Are you become new creatures in Christ Jesus? Do
you pray for His Spirit to lead and sanctify you? You who are old
on the brink
of the grave and of eternity! have you ever listened to the Saviour’s call?
Have you believed upon His name? How has your faith been shown? Has it appeared
in a life devoted to His service
or have your years been spent in deadness to
God? You who are living in the practice and love of any known sin
in
profaneness
in the lusts of the flesh
in general carelessness about religion
trample not under your feet the precious blood as on this day shed. Oh
may you
seek Him while He may be found
and call upon Him while He is near. Christian!
is the death of Christ nothing to you? Nay; it is all in all. It is your hope
your life
the source of pardon and of peace. What is the voice that speaks to
you from the Cross of Christ? It bids you die wholly unto sin
rise more truly
unto righteousness. (E. Blencowe
M. A.)
Sorrow seen in its true
light
“Everybody is
so sorry for me except myself!” These are the words of Frances Ridley Havergal
that sweet singing spirit who dragged about through many years a weary
fragile
pain-ridden body. Everybody poured their sympathy upon her
and yet
she half resented it. What is the secret of her triumph? She gives it us in one
of the letters she wrote to her friends: “I see my pain in the light of
Calvary.” Everything depends upon the light in which we view things. There are
objects in the material world which
seen in certain lights
are visions of
glory. Deprived of that revealing light
they are grey and commonplace. The
Screes at Wastwater
looked at in dull light
are only vast slopes of common
pebble and common clay
but when the sunlight falls upon them they shine
resplendent with the varied colours of a pigeon’s neck. We must set our things
in the right light. Frances Havergal set her pain in the light of Calvary
and
so could almost welcome it. I remember another of her phrases
in which she
said she never understood the meaning of the apostle’s words
“In His own
body
” until she was in great pain herself
and then it seemed as though a new
page of her Master’s love had been unfolded to her. Bring your common drudgery
your dull duties
your oommonplace tasks
your heavy
sullen griefs
into the
light of the Saviour s sacrifice
and they will glow and burn with new and
unexpected glory. “In Thy light shall we see light.” (Hartley Aspen.)
Our sorrows rightly
estimated
Wilt we see in
the water seemeth greater than at is
so is the waters Marah. All our
sufferings
saith Luther
are but chips of His Cross
not worthy to ye names in
the same day. (J. Trapp.)
On the Passion of our
Saviour
I. The greatness of our Saviour’s sufferings.
II. The interest that we have in our Saviour’s sufferings.
1. We were the occasion of them.
2. Their benefits redound unto us (Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 10:19-20; Romans 3:15; Hebrews 10:20).
III. The regard and consideration we should bestow on them. Fix the
eyes of your mind
and call up your most serious attention; reach hither the
hand of your faith
and thrust it into your Saviour’s side; put your fingers
into the print of the nails; lay to heart all the passages of His lamentable
story; and this cannot but melt your heart
unless it be harder than the rocks
and dealer than the bodies in the graves. (H. Scougal
M. A.)
Verses 12-22
Is it nothing to you
all ye that pass by?
Zion’s appeal
1. The whole
passage evidently expresses a deep yearning for sympathy. Mere strangers
roving Bedouin
any people who may chance to be passing by Jerusalem
are
implored to behold her incomparable woes. The wounded animal creeps into a
corner to suffer and die in secret
perhaps on account of the habit of herds
in tormenting a suffering mate. But among mankind the instinct of a sufferer is
to crave sympathy
from a friend
if possible; but if such be not available
then even from a stranger. This sympathy
if it is real
would help if it
could; and under all circumstances it is the reality of the sympathy that is
most prized
not its issues. It should be remembered
further
that the first
condition of active aid is a genuine sense of compassion
which can only be
awakened by means of knowledge and the impressions which a contemplation of
suffering produce. Evil is wrought not only from want of thought
but also from
lack of knowledge; and good-doing is withheld for the same reason. Therefore
the first requisite is to arrest attention. We are responsible for our
ignorance and its consequences wherever the opportunity of knowledge is within
our reach.
2. The appeal to
all who pass by is most familiar to us in its later association with our Lord’s
sufferings on the Cross. But this is not in any sense a Messianic passage; it
is confined in its purpose to the miseries of Jerusalem. Of course there can be
no objection to illustrating the grief and pain of the Man of Sorrows by using
the classic language of an ancient lament if we note that this is only an
illustration.
3. In order to
impress the magnitude of her miseries on the minds of the strangers whose
attention she would arrest
the city
now personified as a suppliant
describes
her dreadful condition in a series of brief
pointed metaphors. Thus the
imagination is excited; and the imagination is one of the roads to the heart.
Let us look at the various images under which the distress of Jerusalem is here
presented.
4. The most
terrible trait in these pictures
one that is common to all of them
is the
Divine origin of the troubles. Yet there is no complaint of barbarity
no idea
that the Judge of all the earth is not doing right. The miserable city does not
bring any railing accusation against her Lord; she takes all the blame upon
herself. The grief is all the greater because there is no thought of rebellion.
The daring doubts that struggle into expression in Job never obtrude themselves
here to check the even flow of tears. The melancholy is profound
but
comparatively calm
since it does not once give place to anger. It is natural
that the succession of images of misery conceived in this spirit should be
followed by a burst of tears. Zion weeps because the comforter who should
refresh her soul is far away
and she is left utterly desolate (verse 16).
5. Here the
supposed utterance of Jerusalem is broken for the poet to insert a description
of the suppliant making her piteous appeal (verse 17). He shows us Zion
spreading out her hands
that is to say
in the well-known attitude of prayer.
She is comfortless
oppressed by her neighbours in accordance with the will of
her God
and treated as an unclean thing; she who had despised the idolatrous
Gentiles in her pride of superior sanctity has now become foul and despicable
in their eyes!
6. After the
poet’s brief interjection describing the suppliant
the personified city
continues her plaintive appeal
but with a considerable enlargement of its
scope. She makes the most distinct acknowledgment of the two vital elements of
the case--God’s righteousness and her own rebellion (verse 18). These carry us
beneath the visible scenes of trouble so graphically illustrated earlier
and
fix our attention on deep seated principles. Although it cannot be said that
all trouble is the direct punishment of sin
and although it is manifestly
insincere to make confession of guilt one does not inwardly admit
to be firmly
settled in the conviction that God is right in what He does even when it all
looks most wrong
that if there is a fault it must be on man’s side
is to have
reached the centre of truth.
7. Enlarging the
area of her appeal
no longer content to snatch at the casual pity of
individual travellers on the road
Jerusalem now calls upon all the “peoples”--i.e.
all neighbouring tribes--to hear the tale of her woes (verse 18). The appeal to
the nations contains three particulars. It deplores the captivity of the virgins
and young men; the treachery of allies--“lovers” who have been called upon for
assistance
but in vain; and the awful fact that men of such consequence as the
elders and priests
the very aristocracy of Jerusalem
had died of starvation
after an ineffectual search for food--a lurid picture of the horrors of the
siege (verses 18
19).
8. In drawing to a
close the appeal goes further
and
rising altogether above man
seeks the
attention of God (verses 20-22). This is an utterance of faith where faith is
tried to the uttermost. It is distinctly recognised that the calamities
bewailed have been sent by God; and yet the stricken city turns to God for
consolation. Not only is there no complaint against the justice of His acts; in
spite of them all
He is still regarded as the greatest Friend and Helper of
the victims of His wrath. This apparently paradoxical position issues in what
might otherwise be a contradiction of thought. The ruin of Jerusalem is
attributed to the righteous judgment of God
against which no shadow of
complaint is raised; and yet God is asked to pour vengeance on the heads of the
human agents of His wrath! The vengeance here sought for cannot be brought into
line with Christian principles; but the poet had never heard the Sermon on the Mount.
It would not have occurred to him that the spirit of revenge was not right
any
more than it occurred to the writers of maledictory Psalms. There is one more
point in this final appeal to God which should be noticed
because it is very
characteristic of the elegy throughout. Zion bewails her friendless condition
declaring
“there is none to comfort me.” This is the fifth reference to the
absence of a comforter (see 1:2
9
16
17
21). The idea may be merely
introduced in order to accentuate the description of utter desolation. And yet
when we compare the several allusions to it
the conclusion seems to be forced
upon us that the poet has a more specific intention. Our thoughts instinctively
turn to the Paraclete of St. John’s Gospel. (W. F. Adeney
M. A.)
A Jeremiad
I. An earnest
expostulation. If there is anything in all the world that ought to interest a
man
it is the death of Christ. Yet do I find men
learned men
spending year
after year in sorting out butterflies
beetles
and gnats
or in making out the
various orders of shells
or in digging into the earth and seeking to discover
what strange creatures once floundered through the boundless mire
or swam in
the vast seas. I find men occupied with things of no sort of practical moment
yet the story of God Himself is thought to be too small a trifle for
intelligent minds to dwell upon it. O reason! where art thou gone? O judgment!
whither art thou fled? It is strange that even the sufferings of Christ should
not attract the attention of men
for generally
if we hear any sad story of
the misfortunes of our fellow creatures
we are interested. How is it earth
does not stretch out her hands and say
“Come and tell us of the God that loved
us
and came down to our low estate
and suffered for us men and for our
salvation”? It ought to interest us
if nothing more. Is it nothing to you
all
ye that pass by? And should it not be more than interesting? Should it not
excite our admiration? You cannot read of a man sacrificing himself for the
good of his fellow creatures without feeling at once that you wish you had
known that fine fellow
and you feel instinctively that you would do anything
in the world to serve him if he still lives
or to help relatives left behind
if he has died in a brave attempt. Is it nothing to you that Jesus should die
for men? If I had no share in His blood
I think I should love Him. The life of
Christ enchants me; the death of Christ binds me to His Cross. Even were I
never washed in His blood
and were myself cast away into hell
if that were
possible
I still feel I must admire Him for His love to others. Yea
and I
must adore Him
too
for His Godlike character
His superhuman love in
suffering for the sons of men. But why
why is it that such a Christ
so lovely
and so admirable
is forgotten by the most of mankind
and it is nothing to
them?
II. A solemn
question. The Lord Jesus Christ may be represented here as bidding men see if
there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow
which is done unto Him.
1. Truly the
sufferings of Jesus were altogether unique; they stand alone. History or poetry
can find no parallel. King of kings and Lord of lords was He
and the
government was upon His shoulders
and His name was called Wonderful
the
Counsellor
the Mighty God
the Everlasting Father
the Prince of Peace. All
the hallelujahs of eternity rolled up at his august feet. But He was despised
and rejected of men
a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief
and we hid as
it were our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Never one
so falsely accused. Oh! was ever grief like His! exonerated yet condemned!
adjudged to be without fault
yet delivered up to His direst foes! treated as a
felon
put to death as a traitor; immolated on a gibbet which bore triple
testimony to His innocence by its inscription. With none to pity
no one to
administer comfort
forsaken utterly
our Saviour died
with accessories of
sorrow that were to be found in no other decease than that which was
accomplished at Jerusalem. Still
the singularity of His death lies in another
respect.
2. There was never
sorrow like unto the sorrow which was done unto Christ
because all His sorrow
was borne for others. His Godhead gave Him an infinite capacity
and infused a
boundless degree of compensation into all the pangs He bore. You have no more
idea of what Christ suffered in His soul than you have
when you take up in a
shell a drop of sea-water
power to guess from that the area of the entire
boundless
bottomless ocean. What Christ suffered is utterly inconceivable. Was
ever grief like Thine? Needless question; needless question; all but shameful
question; for were all griefs that ever were felt condensed into one
they were
no more worthy to be compared therewith than the glowworm’s tiny lamp with the
ever-blazing sun. If Christ be thus alone in suffering
what then?
3. Why
let Him
stand alone in our love. High
high
set up Christ high in your heart. Love
Him; you cannot match His love to you; seek at least to let your little stream
run side by side of the mighty river. If Christ be thus alone in suffering
let
us seek to make Him
if we can
alone in our service. I wish we had more Marys
who would break the alabaster box of precious ointment upon His dear head. Oh!
for a little extravagance of love
a little fanaticism of affection for Him
for He deserves ten thousand times more than the most enthusiastic devotees
ever dream of rendering.
4. If He be thus
so far beyond all others in His sorrow
let Him also be first and foremost in
our praise. If ye have poetic minds
weave no garlands except for His dear
brow. If ye be men of eloquence
speak no glowing periods except to His honour.
If ye be men of wit and scholarship
oh seek to lay your classic attainments at
the foot of His Cross! Come hither with all your talents
and yield them to Him
who bought you with His blood. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
“Is it nothing to you?”
The crucified Christ is still amongst us. We may even now by faith
behold the Lamb of God in the very act of sacrificing Himself for the sin of
the world. There are many who do not pass by the Cross on which He hangs. Come
joy or sorrow
come honour or disgrace
whether others join you or whether you
should be alone
in life and in death
you are resolved in penitential love and
joyful obedience to dwell beneath the shadow of the Cross of Christ. But there
are others who “pass by.” There are scorners and scoffers now
as in the times
of old. All who live profligate and wicked lives; all who deliberately indulge
in fleshly lusts; the licentious
the intemperate
the covetous
the proud
the
revengeful; all who cherish some secret sin and will not give it up; all such
“pass by”; for the sight of the great Example of self-sacrifice so condemns
those who are resolved on a life of self-indulgence
and the sufferings He
endured to save from sin so reproach those who determine to commit sin
that
they cannot find any pleasure in their wickedness except as they banish Him
from their thoughts; and so they “pass by.” It is possible that none of you may
be fairly classed either with scorners or profligates. But nevertheless you may
pass by Christ. Here are some in holiday attire
tripping and dancing along.
Listening to the syren voice of pleasure
they wander off
some in one
direction
some in another
in quest of new delights and fresh excitements.
They often come within reach of the Cross
but they do not even see it
or they
look at it so listlessly that it produces no effect. Others rush past
eager to
grasp the phantom forms which beckon them onward and still fly before them.
Here comes one bending beneath a heavy load which eagerly he increases
as ever
and anon he picks up some shining bit of earth and adds it to his store.
Stooping down and gazing intently on the ground
he does not see the Cross.
Miserable man! Eager to multiply riches which increase your cares and which you
must soon lose
you neglect the only true
the imperishable treasure
and pass
by! Now approach a sorrowful company
in dark attire
their cheeks bedewed with
tears
their heads bowed down with grief. Oh
why do you not look up to that
great Example of suffering
that Brother in adversity? You are passing by Him
who is able to remove at once the heaviest portion of your burden
and by His
sympathy to wipe your tears and heal your wounds! Others approach who have
often been here before. They stopped at first
and admired
and went on; but
now the Cross is too familiar to attract their notice. Here come others
apparently determined to remain. They are much interested in the Cross. One
sits down to sketch it. Another examines the wood of which it is made. A third
measures its height and thickness. It is possible to be profound theologians
and eloquent preachers
and yet pass by Christ. Others approach who are too
intent in contemplating themselves to consider the crucified One. Not
confessing themselves to be sinners
they pass by the Saviour
as having no
need of Him. At length others come who resolve not to pass by. They are
arrested by the sight of that patient sufferer; they wonder
they admire
they
regret their former ignorance and folly
they will amend their lives
they will
abandon their sins
they will remain beside the Cross; but it shall
be--tomorrow! And so they also pass by! In order to pass by Christ it is not
necessary to insult. Ye who have never yet really mourned for sin and forsaken
it; who are not earnestly seeking Christ and relying on Him as your only
Saviour; who do not imitate His example and obey His commands; ye who are not
for His sake
crucifying the flesh
dying with Christ to sin
that you may live
with Christ in holiness; whatever your external behaviour
in heart you are
amongst those to whom Jesus appeals
“Is it nothing to you all ye that pass
by?” Do not say it is nothing to you because you are not included in the
favoured few for whom Christ died. He is the “propitiation for the sins of the
whole world
” and therefore for yours! You helped to fasten Christ to the
Cross. Every sin was a blow of the hammer to drive in the nails. Is this
nothing to you? On the Cross God proclaims that He is ready to pardon you and
receive you home as His child; and that for this He gave Jesus to die for you.
Is this nothing to you? Will you refuse to give heed to the earnest appeal of
Him who beseeches you to be saved? What is anything to you if not Christ? If
you heard a cry of “Fire
” you might selfishly say
“It is nothing to me.” But
suppose it was your own house in flames? Sinner! it is your own soul which is
in jeopardy
and it is for you that Jesus dies. (Newman Hall
D. D.)
The appeal of the Saviour’s sorrows
There is a most striking and close parallel between the sufferings
of Jerusalem here impersonated as crying
“Is it nothing to you
all ye that
pass by?” and those endured by our Saviour
Jesus Christ.
1. The city that
was in ruins
was
of all earth’s cities
the one most intimately associated
with God. The suffering Saviour was “the only begotten Son of God”; He alone
of all living beings
could say
“I and the Father are one.”
2. The misery of
Jerusalem consisted largely in the wrongs and insults of foes. “Is this the
city that men call the perfection of beauty
the joy of the whole earth?” And
as His enemies passed by the suffering Saviour on Calvary
they wagged their
heads
and said
“He saved others
etc.
3. The misfortunes
of Jerusalem were greatly aggravated
because her friends dealt treacherously
with her
and became her enemies. The suffering Saviour was betrayed by one
disciple
denied by another
and at last “they all forsook Him and fled.”
4. In her sorrows
Jerusalem cried unto God “who had left her
and delivered her into the hand of
her enemies
” The suffering Saviour too appealed to God in the profoundly awful
cry
“My God
My God
why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
5. Jerusalem was
enduring the greatest misfortunes that history records of any city in any war.
The suffering Saviour bore agony that no other being could endure. Every man
has to “bear his own burden
” but “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.”
I. Those who
sorrow claim our special attention.
1. Because by
sorrow sympathy is excited. Even those men who are most depraved are quickened
to sympathise by any suffering that is placed before them in the peculiar phase
they can understand. The best men will be quickened to sympathise with it in
whatever form it appears. Christ was. No sort of sorrow was beneath His
compassion
nor beyond the limits of HIS sympathy.
2. Because sorrow
will generally teach us some lesson. The asking of “Why” this sorrow? How can
it be destroyed? will often lead to the discovery of the profoundest and most
necessary truths. Parents endure sorrow and suffering that their sons may learn
lessons; neighbours
that their neighbours; nations
that surrounding nations
may. But if the son will thoughtlessly “pass by” the sorrow of his parent; or
the neighbour will “pass by” that of the neighbour; or the nation will “pass
by” that of the nation--the son
the neighbour
the nation
must sorrow for
themselves.
II. Of all who ever
have sorrowed
Jesus Christ preeminently claims our attention.
1. He sorrowed
more intensely than all others. He held Himself back from no grief
shrank from
no abyss
refused no cross. Others have crowned themselves with royalty. He put
the crown of sorrows upon his own brow. The solitariness of the Saviour’s sufferings
moreover
gives Him preeminence in grief. Others have known the creeping
shadows of loneliness; He its midnight.
2. As a sorrower
He taught infinitely more important lessons than all others.
The sufferings of Christ demand the attention of all
I. Let us
first
inquire into the true meaning of these words; and
in order to that
examine
the connection in which they stand. Jerusalem is here represented as speaking
in the character of a female person
and that of a widow
bitterly lamenting
her desolate condition
and calling for compassion. Whether any sorrow was like
unto her sorrow at this period
we cannot determine
nor is this material. It
was
undoubtedly
very great; and it was not unnatural for them to suppose it
peculiar and unexampled. This is a common ease
both with bodies of people and
individuals. Persons
when exercised with heavy and complicated afflictions
are very apt to suppose no sufferings equal to their own
and no sorrow like
theirs. It is also very common and very natural for persons under heavy
afflictions to feel it as a high aggravation that they have none to sympathise
with them under their troubles
or to show any disposition to afford them
relief.
1. This is a very
grievous and pitiable condition for any to be in.
2. To exercise
sympathy towards the afflicted is what may most reasonably be expected
and the
neglect of it is highly culpable.
II. How applicable
the description in the text is to the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. There are many
who may be said to pass by with unconcern
as if all this was nothing to them
and they had no concern in it.
1. What think yon
of the great number of those who are called by the name of Christ
who never
set themselves seriously to contemplate His sufferings: who never
or but
seldom
attend the preaching of Christ crucified; or who
though they may
sometimes hear the doctrine of the Cross
never bestow a serious thought about
the ends and designs of the Saviour’s sufferings
or the concern which they
themselves have in them?
2. And what shall
we say of those persons
who even profess faith in Christ and love to His name
and attend the ordinary worship of His house with apparent decency
who yet
neglect to fulfil His dying command to commemorate His sufferings and death in
that peculiar ordinance
in which we have a visible representation of them
designed to perpetuate the memory of them in the world
and affect the heart
with a sense of His love. (S. Palmer.)
Behold
and see if there
be any sorrow like unto My sorrow.
Searchings of heart
The greatest natures are capable of the greatest sorrow. It is
utterly inconceivable to man of how much sorrow a nature like that of Jesus is
capable. What sorrow would be ours if
for a single day
we were endowed with a
power of vision which enabled us to see underneath all the coverings of life
into the heart of things; if all persons were laid bare to us
and we saw the
stern reality below the veneer and polish and dress and shows of things! Let us
not forget that the sufferings of our Lord historically recorded
are but part
of His sufferings. The apostle speaks of “filling up that which is behind of
the afflictions of Christ.” There are sorrows for the Son of Man still
for He
has identified Himself with us
and become one with us. Does not His Church cause
Him sorrow? Is it not like raw material
so very hard to His hand as to be
almost incapable of being moulded into any shape or form of beauty? Does He not
sorrow over our ignorance? Our mental dulness? Our pride of knowledge which is
often worse than ignorance? Our unloveliness of spirit and unlovableness? Our
hard thoughts of others? Do not these things cause Him sorrow? Again
our want
of patience in doing His work? Our expecting to reap on the very day we sow?
Does not our Lord sorrow over our legalism--that old Jewish spirit of
slavishness to mere forms and customs which are of human device--the letter
which killeth; the rigidity which knows not how to bend or adapt itself to
weakness and feebleness and infirmity? Must He not sorrow over our sectarianisms--our
thinking more of mere sectional names than of the real unity which underlies
all these? Yea
sometimes
must not our very prayers be a source of sorrow to
Him? Yes
truly
our Lord may well say
as He looks into the hearts of the
members of His professing Church
“Behold
and see if there be any sorrow like
unto My sorrow.” When
in a court of justice
a man’s own witnesses seem to
damage his cause
the ease is indeed painful And yet
our Lord’s deepest
profoundest
tenderest sorrow does not arise from any inconsistencies
or
defects
or blunders
or ignorances
or wilfulnesses which He sees among those
who believe in Him
trust Him and look to Him
many of whom do their feeble
blundering best
to serve Him. For
every man who names the name of Christ
and
departs from iniquity
honours Christ. His chief sorrow is not over His Church
with all its multiplied inconsistencies
ignorances
and wilfulnesses
but over
others; over you young man
to whom He has given a godly father and mother
who
daily pray for you
though you hear it not
who love you with a love that
as
far as a finite thing can represent an infinite thing
is like the love of God.
Over you also
fathers and mothers
men and women bearing the holiest names
that this world knows; into whose arms a gift has been placed than which this
earth can furnish none so marvellous or wonderful--have you appreciated that
gift at its true value? Have you realised that the flesh was only a platform
for an immortal spirit to stand upon! Must there not be sorrow in the heart of
Christ as He sees fathers and mothers treating children as though they were
mere animal forms
or
at the most
mere children of this world
to be trained
for this world
everything nurtured in them except that which is highest
that
which is distinctive
that which makes them men? When our Lord looks from the
height of His infinite knowledge upon the world of fathers and mothers
and
sees how
by their example
they are bending their children’s souls away from
Him
how often must His feeling be like to that expressed in these words
“Is
any sorrow like unto My sorrow?” Does not this line of reflection touch every
one of us? What sorrow greater than that of being perpetually misunderstood?
And who knows this sorrow as the Son of God knows it? Have we not misunderstood
Him most egregiously? Have we not thought of Him as the condemner? Yet is He
the Saviour. Have we not resisted the Holy Spirit’s movements in our souls?
Have we not almost forced ourselves into darkness? And all this has been so
much of sorrow poured into the lot of the Son of Man. Yet still He broods over
us
with a love that many waters cannot quench. (R. Thomas.)
Everyone disposed to think his afflictions peculiarly severe
I. The afflicted
are very apt to imagine that God afflicts them too severely.
1. There are many
degrees and shades of difference in those evils which may be properly called
afflictions. But those who suffer lighter troubles are very apt to let their
imagination have its free scope
which can easily magnify light afflictions
into great and heavy ones. So that mankind commonly afflict themselves more
than God afflicts them.
2. There is
another way
by which the afflicted are apt to magnify their afflictions. They
compare their present afflictions
not only with their past prosperity
but
with the afflictions of others; which leads them to imagine that their
afflictions are not only great
but singular
and such as nobody else has
suffered; at least
to such a great degree.
II. This is a great
and unhappy mistake.
1. None that are
afflicted ever know that God lays His hand heavier upon them than upon others.
Mankind are extremely apt to judge erroneously
concerning the nature and
weight of their own afflictions
and the nature and weight of the afflictions
which others around them suffer. They have a high estimation of the good which
they see others enjoy
but a low estimation of the evil they suffer. And
on
the other hand
they cherish a low idea of their own prosperity
and a high
idea of their own adversity.
2. The afflicted
never have any reason to imagine that God afflicts them too severely
because
He never afflicts them more than they know they deserve. Every person has
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every sin deserves punishment; and
it belongs to God to inflict any punishment that sin deserves.
3. The afflicted
have no reason to think that God afflicts them too severely
because He never
afflicts them more than they need to be afflicted. God afflicts some to draw
forth the corruption of their hearts
and make them sensible that they are
under the entire dominion of a carnal mind
which is opposed to His character
His law
His government
and the Gospel of His grace
and of course exposed not
only to His present
but His future and everlasting displeasure. This is suited
to alarm their fears
and excite them to flee from the wrath to come. God
afflicts others to try their hearts
and draw forth their right affections
and
give them sensible evidence of their having the spirit of adoption
and
belonging to the number of His family and friends
and thereby removing their
past painful doubts and fears. And He afflicts others
to give them an
opportunity to display the beauties of holiness
by patience
submission
and
cordial obedience in the darkest and most trying seasons.
4. The afflicted
have no reason to think that God afflicts them too severely
because He never
afflicts them any more than His glory requires Him to afflict them.
Improvement--
1. It is very
unwise
as well as criminal
for the afflicted to brood over and aggravate the
greatness of their affliction.
2. If the
afflicted have no reason to think hard of God
or indulge the feeling that He
corrects them too severely
then as long as they do indulge such a thought and
feeling
they can receive no benefit from the afflictions they suffer.
3. If the
afflicted have no reason to think that God afflicts them too severely
then
they always have reason to submit to Him under His correcting hand.
4. It appears from
what has been said
that men may derive more benefit from great than from light
afflictions. They are suited to make deeper and better impressions on the mind.
5. It is as easy
to submit to heavy as to light afflictions. As there are greater and stronger
reasons to submit to heavy than to lighter evils
so these reasons render it
mere easy to submit to heavy than light afflictions.
6. If men are apt
to think that God afflicts them too severely
then their afflictions give them
the best opportunity to know their own hearts. (N. Emmons
D. D.)
Instructive sorrows
1. The godly in
all their afflictions must look unto the Lord the striker
and not respect the
rod wherewith He smiteth.
2. Corrections
laid upon others ought not to be neglected
but duly considered of
as the rest
of God’s works.
3. Man is not to
be proud though God do many things by him and for him that seem both strange
and commendable.
4. The wicked have
no cause to rejoice when they prevail against the godly
though they do so
usually.
5. The godly
endure more trouble in this world
both inwardly and outwardly
than any other.
6. It is a usual
thing with us
to think our own troubles more heavy and intolerable than any
others suffer.
7. The afflictions
that God layeth upon His servants are and ought to be grievous unto them for
the present time (Hebrews 12:11).
8. Though our sins
do always deserve it
and our foes do daily desire
yet can no punishment
befall the godly till God see it meet to lay it upon them.
9. The anger of
God is hot against sin
even in His dearest servants.
10. God doth not
always afflict His servants
but at such special times as He seeth it meetest
for them. (J. Udall.)
Good Friday
I. Some of the
particulars in which our Saviour’s sufferings were above those of all others.
1. He endured
bodily torture the most severe.
2. Jesus suffered
still deeper sorrows of the soul. All that pierces our hearts with sorrow was
heaped on Christ. What so grievous as the treachery of a friend? And Judas
His
own familiar friend
betrayed Him. What so bitter as to be forsaken? Yet all
His disciples forsook Him and fled. Mockery and scorn and reviling are more
cruel than the pains of the body; and He suffered them all
though He had done
no sin
neither was guile found in His mouth. Often man has much to soothe his
dying moments; the eye of love watches by his pillow
and the hand of affection
tries to lighten his pains. But this was denied to Jesus. When He died
malice
and hatred were by
to pour fresh bitterness into His cup of death.
3. But will not
God support Him? will not His Heavenly Father’s presence and consolation supply
the place of all others? No: Christ is in the sinner’s stead; He is made sin
for us
and His Father’s countenance is turned away.
II. How are we to
think of what Christ has done and suffered? Why are we come together on this
day
if it concerns us not? This day is our day of redemption. Hope
this day
has risen to a lost and sinful world. The things we hear and read of today are
no vain story of years gone by: they are our very life. You who are passing by
as it were
in the carelessness and thoughtlessness of youth
young men and
young women! you are called today to think of Jesus Christ. He speaks to you
and says
Behold
and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow
which I
have borne for you. It is for your redemption. He will count all His sorrows as
lightly borne
if you will let Him save your souls alive. Go to Him now in the
first and best of your days. Give them to God
and not to sin; and so will He
be with you in all your journey through this evil world
so shall you enjoy
true peace of conscience. You who are passing by in manhood! to you also Jesus
speaks. What are His sorrows to you? Do you find time and leisure to think of
Him amidst the business
the labour
the burdens of life? Do you know anything
of the power of His Cross? Has it led you to hate sin? Are you become new
creatures in Christ Jesus? Do you pray for His Spirit to lead and sanctify you?
You who are old
on the brink of the grave and of eternity! have you ever
listened to the Saviour’s call? Have you believed upon His name? How has your
faith been shown? Has it appeared in a life devoted to His service
or have
your years been spent in deadness to God? You who are living in the practice
and love of any known sin
in profaneness
in the lusts of the flesh
in
general carelessness about religion
trample not under your feet the precious
blood as on this day shed. Oh
may you seek Him while He may be found
and call
upon Him while He is near. Christian! is the death of Christ nothing to you?
Nay; it is all in all. It is your hope
your life
the source of pardon and of
peace. What is the voice that speaks to you from the Cross of Christ? It bids
you die wholly unto sin
rise more truly unto righteousness. (E. Blencowe
M. A.)
Sorrow seen in its true light
“Everybody is so sorry for me except myself!” These are the words
of Frances Ridley Havergal
that sweet singing spirit who dragged about through
many years a weary
fragile
pain-ridden body. Everybody poured their sympathy
upon her
and yet she half resented it. What is the secret of her triumph? She
gives it us in one of the letters she wrote to her friends: “I see my pain in
the light of Calvary.” Everything depends upon the light in which we view
things. There are objects in the material world which
seen in certain lights
are visions of glory. Deprived of that revealing light
they are grey and
commonplace. The Screes at Wastwater
looked at in dull light
are only vast
slopes of common pebble and common clay
but when the sunlight falls upon them
they shine resplendent with the varied colours of a pigeon’s neck. We must set
our things in the right light. Frances Havergal set her pain in the light of
Calvary
and so could almost welcome it. I remember another of her phrases
in
which she said she never understood the meaning of the apostle’s words
“In His
own body
” until she was in great pain herself
and then it seemed as though a
new page of her Master’s love had been unfolded to her. Bring your common
drudgery
your dull duties
your oommonplace tasks
your heavy
sullen griefs
into the light of the Saviour s sacrifice
and they will glow and burn with new
and unexpected glory. “In Thy light shall we see light.” (Hartley Aspen.)
Our sorrows rightly estimated
Wilt we see in the water seemeth greater than at is
so is the
waters Marah. All our sufferings
saith Luther
are but chips of His Cross
not
worthy to ye names in the same day. (J. Trapp.)
On the Passion of our Saviour
I. The greatness
of our Saviour’s sufferings.
II. The interest
that we have in our Saviour’s sufferings.
1. We were the
occasion of them.
2. Their benefits
redound unto us (Colossians 1:14; Hebrews
10:19-20; Romans 3:15; Hebrews 10:20).
III. The regard and
consideration we should bestow on them. Fix the eyes of your mind
and call up
your most serious attention; reach hither the hand of your faith
and thrust it
into your Saviour’s side; put your fingers into the print of the nails; lay to
heart all the passages of His lamentable story; and this cannot but melt your
heart
unless it be harder than the rocks
and dealer than the bodies in the
graves. (H. Scougal
M. A.)
Verse 13
From
above hath He sent fire into my bones.
Penetrating
sorrows
1. This often mention of God’s hand teacheth this doctrine: When God
punisheth us by the hands of the wicked
we are hardly brought to ascribe it to
Him alone; and they from thinking that their own hand and power hath done it.
2. When God layeth afflictions upon us
they ransack the most secret
parts that are in us.
3. God often bringeth His servants to the greatest misery that can be
sustained by man.
4. God doth govern
and that in special manner
the particular course
of all those afflictions which He layeth upon His people.
5. We can no more wind ourselves out of those afflictions that God
layeth upon us
than the entangled soul can escape the net that compasseth him.
6. Nothing can go forward
or come to any good issue
but that only
which the Lord furthereth.
7. It is God that giveth friends
health
etc.; and taketh all away
at His pleasure.
8. According to the measure and continuance of God’s afflicting hand
upon us
so must the measure and continuance of our sorrows be. (J. Udall.)
Verse 14
The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by His hand.
A guilty conscience
I. Its
sense of oppression. It feels itself under a “yoke.” It is heavy iron a
crushing “yoke” is sin It is on the neck
there is no breaking away from it.
II. Its
sense of degradation. It feels itself held m a miserable vassalage
carnally
sold under sin.
III. Its
sense of retribution. It feels that the heavy
degrading yoke is bound by “His
hand
” the hand of justice: that his transgression is like a chain wreathed by
retributive law upon the neck. The guilty conscience awakened feels that God is
in all its sufferings
that there is justice in all. (Homilist.)
The misery of sin
1. The
sins of God’s people are the heaviest burden they can possibly bear in this
life.
2. When
God meaneth to punish us for our sins
He calleth them all to remembrance.
3. When
God meaneth to correct
He will so do it as it cannot be escaped.
4. God
giveth strength and courage to men
and taketh it away at His pleasure (Deuteronomy
28:7; Deuteronomy
28:25).
5. The
issue of battle is in the hand of God alone (Psalms
44:3).
6. God
often delivereth His servants into the hands of the ungodly.
7. God
sometimes afflicteth His people so grievously that their state seemeth
desperate and irrecoverable in the judgment of flesh and blood.
Verses 15-17
The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men.
Supreme penalties
1. When God
meaneth to afflict us
He will spoil us of all our helps wherein we may have
any confidence.
2. God can as
easily destroy in a fenced city as in a battle.
3. It is God that
ruleth even the wicked
and setteth them on work against His servants.
4. Men can no more
escape God’s hand in punishing them
than the grapes can fly from the treader
of the winepress.
5. The niceness of
those that have lived daintily (“the virgin”) is no reason to free them
but
rather a provocation to bring afflictions upon them.
6. Except the
children forsake their sins
they shall not be spared for the godliness of
their parents. (J. Udall.)
For these things I weep.
Grief in view of punishment
1. It is not only
lawful
but also necessary
for the godly to be so greatly grieved
when God
punisheth them for their sins
as may draw them into extreme weeping.
2. No adversity
hath warrant to grieve us so much as the punishment of God upon us for our sins
(Luke 23:28).
3. There is none
so stout
or hardhearted
but afflictions will bring him down.
4. It is a grievous
plague to be deprived of comforters in affliction; the contrary whereof is an
exceeding blessing.
5. It is the duty
of everyone to comfort and relieve others that be in distress.
6. The Church
as
also the commonwealth
is to declare herself a kind mother to everyone that is
trained up therein
and to have compassion of their miseries
helping them to
the uttermost.
7. It is the
property of carnal friends to be friendly only whilst prosperity is upon us;
but if our adversaries prevail against us
they are gone. (J. Udall.)
Zion spreadeth forth her
hands.--
The appeal for help
1. It is a
necessary duty in God’s people to seek out all good means of their release from
troubles.
2. God often
frustrateth the lawful endeavours of His children of that good issue which is
expected
and yet liketh well that they should use means to bring the same to
pass.
3. The wicked have
no power against God’s people
but that which is given them from the Lord.
4. God’s people
are more grievously afflicted and reproached in the world than any else
and
the godliest most of all. (J. Udall.)
Verse 18
The
Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled.
A right view of
punishment
When
we see God in our punishments
we begin to take a right view of them; when they
are nothing to us but self-humiliations or signs of contempt
they embitter us
and harden our hearts; but when we see God at work in the very desolation of
our fortunes
we axe sure that He has a reason for thus scourging us
and that
if we accept the penalty
and bow down before His majesty
we shall be lifted
up by His mighty hand. Zion says that the Lord hath made her strength to fail
the Lord hath trodden under foot all her mighty men
the Lord hath trodden the
virgin
the daughter of Judah
as in a winepress. But Zion does not accept
these results with a hard heart; no: rather she says
“For these things I
weep
” etc. Whatever brings us to this softness of heart is a helper to the
soul in all upward and Divine directions. Zion confesses the righteousness of
the Lord. In proportion as we can recognise the justice of our punishment
may
we bear that punishment with some dignity. It has been pointed out that with
this beginning of conversion the name of the Lord
or Jehovah
reappears. The
people whom God has punished on account of their sins have
in the result
been
enabled to recognise the justice of their punishment. Of this we have an
example in the Book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9:33-34). In the case of the Captivity
we see the extreme rigour of the
law in the expression
“My virgins and my young men
” etc.: the most honoured
and the most beautiful have perished of hunger
as it were
in the open
streets. How impartial and tremendous are the judgments of God! May not virgins
be spared? May not His priests be exempted from the operation of the law of
judgment? Will not an official robe protect a soul against the lightning of
Divine wrath? All history answers No; all experience testifies to the contrary
and thereby re-establishes and infinitely confirms our confidence in the living
God. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The equity of
punishment acknowledged
1. God’s people do acknowledge His justice in all His works
yea
even in His punishments laid upon them.
2. It is the duty of God’s children to seek the cause of all their
evils in themselves.
3. Though God punish us oft for other causes
yet the matter that He
worketh upon is our sins.
4. We must not lessen our sins
but account them most heinous in our
own eyes.
5. It is our duty (especially in religion) neither to go further nor
to come shorter than God’s revealed will; but attend unto it as the servant’s
eye doth unto his master’s hand (Psalms 123:2).
6. It is rebellion against the Lord Himself to be disobedient unto
the voice of His ministers teaching His truth (Luke 10:16).
7. We are constrained in our adversity to acknowledge God’s hand in
those things which in our prosperity we neglected.
8. When God’s people are punished
they are not ashamed but willing
to tell all men of it
and to declare their sins to be the cause of it.
9. The manifesting of our punishments unto the world as from God’s
hand because of our sins can neither dishonour the Lord nor harden others in
their wickedness
but is a just occasion of the contrary. (J. Udall.)
Acknowledging
the righteousness of God’s judgments
The
cure token of Judah’s and Israel’s repentance shall be when
accepting the
punishment of their iniquity as their just due
they shall justify God. It is
the most hopeful sign in any sinner
when the Holy Spirit applying inwardly the
lesson taught by outward distresses
teaches him to cry
“The Lord is
righteous; for I have rebelled against His commandments.” (A. R. Fausset
M.
A.)
Verses 19-22
I called for my lovers
but they deceived me.
Deceitful helpers
1. It is an increase of sorrow to be disappointed of their help by
whom we looked to be delivered out of our troubles.
2. God often maketh our friends
that love us unfeignedly
utterly
unable to do us any good in our distress.
3. The misery of that people must needs be great
whose rulers can
neither hold themselves nor others.
4. God’s plagues do often overtake the great ones
as well as others.
5. God’s people may come to the extremest beggary that can be in this
life.
Behold
O Lord; for I am
in distress.--
Prayer in distress
1. We must not give over
but continue in prayer
though we be not
heard in that we entreat for. God hath commanded us to pray without ceasing
and set no time when we shall be heard.
2. God seeth all things; but we must with lamentation lay open our
miseries before Him.
3. We then pray most earnestly when we feet most sensibly the burden
of that we would be rid of
and the want of that we would have.
4. There is no rest or quietness within us
when God presseth us with
the weight of our own sins.
5. The godly do always
in the due consideration of their sins
aggravate them against themselves in greatest measure.
6. The things that are ordained for our greatest good in this life
do turn to our greatest harm when our sins provoke God’s anger to break forth
against us. (J. Udall.)
There is none to comfort
me.
Comfortless
1. It is the duty of all men to comfort the afflicted
and not to add
to their miseries (Matthew 25:40; James 1:27; 1 Corinthians 12:26; Hebrews 13:3).
2. It is the property of the wicked to rejoice at the miseries of the
godly
with whom they should mourn (Psalms 69:12; Psalms 137:3; 16:25).
3. We are the fittest scholars to learn God’s Word and make right use
of it
when afflictions are upon us.
4. Every tittle of God’s Word shall be accomplished in due season (Matthew 5:18).
5. Though the troubles of the righteous be many
yet arc not the
elect to be discerned from the reprobate by affliction.
6. It greatly easeth the godly in their afflictions to consider that
their foes shall be destroyed (Revelation 18:20).
7. The punishments that God’s people sustain in this life are sure
tokens that the wicked shall be plagued
howsoever they escape for a time. (J.
Udall.)
Thou wilt bring the day
that Thou hast called.--
The day that right all wrongs
In that day--
1. God shall no longer be shut out of His own world.
2. Christ shall no longer be denied and blasphemed.
3. Evil shall no longer prevail.
4. Error shall give place to truth.
5. The saints shall no longer be maligned. (H. Bonar
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》