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Jeremiah
Chapter Twenty-two
Jeremiah 22
Chapter Contents
Justice is recommended, and destruction threatened in
case of disobedience. (1-9) The captivity of Jehoiakim, and the end of
Jeconiah. (10-19) The doom of the royal family. (20-30)
Commentary on Jeremiah 22:1-9
(Read Jeremiah 22:1-9)
The king of Judah is spoken to, as sitting upon the
throne of David, the man after God's own heart. Let him follow his example,
that he may have the benefit of the promises made to him. The way to preserve a
government, is to do the duty of it. But sin will be the ruin of the houses of
princes, as well as of meaner men. And who can contend with destroyers of God's
preparing? God destroys neither persons, cities, nor nations, except for sin;
even in this world he often makes it plain for what crimes he sends punishment;
and it will be clear at the day of judgement.
Commentary on Jeremiah 22:10-19
(Read Jeremiah 22:10-19)
Here is a sentence of death upon two kings, the wicked
sons of a very pious father. Josiah was prevented from seeing the evil to come
in this world, and removed to see the good to come in the other world;
therefore, weep not for him, but for his son Shallum, who is likely to live and
die a wretched captive. Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners
are justly pitied. Here also is the doom of Jehoiakim. No doubt it is lawful
for princes and great men to build, beautify, and furnish houses; but those who
enlarge their houses, and make them sumptuous, need carefully to watch against
the workings of vain-glory. He built his houses by unrighteousness, with money
gotten unjustly. And he defrauded his workmen of their wages. God notices the
wrong done by the greatest to poor servants and labourers, and will repay those
in justice, who will not, in justice, pay those whom they employ. The greatest
of men must look upon the meanest as their neighbours, and be just to them
accordingly. Jehoiakim was unjust, and made no conscience of shedding innocent
blood. Covetousness, which is the root of all evil, was at the bottom of all.
The children who despise their parents' old fashions, commonly come short of
their real excellences. Jehoiakim knew that his father found the way of duty to
be the way of comfort, yet he would not tread in his steps. He shall die
unlamented, hateful for oppression and cruelty.
Commentary on Jeremiah 22:20-30
(Read Jeremiah 22:20-30)
The Jewish state is described under a threefold
character. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety. Very fearful on alarm of
trouble. Very much cast down under pressure of trouble. Many never are ashamed
of their sins till brought by them to the last extremity. The king shall close
his days in bondage. Those that think themselves as signets on God's right
hand, must not be secure, but fear lest they should be plucked thence. The
Jewish king and his family shall be carried to Babylon. We know where we were
born, but where we shall die we know not; it is enough that our God knows. Let
it be our care that we die in Christ, then it will be well with us wherever we
die, thought it may be in a far country. The Jewish king shall be despised.
Time was when he was delighted in; but all those in whom God has no pleasure,
some time or other, will be so lowered, that men will have no pleasure in them.
Whoever are childless, it is the Lord that writes them so; and those who take
no care to do good in their days, cannot expect to prosper. How little is
earthly grandeur to be depended upon, or flourishing families to be rejoiced
in! But those who hear the voice of Christ, and follow him, have eternal life,
and shall never perish, neither shall any enemy pluck them out of his almighty
hands.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 22
Verse 6
[6] For
thus saith the LORD unto the king's house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me,
and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities
which are not inhabited.
Gilead —
Gilead was a country fertile for pastures; upon which account the Reubenites
and Gadites, being men whose estate lay in cattle, begged it of Moses for their
portion. Lebanon also was a very pleasant place: they were both in the lot of
Gad and Manasseh. Perhaps God compares the king of Judah's house to these
places, in regard of the height and nobleness of the structure, or for the
pleasantness and delightfulness of it.
Verse 10
[10] Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that
goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
Weep not —
For Josiah your dead prince. Josiah is happy, you need not trouble yourselves
for him; but weep for Jehoahaz, who is to go into captivity.
Verse 11
[11] For
thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which
reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He
shall not return thither any more:
Shallum —
Most think that this Shallum was Jehoahaz.
Went forth — He
was carried away from Jerusalem presently after he was set up, imprisoned at
Riblah, and died in Egypt.
Verse 16
[16] He
judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this
to know me? saith the LORD.
Was not this —
They only truly know God who obey him; men vainly pretend to piety who are
defective in justice and charity.
Verse 19
[19] He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond
the gates of Jerusalem.
Of an ass —
None attending him to his grave, none mourning for him.
Verse 20
[20] Go
up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the
passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
Lebanon —
Jerusalem was the place to which this speech is directed: the inhabitants of
which the prophet calls to go up to Lebanon. Both Lebanon and Bashan were hills
that looked towards Assyria, from whence the Jews looked for help.
Abarim —
Abarim is the name of a mountain, as well as Lebanon and Bashan. Go and cry for
help from all places, but it will be in vain; for the Egyptians and Assyrians
to whom thou wert wont to fly, are themselves in the power of the Chaldeans.
Verse 22
[22] The
wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity:
surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
Pastors —
Thy rulers and governors, they shall be blasted by my judgments, as plants are
blasted by winds.
Thy lovers —
And those that have been thy friends, Syria and Egypt.
Verse 23
[23] O
inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt
thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
Lebanon —
Jerusalem is called an inhabitant of Lebanon, because their houses were built
of wood cut down out of the forest of Lebanon.
Cedars — Their
houses were built of the Cedars of Lebanon.
How gracious —
What favour wilt thou find when my judgments come upon thee, as the pains of a
woman in travail come upon her.
Verse 24
[24] As I
live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the
signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
Coniah — By
Coniah he means Jehoiakim, whose name was Jeconiah, 1 Chronicles 3:13, (for all Josiah's sons had
two names, and so had his grandchild Jeconiah) here in contempt called Coniah.
The signet —
Tho' he were as dear as a signet, which every man keeps safe.
Verse 28
[28] Is
this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure?
wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which
they know not?
Is this —
The prophet speaks this in the person of God, affirming that this prince, who
was the idol of the people, was now become like a broken idol.
A vessel — So
cracked, or so tainted, that they can make no use of it.
Verse 30
[30] Thus
saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in
his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of
David, and ruling any more in Judah.
Childless — He
is said to be childless, either because all his children died before their
father; or because he had no child that sat upon the throne, or ever had any
ruler's place in Judah.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
22 Chapter 22
Verse 1
Verses 1-9
Verse 3
Do no wrong.
Wrong
The meaning of the word “wrong” is, something that is twisted from
the straight line. Do you say you have not done wrong? When you set yourself up
as a pattern of goodness, and at the same time turn up your nose at your erring
acquaintance, it leads one to think that your angelic profession may cover the
filthy rags of human sin. Some people profess too much. If they would
acknowledge to some fault and confess that occasionally they are common metal
like everybody else, we should respect them. People who will not permit you to
think that they have ever done wrong, are often very unfeeling in their
dealings with a person that has “made a fool of himself.” The man who feels
himself to be a wrong-doer, is the most compassionately helpful to those that
have fallen. When I hear anybody speaking harshly or ridiculing somebody who
has done wrong and been found out, I fear that the only way to save them is for
God to let them also fall into the mire of iniquity. Bear patiently with
wrong-doers, and give them time to repent. Had they possessed your light, your
education, your good parents and your virtuous surroundings, they might have
lived a nobler life. When a man or a woman has done wrong, do not cast a stone
at them; let us, if we can, lead them on to the path of right.
1. Let me urge that you do no wrong in your intentions. Let us weigh
well our motives. Before doing any act, we should consider its intent, and ask
ourselves, “What is my intention? Is it the glory of God, the good of man, or
only my own advantage--my own indulgence?” When the intention is wholly selfish
it is pretty sure to cause disappointment and misery; but when the intention is
unselfish, it is likely to result in happiness both to ourselves and others.
2. It is also a matter of course that every true Christian should do
no wrong in his practice. We profess much; let us seek to practise what we
profess. I do not suppose that we are at present on such a high level as that
shown in the spirit of the life of Christ; but let us aim at it, and though we
fall, let us rise and try again. A farmer one day went to his landlord, Earl
Fitzwilliam, saying, “Please, your lordship, the horses and hounds last week
quite destroyed my field of wheat. The earl said “I am very sorry; how much
damage do you think they did?” The farmer replied, “Well, your lordship, I
don’t think £50 would make it right.” The earl immediately wrote out his order
for £50 and handed it to the farmer, saying, “I hope it will not be so bad as
you think.” So they parted. Months afterwards, the same old farmer came to the
hall again, and when admitted into the library, said, “Please, your lordship, I
have brought back that £50.” The earl exclaimed, “Why, what for?” The farmer
said, “Well, because I find that the trodden field of wheat has turned out to
be a better crop than any of the others. So I have brought the money back.” The
earl exclaimed, “This is as it should be; it is doing right between man and
man.” He tore up the order and wrote another, saying, “Here, my good friend, is
an order for a hundred pounds; keep it by you till your eldest son is
twenty-one and then give it him as a present from me, and tell him how it
arose.” Now I think the honest farmer sets a good example to us all No doubt
the tempter whispered in the ear of his soul, “The earl will never miss that
£50. Why, farmer, you don’t mean to say you are going to give the morley back!”
But the honest old John Bull of a farmer replied, “It would be wrong, you know,
for me to keep that £50.” Do no wrong to your neighbour, either in competition
of business, or in your social and political relationship. Every man has a weak
side to his character, and a tendency to do wrong in some direction. In other
words, every man is a spiritual invalid who wants a heavenly prescription to
restore him to health. Now, when your body is ill, you send for a doctor who
counts your pulse and asks where your pain is, and how you feel. If you do not
tell him all the truth, he does not know how to treat you. In the same way,
when we are spiritually sick, we should confess all the symptoms of our
sin-disease to the Great Physician of heaven. Let us be humble and honest
enough to tell Him our sins. (W. Birch.)
Verse 9
Verses 10-12
Verse 10-11
Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him.
The prophet and the exile
I. “The dead,”
probably Josiah, for whom a long mourning was kept (2 Chronicles 35:24; Zechariah 12:11). Shallum is Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:33).
II. The chapter,
even the text, suggests the picture of the disappointment of the prophet and
the sympathy of the prophets.
1. Jeremiah had begun to work when a better time seemed to dawn (Jeremiah 1:2). His hopes had been
baffled, his words neglected, by “the guilt that scorns to be forgiven.” Could
human lot be more sad than thus to foresee the coming ruin, and to be helpless
to avert it?
2. The true prophet, in spite of the people’s sin, sympathises with
them (1 Samuel 12:20-22). The Prophet of
prophets did so. The king’s captivity was only a type and foretaste of that of
the nation.
III. The love of
one’s country is freely recognised in scripture (Psalms 137:1-9; Psalms 102:1-28). National life is an
ordinance of nature. National as real as home affections. The sorrows and joys
which they bring are alike used for our discipline by Him who knows whereof we
are made.
IV. The
captivities, terrible as they were, served good ends.
1. To wean the people from idolatry.
2. To draw them nearer to God. All affliction used aright does so.
3. To turn the people more to prayer, which seems to have become more
common after the Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 66:1-2; Daniel 6:10; Daniel 9:3; Daniel 9:19).
V. The dead are in
the hands of God, beyond our reach. Weep rather for those who are living, torn
away from the city of God.
1. Those who have been ensnared by their own sins and carelessness.
2. Those who are brought up in vice through circumstances of birth.
Slaves of worse than Egyptian bondage (John 8:34).
3. Those of our own countrymen who, from duty or circumstances, are
in foreign lands, and away from outward tokens of the Church. But should we
merely mourn for these, and do nothing for them?
VI. Jeremiah a
forerunner of the Lord, and a type of His servants in witnessing to the truth,
and in the endurance of persecution and disappointment of hope. (B. Moffett,
M. A.)
Verses 13-19
Verse 15-16
Did not thy father eat and drink.
God’s expostulation with Jehoiakim
I. God remembereth
the piety and usefulness of our ancestors, and observeth how far we resemble
them. The Eternal Mind cannot possibly forget anything. All things past, as
well as present, are naked and open before His eyes. He remembers all the way
in which our fathers walked; the secret piety of their hearts; the evidences of
it in their lives, and all the service they did for God and their generation.
He remembered how piously Josiah walked, and mentions it to his honour. God
hath a kind remembrance of His faithful servants, when they are departed out of
this world; and is “not unrighteous, to forget any work and labour of love”
which they have performed. Let it be further observed, that God takes notice
how far we resemble them. Thus He chargeth it upon Jehoiakim, that he had not
trod in his father’s steps. God can and will make a just estimate, what our
religious advantages are, compared with theirs, and what improvement we make of
these advantages. He observeth every instance of declension from that which is
good, and the principles from which our departures from God and religion flow.
II. Young persons
often forsake the religion of their fathers, through pride, and love of
elegance, pomp, and show. This was the case of Jehoiakim. No doubt it is lawful
for persons of rank and fortune to build themselves houses and to beautify
them; provided it be suitable to their circumstances, and no injury to justice
or charity. But it was pride that led Jehoiakim to covet so much splendour, and
practise so much injustice. This is a sin that easily besets the young, and
often leads them to forsake the ways and the God of their fathers. They set out
beyond their rank and circumstances, and begin where their wiser fathers ended.
And this their pride and vanity leads them to forsake the religious profession
of their fathers. Thus Jehoiakim, it is probable, turned idolater. He forsook
the God of Israel, and persecuted His faithful prophets. Hence so many among us
forsake the principles and profession of their ancestors; because the favour
and preferments of the world and public fashion are not on that side. Set out
in life, young friends, with moderate desires, wishes, and expectations. Be
content with your rank and station. Endeavour to cultivate and strengthen
religious principles and dispositions. Never compliment any at the expense of
truth and conscience. Thus you will be able “to do justice and mercy,” and will
retain that steadfastness in religion which is true politeness, and improve in
that humility which is the brightest ornament.
III. It is a great
dishonour and reproach to any to forsake the good ways of their fathers. Having
fully known their manner of life, their devotion, purity, temperance, patience,
charity, and love to God’s house and ordinances, they must act a very mean and
scandalous part, if they neglect these virtues, and show themselves blind to
the lustre of such good examples. How justly may such be expostulated with, as
Jehoiakim was in the text! Did thy father, young man, do justice and judgment,
and assist the poor and needy? Was he sober, diligent, grave, and devout? And
will it be to thy credit to be giddy, dishonest, idle, extravagant, and an
associate with rakes and sots? Did thy mother, young woman, fill up her place
honourably? Was she active, prudent, serious, and good tempered? Did she
sanctify God’s Sabbath, and labour to keep thee from pride and levity, and
dangerous acquaintance? And wilt thou forget all this, and run into every
fashionable folly? Will this be for thy reputation and comfort? But there is a
more weighty thought than this, yet to be urged; and that is, if you act thus,
you will forfeit the favour of God. There are terrible threatenings, in the
context and other places of this prophecy, against this wicked Jehoiakim. All
his wealth, pomp, and power could not shield him from the judgments of God. A
few years after this prophecy, the King of Babylon seized him, and bound him in
fetters to carry him to Babylon; but, being released upon his promise of
allegiance, he afterwards rebelled, was slain in a sally out of Jerusalem, and
was “buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of
Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 22:19), and had no child “to sit
upon the throne of David” (2 Chronicles 36:6; Jeremiah 36:30). If you forsake the
religion of your pious ancestors, it will be to your shame.
IV. The way of
religion is the way of wisdom, honour, and happiness.
1. The way of religion is the way of wisdom (Psalms 111:10). With this the New
Testament agreeth (1 John 2:3-4). Many think themselves
wiser than their good fathers; and perhaps they may have juster notions of
religion, and be more free from superstition and enthusiasm. Yet, “while they
profess to know God,” they may “in works deny Him,” and “love the praise of man
more than the praise of God.” And thus they prove that they are not so wise as
their fathers.
2. The way of religion is also the way of honour. Josiah was
universally esteemed while living, and much lamented when dead. The prophet
Jeremiah lamented for him. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him, and “made
them an ordinance in Israel,” that his remembrance should be kept up by some
annual form of lamentation (2 Chronicles 35:25). Luxury and
extravagance, splendour and show, are not the way to be truly honourable. The
just, the generous, the friendly man, he who is strictly religious, and soberly
singular, and who studies to do good to others, though he hath a mean house,
and dresseth and liveth plain, this man will be held in reputation.
3. The way of religion is the way of happiness. It is the way to
enjoy prosperity, and to have comfort in it. While we do well, it will
certainly be well with us. If our views extended no further than the present
life, it is our wisdom and interest to be steadfastly religious. But when we
consider ourselves as in a state of trial for another world, and that our
future state will be either happy or miserable forever, according to our
present behaviour, it must be the greatest folly and madness to neglect
religion, to sacrifice it to anything else, or not to make it the main business
of our lives. (Job Orion, D. D.)
Verse 18-19
With the burial of an ass.
Dishonoured in death
Jehoiakim was king, and yet not one word of thanks do we find, nor
one word of love, nor one word of regret expressed concerning his fate. We
should learn from this how possible it is to pass through the world without
leaving behind us one sacred or loving memory. He that seeketh his life shall
lose it. A man that sacrifices daily to his own ambition, and never sets before
himself a higher ideal than his own gratification, may appear to have much
whilst he actually has nothing, may even appear to be winning great victories,
when he is really undergoing disastrous defeats. What is a grand house if there
be not in it a loving heart? What are walls but for the pictures that adorn
them? What is life but for the trust which knits it into sympathetic unity?
What is the night but for the stars that glitter in its darkness? There is an
awful process of retrogression continually operating in life. Experienced men
will tell us that the issue of life is one of two things: either advancement,
or deterioration; continual improvement, or continual depreciation: we cannot
remain just where we are, adding nothing, subtracting nothing, but realising a
permanence of estate and faculty. The powers we do not use will fall into
desuetude, and the abilities which might have made life easy may be so
neglected as to become burdens too heavy to be carried. It lies within a man’s
power so to live that he may be buried with the burial of an ass: no mourners
may surround his grave; no beneficiaries may recall his charities; no hidden
hearts may conceal the tender story of his sympathy and helpfulness. A bitter
sarcasm this, that a man should be buried like an ass! (J. Parker, D.
D.)
The doom of the defrauder, libertine, and assassin
After a life of private or public iniquity, a man’s death is not
deplored. The obsequies may be pretentious--flags, wreaths, catafalques,
military processions; but the world feels that a nuisance has been abated; he
is cast forth by reason of the contempt of men; figuratively, if not literally,
he is “buried with the burial of an ass.”
I. There is the
romance of fraud. The heroes of this country are fast getting to be those who
have most skill in swallowing “trust funds,” banks, stocks, and moneyed
institutions. I thank God when fortunes thus gathered go to smash. They are
plague struck, and blast a nation. I like to have them made loathsome and an
insufferable stench, so that honest young men may take warning.
II. Next, I speak
of the romance of libertinism. Society has severest retribution for the
impurity that lurks about the cellars and alleys of the city. It cries out
against it. It hurls the indignation of the law at it. But society becomes more
lenient as impurity rises towards affluence and high social position, until,
finally, it is silent, or disposed to palliate. Where is the judge, or the
sheriff, or the police, who dare arraign for indecency the wealthy villain?
Would God that the romance which flings its fascinations over the bestialities
of high life might be gone! Whether it has canopied couch of eiderdown, or
sleep amid the putridity of the low tenement house, four families in a room,
God’s consuming vengeance is after it.
III. Next,. I speak
of the romance of assassination. God gives life, and He only has a right to
take it away; and that man who assumes this Divine prerogative has touched the
last depth of crime. Society is alert for certain forms of murder. For
garroting, or the beating out of life with a club, or axe, or slung shot, the
law has a quick spring and a heavy stroke. But let a man come to wealth or
social pretension, and then attempt to avenge his wrongs by aiming a pistol at
the header heart of another, and immediately there are sympathies aroused. If
capital punishment be right, then let the life of the polished murderer go with
the life of the ignorant and vulgar assassin. Let there be no partiality of
hemp, no aristocracy of the gallows. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The ignominious burial of the wicked
Christ tells the story of a prosperous farmer who was clean
intoxicated with success, and could not entertain a thought but of his gains,--how
the very night that he had decided on the enlargement of his premises, a voice
from heaven called his soul away; and whatever monument with flattering title
his friends may have erected over his grave, God wrote his epitaph, in one word
of four letters, “Fool.” “Buried with the burial of an ass.” No one will for a
moment suppose that a splendid catafalque and imposing funeral obsequies
betoken the close of a noble and honourable life. Ah! many a man is laid in one
of yonder cemeteries with every form of ceremonial pomp, with gilt, and nodding
plumes, and long rows of carriages and costly wreaths; and if the truth were
told, a nuisance is being got rid of; the world will be better now that he is
gone. Well might the artless child, who had been wandering among the
tombstones, and reading the epitaphs, turn to its mother and say, “Mother,
where are all the bad people buried?” (T. Thain Davidson, D. D.)
A kings humiliating burial
Our Richard II, for his exactions to maintain a great court and
favourites, lost his kingdom, was starved to death at Pomfret Castle, and
scarce afforded common burial. King Stephen was interred in Faversham
monastery; but afterwards his body, for the gain of the lead wherein it was
coffined, was cast into the river. (John Trapp.)
Verse 21
I spake unto thee in thy
prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear.
Influence of prosperity
In heaven, the more
abundantly God’s bounties are dispensed, the more is He loved and adored; but
on earth, the richer His gifts, the more will He be neglected and disobeyed. A
striking proof of our depravity, that constant prosperity hardens, and is
unfavourable to piety.
I. Abundant
earthly blessings do tend to make the heart rebellious towards God.
1. Scripture teachings are emphatic on this matter (Deuteronomy 8:12-14; Hosea 13:6; Proverbs 30:8-9).
2. Experience confirms Scripture. In many instances we see that the
highest human virtues and holiest saints of God were unable to withstand the
influence of prosperity. They could endure affliction, and profit thereby; as
certain liquors ripen in the shade, which under the noonday beams turn to
acidity and corruption.
3. It is doubtful whether there ever was a single instance of piety
which could pass uninjured through the ordeal of unmingled prosperity. The tone
of religion is lowered amid riches and honours. Where simplicity and humility
of spirit are preserved amid prosperity, it is owing to some hidden trouble,
which like the cord on the feet of the aspiring bird keeps the proud spirit
lowly and abased.
II. What, then,
must be the effect of prosperity on those who have no religious principle to
counteract it, and who are avowedly lovers of the world and its pleasures?
1. They will not heed the messages of God.
2. Religion, with its sober realities, is despised.”
3. Those favoured of fortune are the most pitiable objects in the
world.
III. They who have
worldly prosperity should be led to self-inquiry as to its effect on
themselves.
1. Are you the same simple-hearted and sincere follower of Jesus as
when you began to lay the foundation of your worldly exaltation?
2. What a caution is here to those who are seeking prosperity! Can
you discover a means of preserving a lowly spiritual mind amid prosperity?
Unless so, there is no alternative but that you must suffer adversity to keep
you humble, or become worldly and spiritually hardened.
3. They who have become more indisposed to hear the voice of God
should awake to their peril.
4. Prosperous ones may well regard their ease with apprehension. (W.
H. Lewis, D. D.)
Prosperity baneful
I. The exactness
with which God observes all that relates to human character and conduct.
1. All our relative circumstances are immediately before His eye; and
He notices with tender and faithful scrutiny the various effects which His
merciful dispensations have upon the mind.
2. The circumstances of human life, however produced, are undoubtedly
under the guidance of providence, and therefore subservient to a wise and perfect
design. Each man’s history is arranged and adapted with utmost precision to the
growth of permanent character.
II. The tendency of
unsanctified prosperity to render us insensible to the claims of religion and
separate us still further from God.
1. Uninterrupted comfort tends to lessen our confidence in God: to
form in the mind a feeling of self-confidence: a security nothing can shake: so
much so that religion can make no entrance into the mind.
2. It hardens the heart. God would have every temporal blessing raise
the inquiry, “Lord, what is man?” But wicked and irreligious men are only
concerned for enjoyment, and for scope for their ambition. They feed and grovel
like swine beneath the oak, without looking up to the boughs that bore the
fruit, or the hand that shakes it down.
3. Then comes pride. Nebuchadnezzar. God is forgotten, prayer
neglected.
4. Leaves a dulness and lethargy of mind. All Divine threatenings,
warnings, promises unheeded.
III. Various ways in
which God rebukes this tendency and humbles men. God speaks to men in various
ways, and He distinctly marks the various impressions produced upon the mind by
His communications. He speaks to us by His Word and ordinances, by the
instructions we receive in religious education, by the various dispensations of
His providence, by affliction, by mercies. (S. Thodey.)
The perverseness of
prosperity
Why is prosperity so
perverse?
I. Because
prosperity often tends to hardness of heart.
II. Because
prosperity often grows proud and self-sufficient. Religion and the Bible are
well enough for the poor, who need comfort, but what do they want with it, who
have “more than heart could wish”?
III. Because
prosperity is often immersed in cares or pleasures. There is no room for
religion. The voices of the counting house, the mart of commerce, the shop; or
the voices of the pleasure takers, who call men to partake of their pastimes,
so fill their ear that they will not obey the voice of God. “I have my nest in
the cedars.” (Anon.)
The Christian prospering
in business
The voice of God to the
prosperous, which they are in danger of not hearing, concerns--
I. Humility.
1. This humility will be shown towards God. There is a natural
tendency in wealth to foster a spirit of sinful self-sufficience and
independence of God. Many things conspire to this. Wealth is power. Not only
the labour of the hands, but the thoughts, the will, and consciences of men may
be bought. Wealth not only gives a sort of independence, but a sort of
sovereignty. And, thus, it is an object of esteem and reverence. Now, whatever
natural religion may teach us, it is certain that the Bible teaches, that “God
giveth power to get wealth,” and that we have nothing “which we have not
received.” Now, how comprehensive is the claim for humility involved in all
this! It makes every difference, whether we be the authors of our wealth, or
whether it be the gift of God. If we receive all, the more we have, the more we
have received. The prosperous Christian should realise this; and, realising
this, he will be grateful. The bounty of Providence will endear the thought of
God. In proportion to his joy will be his thankfulness.
2. This feeling of dependence will respect the future, will influence
the mode of regarding the continuance of good things. He who feels deeply that
we are in the hands of God; that we are in a state of probation; that the great
purpose of God is to try us, to reveal us, to exercise us, and especially to
sanctify us; that we deserve nothing, while we receive everything; and that
crosses and afflictions are often among the most gracious methods of Divine
discipline; will regard the fluctuations of life as Divine dispensations. He
will not say only, “It is the course of things,” “It is the lot of man,” “It
must be expected,” “It can’t be helped,” but he will say also, “It is the will
of God.”
3. Another aspect of this humility will be towards men. In pleading
for humility in the rich Christian, I do not advocate an impossible equality,
or a forgetfulness of outward distinctions. But I mean, that the feeling of
human brotherhood and of Christian respect and affection should be displayed
towards all; and that the favours of Providence should only bind us to a more
careful regard to the will of our common Father, and a more delicate respect to
the feelings of our brethren.
II. Spirituality.
1. Spirituality is opposed to extravagance. He who prizes the
manliness and integrity of his soul; he who would not render himself unfit for
the possible reverses of life; he who would maintain a taste for the most
exalted pleasures; he who is duly alive to the perilous corruption within him,
ever ready, like a magazine of powder, to ignite from the smallest spark, or,
like a river, on the removal of a little portion of embankment, to burst forth
with desolating violence; he will err on the side rather of defect than of
excess, and “deny himself” too much rather than smooth the way and strengthen
the temptations of “the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride
of life.”
2. Spirituality is opposed to worldliness. He is worldly who “walks”
not “with God; whose conversation is not in heaven; whose affections are not
“set on things above”; who has no keen eye for the mysteries of the kingdom, no
quick ear for its voices, no delicate sensibility to its impressions. Have you
not many before your minds who have become worldly through prosperity
3. Spirituality is opposed to indolence. Prosperity says, “Take thine
ease”! and men are but too ready to comply with the suggestion. The man
well-to-do contributes to societies that perform the works in which he was
engaged. He now works by proxy. He assigns his sphere to others. He is not
idle; he supports all good things. But, my brother, the power to do this is
additional to the powers you used to have, not instead of them. You did good
then by personal service. That obligation remains. The ability to give does not
destroy the ability to labour, and the purse cannot answer the demand for
activity and effort.
III. Benevolence.
The very means of riches, the common way and method of getting rich, should
teach this lesson. Why has God appointed commerce? Why given to men different
faculties and spheres? Is it not all designed to impress the doctrine of
brotherhood, and to draw out affections and promote deeds in keeping with it?
The prosperous Christian should be a liberal Christian. It is not enough that
he continue his gifts; he must increase them Proportion is God’s rule. He
estimates what we part with according to what we keep. A healthy saint will
delight in being able to relieve his brethren, and one of the chief charms of
prosperity, will be the power it gives him to be a minister for good. His first
care will be his own, the needy kindred whose trials he may soothe by generous
gifts, or whom he may more worthily and wisely serve by enabling them to serve
themselves. His next will be the welfare of those by whose assistance he has
succeeded. He will not think his duty done by a mere payment of wages; but will
seek to promote their physical and mental and moral well-being. (A. J.
Morris.)
The danger of
self-confidence
Christians are taught, at
least in words, to believe that riches and, indeed, any kind of worldly
prosperity are exceedingly dangerous to us--that they prove, very often, too
great a trial for men’s principles; a snare in which they are entangled to
their own destruction. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,” to submit
himself to the mortifying precepts of the Gospel. The word in the text
translated “prosperity” signifies properly “calmness, tranquillity,
self-satisfaction.” It does not merely mean the possession of money, and other
such advantages, but also any state or business of life, which makes a person
unwilling to apply to his heart or his conscience those truths of the Gospel
especially, which might lessen his confidence about himself, and him spiritual
estate. When “God speaks to men in this their” fancied prosperity, “how often
in the pride . . . of their hearts do they refuse to hear.” They will “not
hear, because they will not consider.” Thus, for instance, when things go well
with a man, and he has sufficient to maintain himself and his family
comfortably his case is one of great difficulty and danger. There is this which
makes prosperity a greater danger to us than adversity, that it renders us less
willing to listen to the voice of truth and conscience. When worldly things
have gone well with a person, and he has yet neglected his eternal interests,
there is still hope that adversity may bring him back to his God. But if things
have gone ill with a man, and yet he is still worldly-minded and irreligious,
what hope is there that prosperity will effect what adversity could not do? The
reason is, because worldly business, especially if it be at an successful, is
apt to intoxicate the mind, as a dram, and to make a man unable to collect his
thoughts and fix them steadily on any object which is not some way or other
connected with his immediate interests. But adversity, and suffering, if the
heart be not quite hardened against the convictions of conscience, as they make
us feel our frailty and dependency, so they have a natural tendency to make us
look beyond this present scene for support and consolation. Let it also be
considered, that a life of prosperity, and ease, and freedom from trouble, is
the least suited for the exercise of those graces and virtues which are
peculiarly Christian, and by which our souls are to be fitted for an entrance
into that blessed land where sin and sorrow shall be lab more. It is quite
certain and unquestionable, that the Gospel of Christ is uniformly addressed to
us, as to persons on their trial and probation for an everlasting reward,--to
persona who have it in their power to refuse or to receive the gracious offers
made to them,--to persons who are to be through life exercised and disciplined,
and led on by degrees towards that perfection of holiness from which our nature
was degraded by the transgression of our first parents. Here, then, we may see
and acknowledge the great danger of a life of prosperity, ease, and
self-satisfaction; and, at the same time, the real benefit of adversity,
suffering, and self-distrust. If, then, our gracious God have spoken to us in
our prosperity, and we have refused to hear; if He have spoken to us in
adversity, and our hearts have been somewhat softened at His gracious
chastisement, then let us learn to bless Him for all His dispensations, indeed,
but most of all for His punishments. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the
Tracts for the Times.)
Man in material prosperity
I. Addressed by
almighty God.
1. Be humble. “Charge them that are rich,” etc. Through the depravity
of the heart, wealth has a tendency to fill the soul with self-sufficiency and
pride.
2. Be spiritual. Through the depravity of the heart, wealth is often
used so to pamper the appetites as to carnalise the soul.
3. Be generous. There is a tendency in wealth so to feed selfishness.
II. Refusing an
audience with his Maker. Material indulgence deadens the moral tympanum of the
heart. “I will not hear” though Thou speakest in nature, in Providence, in the
Bible, in conscience, in a thousand holy ministries, I will not hear. Why?--
1. Because I am happy as I am. I have all that I want; not only to
supply my needs, but to gratify my passions, to satisfy my vanity and ambition.
2. Because Thy voice will disturb me. (Homilist.)
Sin in prosperity
I. The divine
condescension. “I spake unto thee.” What is man that God should notice him at
all? It is not so much that man is fallen, but he is rebellious, wilfully
ignorant, deliberately sinful, and infinitely beneath God in capacity,
duration, power.
II. The hardness of
man. “Thou wouldst not hear.” Surely, one would think that when the great God
comes down to commune with man, man, out of mere reverence, would stay to
listen. On the contrary, he turns away with disdain. The worm turns upon its
Maker and King. This hardness is astonishing--
1. On account of the disrespect it manifests. So great, so good, so
merciful a Being demands our attention, our love, our all.
2. On account of the pain it gives. Could you spurn a loving friend,
and not cause him grief?
3. On account of the loss it entails. Why does God speak to man?
III. The unnatural
reason implied. “I spake unto thee in thy prosperity.”
1. This is a strange assertion. It is strange because--
2. It is a true assertion, as history and experience infallibly
prove.
Danger of prosperity
The long reign of Philip
of Macedon--over forty years--witnessed the great decadence of the Hellenic
Empire. When he came to the throne she was still a strong empire, full of
fairest prospects. But he was one of those characters that are only kept within
the bounds of good sense and justice by the sternest adversity. As soon as he
found himself safe, his idleness, his tempers and lusts broke out. It was a
misfortune both to himself and the world that he was not obliged, Like his
predecessors, to recover by arms the kingdom to which he had succeeded by
right. Prosperity enervated him; adversity would have braced him. (H. O.
Mackay.)
How God’s voice is drowned
On entering a mill the
noise of the machinery stunned and bewildered me. The owner of the mill
explained the various processes as we went on, but it was a dumb show to me, I
heard nothing. Suppose when I came out I had been asked whether the gentleman
spoke to me during my visit and I had replied No! would it have been true?
Certainly not. He spoke but I did not hear. His voice was drowned in the
surrounding noise. And so it is with thousands of those around us. God speaks
to them, but His voice is drowned in the hubbub by which they are surrounded.
They are awakened in the morning with the postman’s knock, and before they have
time for a though about God or eternity the noise of their own mill is all
around them; before the letters are finished the morning papers arrive, and the
roar of the world is added to the sound which already existed, and henceforth
it is whirl and excitement till evening. (Charles Garrett.)
This hath been thy manner from thy youth.
Youthful habits retained
I. Habits formed
in youth generally continue in future life. This applies to those--
1. Whose Life is given to the luxury of pleasure.
2. Who pass the season of youth in gross vices.
3. Equally relevant to vices of the mind.
4. So also as regards their attitude towards religion.
II. Custom in any
course generally issues in confirmed habits.
1. The commencement of a course in life is often attended with a
struggle and with difficulties.
2. But continuance in a course renders habits congenial and easy.
III. Solemn cautions
and exhortations.
1. Cautions. Guard against slighting--
2. Exhortations.
Verse 23
O inhabitant of Lebanon, that
makest thy nest in the cedars.
The nest in the cedars
The inhabitant of Lebanon,
that maketh his nest in the cedars, is an illustration of all those who, in the
pride and security of the present, are blind to the uncertainties of the
future.
I. Why is it that
God’s message takes such little hold of the heart? He pours out all His love in
pleading with men. “Seek ye My face.” Has the answer gone up from your heart,
“Thy face, Lord, will I seek”? If not, why not? Are you making a nest for
yourself among the cedars? dreaming yourself to be secure, and, like the false
Church in the Apocalypse, saying to yourself, “I shall see no sorrow”? What is
the ground of your security? Has the hand of diligence surrounded you with
comforts? The cheerful home, the well-spread table, the smiling faces of
children,--are these your portion? Oh, how often are these things as the nest
in the cedars! Or the nest may be of another kind--framed out of
self-righteousness and moral excellence. In short, whatever it be which holds back
the heart from Christ, and prompts the vain hope that all will be well at last,
though there be no conscious faith, nor any evidence of a converted heart, that
is your nest among the cedars. Though now heedless to the call of God, the
storm must ere long burst on the cedar, and rive it to its roots, laying in the
dust the nest that seemed so safe in its towering branches. Disappointment,
loss, disaster, trial, death, the judgment,--what are these in their turn but
just the lightning flash which strips the cedar of its foliage, and leaves the
nest exposed to the scorching of the summer’s heat, and the withering of the
winter’s frost? What are they all but God’s instruments for shivering into
ruins the miserable refuges in which men seek shelter and comfort amid the
experiences of time, and in the prospect of eternity?
II. When the cedars
are fallen, how bitter the disappointment! The world, its business, its
pleasures, its cares, its struggles, its joys, its sorrows,--all are fast
vanishing. Snap the cedars go! and meanwhile there is dismay at the review of
the past, and the still darker prospect of the future! Behind, a life spent
with the form of godliness, but entirely without God. Before, is death, the
sifting of the judgment, eternity. Behind, a life given up to earth and earthly
things. Before, an immortality, over the far-reaching expanse of which no star
of hope sheds a gleam of life and peace. Can we wonder if the soul shrinks back
in alarm, if dark forebodings haunt the spirit, and prayers, and regrets, and
vows, and promises blend together as the outward expression of anxiety and
fear?
III. Where can you
build your hopes and not find them shattered and broken by disappointment. Not
among the cedars, but in the hollow of that Rock of Ages, which defies the
howling of the tempest, and the sweep of the hurricane--which stands forth calm
and stately in its strength, amid the shocks of time, and shall lift its head
unshaken, even when the earth and all that is in it shall be dissolved and
broken up. The memory of guilt and shortcoming, and the record of transgression
are terrible, hut to the humble and believing Christian they can bring neither
harm nor hurt. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall
abide beneath the shadow of the Almighty.” (R. Allen, M. A.)
A sure refuge
I. The
insufficiency of every human aid, as illustrated by the prophet in the example
of the “inhabitant of Lebanon.” Lebanon was a noble and a stately mountain, the
pride and the ornament of the Eastern world. Its summit was crested with
eternal snows, while its sides were adorned with forests of the graceful and
goodly cedar. Beneath were slopes of rich pasturage, on which were fed
unnumbered flocks and herds. Rivulets gushed from the fissures, and separated
among the hills, which afforded refreshment to the fainting traveller, and
maintained in native purity of freshness the verdure of the mountain side. No
image could more expressively convey to the mind of an Israelite all that man
most highly esteems of grandeur, magnificence, and beauty. But the idea of
security is also implied. In many human ills, money, as the wise man says, “is
a defence”; and the rich man, in a land of commerce like our own, is as the
“inhabitant of Lebanon,” compared with the dweller in the plain below. The
winds may rage, and the storm beat; but his airy dwelling place is unmoved. The
enemy may spread themselves over the plain; but his house of defence “is the
munitions of rocks.” How enviable a condition! you will say, But Ah! “the
things that are impossible with men, are possible with God.” Lightning from
heaven above may blast the towering cedar; the earthquake muttering from
beneath may rend the solid rock: or even when the wave reposes without a ripple
or an undulation on the surface of the mountain lake, the stroke of death may
come suddenly, the strong man’s fortress may be powerless in an instant, as a
woman in her travail, or as the infant just struggling into birth.
II. For all who
will seek it there is a sure refuge, whatever may be the danger, and an
invincible arm of defence, whoever may be we adversary. St. Paul indeed said,
in reference to the times of fiery persecution in which his own lot was cast,
that “if in this life only they had hope in Christ, believers were of all men most
miserable”; but what was then “the present distress,” has happily passed away,
and godliness is now truly “profitable unto all things, having promise of the
life that now is, and of that which is to come.” All creation is redolent of
joy and peace to the true believer in Christ Jesus. He knows, that God hath
“made with him an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure”; that
“all His ways are mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His
testimonies”; and that no truly good thing “will He withhold from them that
walk uprightly.” So long, then, as prosperity continues, enjoyment is enhanced
by thankfulness; and when adversity comes upon him, suffering is lightened by
faith. The “light affliction,” which is upon him, will, he knows, “work for him
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” etc. (T. Dale, M. A.)
Verse 24
Though Coniah the son of
Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck
thee thence.
Punishment of the
impenitent inevitable and justifiable
I. Mention some
awful instances in which God has verified this declaration.
1. The apostate angels.
2. Our first parents.
3. The Flood.
4. The Jews.
5. The Saviour Himself.
It pleased the Lord to
bruise Him. He spared not His own Son. And will He then, O impenitent sinner,
who by refusing to believe in Jesus Christ crucifiest Him afresh, will God
spare thee? No; though thou weft the signet on His right Hand; though thou wert
dear to Him as the Son of His love, He would not spare thee, when His violated
law and His insulted justice call for thy destruction.
II. State some of
the reasons why God has formed and enacted such a declaration; or, in other
words, why He will sooner give up all that is dear to Him than suffer sin to go
unpunished.
1. It is needless to remark that, among these reasons, a disposition
to give pain has no place. As God has sworn by Himself that the wicked shall
die, so He has sworn by Himself that He has no pleasure in their death.
2. Nor has a desire to revenge the insults and injuries which sinners
have offered to Himself any place among the motives which induce God to punish
sin; for He inflicts punishment, not as an injured individual, but as the
Sovereign and Judge of the universe, who is under the most sacred obligations
to treat His subjects according to their deserts.
3. It is because the welfare of His great kingdom, the peace and
happiness of the universe, require it. It is because a relaxation of His law, a
departure from the rules of strict justice, would occasion more misery than
will result from a rigid execution of His law. Were sin unrestrained,
unpunished, it would soon scale heaven, as it has once done already in the case
of the apostate angels; and there reign and rage with immortal strength through
eternity, repeating in endless succession, and with increased aggravation, the
enormities which it has already perpetrated on earth. We may add, that after
God had once surrendered His truth, His justice, and holiness, and laid aside
the reins of government, He could never more resume them. Nor could He ever
give laws, or make promises to any other world, or any other race of creatures,
which would he worthy of the least regard. (B. Payson, D. D.)
Verse 29
O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
The treble urgency of the Gospel call
I. The Gospel call
may well be pressed with threefold emphasis, when we consider the limitation it
implies as respects the parties addressed: it is addressed to men and not to
angels--it is addressed to “earth” as contradistinguished from hell. Between
these two worlds, behold the Bible, like the cloud between Israel and Egypt,
with a side of brightness for the former and a side of darkness for the latter!
It is surely a solemnly affecting and suggestive thought that, while the Sun of
Righteousness is flinging His splendours over the earth, there is another fallen
world very differently circumstanced. Do you not feel your soul, at the very
thought, concentrating its energies on the inquiry, What is the Gospel message,
and what are the terms it proclaims? Will not the sinking crew turn to the
lifeboat that is making directly for them, and that all the more eagerly that
they discern around them a foaming sea strown rough with wrecks? Will not the
patient turn to the physician that proffers his aid, and grasp at the prepared
medicine with all the greater eagerness that he is given to understand that no
other physician is within reach, though pestilence stalks all around him? And
shall we not ply the Gospel call with treble emphasis, and wilt not thou listen
to it with treble interest, that it proclaims a Saviour for men, over the head
of angels--that it names our “earth,” but names not hell?
II. Universal as my
text is, it carries a limitation as respects time: it is addressed to men in
time, not in eternity--to the earth as it is now, not as it shall be hereafter.
1. As respects the individual, God “limiteth a certain day, saying,
Today, if ye will hear,” etc. Each has his allotted time of probation, his day
of grace. Now is that time, that golden day - the time of acceptance. Come,
fellow sinner; come as you are; come now; touch the golden sceptre, and live
forever.
2. God has also limited a certain time for our world as a whole.
There is a certain hour known to God when He will address the commission to
Jesus, “Thrust in Thy sickle,” etc. Momentous harvest! The earth even now is
rapidly ripening. All will be astir and in earnest then; but many, alas! will
awake, not to touch mercy’s sceptre, or the folds of her garment, but to catch
the echo of her last farewell.
III. This triple
emphasis will be still further accounted for if we consider the universality of
the gospel call: it is addressed to the whole race, and not to part of it
merely. All the seeming limitations in Scripture of the universal call are, in
fact, the strongest proofs of its universality. Were I now to press the appeal
in my text on different classes--the old, the young, the abandoned, the
careless, or the anxious,--every candid man would understand that my specifying
one class implied no exclusion of others, but was merely intended to give point
and pungency to my appeal by breaking down the universal call into its
particular applications, and thus “rightly dividing the word of truth.” On this
obvious principle are we to explain such descriptive phrases as “hungry,”
“thirsty,” “weary,” “heavy-laden,” which some have regarded as denoting
incipient spiritual attainments, or subjective qualifying prerequisites, which
the sinner must have before he is entitled to believe the Gospel. Far from it.
They express not our holiness but our misery, not our riches but our poverty,
whether we have caught a glimpse of Christ’s fulness or not. “Wide as the reach
of Satan’s rage, doth His salvation flow.” Let us share in our Saviour’s
spirit. Let the universality of the Gospel provision lead us increasingly to
realise the wants and woes and claims of the unnumbered myriads of mankind. It
is here that the fire of missionary and evangelistic zeal is to be kindled.
IV. We shall cease
to wonder at the threefold emphasis here imparted to the Gospel call when we
reflect on the facts it presupposes as to the condition of the world.
1. It supposes the world to be in a state of danger, for a threefold
call to the earth, so pointed and energetic, implies that no ordinary
catastrophe impends over the world. It is precisely such an impassioned appeal
as would be given forth on the outbreak of some public danger, such as fire, or
flood, or hostile invasion.
2. But, further, and as a frightful aggravation of the danger, the
world is, to a lamentable extent, in a state of insensibility to it. This, too,
is implied in the appeal of our text. It represents the world as asleep: hence
the call “O earth”; and because that sleep is profound, the call is redoubled,
“O earth, earth”; and because the world sleeps on, wrapped in a slumber deep as
death, a third time peals the call, each louder than before. Some years ago,
two or three men were seen floating asleep in a boat on the river Niagara, and
were already among the rapids. Loud and long were the calls addressed to them
by the spectators on the river side; but the unhappy men awoke only to utter a
wild shriek of despair as they were borne over the tremendous verge. This, by
no means an isolated case, aptly illustrates the sinner’s danger as he floats
down the stream of time, his insensibility thereto, and the loud warnings
addressed to him, both by God and man, to shake off the slumberous spell, and
turn while he may to the matte of safety. Say not, “If I am asleep, I am not
responsible.” You are not in this sense asleep. You are responsible; for you
are an agent rational, intelligent, moral, voluntary, unfettered and free. You
are responsible; for, if you believe man, you can believe God; you can give
that attention to the Bible which you lavish on the things of time; you can
think upon your soul’s salvation with the same faculties that you exert on your
business or pleasures; and if you are reluctant to do so, this is not your
misfortune, remember, but your crime.
V. The Gospel call
may well be urged with threefold emphasis when we consider the quarter whence
it comes: it is not of earth, but from heaven--it is not the word of man, but
“the word of the Lord.” The King of heaven gives forth an utterance from His
everlasting throne, but the worms of His footstool will not deign to give Him
audience. Louder and louder speaks the voice which at first spake us into
being--and could at any moment revoke that being,--but men sleep on; they will
not consider; they say, “Who is the Lord that He should reign over us? Depart
from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” Disbelieve man if you
will, spurn authority, trample on the tenderest of human ties, but oh, address
not yourself to a sin that towers in solitary magnitude far above all
these--venture not on the supreme blasphemy of making the God of truth and love
a liar.
VI. The Gospel call
may well be plied with treble emphasis if we consider the precious import of
the message it proclaims: it is a word of Gospel, or good news, and not of
authority merely--when it might have been a word of wrath. Ah, this deepens the
dye still further, of the sin of unbelief--a perpetration of which earth, and
earth alone, is the theatre. The light of God’s love in “the glorious Gospel”
makes the darkness of human rebellion the more appallingly visible; and the thought
that such mercy is within reach, and yet such wrath is in reserve--that man’s
destination, if not high heaven must be some nethermost abyss: ah, this,
considering the magnitude of the interests involved, may well make us to
intensify, redouble, and treble the call, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word
of the Lord!” (T. Guthrie, D.D.)
The Divine appeal to man
I. The Characters
Addressed “O earth, earth, earth,!” By “earth,” we are to understand the
dwellers on earth--man the lord of this lower creation; andlooking to its
origin, the term is one that is appropriately employed to designate man.”
1. When addressed as earth, we are reminded of our native origin.
“Man is of the earth, earthy.” God made man of the dust of the ground. What,
then, becomes of the boastings of man? How foolish the pride of pedigree, the
pride of descent! The sable sons of Africa, the swarthy Hindoo, the Red Indian
of America, the stunted Esquimaux, the tribes of Europe, and of all the islands
of the sea, have all of them a common origin: they are all of them of the
earth, earthy.
2. When addressed as earth we are reminded also of our true nature.
We are not only from the earth, but we are of the earth. “Dust thou art,” is
the true description of every man, of every child of man. Yes, what is that
muscular frame but brittle earth? What is that beautiful countenance but tinted
earth? What are those sparkling eyes but transparent earth? What are those
sensitive nerves so keenly alive to pleasure and to pain, what are they but
fine filaments of earth? What is that amazing structure the brain, the seat of
the thinking powers, but just a curiously wrought mass of earth?
3. When addressed as earth, we are reminded of the source of our
supplies. Not only are our bodies of the earth earthy, but it is from the earth
that we derive all that is essential to their sustenance and comfort. It is on
its kindly surface that we erect our habitations. It is from its yearly
replenished storehouse that we derive the staff of life. It is thence we draw our
supplies of corn, of wine, and of oil, while from its copious fountains issue
those crystal streams that fertilise our fields and quench our thirst, and in
other ways minister to our comfort; and by this, too, we are reminded to
moderate our desires. Bread and water are the supplies that the earth most
copiously yields, and to these only does the promise extend, “Thy bread shall
be given thee, and thy water shall be sure.”
4. We are reminded, when we are addressed as earth, of the earthly
state of our minds, that state which is so aptly expressed in the words of the
Psalmist, “My soul cleaveth unto the dust.” The design of Gospel truth is to
draw our affections from the world, to raise our minds above its grovelling
pursuits, and to change the current of our desires, our feelings, and our
affections; and for the effecting of all this it is perfectly competent, for
“it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth.” Why, then,
is its success so limited? The reason is that the earthly is more potent than
the heavenly, that the material outweighs the spiritual in our thoughts,
affections, and desires.
5. We are reminded, when we are addressed as earth, of the tendency
of us all. “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.” These bodies, full
of life and activity, must ere long drop into the grave. Those eyes now
sparkling with life and intelligence, must ere long be closed in death. Those
tongues, now eloquent with the language of hope and affection, must ere long be
silent in the tomb. Upon that countenance, now flushed with the bloom of
health, must ere long settle the damp dews of death. Let our thoughts and
aspirations, then, be tending heavenward while our bodies are tending
earthward. Let it be seen, that if our bodies are ripening for the grave our
souls are ripening, for heaven.
II. The exercise
that is enjoined. “Hear the word of the Lord.”
1. The subject of attention: “The word of the Lord.” In other words,
the subject of that attention is the revealed will of God, the Holy Scriptures,
the preached Gospel. It must be listened to, not as to “a tale that is well
told,” not as to “the voice of one that playeth well upon an instrument,” but
listened to with self-application, and with a believing heart.
2. This exercise of hearing “the word of the Lord” may be enforced by
many considerations, especially when you take into account the Being who
addresses you. It is God who speaks. It is He whose Word is life or death,
which exalts to heaven or sinks to hell. Think of the Word itself, of the
subject of which it treats. It is no indifferent theme on which it discourses.
It is the Word of knowledge, it is the proclamation of mercy, it is the glad
tidings of salvation. It is, too, a Word of judgment and of death, but only to
those who contemn and refuse to hear it. And then, think of the universal
adaptation of its truths. They are fitted for all, for saint and for sinner
alike; for the most learned and the most illiterate; for the king upon the
throne and the beggar by the wayside. Think, too, of your dying condition, as
yet another consideration enforcing attention to “the word of the Lord.” Soon
you may be beyond the reach of its tidings of mercy. (H. Hyslop.)
Jehovah’s call to the earth
We know of persons who rise up early and sit up late, in order
that they may accumulate riches, in order that they may follow their trade, or
in order that they may enjoy the pleasures of sin; but how few there are who
can say they “prevent the night watches” that they may “meditate upon God’s
Word”!
I. In meditating
upon God’s blessed Word, notice the authority with which it comes.
1. It has no title, save that which distinguishes it from all common
communications, from all uninspired books. It is the Bible, which means
emphatically the book, in distinction from every other book.
2. If you inquire as to its topics, its index, it is impossible to
make a catalogue of these. Who can describe the truths, the doctrines, the
promises, the precepts, the predictions that it contains?
3. Then you have to inquire respecting its Author. It is God--He that
made us, He that sustains us, He that governs us, He alone that can bless us.
The Bible is not anonymous, any more than the sun, the moon, the stars, or the
sea, for it bears the impressive signature of the Divine name. It is not a
fable. “We have not followed cunningly-devised fables” when we testify to you
the great things of God’s Word. Oh, the riches, oh, the profundity of this
inexhaustible Word! Christians have been drawing upon the resources of its
wisdom; mighty preachers have been expounding its contents, scholars have been
penetrating into its mysteries, the press has been pouring out dissertations
and commentaries upon its mighty theme, and it is still unexhausted and
inexhaustible; for it is like its infinite Author.
II. How we are to
receive this communication, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.”
1. If we are to hear the Word of the Lord that our souls may live,
our ears must be opened. Closed by prejudice, ignorance, and sin, closed by the
imperfection and deceitfulness of our nature, the Holy Spirit must open our
ears to hear: then we shall hearken diligently, we shall hear believingly, so
that this Word will be the life of our souls.
2. As this Word comes to you there must be spiritual participation.
Indeed, the reception of the Word of God is described as “eating” that Word;
and the Word of God is described as bread which we are to eat, and the manna
that came doom from heaven and fell around the camps of the children of Israel
was understood to be the type of that living bread upon which we are to feed.
It is receiving Christ by faith, it is believing on Him, that is eating the
Word. Oh, for this spiritual participation of God’s blessed Word! May God give
you a spiritual taste, and spiritual desires.
3. The Word of God is to be received or heard with spiritual joy.
Come and take of the most precious things God has given in His Word--let your
souls delight themselves in fatness. There are precious promises and precious
doctrines, precious prophecies and precious precepts; yea, everything is
precious; but the nearer you get to the Cross of Christ and the discovery of
God’s love in the gift of His Son, the more precious, the more nourishing, the
more comforting, and the more consoling will Divine truth be to your minds.
III. This word comes
to different characters and in various ways.
1. In the first place, let me address the sceptic--the doubter. There
is no discovery in science which does not tend to confirm the inspiration and
credibility of God’s truth; and there is not an evolution of Providence which
does not serve to illustrate some portion of God’s prophetic Word. Keep your
eyes upon the movements of Providence, and you will find that God is
continually unfurling His truth Recollect eternity, with its weal and its woe,
stands upon the decision, whether you receive with reverence, or whether you
despise or neglect the great salvation which the Word of God brings.
2. This Word comes a warning to the man absorbed in the anxious cares
of time; and, says it, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?” This world cannot make you happy. Why spend your money
for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not!
3. Then the Word of God speaks to the man who assents to God’s Word
with his understanding, but denies it with his heart’s affection--having the
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. God cannot be deceived by
pretences, God cannot be mocked by external service.
4. The Word of God speaks to the sorrowful. It speaks generally to
the mourning, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” It
speaks to the widow in her desolateness, and says, “Thy Maker is thy husband.”
It speaks to the orphan and the fatherless, and gives them the assurance of
protection. It speaks to the soul half-despairing under a consciousness of its
sin, and saying, “I am a great sinner, I do not know whether Christ will have
compassion upon me and save me.” You are a great sinner? Well, then, Christ is
a great Saviour. It speaks to the timid believer, who is ready to say, I fear I
shall some day fall by the temptations and allurements of the world. Fall! you
cannot fall; you walk upon firm ground, and the arms of Almighty grace sustain
you whilst you are unreservedly trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. (H.
Dowson.)
God’s loud call to a sleeping world
;--On our rugged and water-worn shores you may often see a black
wall of stone, as regular as if it had been built by human hands, running
across the tide mark from the terrestrial vegetation down to the lip of the
water at its lowest. It is a trap dyke, forced up when its matter was molten,
through a fissure in the overlying strata, and appearing now a narrow band of
rock, totally distinct both in colour and in kind from the surrounding surface.
These protruding portions show that the material of which they consist lies in
vast masses underneath. So the thin line of our text seems to protrude above a
broad field of mingled prophecy and fact.
I. The manner of
this cry. You may measure the danger which a monitor apprehends by the
sharpness of the alarm which he gives. The earth itself, and all the creatures
on it under man, have a quick ear for their Maker’s voice, and, never needing,
never get a call so urgent. The alacrity of the creatures that lie either above
or beneath him in the scale of creation brings out in higher relief the
disobedience of man. Physically, earth is wide awake and watchful. It courses
through the heavens without halting for rest, and threads its way among other
stars without collision. The tide keeps its time and place. The rivers roll
toward the sea, and the clouds fly on wings like eagles, hastening to pour
their burdens into the rivers’ springheads, that though ever flowing they may be
ever full. The earth is a diligent worker; it is not the sluggard who needs a
threefold call to awake and begin. Equally alert are the various orders of life
that crowd the world’s surface. Above our own place, too, angel spirits are
like flames of fire in the quickness, and like stormy winds in the power, with
which they serve their Maker. The cry of this text is meant for man; he needs
it, and he only. When the polar winter threatens to freeze the navigator’s
blood, rendering constant and violent exercise necessary to keep the currents
moving, then it is that the man feels the greatest drowsiness. It is only by
the vigilance of experienced chiefs that they are prevented from sinking into a
sleep from which there is no awakening. This fact, and the law which rules it,
constitute in the moral region the saddest feature in the condition of the
world. They sleep most soundly who have most need to be wakeful. The guilt
which brings upon a man God’s displeasure, so stupifies the senses of the man
that he is not aware of danger, and does not try to escape.
II. The matter of
this cry.
1. The speaker is the only living and true God. It is essential that
our belief in the first principle of religion should be well defined and real.
Religion may be faint and feckless, for want of a foundation in an actual
belief that God is. That Christian education is a tally defective which does
not leave upon the mind and conscience a practical sense of God’s being and
presence, as the first principle of all truth and all duty.
2. The thing spoken is the Word of the Lord. It is not enough for us
that God is near. He was not far from the men of Athens in the days of Paul,
and yet He was to them “the unknown God.” He has broken the silence; He has
revealed His will The Word of the Lord lies in the Scriptures.
3. The injunction to regard that Word “O earth, earth,” etc.
The Divine appeal
I. The deep and
awful concern of Jehovah for the soul of the sinner.
1. There is surely something peculiarly affecting and awful in this.
Mark the concern of your Creator, deeply anxious about the noblest work of His
skill and power. It is the concern of your Preserver, who hath watched you with
His eye, led you by His hand, etc. It is the concern of a Saviour God, who
spared not His own son, etc. This concern of Jehovah assumes a more amazing
character when you think of the persons for whom it is manifested. These are
not only creatures of a day, but creatures laden with iniquity, filled with
corruption, at enmity with Himself, in rebellion against His law, and hastening
unto perdition, without one plea for mercy, or one claim on His pity.
II. The strange
stupidity and unconcern of the sinners to whom this appeal is made. We are
blind and see not God; deaf, and hear Him not; dumb, and speak not to Him. We
are, as Paul says, “past feeling.” Try this truth by a double experience. Try
it first by the experience of those who never felt it. How else can you account
for the fact that such appeals as this addressed to sinners by the living God,
are often as unheeded as if the voice of the Eternal resounded through the
charnel house of the tomb, or were lost amid the echoes of the desert? But try
it by the opposite experience. Give me the sinner who has been startled by the
voice of God, and aroused from the slumber of his carnality; give me the man
with a broken spirit, who fears, hates, and mourns his manifold iniquities, and
looks back upon his former state with shame and sorrow; and that is the man
whose language will be, “Oh! what a blinded being I was not to see my guilt and
my Saviour sooner I what a stupid creature to go on as I have done neglecting
my soul! what a hardened wretch to stand out so long against my God and
Saviour!”
III. An appeal to
frail and dying creatures. This is always a melancholy and solemnising
reflection;--we are earth. We spring from the dust and we hasten back to it.
Old men, we appeal to you, and ask you how few have been the days since you
were children? But how speedily now shall you be borne away from your frailties
to the tomb! Young men, how rapidly are you and I hastening on to become the
old men of our time! As to the children, do you not see how fast they are
climbing the hill of life? But who will venture to say that things will take
that natural course with us? Who can count upon a day, an hour, a moment? The
thread of life is frail as the spider’s web, and may be snapt by the feeblest
breath. It may be now or never.
IV. God may be
supposed to call the earth to witness that He has offered you salvation, and to
be ready to testify that He has spoken to you, warned you, besought you to hear
His word, and flee from the wrath to come, so that if you refuse the offered
mercy, the very earth will lift up its voice against you to silence every
excuse, and you shall stand speechless at the bar of the judgment. Will not
heaven, and earth, and seas, and skies thus conspire to tell the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth, on that great and dreadful day? Will
not the simple fact that He shall summon up our spirits to His bar from every
hiding place, turn these places into witnesses? Will not the fact that He shall
gather our dust from the four winds, from the bottom of the sea, or from the
silence of the grave, turn these elements into witnesses? Will not thus the
Omniscient God turn the air we breathe, the light we behold, the dust on which
we tread, every object we touch, every scene we visit, into a witness for or
against us?
V. Apply the text
to those who have believed this Word of the Lord. Having felt concern for your
own souls, you will feel for the souls of others. You know the preciousness of
Christ, and the value of souls. You perceive the danger you have escaped, but
to which multitudes are still exposed. You can see yonder long, deep, gloomy
phalanx of immortal souls rushing on and rolling over the brink of time into
the abyss of eternity. You have entered in some small measure into God’s own
views of their state. Having these views, you will, you must feel deep and
distressing concern for them. You will plead for the outpouring of the Holy
Ghost to raise up labourers, to qualify and send them, and give them success in
winning souls. You will do more. You will put your own hand to the work as God
Himself does. Is He to give all, and we nothing? Is He to do all, and we not to
be fellow workers with Him? Shall He give the word, and we not publish it
abroad? (John Walker.)
The earth and God’s Word
I. Earth’s
attention to the divine word is of the utmost importance.
1. The earth is under condemnation; His Word can alone gain its
acquittal
2. The earth is in moral darkness; His Word can alone enlighten it.
3. The earth is in bondage; His Word alone can liberate it.
4. The earth is in misery; His Word alone can relieve it.
II. Earth’s
indifference to the divine word is very stolid.
1. This indifferentism has always been awfully prevalent.
2. This indifferentism is monstrously irrational.
3. This indifferentism cannot always continue. (Homilist.)
An exclamation
I. The solemn
address to the children of men.
1. The expression is a metonymy, in which the container is put for
the contained; but as man is “of the earth earthy,” it is also descriptive of
his mortality. The expression, “O earth, earth, earth!” when properly heard, is
well calculated to bring down the lofty looks of man, and to produce humility
in the place of pride.
2. The repetition of the word “earth,” is used to command greater
attention. This way of arresting the attention was very common amongst the
Roman and Grecian orators.
3. When preceded by the interjection O or Oh! the repetition
generally expresses uncommon emotion or grief (2 Samuel 18:33).
II. The important
object to which their attention is called.
1. The Word of the Lord demands our attention, because it is the most
interesting Book.
2. The “Word of the Lord” demands our attention, because it contains
the most and best information of any book of the size.
3. But “O earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord!” for there
are the words of eternal life. (B. Bailey.)
God’s voice to man
I. Specify some
respects in which we should hear God’s voice.
1. In the still small voice of heavenly mercy.
2. In the loud thunder of God’s providential dispensation.
3. In your personal and relative afflictions.
4. In the ample promises and encouragements addressed to returning
penitents.
II. Enumerate some
reasons why the whole earth is interested in these communications.
1. Because the Gospel shows the only plan of salvation.
2. Because the progressive improvement and advancement of the race is
connected with this message.
3. Because the success of missionary work shows the practicability of
diffusing it.
4. Because the signs of the times are in direct accord with the
promises of God. (S. Thodey.)
A call to hear the Word of the Lord
I. The subject on
the address.
1. The Word of the Lord is unwritten as well as written.
2. It is threatening as well as promising.
II. The duty
inculcated in the address.
1. To hear and understand.
2. To hear and obey.
3. To hear and make known to others.
III. The style of
the address; apostrophe.
1. The universality of its range.
2. The earnestness and affection of its spirit. (G. Brooks.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》