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Jeremiah
Chapter Eleven
Jeremiah 11
Chapter Contents
The disobedient Jews reproved. (1-10) Their utter ruin.
(11-17) The people would be destroyed who sought the prophet's life. (18-23)
Commentary on Jeremiah 11:1-10
(Read Jeremiah 11:1-10)
God never promised to bestow blessings on his rational creatures,
while they persist in wilful disobedience. Pardon and acceptance are promised
freely to all believers; but no man can be saved who does not obey the command
of God to repent, to believe in Christ, to separate from sin and the world, to
choose self-denial and newness of life. In general, men will hearken to those
who speak of doctrines, promises, and privileges; but when duties are
mentioned, they will not bend their ear.
Commentary on Jeremiah 11:11-17
(Read Jeremiah 11:11-17)
Evil pursues sinners, and entangles them in snares, out
of which they cannot free themselves. Now, in their distress, their many gods
and many altars stand them in no stead. And those whose own prayers will not be
heard, cannot expect benefit from the prayers of others. Their profession of
religion shall prove of no use. When trouble came upon them, they made this
their confidence, but God has rejected it. His altar shall yield them no
satisfaction. The remembrance of God's former favours to them shall be no
comfort under troubles; and his remembrance of them shall be no argument for
their relief. Every sin against the Lord is a sin against ourselves, and so it
will be found sooner or later.
Commentary on Jeremiah 11:18-23
(Read Jeremiah 11:18-23)
The prophet Jeremiah tells much concerning himself, the
times he lived in being very troublesome. Those of his own city plotted how they
might cause his death. They thought to end his days, but he outlived most of
his enemies; they thought to blast his memory, but it lives to this day, and
will be blessed while time lasts. God knows all the secret designs of his and
his people's enemies, and can, when he pleases, make them known. God's justice
is a terror to the wicked, but a comfort to the godly. When we are wronged, we
have a God to commit our cause to, and it is our duty to commit it to him. We
should also look well to our own spirits, that we are not overcome with evil,
but that by patient continuance in praying for our enemies, and in kindness to
them, we may overcome evil with good.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 11
Verse 2
[2] Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the
men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Of this covenant — The covenant here
spoken of, was the covenant of the law of God, delivered by Moses, to which the
people more than once promised obedience.
Verse 5
[5] That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your
fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.
Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.
So be it — God having ended his speech, the prophet saith, Amen,
either asserting the truth of which God had said, or wishing that the people
would do according to their covenant.
Verse 8
[8] Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked
every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon
them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did
them not.
Did them not — For this God threatens to bring
upon them all his words of threatening, annexed to the covenant of the law.
Verse 9
[9] And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among
the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
A conspiracy — All sorts of people have done
alike, as if they had conspired together to break my law.
Verse 11
[11] Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil
upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry
unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
I will not hearken — God will not hear
them crying to him in their adversity, who refuse to hear him speaking to them
in their prosperity.
Verse 13
[13] For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods,
O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up
altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.
That shameful thing — Baal, called a
shameful thing, because it was what they had reason to be ashamed of, and what
would certainly bring them to shame and confusion.
Baal — Signifies Lord, and was a common name given to more
idols than one; the Phoenicians used the name Baal, the Chaldeans, Bell. Learned
men say, that the Asians called the same idol Baal, whom those of Europe called
Jupiter. It is not improbable, that the Heathens acknowledging one supreme
being, worshipped him in several creatures; some mistaking the Sun, Moon, and
Stars to be he, others, other things; these they called Baalim, Lords, as they
called the principal god, Baal.
Verse 15
[15] What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she
hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when
thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.
My beloved — My people, saith God, though I
was formerly their husband, yet have wrought lewdness with many, that is,
committed idolatry with many idols, and now what have they to do more in my
house? The holy flesh - Flesh of their sacrifices, being set before idols, as
well as before God, became polluted, and was abomination to the Lord.
Thou rejoicest — They were not only evil but
gloried in their wickedness.
Verse 16
[16] The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and
of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it,
and the branches of it are broken.
Fair — The Lord fixed thee when he brought thee first into
Canaan, in a flourishing condition, like a fair olive-tree, fit to bear goodly
fruit.
Broken — But thou hast so behaved thyself, that he who planted
thee, is about to pluck thee up. God is about to kindle a fire which will burn
thee up, and to break thy branches.
Verse 18
[18] And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know
it: then thou shewedst me their doings.
Thou shewedst me — This may be
understood with relation to that conspiracy which is mentioned in the following
verses.
Verse 19
[19] But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the
slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let
us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the
land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
Let us destroy — We have no other mention of this
conspiracy, but it is plain both from this verse, and what follows, that the
men of Anathoth (which was Jeremiah's own town) were offended at his
prophesying, and had conspired to kill him.
Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof — Let us not only put
an end to his prophesying, but to his life.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
11 Chapter 11
Verses 1-23
Verse 4
Obey My voice, and do them.
Obedience of primary import
Much is said about the demoralising effects of army life. Perhaps
there is a tendency to moral decline in the army, but one thing about army life
is good. It is a good thing to learn the lesson of implicit obedience to
properly constituted authority. A Christian must learn this lesson. No man can
be a Christian who does not obey God. And why should this be thought a
difficult thing? Soldiers do not complain because they are required to obey.
The hard thing about a soldier’s life is to be required to obey an unreasonable
and incompetent leader. Many officers are superior to the men in the ranks only
in official position. In all other respects they are inferior. But the
Christian is never subjected to this sort of humiliation. He has but one
Leader. The pastor is not the Master. Christians are all comrades, all
brethren, all equal before one Lord. One is yore Master. What He says, we will
do. Where He sends, we will go. (Christian Age.)
Verse 5
Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord.
The soul’s “Amen”
Jeremiah was naturally gentle, yielding, and pitiful for the sins
and sorrows of his people. Nothing was further from his heart than to “desire
the evil day.” Nothing would have given him greater pleasure than to have
played the part of Isaiah in this decadent period of his people’s history. But
what was possible to the great evangelic prophet in the days of Hezekiah was
impossible now. In Isaiah’s case the noblest traditions of the past, the patriotic
pride of his people, and the promises of God all pointed in the same direction.
But for Jeremiah there was an inevitable divorce between the trend of popular
feeling led by the false prophets, and his clear conviction of the Word of God.
It must, indeed, have been hard to prove that the prophets were wrong, and he
was right; they simply reiterated what Isaiah had said a hundred times. And
yet, as he utters the terrible curses and threatenings of Divine justice, and
predicts the inevitable fate of his people, he is so possessed with the sense
of the Divine rectitude that his soul rises up, and though he must pronounce
the doom of Israel, he is forced to answer and say, “Amen, O Lord!”
I. The soul’s
affirmation.
1. In Providence. It is not possible at first to say “Amen” in tones
of triumph and ecstasy. Nay, the word is often choked with sobs that cannot be
stifled, and soaked with tears that cannot be repressed. And as these words are
read by those who lie year after year on beds of constant pain; or by those
whose earthly life is tossed upon the sea of anxiety, over which billows of
care and turmoil perpetually roll--it is not improbable that they will protest
as to the possibility of saying “Amen” to God’s providential dealings. In
reply, let all such remember that our blessed Lord in the garden was content to
put His will upon the side of God. Dare to say “Amen” to God’s providential
dealings. Say it, though heart and flesh fail; say it, amid a storm of
tumultuous feeling, and a rain of tears. “What thou knowest not now, thou shalt
know hereafter.”
2. In revelation there are mysteries which baffle the clearest
thinkers. It must be so whilst God is God. There is no fathoming line long
enough, no parallax fine enough, no standard of mensuration, though the universe
itself be taken as our unit, by which to measure God. But though we cannot
comprehend, we may affirm the thoughts of God. That we cannot understand is due
to the immaturity of our faculties. But when He who has come straight from the
realms of eternal day steadfastly affirms that which He knows, and bears
witness to what He has seen, we receive His witness and say reverently, “Amen,
Lord!”
3. In judgment. God’s judgments on the wicked are a great deep. Did
we know more of sin, of holiness, of the love of God, of the yearning pleadings
of His Spirit with men, we should probably understand better how Jeremiah was
able to say, “Amen, Lord!”
II. The ground of
the soul’s peace. “Yea, Father!” When face to face with the mysteries of the
atonement, of substitution and sacrifice, of predestination and election, of
the unequal distribution of Gospel light, be sure to turn to God as the Father
of light, in whom is no darkness, no shadow of unkindness, no note inconsistent
with the music of perfect benevolence.
III. The triumph of
the affirming soul. “Amen, Hallelujah!” Mark the addition of “Hallelujah” to
the “Amen.” Here the Amen, and not often the Hallelujah; there the two--the
assent and the consent; the acquiescence and the acclaim; the submission to the
win of God, and the triumphant outburst of praise and adoration (Revelation 15:3, R.V.). (F. B. Meyer,
B. A.)
Verse 8
They obeyed not.
Sins of omission
I. The great
commonness of sins of omission.
1. In a certain sense all offences against the law of God come under
the head of sins of omission. Every sin is a breach of the all-comprehensive
law, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as
thyself.” How multitudinous our omissions in respect to this command! Too often
we have had other gods beside Him. So, too, in regard to our “neighbour.” What
sins of omission daily occur in our various relationships--our neighbours, our
children, our household.
2. Sins of omission are seen in all who neglect to perform the first
and all-essential Gospel command: “Repent and be converted”; “Repent and be
baptized”; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
3. Sins of omission in religious duties. Multitudes neglect the
outward worship of God. But others show religious regard; yet what omissions as
to prayer; how lax in devotion are the most of us! As to the Bible: left
unread! As to service: talents wrapped up in napkin! Our omissions lie upon the
horizon of memory like masses of storm clouds accumulating for a horrible
tempest.
II. The cause of
this excessive multiplicity of sins of omission.
1. The great cause lies in our evil hearts. Absence of clean heart
and right spirit is at the root: “Ye must be born again.”
2. The conscience of man is not well alive to sins of omission. While
conscience will chastise men for direct acts of wrong, not awake to sins of
neglect.
3. These sins are multiplied through indolence. In the face of
eternity, life, death, heaven, and hell, multitudes are simply ruined because
they neglect the great salvation, and are absolutely too idle to concern
themselves.
4. Ignorance. With many ignorance is wilful; have Bible, conscience;
yet sin against light and knowledge.
5. Men excuse themselves so readily about these sins of omission. A
more convenient season is anticipated for repentance, faith, prayer.
6. Many neglect because of the prevalence of the like conduct. To
omit to love and serve the Lord is the custom. But enlightened conscience warns
us that custom is no excuse for sin: it will be no plea at the bar of God.
III. The sinfulness
of sins of omission. They cannot be trivial, for--
1. Consider what would be the consequences if God were to omit His
mercies to us for one moment! Suppose Jesus had left an omission in His plan of
salvation; the whole would have failed, and humanity left without remedy or
hope.
2. Reflect what an influence they would have upon an ordinary commonwealth.
If one person has a right to omit his duty, another has, and all
have--watchman, judge, merchant, husbandman; society soon collapse, kingdom
break to pieces.
3. Think how you would judge of omissions towards yourselves. In the
case of your servant, you instantly resent it. So in a soldier. Even in your
child: to neglect your command is regarded as equally criminal as to commit
offence.
4. Consider what God thinks of omissions. Saul was ordered to kill
the Amalekites--not one to escape: he saved Agag and best of the cattle;
therefore the Lord said, “I have put thee away from being king over Israel!”
Ahab was commanded to kill Benhadad on account of great criminality: Ahab only
captured him; therefore, “Because thou hast let this man go, thy life shall be
for his life!” The man with one talent was condemned because he neglected to
sue it.
IV. The result and
punishment of sins of omission.
1. They will condemn us. “The King shall say, I was hungered and ye
gave Me no meat,” etc. The absence of virtue rather than the presence of vice
condemned them. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
2. If persevered in, they will effectually shut against us the
possibilities of pardon. “He that believeth not”--is there pardon, rescue for
him? No; he “is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the Son of
God.” Will the mercy of God blot out sins uurepented of? Nay; sins will cling
to us as the leprosy to the house of Gehazi. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 9
And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found
A sad relapse
1.
The
prophet calls the people’s relapse a plot or conspiracy; thereby suggesting,
perhaps, the secrecy with which the prohibited worships were at first revived,
and the intrigues of the unfaithful nobles and priests and prophets, in order
to bring about a reversal of the policy of reform.
2. The word further means a bond, which is the exact antithesis of
the covenant with Jehovah, and it implies that this bond has about it a fatal
strength and permanence, involving as its necessary consequence the ruin of the
nation. Breaking covenant with Jehovah meant making a covenant with other gods.
If you have broken faith with God in Christ, it is because you have entered
into an agreement with another; it is because you have surrendered to the
proposals of the tempter, and preferred his promises to the promises of God. (C.
J. Ball, M. A.)
Verse 14
Therefore pray not thou for this people.
Futile prayers
It is futile to pray for those who have deliberately cast off the
covenant of Jehovah and made a covenant with His adversary. Prayer cannot save,
nothing can save, the impenitent; and there is a state of mind, in which one’s
own prayer is turned into sin; the state of mind in which a man prays, merely
to appease God, and escape the fire, but without a thought of forsaking sin,
without the faintest aspiration after holiness. There is a degree of guilt upon
which sentence is already passed, which is “unto death,” and for which prayer
is interdicted alike by the prophet of the new and of the old covenant. (C.
J. Ball, M. A.)
Verse 21
Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our
hand.
Intimidating the prophet
Think of Bunyan when he is brought before the judge, and the judge
says, “You! a tinker! to go about preaching! Hold your tongue, sir!” “I cannot
hold my tongue,” says Bunyan. “Then I must send you back to prison unless you
promise never to preach again.” “If you put me in prison till the moss grows on
my eyelids, I will preach again the first moment I get out, by the help of
God.” (Life of John Bunyan.)
Intimidators put to silence:--There is the story of a
conversation between the burgomaster in Hamburg and holy Dr. Ducken when he
first began to preach. The burgomaster said to him, “Do you see that little
finger, sir? While I can move that little finger, I will put the Baptists
down.” Mr. Ducken said, “With all respect to your little finger, Mr.
Burgomaster, I would ask you another question. Do you see that arm?” “No, I do
not see it.” “Just so,” said Mr. Ducken, “but I do; and while that great arm
moves, you cannot put us down, and if it comes to a conflict between your
little finger and that great arm, I know how it will end.” It was my great joy
to see the burgomaster sitting in the chapel at Hamburg, among the audience
that listened to my sermon at the opening of the new chapel. The little finger
had willingly given up its opposition, and the great arm was made bare. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》