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Jeremiah
Chapter Fourteen
Jeremiah 14
Chapter Contents
A drought upon the land of Judah. (1-7) A confession of
sin in the name of the people. (8-9) The Divine purpose to punish is declared.
(10-16) The people supplicate. (17-22)
Commentary on Jeremiah 14:1-9
(Read Jeremiah 14:1-9)
The people were in tears. But it was rather the cry of
their trouble, and of their sin, than of their prayer. Let us be thankful for
the mercy of water, that we may not be taught to value it by feeling the want
of it. See what dependence husbandmen have upon the Divine providence. They
cannot plough nor sow in hope, unless God water their furrows. The case even of
the wild beasts was very pitiable. The people are not forward to pray, but the
prophet prays for them. Sin is humbly confessed. Our sins not only accuse us,
but answer against us. Our best pleas in prayer are those fetched from the
glory of God's own name. We should dread God's departure, more than the removal
of our creature-comforts. He has given Israel his word to hope in. It becomes
us in prayer to show ourselves more concerned for God's glory than for our own
comfort. And if we now return to the Lord, he will save us to the glory of his
grace.
Commentary on Jeremiah 14:10-16
(Read Jeremiah 14:10-16)
The Lord calls the Jews "this people," not
"his people." They had forsaken his service, therefore he would
punish them according to their sins. He forbade Jeremiah to plead for them. The
false prophets were the most criminal. The Lord pronounces condemnation on
them; but as the people loved to have it so, they were not to escape judgments.
False teachers encourage men to expect peace and salvation, without repentance,
faith, conversion, and holiness of life. But those who believe a lie must not
plead if for an excuse. They shall feel what they say they will not fear.
Commentary on Jeremiah 14:17-22
(Read Jeremiah 14:17-22)
Jeremiah acknowledged his own sins, and those of the
people, but pleaded with the Lord to remember his covenant. In their distress
none of the idols of the Gentiles could help them, nor could the heavens give
rain of themselves. The Lord will always have a people to plead with him at his
mercy-seat. He will heal every truly repenting sinner. Should he not see fit to
hear our prayers on behalf of our guilty land, he will certainly bless with
salvation all who confess their sins and seek his mercy.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 14
Verse 5
[5] Yea,
the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
The hind —
Hinds use not to get their food in fields, but upon mountains and in
wildernesses, but the drought was such, that these creatures came into the
lower grounds, and there brought forth their young. The hinds are loving
creatures and as all creatures love their young, so hinds especially; but their
moisture being dried up, they could not suckle them, but were forced to leave
them, running about to seek grass to eat.
Verse 6
[6] And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind
like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
The wild asses —
The wild asses wanting water, got upon high places, where was the coolest air,
and sucked in the wind; and this it is said they did like dragons, of whom
Aristotle and Pliny report, that they ordinarily stand upon high places sucking
in the cool air.
Verse 7
[7] O
LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake:
for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
Testify —
That thou art righteous in what thou hast done.
Do thou it — Do
thou what we stand in need of; give us rain, though not for our sake, we
deserve no such kindness from thee, yet for thy names sake: thy promise, or for
thine honour and glory.
Verse 9
[9] Why
shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet
thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us
not.
Astonished — In
such disorder through some great passion, that he is able to do nothing.
A mighty man —
Like a man who in his own nature is strong, but through sickness so weakened,
that he cannot put forth any strength for the succour of his friends.
Yet —
Yet (saith the prophet) thou art in the midst of us; of the whole land,
according to what God had declared, Numbers 5:3; 35:34. Defile not the land which ye shall
inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.
Verse 10
[10] Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they
have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will
now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Thus —
Here begins the answer to the prophet's complaint and prayer in the nine first
verses. The substance is, that for their manifold sins, he was resolved to
punish them.
They loved —
They have been fond of their idols, and they have persisted in those sinful
courses, notwithstanding all counsels.
Verse 21
[21] Do
not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory:
remember, break not thy covenant with us.
The throne —
The words are either to be understood of the throne of the house of David,
called the Lord's throne, 1 Chronicles 29:23, or else the temple, and the
ark in it, the more special symbol of God's presence.
Verse 22
[22] Are
there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the
heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait
upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
Rain —
The present judgment under which they groan, was a drought, which he had
described in the six first verses; the prophet imploring God for the removal of
it, argues, from the impossibility of help in this case from any other way,
none of the idols of the Heathens, which he calls vain things, nothing in
themselves, and of no use, or profit to those that ran after them.
Give showers —
Without thy will? Art not - Lord, art not thou he alone who is able to do it?
The scripture constantly gives God the honour of giving rain.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
14 Chapter 14
Verses 1-22
Verses 1-9
They came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with
their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
The drought of nature, the rain of grace, and the lesson therefrom
I. First, consider
that man is a very dependent creature. He is, in some respects, the most
dependent creature that God has made; for the range of his wants is very wide,
and at a thousand points he is dependent upon something outside of himself.
1. Man, as a living creature, is peculiarly dependent upon God as to
temporals. On what a feeble thread hangs human life! Water, though it be itself
unstable, is needful to the establishment of human life, and without it man
expires. Many an animal can bear thirst better than man. Other creatures carry
their own garments with them; but we must be indebted to a plant, or to a
sheep, for the covering of our nakedness. Many other creatures are endowed with
sufficient physical force to win their food in fight; but we must produce our
own food from the soil. We cannot produce food from the earth without the dew
and the rain. However cleverly you have prepared your soil, however carefully
you have selected your seed, all will fail without the rain of heaven. Even
though your corn should spring up, yet will it refuse to come to the ear if the
heavens be dry. Nor can you of yourself produce a single shower, or even a drop
of dew. If God withholdeth the rain, what can the husbandman do? Yes, and life
itself would vanish as the food of life ceased. It would be an instructive
calculation if it could be accurately wrought out--to estimate how much bread
food there is at any time laid up upon the surface of the earth. If all
harvests were to fail from this date; if there were no harvests in Australia
during our winter, no harvests early in the year in India and the warm regions,
if there were no harvests in America and in Europe, I have been informed that,
by the time of our own harvest months, there would be upon the face of the
earth no more food than would last us for six weeks. God does, indeed, give us
bread as we need it; even as, in the wilderness, He gave the manna; but we are
every hour dependent upon His generous care.
2. In spiritual things this dependence is most evident. The priceless
blessings of pardon and grace: how can we procure them apart from God in Christ
Jesus? So is it with the life and the power of the Spirit of God, by which we
are able to receive and enjoy the blessings of the covenant; the Holy Spirit,
like the wind, bloweth where He listeth, and the order of His working is with
the Lord alone. The new life whereby we receive the Lord Jesus: how can it come
to us but from the living God Himself?
3. Here is the pity of it: against God, upon whom we are so
dependent, we have sinned, and do sin. We are dependent upon Him, and yet
rebellious against Him. If pardoned, it must be by the exercise of the
sovereign prerogative which is vested in Jehovah, the Lord of all, who doeth as
seemeth good in His sight. Provided it can be done justly, sovereignty may step
in and rescue the guilty from his doom; but this is a matter which depends upon
the will of the Lord alone. If you are executed, the condemnation is so well
deserved, that not a word can be said against the severity which shall carry
out the sentence.
II. Men may be
reduced to dire distress. Men, being dependent upon God, may be reduced to dire
distress if they disobey Him, and incur His just displeasure.
1. To proceed a little in detail with the words of my text: when the
Lord causes sinners to feel the spiritual drought, pride is humbled. “Their
nobles have sent their little ones to the waters.” The philosopher grows into a
little child, and gladly accepts the cup which aforetime he sneered at.
2. But you observe that when humbled and made thirsty, these people
went to secondary causes: they came to the pits, or reservoirs. Thus souls,
when they are awakened, go to fifty things before they come to God. It is sad
that, in superstition, or in scepticism, they look for living streams. They try
reformation of manners--I have nothing to say against it; but apart from God
reformation always ends in disappointment.
3. If you read on, you will find that when they went to these
secondary supplies, they were disappointed: “They came to the pits, and found
no water.” They thirsted to drink; but not a drop was found to cool their
tongues. It is an awful thing to come home from sermon with the vessels empty;
to rise from the communion table, having found no living water, and return with
vessels empty. To close the Bible, and sigh, “I find no comfort here, I must
return with my vessel empty.” When the ordinances, and the Word yield us no
grace, things have come to an awful pass with us. Do you know what this
disappointment means?
4. Now upon this disappointment, there followed great confusion of
mind; they became distracted; “they were ashamed and confounded.” Thus have I
met with many who, after going to many confidences, have been disappointed in
all, and seem ready to lie down in despair, and put forth no more effort. They
fear that God will never bless them, and they will never enter into life eternal;
and so they sign their own death warrants. Shall I confess that I have been
better pleased to see them in this condition than to hear their jovial songs at
other times? It is by the gate of self-despair that men arrive at the Divine
hope.
5. At last, when these people came to despair, it is very remarkable
how everything about them seemed to be in unison with their misery. Listen to
the third verse: “They covered their heads.” Did you hear the last words of the
fourth verse? They were the very same: “They covered their heads.” Surely the
second is the echo of the first. It is even so: earth has sympathy with man.
Nature without reflects our inward feelings.
III. Man’s only sure
resort is his God. “God is a refuge for us.”
1. There is no help anywhere else. The very best of duties that you
and I can perform, if we put our trust in them, are only false confidences,
refuges of lies, and they can yield us no help.
2. Nay, look; according to the text there is no help for us even in
the usual means of grace if we forget the Lord. O tried and anxious soul, the
sacraments are all in vain, though they be ordained of heaven; and preaching
and reading, liturgy and song, are all in vain to bring the refreshing dew of
grace. Thou art lost, lost, lost if a stronger arm than man’s be not stretched
out to help thee!
3. But with God is all power. He is the Creator, making all things
out of nothing; and He can create in thee at once the tender heart, the loving
spirit, the believing mind, the sanctified nature.
4. Well, then, what follows from this? If God hath all this power,
our wisdom is to wait upon Him, since He alone can help. We draw this
inference: “Therefore we will wait upon Thee.”
5. Do I hear somebody say, “How I would like to pray”? Yes, that is
the way to come to God. Come to Him by prayer in the name of Jesus. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Concerning the dearth
I. The effects of
drought upon inanimate creation.
1. The pits were empty. Some of these were natural hollows in the
hard rocks and in the caves where evaporation was less speedy. Others were
dykes and cisterns, the work of man. But neither nature nor art could afford
supplies when God dealt with them in His judgments.
2. The ground was chapt (Jeremiah 14:4). Earth’s wounds for man’s
sin. Mute mouths crying to heaven for pity.
3. There was no grass (Jeremiah 14:5). The world is complex, man
is complex, God is complex. In complex systems harmony is essential to
life,--discord is ruin. The shower can do nothing good without the sun. The sun
can only scorch if the rain fall not. Earth can produce no fruit unless both
sun and shower combine to aid.
II. The effects of
drought upon the animal creation.
1. The hind calved in the field, and forsook it (Jeremiah 14:5). The fact that the hind
was in the field proves that pasture had failed on the higher lands. It was not
unusual for the hind to drop her calf by reason of fright or grief (Psalms 29:9). The maternal instinct in
these creatures being strong, it was very unusual for them to forsake their
young, and can only be accounted for by the entire failure of the mother to
obtain food or drink.
2. The wild asses were in intense agony on account of hunger (Jeremiah 14:6). These creatures were
capable of great endurance, and needed but little to sustain life.
III. The effects of
drought upon the human creation.
1. The husbandmen were ashamed.
2. The people generally were languishing.
3. The nobles were threatened with death through thirst.
IV. The effects of
drought on the devout heart of Jeremiah.
1. He regarded it as a chastisement for sin.
2. He regarded God as their only hope.
3. He earnestly prayed for mercy.
Application--
1. In forsaking God, they forsook the fountain.
2. Earth’s broken cisterns cannot be a substitute for the Divine.
3. Jesus says, “If any man thirst,” etc. (W. Whale.)
Verses 7-9
O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for
Thy name’s sake.
The prayer of contrite Israel
I. A mournful fact
acknowledged.
1. Even in the case of God’s own people, sin does not pass away and
die after it is committed, no, nor even after it is pardoned.
2. The sins of God’s people bear testimony against them, an open and
public testimony.
3. Our sins are peculiarly apt to bear this secret testimony against
us, when we attempt to draw near to God. A sense of guilt, shame, and
self-loathing, takes possession of us, and sometimes well-nigh breaks our
hearts.
II. A petition
offered.
1. Its humble boldness. Under other circumstances there would be
nothing remarkable in this, but we have here a prayer offered up while sin is
accusing and conscience smiting. When our iniquities testify loudly against us,
when we feel sin brought home powerfully by the Holy Spirit to our consciences,
“There is an end to prayer,” we are tempted to say: “with all this guilt and
pollution upon us, we must not attempt to go into God’s presence.” Now one of
the hardest lessons we have to learn in Christ’s school, is to overcome this
tendency in sin to drive us from the Lord. God, as He is revealed to us in the
Gospel, is the sinner’s God, and what the sinner has to learn in the Gospel is,
that as a sinner he may draw near to Him, and find favour with Him, and be
accepted by Him, and pardoned, and loved. If your iniquities are testifying
against you, do not aim to silence their voice; let no one ever make you
believe that God does not hear the witness they bear, and that you need not
heed it; but aim at this--to believe all that your sins say against you, and
yet in spite of it all to seek God’s mercy and trust in it.
2. The lowly submission it manifests. It stands in the original
simply, “Do Thou.” There can be no doubt but that next to the pardon of her
sin, deliverance from her troubles was the blessing the afflicted Church most
desired at this time; but she does not ask for it. Her mouth seems suddenly
stopped as she is about to ask for it. She feels as though in her situation,
with her enormous sins crying out so loudly against her, she must not dare to
choose for herself any blessing. All she says is, “Do Thou. Do Thou something
for us. Interfere for us. Give us not up. We will bless Thee for anything Thou
doest, so that Thou wilt not abandon us.” And in a manner like this does every
soul pray, that is deeply contrite. It has boldness enough amidst all its guilt
to come to God’s throne and to keep there, but beyond this it has sometimes no
boldness at all. It leaves God to show mercy to it in His own way, and to deal
with it after His own will. All it desires is to be treated as His child, and
then come what may, it will bless Him for it.
III. The plea the
prophet urges in support of his prayer. It is the name or glory of God; “O
Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name’s
sake.” This prayer then, you perceive, is more than a simple prayer for mercy.
The publican’s prayer in the temple was that. Any really contrite sinner may
offer it; he will offer it and offer it often even to his dying hour. But the
prayer before us implies a considerable degree of spiritual knowledge, as well
as deep contrition. No man will offer it, till he is become well acquainted
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; till he has discovered the wisdom and glory,
as well as the grace, of it, and imbibed something of its spirit. (C.
Bradley, M. A.)
Man’s iniquities testifying against him
I. What it is for
a man to find his iniquities testify against him in his addresses to God.
1. Sin is not dead when it is committed. The act is transient, but
the guilt is of a permanent nature.
2. When the man draws near to God in the exercise of His worship, sin
meets him there; appears to him as a terrible ghost (Isaiah 59:11-13).
3. Sin testifies two things for God against the man.
4. This witness is convincing. So, in the text, we find the panel
denies not the testimony, but pleads for mercy.
5. Upon this, the gracious soul is filled with holy shame and
self-loathing.
6. He is damped, and his confidence before the Lord is marred as to
any access to Him, or obtaining favour at His hand.
II. How comes it
that sin is found thus testifying against men?
1. It flows from the nature of sin and guilt upon an enlightened
conscience.
2. It is a punishment from the Lord for former backslidings and
miscarriages.
3. God so orders it, that it may be a mean to humble them, and make
them more watchful against sin for the time to come.
III. The plea. “For
Thy name’s sake.”
1. We must plead with Him for His Christ’s sake; and when guilt
stares us in the face, we must look to God through the veil of Christ’s flesh.
2. We must plead with Him for His glory’s sake. Punishing of sin
glorifies God much, but pardoning of sin glorifies Him more. (T. Boston, D.
D.)
Sin should be fully confessed
I warrant thee thou shalt never go beyond the truth in stating thy
sin, for that were quite impossible. A man lying on the field of battle
wounded, when the surgeon comes round, or the soldiers with the ambulance, does
not say, “Oh, mine is a little wound,” for he knows that then they would let
him lie; but he cries out, “I have been bleeding here for hours, and am nearly
dead with a terrible wound,” for he thinks that then he will gain speedier
relief; and when he gets into the hospital he does not say to the nurse, “Mine
is a small affair; I shall soon get over it;” but he tells the truth to the
surgeon in the hope that he may set the hone at once, and that double care may
be taken. Ah, sinner, do thou so with God. The right way to plead is to plead
thy misery, thine impotence, thy danger, thy sin. Lay bare thy wounds before
the Lord, and as Hezekiah spread Sennacherib’s letter before the Lord, spread
thy sins before Him with many a tear and many a cry, and say, “Lord, save me
from all these; save me from these black and foul things, for Thy infinite
mercy’s sake.” Confess thy sin; wisdom dictates that thou shouldest do so,
since salvation is of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jeremiah a wrestler with the Lord in prayer
I. In what the
Lord is strong against the prophet. The sin of the people.
II. In what the
prophet is strong against the Lord. The name of the Lord.
1. In itself, God’s name compels Him to show He is not a desperate
hero, a giant who cannot save.
2. In that His name is borne by Israel. (Heim.)
Prayer has within itself its own reward
I. Confession.
This fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is
against God Himself. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is
sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it,--takes off the power of accusation.
II. Petition. “For
Thy name’s sake.” This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same,
and has always the same force. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a
believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of. (T.
Leighton.)
Pleas for mercy
How many there are who pray after a fashion in times of great
distress. When they are brought to death’s door, then they say, “Send for
someone that will come and pray at our side.” What a wretched position is this,
that we should only be willing to think of God when we are in our direst need!
At the same time, notice what a great mercy it is that God does hear real
prayer even if it be presented to Him only because we are in distress. “He
giveth liberally, and upbraideth not.”
I. I speak to the
church of God at large wherever it has backslidden and to each believer in
particular who may have departed from the living God in any measure. Note,
there are here pleaders guilty. The pleaders seem to say, “Guilty, ay, guilty,
for there is no denying it. Our iniquities testify against us.” I would that
every child of God felt this whenever he has gone astray. In addition to there
being no denying it there is no excusing it, for “our backslidings are many.”
If we could have excused ourselves for our first faults, if possibly we might
have offered some extenuation for the fickleness of our youth, yet what are we
to say of the transgressions of our riper years? Not only is our guilt past
denying and past excusing, but also it is past computation. We cannot measure
how great have been our transgressions, and the next sentence may well imply
it: “We have sinned against Thee.” Well, now, next to this plea of guilty, what
do the culprits say? What plea do they make why they should obtain mercy? I
observe, first, that they bring no plea whatever which has fallen from
themselves in any degree. They do not plead before God, that if He will have
mercy they will be better. But still, there is a plea. Oh, blessed plea l the
master plea of all: “Though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for
Thy name’s sake.” Now, here is a prayer which will avail for us when the night
is darkest and not a star is to be seen. The first name which the backsliding
Church here gives to God has a blessing--“O the hope of Israel.” Next, observe
the Church of God pleads His next merit: “The Saviour thereof in time of
trouble.” God has saved His people, and the name of God is the Saviour in the
time of trouble. Then, next, she does not mention the name that is implied in
the words. She says, “Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land?”--one,
that is, merely travelling through, who takes little notice of the trouble
because He is not a citizen of the country; one that merely puts up for a night
in the house, and therefore does not enter into the cares and trials of the
family. She does as good as call Him the Master of the house, Lord of the
house. But, then, she goes a little further than that, and the plea is this:
that He was, whatever they might be, their God. “Thou, O Lord, art in the midst
of us, and we are called by Thy name.” The Church says, “Lord, if Thou dost not
help us now, the men of the world will say, ‘God could not help them, they were
brought into such a condition at last that their faith was of no use to them.’
Why shouldest Thou be as a mighty man that cannot help?”
II. I want to speak
to poor troubled hearts who do not know the Lord. I cannot take the whole of my
text for them, but only a part, and say to them, I am right glad that you want
to find peace with God; right glad that you are unhappy and distressed in soul.
You say, “I want peace.” Well, take heed that you do not get a false peace. So
begin by confessing your guilt. When you have done that, I charge you next, do
not try to invent any kind of plea; do not sit down and try to make out that
the case was not so bad, or that your bringings up might excuse you, or that
your constitutional temperament might make some apology for you. No; have done
with that and come with this one plea: “Do it for Thy name’s sake. Lord, I
cannot blot out my sins; I cannot change my nature; do Thou it. I have no
reason why I should hope that Thou wilt do it; but for Thy name’s sake.” This
is the master key that unlocks every door. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Triumphant prayer
I. The mysterious
contradiction between the ideal of Israel and the actual condition of things.
The ancient charter of Israel’s existence was that God should dwell in their
midst; but things are as if the perennial presence promised had been changed
into visits, short and far between. Two ideas conveyed: the brief transitory
visits, with long dreary stretches of absence between them; and the
indifference of the visitant, as a man who pitches his tent for a night, caring
little for the people among whom he tarries the while. More: instead of the
perpetual energy of the Divine aid promised to Israel, it looks as if Thou art
“a mighty man astonied,” etc.,--a Samson with locks shorn.
II. Our low and
evil condition should lead to earnest inquiry as to its cause.
1. The reason is not in any variableness of that unalterable,
uniform, ever-present, ever-full Divine gift of God’s Spirit to His Church.
2. Nor in the failure of adaptation in God’s Word and ordinances for
the great work they had to do.
3. The fault lies here only: “O Lord, our iniquities testify against
us,” etc. We have to prayerfully, patiently, and honestly search after this
cause, and not to look to possible variations and improvements in order and
machinery, etc.
III. This
consciousness of our evil condition and knowledge of the cause lead on to lowly
penitence and confession. We err in being more ready, when awakened to a sense
of wrong, to originate new methods of work, to begin with new zeal to gather in
the outcasts into the fold; instead of beginning with ourselves, deepening our
own Christian character, purifying our own hearts, and getting more of the life
of God into our own spirits. Begin with lowly abasement at His footstool.
IV. The triumphant
confidence of believing prayer.
1. Look at the substance of His petition. He does not prescribe what
should be done, nor ask that calamity be taken away, but simply for the
continual Divine presence and power.
2. Look at these pleas with God as grounds of confidence for
ourselves.
The sinner’s plea
I. The sinner’s
acknowledgment.
1. The prophet’s confession is precisely such as befits the world at
large.
2. With too great reason, also, may it be adopted, even by the best
of men.
II. The sinner’s
plea.
1. Open to all. Never urged in vain.
Application--
1. What should be the effect of sin upon the soul? Conviction of sin
should not keep us from, but bring us to God. Sin is a just ground for
humiliation, but not for discouragement.
2. What shall surely be effectual to remove it from the soul? Prayer:
penitential weeping; humble and contrite, fervent and persevering; offered in
dependence on God’s promised mercies in Christ. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The name of the Lord a plea for temporal blessings
I. We begin with
temporal good things. None indeed are particularised by Jeremiah. All that he
asks is comprised in these words, “Do Thou.” But anyone who observes the
context may see what the prophet would have. He would have dew, and rain, and
fruitful seasons, for the preservation of man and beast.
1. Temporal good things pertain to the present life. In heaven we
shall neither hunger nor thirst, and since we look for a body without animal
appetites, duty, interest, and honour call on us to keep these appetites of our
present body under subjection.
2. In the present life temporal good things are necessary. Without a
competent portion of these men cannot live. The body, which is the workmanship
of God, must be fed and clothed; and how great is His goodness in providing for
it things that are needful! Let heaven, and earth, and seas, praise the Lord.
3. Temporal good things are promised. Till the purpose of God be
accomplished, the present frame of the world, in the riches of His goodness,
and long-suffering, must be upheld; and promises of upholding, and of the means
of upholding it, are made to Christ, for the sake of His body, the redeemed (Isaiah 49:8; Hosea 2:22-23).
4. Temporal good things are produced by the power and goodness of
God, operating in material and secondary causes. The heavens and the earth, the
sun, the rain, the dew, and the air, have not the power of vegetation and
fertility in themselves. They are merely instruments by which the power of God
is exerted.
5. Temporal good things are turned away by our iniquities (Jeremiah 3:2-3; Jeremiah 5:24-26).
6. Temporal good things are benefits for which intercession and
prayer should be made. In the prayer which our Lord taught the disciples a
petition for these appears: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
II. The plea which
appears in the text for temporal good things. It is, you observe, the name of
the Lord: “O Lord,--do Thou for Thy name’s sake.”
1. An honourable plea, and worthy of God, before whom and concerning
whom it is used. The glory of His name is the end, and the motive, and the
reason of His works; and in doing for it the works like Himself, and
independent of considerations of worth in creatures. In the name of the Lord
our God every ray of essential and revealed glory meets, and shines forth; and
to make this glory the supreme end of His operations and communications, is a
perfection which He cannot deny nor give away. This supreme motive He avows,
and holds up to the adoration of His people, and jealousy for it is His praise
and His honour (Ezekiel 36:22; Isaiah 48:9-11; Psalms 115:1).
2. A prevailing plea. For His name’s sake great and marvellous works
have been wrought (Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14; Ezekiel 20:22; Ezekiel 20:44). When the motive in the
heart of the Sovereign is the plea in the mouth of the supplicant, confidence
of being accepted and heard, confidence modest, humble, reverential, and
submissive, imparts joy to the heart of the petitioner, raises in his soul the
expectation of hope, and makes his face to shine as if it were anointed with
fresh oil.
3. A continual plea, and good throughout all generations, under all
dispensations, among all nations, and in all extremities (1 Chronicles 17:21; Isaiah 63:11-16).
4. The supreme plea under which every other plea is subordinated. In
the prayers and intercessions of holy men other considerations often appear.
Poverty, reproach, affliction, persecution, necessity, and other things, have
been pied at the throne of grace. But the name, or glory, of the Lord our God is
the supreme and ruling consideration into which other pleas are to be resolved.
III. Our pleading
the name of the Lord for temporal good things in the face of iniquity, or when
it is testifying against us. In such discouraging circumstances Jeremiah pleaded.
The whole body of national evil stood before him; and, with this monster
appearing to his eye, and its voice roaring in his ear, he cried, “Do Thou for
Thy name’s sake.”
1. A sense of sin strongly affects the heart and conscience before
the Lord. Jeremiah is the mouth of the kingdom, and speaks like a man of
feeling. He felt the weight of the public guilt, heard it crying for vengeance,
and believed that the Lord was justly offended because the land was greatly
defiled. This feeling is not common and natural to man. There were but few in
Judah who were suitably affected with the national iniquities, and among
ourselves the number of mourners is either diminished or else they are hid in
corners and chambers, out of the sight of the public eye and the knowledge of
one another.
2. The righteousness of the Lord, in turning away temporal good
things because of iniquity, is believed and acknowledged. Of this Jeremiah was
persuaded himself, and of this no mean was neglected to persuade the nation. In
withering seasons, professions of the equity and justice of Providence are in
every mouth; but in the lives of many who make these professions, fruit of the
lips doth not appear. Fruit of this kind is found only on a few trees of
righteousness, which are grafted in Christ, and raised and trained up by the
spirit of holiness.
3. The iniquities which provoke the Most High to withhold, or turn
away, temporal good things are acknowledged with humiliation and sorrow of
heart. Concerning these Jeremiah is not silent. In his intercessory prayer
confession holds a distinguished place. His exercise is exemplary, and in
similar circumstances should be followed. Reigning and crying sins breaking
out, whether in the higher or lower ranks of society, or in both, ought to be
acknowledged to be what they are, provocations of wrath and causes of calamity.
But to bring men to this reasonable duty is extremely difficult. Confession
gives such a stab to self-righteousness, and such a blow to natural pride, that
nothing can bring us effectually to submit to it, except the Spirit of God
working by His Word in us mightily.
4. The covenant of grace is apprehended, truly and distinctly, in the
light of the Word. To this covenant temporal good things are annexed, and in
its administration, promises of these are performed. By the obedience,
sufferings, and death of Christ, the condition is fulfilled; and in performing
the promises and bestowing the blessings, both of the life which now is and of
that which is to come, the justice and holiness of God glorify themselves in
the highest.
5. Considerations of the obedience, blood, and intercession of
Christ, are presented to the Lord, and opposed to prevailing iniquities.
6. Submission to the will and good pleasure of the Lord of all.
Creatures, far less sinners, should never be peremptory in their supplications,
nor prescribe to the Sovereign. Pleas for the removal of distress are furnished
to us by the Word, and instructions given to use these with reverence and
importunity. But beware of limiting the Sovereign, who, by calamity no less
than by deliverance, can magnify Himself.
IV. Exhortation and
instruction. Unto men of prayer we address ourselves in the hearing of all, and
through the blessing of God and the working of His Spirit, all will be corrected
and instructed.
1. In your exercise and practice let a true sense of sin appear. It
is not calling sin names, or fixing upon it the epithets, bagful and
abominable, but hating and abhorring it, which the Lord requires.
2. Acknowledge the righteousness of God in withholding some temporal
good things, which in the ordinary course of His Providence we looked for at
this season. Why doth the Sovereign send upon us hail for rain, and heaps of
snow instead of clouds of dew? Why doth He draw out winter to an unusual
length, and fill our ear with the howling of shepherds, instead of the singing
of birds? Why do not applications to His goodness prevail? Hath He forgotten to
be gracious? No. Doth His promise fail? No. Is His hand shortened, that it
cannot save? No. Is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? No. But our iniquities,
let it be preached in the valleys, proclaimed in the mountains, and sounded in
the dwelling places of atheism and irreligion--“Our iniquities have separated
between us and our God, and our sins have hid His face from us, that He will
not hear.”
3. Confess unto the Lord these trespasses which are committed against
Him in the midst of the land, which provoke Him to withhold good things, and
which cause Him to send upon us evil things. Acknowledgment of sin, and
supplication for pardon, are always mixed with the prayers and intercessions of
His people for temporal good things.
4. In pleading, when iniquities testify against you, keep before you
the covenant of peace, to which temporal good things are added. Unless your eye
be kept upon this covenant, it will be impossible to understand how God, whose
right hand is full of righteousness, glorifies Himself in accepting your
persons, sustaining your pleas, fulfilling your petitions, and blessing you with
good things. But if the covenant, with its condition, promises, and
administration, be considered, and the place which temporal good things possess
observed, every seemingly interfering interest, with respect to the perfections
and glory of God, will appear to be adjusted and consolidated upon the clearest
and firmest principles.
5. With the plea, and every form of the plea, for the benefits of the
covenant, introduce the name and office of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having
fulfilled the condition, in His obedience unto death, He is constituted, by
wisdom and grace, heir, administrator, and dispenser of the blessings.
6. Be submissive and modest in pleading for temporal good things. Of
the ways of the Lord we are incompetent judges; and, in all applications upon
the name, should submit ourselves to His wisdom and righteousness, and leave to
His good pleasure what is to be done. (A. Shanks.)
Verse 8
O the Hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble.
God and troubled humanity
I. What God always
is to troubled humanity.
1. The Hope.
2. The Saviour.
II. What God
sometimes seems to troubled humanity. “A stranger,” etc.
1. When Christlike enterprises are frustrated.
2. When the most useful men are cut down in the very zenith of their
life.
3. when prosperity attends the wicked, and adversity the good.
4. When enormous outrages are rampant in society. (Homilist.)
Why shouldest Thou be as a
stranger in the land.--
God’s withdrawings from His people, and their exercise under them
I. When it may be
said God withdraws and behaves as a stranger to His people.
1. When He withholds His wonted acts of kindness to them.
2. When He threatens to remove from them the signs and symbols of His
presence.
3. When, though continuing the ordinances and sacraments, He renders
them profitless.
4. When the Divine providences are adverse.
5. When He denies them access to Himself.
II. Why the Lord
deals thus with his people.
1. When they fall into gross sin and bring reproach on religion.
2. When they become earthly minded.
3. When they become slothful and formal in duty.
4. When they neglect or slight the Mediator, by whom we have access
to God.
5. When they sin under or after great affliction.
6. When they do not cherish and entertain the influences of the Holy
Spirit.
7. When they grow hardened and impenitent under provocation.
III. When it may be
said we are properly exercised under such a painful dispensation.
1. When we are truly sensible of our loss, and that our sin is the
cause of it.
2. When we place all our happiness in God’s favour and presence.
3. When we engage all the powers of our souls to seek after God.
4. When we diligently embrace every opportunity for finding an absent
God, and use every appointed means.
5. When we wrestle with Him in prayer to return.
6. When we are not satisfied with the best means, unless we find God
in them.
IV. Whence it is
that the Lord, being as a stranger to His people, occasions them so much
concern.
1. Because of the incomparable happiness arising from the enjoyment
of His presence.
2. Because of the sad effects attending the loss of His presence.
Infer:
1. There are but few true seekers of God among us.
2. The misery of these who are far from God now, and may be deprived
of His presence forever.
3. The sad case of those whom God forsakes, never to return again. (T.
Hannam.)
A welcome for the stranger
When the messenger of Mercy was travelling through the world, he
asked himself at what inn he should alight and spend the night. Lions and
eagles were not to his mind, and he passed by houses wearing such warlike
names; so too he passed by places known by the sign of “The Waving Plume,” and
the “Conquering Hero,” for he knew that there was no room for him in these
inns. He hastened by many a hostelry and tarried not, till at last he came to a
little inn which bore the sign of “The Broken Heart.” Here,” said Mercy’s
messenger, “I would fain tarry, for I know by experience that I shall be
welcome here”
The Messiah-A stranger among His own people
The greatest marvel of all creation is that the Son of God should
come to redeem; and next to that is this, that having come, He should be
neglected and rejected by those who had so long looked for Him. Here is the
greatest wonder in all history: a nation neglecting the realisation of its own
dream. Search your histories and see if you can find a parallel case. The old
Jewish theocracy aspired to pretensions that Rome, Greece, Persia, and Egypt
never dared to dream, to bestow to the world one universal king. And what is
that land of Palestine, and what are these Jews who aspire to such pretensions
as this?. . .It has no deep thought like India; no genius of stability like
China; no sense of beauty like Greece, no high culture like Egypt, no powerful
arms like Rome, and yet there is the fact; they speak concerning the kingdom
their king should establish. “The Gentiles shall come to Thy light, and kings
to the brightness of Thy rising.” Yet, marvellous to relate, when she had given
her King to the world she refused to crown Him. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not (the hope of Israel--a stranger in the land). George Mac
Donald tells in one of his stories of a born-blind lamplighter who illuminated
the city at night, but had no sense of what he was doing. Thus the Jews closed
their eyes to the great light which they gave to the world. (Geo. Matheson,
D. D.)
Verse 9
Why shouldst Thou be . . . as a mighty man that cannot save?
God rendered powerless by man
A strong man may be rendered powerless by a reel of cotton being
wound around him. Each thread so brittle, yet all together is irresistible. So
a large number of inconsistencies and insincerities may make God powerless to
help you, or to work mightily through you to the salvation of others. He may be
in the midst of you, and you may be called by His name; great issues for His
kingdom and glory may seem at stake; mighty possibilities within your reach!
and yet He is as a mighty man that cannot save. There is might enough in God to
save the weakest and sinfullest of His children; and you are unsaved because of
the limitations you have placed upon Him.
1. You are not absolutely willing to be delivered from your sins.
2. You do not entirely believe in His power and will.
3. You have not definitely handed the whole matter over to Him, and
believed that He has accepted the charge.
4. Or--and this is perhaps the deepest reason of all--you have formed
your own ideas of Divine truth, and of the possible Christian life. And having
formed your own conception of the true ideal of Christianity, you have
thenceforth lived within the limitations of your ideal, which is bounded by
human wisdom and human thought. And so you never come to a thorough knowledge
of the indwelling of Christ, or what He is prepared to do for you; or, catching
a glimpse of it from afar, you are not sufficiently delivered from the
reasonings and workings of your mind to give Him that opportunity for which He
waits and yearns. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
O Lord . . . leave us not.
A universal prayer
I. For all
seasons.
1. Times of joy. Our prosperity will ruin us, if God be not with us.
2. Times of adversity.
3. Times of labour.
4. Times of perplexity.
II. For all saints.
1. All need to pray thus. For all deserve to be abandoned.
2. All must pray thus. For all desire continuance of His presence.
3. All will pray thus. For all know the bitterness of soul consequent
upon His withdrawal
III. Always
answered.
1. For it is according to His will.
2. For it honours His name. (R. A. Griffin.)
Verses 10-16
Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their
feet; therefore the Lord doth net accept them.
Jehovah’s refusal to allow intercession to prevail
I. The Lord’s
answer to the prophet’s prayer.
1. He points to the backsliding of the people, for which He now
punishes them.
2. He refuses the prophet’s prayer because He loathes the people’s
soulless fastings and sacrifices.
3. He specifies the means by which He will destroy this backsliding
people. Battle. Famine. Pestilence.
II. The prophet
renews his endeavours to entreat God’s favour.
1. He lays stress on the fact that they had been deceived.
2. But they are not excused on that account; for they gave credit to
lies.
3. Seducers should perish with those they seduced. (C. Keil.)
Verse 12
When they fast, I will not hear their cry.
Pasting rendered offensive
I. Pious demeanour
is not what God desires, but faith.
1. God abominates a double and false heart; and the greater the
fervour hypocrites display in external rites, the more they provoke Him.
2. Fasting is observed as giving intensity to prayer.
3. They who fast professedly avow that they deprecate God’s
disfavour.
4. But God values not outward appearance.
II. Fasting is not
in itself a religious duty, but a mere index to a humble spirit.
1. What is intended by fasting?
2. What is fasting, apart from these intents?
III. No value in
fasting to merry God’s favour.
IV. Mocking
profanation was intolerable, and should be punished.
1. God shows Himself armed with various kinds of punishment.
2. He forewarns that they who had provoked Him should surely suffer.
3. God does not disregard or reject religious signs; but when what
they signify is separated from them, there is then an intolerable profanation.
(J. Calvin.)
Verse 13
I will give you assured peace.
Assured peace
I. Human life
wants it.
1. Uncertainty troubles our life.
2. Delusions embitter our heart.
3. Misgivings weary our soul.
II. God alone can
give it.
1. Peace is not a human commodity, but a Divine boon.
2. Peace comes only to Divinely-prepared hearts.
3. Peace is specifically the Saviour’s benefaction.
III. Lying voices
offer it.
1. False prophets preach peace still.
2. Beguiled dupes are ensnared still.
3. Yet assured peace is available still. May be found by all (Matthew 11:28-30). (W. H. Jellie.)
Peace
Peace is various and versatile. Peace is not mere pleasure, yet
there is a pleasure in peace. When there is no longer any offers to be happy,
nor any dread of care, pleasure settles to its repose, as a frame that lolls
and turns on a luxurious couch by and by folds itself to motionless and dreamy
comfort; or as the mountain peak that shot and shafted to its height sublime
falls softly off and folds away into the gentle slope, the nooks where lights
and shadows play, the curve that modulates the majestic summit to the meek
swell of the landscape lowlands, and invests the valley with the mountain
grandeur, and mountain grandeur with the placid secret of the lowly vale; the
breast that heaved with pleasure in its confirmed rapture comes to rest.
Pleasure is not peace, but in Its realisation and fulfilment there is a peace
of pleasure. See a little further. Joy is not peace, nevertheless there is a
peace of joy in which the mind and heart take counsel with each other. This is
delight arriving at repose. Thus, when a strain of music dies away upon the
ear, the harmony thrills memory still--the noise ceases, the notes linger and
serenade the silence, the silence returns the serenade. Again, pain might be
reckoned as the foe of peace, and still there is a peace of pain. Some
tranquilities are gendered by adversity alone. The peace found in pain cannot
be otherwise discovered nor elsewhere known. When one has borne excruciating
pang or undergone sore struggle, and can say, It is familiar now; I have been
through the worst of it, and have survived; or where one can even set out about
such an undertaking, and although outwardly the infliction or affliction has
yet to be encountered, that moment takes on its own radiance, and the mind has
upon effective grounds prepared itself for all, anticipated all, looked through
all resolutely, braced now and nerved, knitted and compacted; the resolve is
half the readiness, the readiness is all the conflict--the endurance is the
victory, as of one whose valour makes his foes to tremble, as the Spartan band
or the Royal Guard by their very presence put the enemy to flight. When the
heart and soul are set in resolution, like a regiment kneeling with fixed
bayonets, and so the onset is taken with a will, and the triumph is anticipated
in advance, there ensues a serenity which is of itself a triumph, a fortitude
which is in itself a conquest and a coronation. It is thus that there can come
into the heart the peace of pain. It has distinct varieties. The peace of
suffering in physical endurance must not be undervalued. There is such a thing
as is indicated by the words, to suffer and be strong, whereby that which in
another would enforce an outcry or insist upon a groan--that which even to the
same sufferer, at another time, coming by stealth or startling, would utterly unman
the nature, has become a manageable trial, to be confronted, to be endured, and
to be looked through and through, it may be with bated breath and set teeth,
but still at bay, until the paroxysm faints away into the peace, and the strong
mastery of the resolve carries the torture of the flesh, and rules the throb of
the nerves by its volition. There is a pain peace not to be despised--it may be
the peace of peril. Presence of mind is power of help. The war horse stands
motionless while the guns emit their bloody blasts and the carnage overflows.
The young hero leaps upon the ramparts, the veteran holds the fort. The peace
of peril is the opposite of peril panic. Panic huddled the fleeing, frightened
throng, so that none could escape from the blazing building; peace would have
found the fire escape; peace would have opened the back stairs. And thus it is
in life at large: panic is peril’s peril, but peace is peril’s
protection--peril’s safe control. And of pain peace another branch is peace of
sorrow, peculiar to itself. It does not neutralise the grief, it softens and
enchants it. When sorrow has undergone its first wild shock, when cries are
stilled and tears are dried, a hush that sinks to softer sorrow, as a gale dies
to a zephyr breeze, comes in upon the gloomy void, and sorrow in its silence,
sorrow in its sanctity, can find sorrow peace--the very peace of pain. And so
it is that in all these varieties, and under all vicissitudes like these, the
grace within enkindles peace without. And when the Finite is in treaty with the
Infinite, the creature in reconciliation with his Maker, the soul, possessed of
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, can prove that paradox of life
and earth--the peace of God which passeth all understanding. (H. S. Carpenter.)
Verse 20
We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness.
Frank acknowledgment of guilt
Next to the merit of not sinning is confessing sin. A learned man
has said, “The three hardest words in the English language are--‘I was
mistaken.’” Frederick the Great wrote to the Senate: “I have just lost a great
battle, and it was entirely my own fault.” Goldsmith said, “This confession
displayed more greatness than all his victories.” Such a prompt acknowledgment
of his fault recalls Bacon’s course in more trying circumstances. “I do plainly
and ingenuously confess,” said the great Chancellor, “that I am guilty of
corruption, and so renounce all defence. I beseech your lordships to be
merciful to a broken reed. (A. T. Pierson.)
True repentance avails with God
When a man undertakes to repent towards his fellowmen, it is
repenting straight up a precipice; when he repents towards law it is repenting
in a crocodile’s jaws; when he repents towards public sentiment, it is throwing
himself into a thicket of brambles and thorns; but when he repents towards God,
he repents towards all love and delicacy. God receives the soul, as the sea the
bather, to return it again, purer and whiter than He took it. (H. W.
Beecher.)
Verse 21
Do not abhor us.
Marks of a people in danger of the Divine abhorrence
I. The leading
indications of a people exposed to that alarming condition which the prophet
here so pathetically deprecates.
1. Unfruitfulness under the means of religious and moral improvement
(Luke 13:6). When the recipients of so
many favours, instead of being fruitful, bring forth no good fruit at all, or
fruit that is positively bad; when, instead of acting suitably to such high
advantages, they shew that they are insensible of them; when, instead of being
devout, they are impious; when, instead of standing in awe of God, they profane
His holy name; when, instead of regarding His ordinances, they despise them;
when, instead of being humble, meek, and merciful, they are proud, overbearing,
and injurious; and, instead of ascribing to the bounteous Giver of all good,
the glory that is due to Him for His liberality towards them, by a holy,
reverential, and submissive deportment, they disregard His authority:--most
assuredly, if there is any justice in the Divine nature, and any discernment in
the Divine administration, such a people are “nigh unto cursing,” and are
rapidly advancing towards that state which is deprecated in the text.
2. A public and general contempt of religion. All things go well so
long as God and Him service are reverenced; because there is a firmness, an
energy, and a greatness in every effort put forth for the public weal, which,
through the blessing of God, can scarcely fail to render it effectual. But, on
the other hand, when God is despised; when His existence and authority are
treated as merely ideal; when no influence is produced upon human agency by the
greatness and purity of His character, or the rectitude and perfection of His
counsels; when it acknowledges no higher principle than self-interest, or the
gratification of the inferior appetites of our nature--then all things run into
confusion. In confirmation of this, we have the remarkable testimony even of
the heathen Polybius, one of the most judicious historians of ancient Rome.
“When the Romans,” says he, “left off consulting the gods, when they began to
disregard the institutions of religion, or to laugh at things sacred, then fell
the glory of the empire. The wisdom of the senator forsook him, and the heart
of the soldier melted at the face of the foe. The State had no friend, because
every man was a friend only to himself, and the gods forsook them because they
were despised.”
3. Levity and insensibility under the Divine judgments. How natural
to conclude, when a child continues thoughtless, perverse, and obstinate, under
the frowns of an indulgent parent, that he is fast approaching to destruction:
and how just, as well as natural, is the conclusion; since the parent having
tried all means, but in vain, to reclaim him, seems in a measure compelled to
throw him off, and since the child himself seems bent on renouncing parental
protection, were it even forced upon him. And no less just and natural is it to
draw a similar conclusion in the case of nations, when they despise the
chastenings of Omnipotence. To these He has recourse, only when all other means
have proved ineffectual. If, then, when He strikes they feel it not, and
instead of being brought to repentance, obstinately persist in their folly and
inconsideration, what is to be looked for but their perdition?
II. How suitable
the language and temper of the prayer in the text is to us, “O Lord, do not
abhor us for Thy name’s sake.”
1. It is expressive of that temper of mind, which is most suited to
the guilt which we have contracted, and the dangers to which we are exposed.
2. It also peculiarly becomes us, because it is enforced by the only
argument fit to be urged by guilty creatures, and the only argument which we
can urge with effect.
Verse 22
Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause
rain?
Impotence of idols
Remember it was a time of dearth. The question turned upon the
presence of grass; there was no grass, and therefore the hind calved in the
field and forsook its own offspring, that it might abate its own hunger,
seeking grass in some far-away place. Natural instincts were subdued and
overcome, and the helpless offspring was left in helplessness, that the poor
dying mother, hunger smitten, might find a mouthful of green herbage somewhere.
And the ground was dust; the ploughmen were ashamed, they resorted to that last
sign of Oriental desperation and grief, to cover their heads, because there was
no rain, no grass; and now the prophet asks, “Are there any among the vanities
of the Gentiles than can cause rain?” What can the idols do? If they can give
rain, let them give it now. Can the heavens themselves give showers--the blue
heavens that look so kind--can they of themselves, and as it were by their own
motion, pour a baptism of water upon the earth? No. This is the act of the
living God, the providence of the redeeming Father, the miracle of love. Thus
we are driven in various ways to pray. You never know what a man is
religiously, until he has been well tried, hungry a long time, and had no water
to drink, until his tongue is as a burning sting in his mouth, until it hardens
like metal, and if he can then move his lips you may find the coward trying to
pray. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Rainmakers among the heathen
In Burmah the inhabitants have a novel form of the sport that
elsewhere is commonly called a tug-of-war. In the Burmese game there is a rain
party and a drought party, who pull one against the other, the victory of
either party being considered to have immediate results as regards the weather.
The drought party, however, obtain few victories, for the kind of weather they
represent is commonly not so much desired as rain. In the face, therefore, of a
strong public opinion the rain party are nearly always allowed to win, the
palpable “roping,” in the popular notion, being generally followed by a
fertilising downpour.
Prayer is the most potent means of obtaining rain, as shown in the
case of Elijah..
──《The Biblical Illustrator》