This
chapter was penned upon occasion of a great drought, for want of rain. This
judgment began in the latter end of Josiah's reign, but, as it should seem,
continued in the beginning of Jehoiakim's: for less judgments are sent to
give warning of greater coming, if not prevented by repentance. This
calamity was mentioned several times before, but here, in this chapter, more
fully. Here is, I. A melancholy description of it, ver. 1-6. II. A prayer to
God to put an end to this calamity and to return in mercy to their land,
ver. 7-9. III. A severe threatening that God would proceed in his
controversy, because they proceeded in their iniquity, ver. 10-12. IV. The
prophet's excusing the people, by laying the blame on their false prophets;
and the doom passed both on the deceivers and the deceived, ver. 13-16. V.
Directions given to the prophet, instead of interceding for them, to lament
them; but his continuing notwithstanding to intercede for them, ver. 17-22.
|
Lamentation
Caused by a Great Drought; Prayer for Mercy; Pleading with God.
B. C. 606.
|
|
|
|
1
The word of the LORD
that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. 2 Judah mourneth,
and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry
of Jerusalem is gone up. 3 And their nobles have sent their
little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water;
they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded,
and covered their heads. 4 Because the ground is chapt, for
there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their
heads. 5 Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it,
because there was no grass. 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. 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.
8 O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why
shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that
turneth aside to tarry for a night? 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.
The first verse is the
title of the whole chapter: it does indeed all concern the dearth,
but much of it consists of the prophet's prayers concerning it; yet these
are not unfitly said to be, The word of the Lord which came to him
concerning it, for every acceptable prayer is that which God puts into our
hearts; nothing is our word that comes to him but what is first his word
that comes from him. In these verses we have,
I. The language of nature
lamenting the calamity. When the heavens were as brass, and distilled no
dews, the earth was as iron, and produced no fruits; and then the grief and
confusion were universal. 1. The people of the land were all in tears.
Destroy their vines and their fig-trees and you cause all their mirth to
cease, Hos. ii. 11, 12. All their joy fails with the joy of harvest, with
that of their corn and wine. Judah mourns (v. 2), not for the
sin, but for the trouble--for the withholding of the rain, not for the
withdrawing of God's favour. The gates thereof, all that go in and
out at their gates, languish, look pale, and grow feeble, for want of
the necessary supports of life and for fear of the further fatal
consequences of this judgment. The gates, through which supplies of
corn formerly used to be brought into their cities, now look melancholy,
when, instead of that, the inhabitants are departing through them to seek
for bread in other countries. Even those that sit in the gates languish; they
are black unto the ground, they go in black as mourners and sit on the
ground, a the poor beggars at the gates are black in the face for
want of food, blacker than a coal, Lam. iv. 8. Famine is represented
by a black horse, Rev. vi. 5. They fall to the ground through weakness, not
being able to go along the streets. The cry of Jerusalem has gone up;
that is, of the citizens (for the city is served by the field), or of
people from all parts of the country met at Jerusalem to pray for rain; so
some. But I fear it was rather the cry of their trouble, and the cry of
their prayer. 2. The great men of the land felt from this judgment (v.
3): The nobles sent their little ones to the water, perhaps their own
children, having been forced to part with their servants because they had
not wherewithal to keep them, and being willing to train up their children,
when they were little, to labour, especially in a case of necessity, as this
was. We find Ahab and Obadiah, the king and the lord chamberlain of his
household, in their own persons, seeking for water in such a time of
distress as this was, 1 Kings xviii. 5, 6. Or, rather, their meaner ones,
their servants and inferior officers; these they sent to seek for water,
which there is no living without; but there was none to be found: They returned
with their vessels empty; the springs were dried up when there was no
rain to feed them; and then they (their masters that sent them) were
ashamed and confounded at the disappointment. They would not be ashamed
of their sins, nor confounded at the sense of them, but were unhumbled under
the reproofs of the word, thinking their wealth and dignity set them above
repentance; but God took a course to make them ashamed of that which they
were so proud of, when they found that even on this side hell their nobility
would not purchase them a drop of water to cool their tongue. Let our
reading the account of this calamity make us thankful for the mercy of
water, that we may not by the feeling of the calamity be taught to value it.
What is most needful is most plentiful. 3. The husbandmen felt most sensibly
and immediately from it (v. 4): The ploughmen were ashamed,
for the ground was so parched and hard that it would not admit the plough
even when it was so chapt and cleft that it seemed as if it did not
need the plough. They were ashamed to be idle, for there was nothing to be
done, and therefore nothing to be expected. The sluggard, that will not
plough by reason of cold, is not ashamed of his own folly; but the
diligent husbandman, that cannot plough by reason of heat, is ashamed of his
own affliction. See what an immediate dependence husbandmen have upon the
divine Providence, which therefore they should always have an eye to, for
they cannot plough nor sow in hope unless God water their furrows,
Ps. lxv. 10. 4. The case even of the wild beasts was very pitiable, v.
5, 6. Man's sin brings those judgments upon the earth which make even the
inferior creatures groan: and the prophet takes notice of this as a plea
with God for mercy. Judah and Jerusalem have sinned, but the hinds and the
wild asses, what have they done? The hinds are pleasant creatures, lovely
and loving, and particularly tender of their young; and yet such is the
extremity of the case that, contrary to the instinct of their nature, they
leave their young, even when they are newly calved and most need them, to
seek for grass elsewhere; and, if they can find none, they abandon
them, because not able to suckle them. It grieved not the hind so much that
she had no grass herself as that she had none for her young, which will
shame those who spend that upon their lusts which they should preserve for
their families. The hind, when she has brought forth her young, is said to
have cast forth her sorrows (Job xxxix. 3), and yet she continues her
cares; but, as it follows there, she soon sees the good effect of them, for her
young ones in a little while grow up, and trouble her no more, v.
4. But here the great trouble of all is that she has nothing for them. Nay,
one would be sorry even for the wild asses (though they are creatures
that none have any great affection for); for, though the barren land
is made their dwelling at the best (Job xxxix. 5, 6), yet even that
is now made too hot for them, so hot that they cannot breathe in it, but
they get to the highest places they can reach, where the air is
coolest, and snuff up the wind like dragons, like those creatures
which, being very hot, are continually panting for breath. Their eyes
fail, and so does their strength, because there is no grass to
support them. The tame ass, that serves her owner, is welcome to his crib
(Isa. i. 3) and has her keeping for her labour, when the wild ass,
that scorns the crying of the driver, is forced to live upon air,
and is well enough served for not serving. He that will not labour, let
him not eat.
II. Here is the language
of grace, lamenting the iniquity, and complaining to God of the calamity.
The people are not forward to pray, but the prophet here prays for them, and
so excites them to pray for themselves, and puts words into their mouths,
which they may make use of, in hopes to speed, v. 7-9. In this
prayer, 1. Sin is humbly confessed. When we come to pray for the preventing
or removing of any judgment we must always acknowledge that our iniquities
testify against us. Our sins are witnesses against us, and true
penitents see them to be such. They testify, for they are plain and evident;
we cannot deny the charge. They testify against us, for our conviction,
which tends to our present shame and confusion, and our future condemnation.
They disprove and overthrow all our pleas for ourselves; and so not only
accuse us, but answer against us. If we boast of our own excellencies, and
trust to our own righteousness, our iniquities testify against us, and prove
us perverse. If we quarrel with God as dealing unjustly or unkindly with us
in afflicting us, our iniquities testify against us that we do him wrong;
"for our backslidings are many and our revolts are great,
whereby we have sinned against thee--too numerous to be concealed,
for they are many, too heinous to be excused, for they are against
thee." 2. Mercy is earnestly begged: "Though our iniquities
testify against us, and against the granting of the favour which the
necessity of our case calls for, yet do thou it." They do not
say particularly what they would have done; but, as becomes penitents and
beggars, they refer the matter to God: "Do with us as thou thinkest
fit," Judg. x. 15. Not, Do thou it in this way or at this time,
but "Do thou it for thy name's sake; do that which will be most
for the glory of thy name." Note, Our best pleas in prayer are those
that are fetched from the glory of God's own name. "Lord, do it, that
they mercy may be magnified, thy promise fulfilled, and thy interest in the
world kept up; we have nothing to plead in ourselves, but every thing in
thee." There is another petition in this prayer, and it is a very
modest one (v. 9): "Leave us not, withdraw not thy favour
and presence." Note, We should dread and deprecate God's departure from
us more than the removal of any or all our creature-comforts. 3. Their
relation to God, their interest in him, and their expectations from him
grounded thereupon, are most pathetically pleaded with him, v. 8, 9.
(1.) They look upon him as one they have reason to think should deliver them
when they are in distress, yea, though their iniquities testify against
them; for in him mercy has often rejoiced against judgment. The prophet,
like Moses of old, is willing to make the best he can of the case of his
people, and therefore, though he must own that they have sinned many a great
sin (Exod. xxxii. 31), yet he pleads, Thou art the hope of Israel.
God has encouraged his people to hope in him; in calling himself so often
the God of Israel, the rock of Israel, and the Holy One of
Israel, he has made himself the hope of Israel. He has given
Israel his word to hope in, and caused them to hope in it; and there are
those yet in Israel that make God alone their hope, and expect he will be their
Saviour in time of trouble, and they look not for salvation in any
other; "Thou hast many a time been such, in the time of their
extremity." Note, Since God is his people's all-sufficient Saviour,
they ought to hope in him in their greatest straits; and, since he is their
only Saviour, they ought to hope in him alone. They plead likewise, "Thou
art in the midst of us; we have the special tokens of thy presence with
us, thy temple, thy ark, thy oracles, and we are called by the name,
the Israel of God; and therefore we have reason to hope thou wilt not
leave us; we are thine, save us. Thy name is called upon us, and
therefore what evils we are under reflect dishonour upon thee, as if thou
wert not able to relieve thy own." The prophet had often told the
people that their profession of religion would not protect them from the
judgments of God; yet here he pleads it with God, as Moses, Exod. xxxii. 11.
Even this may go far as to temporal punishments with a God of mercy. Valeat
quantum valere potest--Let the plea avail as far as is proper. (2.) It
therefore grieves them to think that he does not appear for their
deliverance; and, though they do not charge it upon him as unrighteous, they
humbly plead it with him why he should be gracious, for the glory of his own
name. For otherwise he will seem, [1.] Unconcerned for his own people: What
will the Egyptians say? they will say, "Israel's hope and Saviour
does not mind them; he has become as a stranger in the land, that
does not at all interest himself in its interests; his temple, which he
called his rest for ever, is no more so, but he is in it as a
wayfaring man, that turns aside to tarry but for a night in an inn,
which he never enquires into the affairs of, nor is in any care about."
Though God never is, yet he sometimes seems to be, as if he cared not what
became of his church: Christ slept when his disciples were in storm. [2.]
Incapable of giving them any relief. The enemies once said, Because the Lord
was not able to bring his people to Canaan, he let them perish in
the wilderness (Num. xiv. 16); so now they will say, "Either his
wisdom or his power fails him; either he is as a man astonished (who,
though he has the reason of a man, yet, being astonished, is quite at a loss
and at his wits' end) or as a mighty man who is overpowered by such
as are more mighty, and therefore cannot save; though mighty, yet a
man, and therefore having his power limited." Either of these would be
a most insufferable reproach to the divine perfections; and therefore, why
has the God that we are sure is in the midst of us become as a
stranger? Why does the almighty God seem as if he were no more than a
mighty man, who, when he is astonished, though he would, yet cannot save? It
becomes us in prayer to show ourselves concerned more for God's glory than
for our own comfort. Lord, what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
|
Divine
Threatenings.
|
B. C. 606.
|
|
|
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. 11 Then said the LORD
unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. 12 When
they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and
an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword,
and by the famine, and by the pestilence. 13 Then said I, Ah,
Lord GOD!
behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither
shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
14 Then the LORD
said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not,
neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto
you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of
their heart. 15 Therefore thus saith the LORD
concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet
they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine
shall those prophets be consumed. 16 And the people to whom they
prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine
and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor
their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
The dispute between God
and his prophet, in this chapter, seems to be like that between the owner
and the dresser of the vineyard concerning the barren fig-tree, Luke xiii.
7. The justice of the owner condemns it to be cut down; the clemency of the
dresser intercedes for a reprieve. Jeremiah had been earnest with God, in
prayer, to return in mercy to this people. Now here,
I. God overrules the plea
which he had offered in their favour, and shows him that it would not hold.
In answer to it thus he says concerning this people, v. 10. He
does not say, concerning my people, for he disowns them, because they
had broken covenant with him. It is true they were called by his name,
and had the tokens of his presence among them; but they had sinned, and
provoked God to withdraw. This the prophet had owned, and had hoped to
obtain mercy for them, notwithstanding this, through intercession and
sacrifice; therefore God here tells him, 1. That they were not duly
qualified for a pardon. The prophet had owned that their backslidings
were many; and, though they were so, yet there was hope for them if they
returned. But this people show no disposition at all to return; they
have wandered, and they have loved to wander; their backslidings have
been their choice and their pleasure, which should have been their shame and
pain, and therefore they will be their ruin. They cannot expect God should
take up his rest with them when they take such delight in going astray from
him after their idols. It is not through necessity or inadvertency that they
wander, but they love to wander. Sinners are wanderers from God; their
wanderings forfeit God's favour, but it is their loving to wander that quite
cuts them off from it. They were told what their wanderings would come to
that one sin would hurry them on to another, and all to ruin; and yet they
have not taken warning and refrained their feet. So far were they
from returning to their God that neither his prophets nor his judgments
could prevail upon them to give themselves the least check in a sinful
pursuit. This is that for which God is now reckoning with them. When he
denies them rain from heaven he is remembering their iniquity and visiting
their sin; that is it for which their fruitful land is thus turned
into barrenness. 2. That they had no reason to expect that the God they
had rejected should accept them; no, not though they betook themselves to
fasting and prayer and put themselves to the expense of burnt-offerings and
sacrifice: The Lord doth not accept them, v. 10. He takes
no pleasure in them (so the word is); for what pleasure can the holy God
take in those that take pleasure in his rivals, in any service, in any
society, rather than his? "When they fast (v. 12), which
is a proper expression of repentance and reformation,--when they offer a
burnt offering and an oblation, which was designed to be an expression
of faith in a Mediator,--though their prayers be thus enforced, and offered
up in those vehicles that used to be acceptable, yet, because they do not
proceed from humble, penitent, and renewed hearts, but still they love to
wander, therefore I will not hear their cry, be it ever so loud; nor
will I accept them, neither their persons nor their performances."
It had been long since declared, The sacrifice of the wicked is an
abomination to the Lord; and those only are accepted that do
well, Gen. iv. 7. 3. That they had forfeited all benefit by the
prophet's prayers for them because they had not regarded his preaching to
them. This is the meaning of that repeated prohibition given to the prophet
(v. 11): Pray not thou for this people for their good, as
before, ch. vii. 15; xi. 14. This did not forbid him thus to express
his good-will to them (Moses continued to intercede for Israel after
God had said, Let me alone, Exod. xxxii. 10), but it forbade them to
expect any good effect from it as long as they turned away their ear from
hearing the law. Thus was the doom of the impenitent ratified, as that
of Saul's rejection was by that word to Samuel, When wilt thou cease to
mourn for Saul? It therefore follows (v. 12), I will consume
them, not only by this famine, but by the further sore judgments of
sword and pestilence; for God has many arrows in his quiver, and those that
will not be convinced and reclaimed by one shall be consumed by another.
II. The prophet offers
another plea in excuse for the people's obstinacy, and it is but an excuse,
but he was willing to say whatever their case would bear; it is this, That
the prophets, who pretended a commission from heaven, imposed upon them, and
flattered them with assurances of peace though they went on in their sinful
way, v. 13. He speaks of it with lamentation: "Ah! Lord God,
the poor people seem willing to take notice of what comes in thy name, and
there are those who in thy name tell them that they shall not see the
sword nor famine; and they say it as from thee, with all the gravity and
confidence of prophets: I will continue you in this place, and
will give you assured peace here, peace of truth. I tell them the
contrary; but I am one against many, and every one is apt to credit that
which makes for them; therefore, Lord, pity and spare them, for their
leaders cause them to err." This excuse would have been of some
weight if they had not had warning given them, before, of false prophets,
and rules by which to distinguish them; so that if they were deceived it was
entirely their own fault. But this teaches us, as far as we can with truth,
to make the best of bad, and judge as charitably of others as their case
will bear.
III. God not only
overrules this plea, but condemns both the blind leaders and the blind
followers to fall together into the ditch. 1. God disowns the flatteries (v.
14): They prophesy lies in my name. They had no commission from God
to prophesy at all: I neither sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoke
unto them. They never were employed to go on any errand at all from God;
he never made himself known to them, much less by them to the people; never
any word of the Lord came to them, no call, no warrant, no instruction, much
less did he send them on this errand, to rock them asleep in security. No;
men may flatter themselves, and Satan may flatter them, but God never does.
It is a false vision, and a thing of nought. Note, What is false and
groundless in vain and worthless. The vision that is not true, be it ever so
pleasing, is good for nothing; it is the deceit of their heart, a
spider's web spun out of their own bowels, and in it they think to shelter
themselves, but it will be swept away in a moment and prove a great cheat.
Those that oppose their own thoughts of God's word (God indeed says so, but
they think otherwise) walk in the deceit of their heart, and it will
be their ruin. 2. He passes sentence upon the flatterers, v. 15. As
for the prophets, who put this abuse upon the people by telling them they
shall have peace, and this affront upon God by telling them so in God's
name, let them know that they shall have no peace themselves. They shall
fall first by those very judgments which they have flattered others with the
hopes of an exemption from. They undertook to warrant people that sword
and famine should not be in the land; but it shall soon appear
how little their warrants are good for, when they themselves shall be cut
off by sword and famine. How should they secure others or foretel peace to
them when they cannot secure themselves, nor have such a foresight of their
own calamities as to get out of the way of them? Note, The sorest punishment
await those who promise sinners impunity in their sinful ways. 3. He lays
the flattered under the same doom: The people to whom they prophesy lies,
and who willingly suffer themselves to be thus imposed upon, shall die by
sword and famine, v. 16. Note, The unbelief of the deceived, with
all the falsehood of the deceivers, shall not make the divine threatenings
of no effect; sword and famine will come, whatever they say to the contrary;
and those will be least safe that are most secure. Impenitent sinners will
not escape the damnation of hell by saying that they can never believe there
is such a thing, but will feel what they will not fear. It is threatened
that this people shall not only fall by sword and famine, but that
they shall be as it were hanged up in chains, as monuments of that divine
justice which they set at defiance; their bodies shall be cast out,
even in the streets of Jerusalem, which of all places, one would
think, should be kept clear from such nuisances: there they shall lie
unburied; their nearest relations, who should do them that last office of
love, being so poor that they cannot afford it, or so weakened with hunger
that they are not able to attend it, or so overwhelmed with grief that they
have no heart to it, or so destitute of natural affection that they will not
pay them so much respect. Thus will God pour their wickedness upon them,
that is, the punishment of their wickedness; the full vials of God's wrath
shall be poured upon them, to which they have made themselves obnoxious.
Note, When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble they must in it see their
own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the
false prophets and of the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall
together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to
another.
|
The
Prophet's Intercession.
|
B. C. 606.
|
|
|
17
Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with
tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my
people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and
if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea,
both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know
not. 19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul loathed
Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we
looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing,
and behold trouble! 20 We acknowledge, O LORD,
our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned
against thee. 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. 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.
The present deplorable
state of Judah and Jerusalem is here made the matter of the prophet's
lamentation (v. 17, 18) and the occasion of his prayer and
intercession for them (v. 19), and I am willing to hope that the
latter, as well as the former, was by divine direction, and that these words
(v. 17), Thus shalt thou say unto them (or concerning them,
or in their hearing), refer to the intercession, as well as to the
lamentation, and then it amounts to a revocation of the directions given to
the prophet not to pray for them, v. 11. However, it is plain, by the
prayers we find in these verses, that the prophet did not understand it as a
prohibition, but only as a discouragement, like that 1 John v. 16, I do
not say he shall pray for that. Here,
I. The prophet stands
weeping over the ruins of his country; God directs him to do so, that,
showing himself affected, he might, if possible, affect them with the
foresight of the calamities that were coming upon them. Jeremiah must say it
not only to himself, but to them too: Let my eyes run down with tears,
v. 17. Thus he must signify to them that he certainly foresaw the
sword coming, and another sort of famine, more grievous even than this
which they were now groaning under; this was in the country for want of
rain, that would be in the city through the straitness of the siege. The
prophet speaks as if he already saw the miseries attending the descent which
the Chaldeans made upon them: The virgin daughter of my people, that
is as dear to me as a daughter to her father, is broken with a great
breach, with a very grievous blow, much greater and more grievous than
any she has yet sustained; for (v. 18) in the field multitudes
lie dead that were slain by the sword, and in the city multitudes lie
dying for want of food. Doleful spectacles! "The prophets and the
priests, the false prophets that flattered them with their lies and the
wicked priests that persecuted the true prophets, are now expelled their
country, and go about either as prisoners and captives, whithersoever
their conquerors lead them, or as fugitives and vagabonds, wherever they can
find shelter and relief, in a land that they know not." Some
understand this of the true prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel, that were carried
to Babylon with the rest. The prophet's eyes must run down with tears day
and night, in prospect of this, that the people might be convinced, not
only that this woeful day would infallibly come, and would be a very woeful
day indeed, but that he was far from desiring it, and would as gladly have
brought them messages of peace as their false prophets, if he might have had
warrant from heaven to do it. Note, Because God, though he inflicts death on
sinners, yet delights not in it, it becomes his ministers, though in his
name they pronounce the death of sinners, yet sadly to lament it.
II. He stands up to make
intercession for them; for who knows but God will yet return and repent?
While there is life there is hope, and room for prayer. And, though there
were many among them who neither prayed themselves nor valued the prophet's
prayers, yet there were some who were better affected, would join with him
in his devotions, and set the seal of their Amen to them.
1. He humbly expostulates
with God concerning the present deplorableness of their case, v. 19.
It was very sad, for, (1.) Their expectations from their God failed them;
they thought he had avouched Judah to be his, but now, it seems, he has utterly
rejected it, and cast it off, will not own any relation to it nor
concern for it. They thought Zion was the beloved of his soul, was his rest
for ever; but now his soul even loathes Zion, loathes even the
services there performed, for the sake of the sins there committed. (2.)
Then no marvel that all their other expectations failed them: They were
smitten, and their wounds were multiplied, but there was no healing
for them; they looked for peace, because after a storm there usually
comes a calm and fair weather, after a long fit of wet; but there was no
good, things went still worse and worse. They looked for a healing
time, but could not gain so much as a breathing time. "Behold,
trouble at the door, by which we hoped peace would enter. And is it so
then? Hast thou indeed rejected Judah? Justly thou mightest. Hath
thy soul loathed Zion? We deserve it should. But wilt thou not at length
in wrath remember mercy?"
2. He makes a penitent
confession of sin, speaking that language which they all should have spoken,
though but few did (v. 20): "We acknowledge our wickedness,
the abounding wickedness of our land and the iniquity of our fathers,
which we have imitated, and therefore justly smart for. We know, we
acknowledge, that we have sinned against thee, and therefore thou
art just in all that is brought upon us; but, because we confess our sins,
we hope to find thee faithful and just in forgiving our sins."
3. He deprecates God's
displeasure, and by faith appeals to his honour and promise, v. 21.
His petition is, "Do not abhor us; though thou afflict us, do
not abhor us; though thy hand by turned against us, let not thy
heart be so, nor let thy mind be alienated from us." They own God might
justly abhor them, they had rendered themselves odious in his eyes; yet,
when they pray, Do not abhor us, they mean, "Receive us into
favour again. Let not thy soul loathe Zion, v. 19. Let not our
incense be an abomination." They appeal, (1.) To the honour of God, the
honour of his scriptures, by which he has made himself known--his word,
which he has magnified above all his name: "Do not abhor us, for thy
name's sake, that the name of thine by which we are called and which we
call upon." The honour of his sanctuary is pleaded: "Lord, do not
abhor us, for that will disgrace the throne of thy glory" (the
temple, which is called a glorious high throne from the beginning, ch.
xvii. 12); let not that which has been the joy of the whole earth be
made a hissing and an astonishment. We deserve to have
disgrace put upon us, but let it not be so as to reflect upon thyself; let
not the desolations of the temple give occasion to the heathen to reproach
him that used to be worshipped there, as if he could not, or would not,
protect it, or as if the gods of the Chaldeans had been too hard for him.
Note, Good men lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world,
nearer their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and
those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched thence and great
supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne
of his glory on earth; nor will he eclipse the glory of his throne by
one providence without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly than
before, by another. God will be no loser in his honour at the long-run. (2.)
To the promise of God; of this they are humbly bold to put him in mind: Remember
thy covenant with us, and break not that covenant. Not that they had any
distrust of his fidelity, or that they thought he needed to be put in mind
of his promise to them, but what he had said he would plead with himself
they take the liberty to plead with him. Then will I remember my
covenant, Lev. xxvi. 42.
4. He professes a
dependence upon God for the mercy of rain, which they were now in want of, v.
22. If they have forfeited their interest in him as their God in covenant,
yet they will not let go their hold on him as the God of nature. (1.) They
will never make application to the idols of the heathen, for that would be
foolish and fruitless: Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles
that can cause rain? No; in a time of great drought in Israel, Baal,
though all Israel presented their prayers to him in the days of Ahab, could
not relieve them; it was that God only who answered by fire that
could answer by water too. (2.) They will not terminate their regards
in second causes, nor expect supply from nature only: Can the heavens
give showers? No, not without orders from the God of heaven; for it is
he that has the key of the clouds, that opens the bottles of heaven
and waters the earth from his chambers. But, (3.) All their
expectation therefore is from him and their confidence in him: "Art
not thou he, O Lord our God! from whom we may expect succour and to whom
we must apply? Art thou not he that causest rain and givest
showers? For thou hast made all these things; thou gavest them
being, and therefore thou givest them law and hast them all at thy command;
thou madest that moisture in nature which is in a constant circulation to
serve the intentions of Providence, and thou directest it, and makest what
use thou pleasest of it; therefore we will wait upon thee, and upon
thee only; we will ask of the Lord rain, Zech. x. 1. We will trust in
him to give it to us in due time, and be willing to tarry his time; it is
fit that we should, and it will not be in vain to do so." Note, The
sovereignty of God should engage, and his all-sufficiency encourage, our
attendance on him and our expectations from him at all times.
