Such
plain dealing as Jeremiah used in the foregoing chapter, one might easily
foresee, if it did not convince and humble men, would provoke and exasperate
them; and so it did; for here we find, I. Jeremiah persecuted by Pashur for
preaching that sermon, ver. 1, 2. II. Pashur threatened for so doing, and
the word which Jeremiah had preached confirmed, ver. 3-6. III. Jeremiah
complaining to God concerning it, and the other instances of hard measure
that he had since he began to be a prophet, and the grievous temptations he
had struggled with (ver. 7-10), encouraging himself in God, lodging his
appeal with him, not doubting but that he shall yet praise him, by which it
appears that he had much grace (ver. 11-13) and yet peevishly cursing the
day of his birth (ver. 14-18), by which it appears that he had sad
remainders of corruption in him too, and was a man subject to like passions
as we are.
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The
Sin and Doom of Pashur.
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B.
C. 600.
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1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who
was also chief governor in the house of the LORD,
heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashur smote
Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high
gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out
of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name
Pashur, but Magor-missabib. 4 For thus saith the LORD,
Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and
they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it:
and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall
carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours
thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the
kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil
them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And thou,
Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou
shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there,
thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
Here is, I. Pashur's unjust displeasure against Jeremiah, and the fruits of
that displeasure, v. 1, 2. This Pashur was a priest, and therefore,
one would think, should have protected Jeremiah, who was of his own order, a
priest too, and the more because he was a prophet of the Lord, whose
interests the priests, his ministers, ought to consult. But this priest was
a persecutor of him whom he should have patronized. He was the son of
Immer; that is, he was of the sixteenth course of the priests, of which
Immer, when these courses were first settled by David, was father (1 Chron.
xxiv. 14), as Zechariah was of the order of Abiah, Luke i. 5. Thus this
Pashur is distinguished from another of the same name mentioned ch.
xxi. 1, who was of the fifth course. This Pashur was chief governor in
the temple; perhaps he was only so pro tempore--for a short period,
the course he was head of being now in waiting, or he was suffragan to the
high priest, or perhaps captain of the temple or of the guards about it.
Acts iv. 1. This was Jeremiah's great enemy. The greatest malignity to God's
prophets was found among those that professed sanctity and concern for God
and the church. We cannot suppose that Pashur was one of those ancients of
the priests that went with Jeremiah to the valley of Tophet to hear him
prophesy, unless it were with a malicious design to take advantage against
him; but, when he came into the courts of the Lord's house, it is probable
that he was himself a witness of what he said, and so it may be read (v.
1), He heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. As we read it, the
information was brought to him by others, whose examinations he took: He
heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things, and could not bear it,
especially that he should dare to preach in the courts of the Lord's house,
where he was chief governor, without his leave. When power in the
church is abused, it is the most dangerous power that can be employed
against it. Being incensed at Jeremiah, 1. He smote him, struck him
with his hand or staff of authority. Perhaps it was a blow intended only to
disgrace him, like that which the high priest ordered to be given to Paul
(Acts xxiii. 2), he struck him on the mouth, and bade him hold his prating.
Or perhaps he gave him many blows intended to hurt him; he beat him
severely, as a malefactor. It is charged upon the husbandmen (Matt. xxi. 35)
that they beat the servants. The method of proceeding here was illegal; the
high priest, and the rest of the priests, ought to have been consulted,
Jeremiah's credentials examined, and the matter enquired into, whether he
had an authority to say what he said. But these rules of justice are set
aside and despised, as mere formalities; right or wrong, Jeremiah must be
run down. The enemies of piety would never suffer themselves to be bound by
the laws of equity. 2. He put him in the stocks. Some make it only a
place of confinement; he imprisoned him. It rather seems to be an instrument
of closer restraint, and intended to put him both to pain and shame. Some
think it was a pillory for his neck and arms; others (as we) a pair of
stocks for his legs: whatever engine it was, he continued in it all night,
and in a public place too, in the high gate of Benjamin, which was
in, or by, the house of the Lord, probably a gate through which they
passed between the city and the temple. Pashur intended thus to chastise
him, that he might deter him from prophesying; and thus to expose him to
contempt and render him odious, that he might not be regarded if he did
prophesy. Thus have the best men met with the worst treatment from this
ungracious ungrateful world; and the greatest blessings of their age have
been counted as the off-scouring of all things. Would it not raise a
pious indignation to see such a man as Pashur upon the bench and such a man
as Jeremiah in the stocks? It is well that there is another life after this,
when persons and things will appear with another face.
II. God's just displeasure against Pashur, and the tokens of it. On the
morrow Pashur gave Jeremiah his discharge, brought him out of the
stocks (v. 3); it is probable that he continued him there, in
little-ease, as long as was usual to continue any in that punishment. And
now Jeremiah has a message from God to him. We do not find that, when Pashur
put Jeremiah in the stocks, the latter gave him any check for which he did;
he appears to have quietly and silently submitted to the abuse; when he
suffered, he threatened not. But, when he brought him out of the stocks,
then God put a word into the prophet's mouth, which would awaken his
conscience, if he had any. For, when the prophet of the Lord was bound, the
word of the Lord was not. What can we think Pashur aimed at in smiting
and abusing Jeremiah? Whatever it is, we shall see by what God says to him
that he is disappointed.
1. Did he aim to establish himself, and make himself easy, by silencing one
that told him of his faults and would be likely to lessen his reputation
with the people? He shall not gain this point; for, (1.) Though the prophet
should be silent, his own conscience shall fly in his face and make him
always uneasy. To confirm this he shall have a name given him, Magor-missabib--Terror
round about, or Fear on every side. God himself shall give him
this name, whose calling him so will make him so. It seems to be a
proverbial expression, bespeaking a man not only in distress but in despair,
not only in danger on every side (that a man may be and yet by faith may be
in no terror, as David, Ps. iii. 6, xxvii. 3), but in fear on every side,
and that a man may be when there appears no danger. The wicked flee when
no man pursues, are in great gear where no fear is. This shall be
Pashur's case (v. 4): "Behold, I will make thee a terror to
thyself; that is, thou shalt be subject to continual frights, and thy
own fancy and imagination shall create thee a constant uneasiness."
Note, God can make the most daring sinner a terror to himself, and will find
out a way to frighten those that frighten his people from doing their duty.
And those that will not hear of their faults from God's prophets, that are
reprovers in the gate, shall be made to hear of them from conscience, which
is a reprover in their own bosoms that will not be daunted nor silenced. And
miserable is the man that is thus made a terror to himself. Yet this is not
all; some are very much a terror to themselves, but they conceal it and seem
to others to be pleasant; but, "I will make thee a terror to all thy
friends; thou shalt, upon all occasions, express thyself with so much
horror and amazement that all thy friends shall be afraid of conversing with
thee and shall choose to stand aloof from thy torment." Persons in deep
melancholy and distraction are a terror to themselves and all about them,
which is a good reason why we should be very thankful, so long as God
continues to us the use of our reason and the peace of our consciences. (2.)
His friends, whom he put a confidence in and perhaps studied to oblige in
what he did against Jeremiah, shall all fail him. God does not presently
strike him dead for what he did against Jeremiah, but lets him live
miserably, like Cain in the land of shaking, in such a continual
consternation that wherever he goes he shall be a monument of divine
justice; and, when it is asked, "What makes this man in such a
continual terror?" it shall be answered, "It is God's hand upon
him for putting Jeremiah in the stocks." His friends, who should
encourage him, shall all be cut off; they shall fall by the sword of the
enemy, and his eyes shall behold it, which dreadful sight shall
increase his terror. (3.) He shall find, in the issue, that his terror is
not causeless, but that divine vengeance is waiting for him (v. 6);
he and his family shall go into captivity, even to Babylon; he
shall neither die before the evil comes, as Josiah, nor live to survive it,
as some did, but he shall die a captive, and shall in effect be buried in
his chains, he and all his friends. Thus far is the doom of Pashur.
Let persecutors read it, and tremble; tremble to repentance before they be
made to tremble to their ruin.
2. Did he aim to keep the people easy, to prevent the destruction that
Jeremiah prophesied of, and by sinking his reputation to make his words fall
to the ground? It is probable that he did; for it appears by v. 6
that he did himself set up for a prophet, and told the people that they
should have peace. He prophesied lies to them; and because Jeremiah's
prophecy contradicted his, and tended to awaken those whom he endeavoured to
rock asleep in their sins, therefore he set himself against him. But could
he gain his point? No; Jeremiah stands to what he has said against Judah and
Jerusalem, and God by his mouth repeats it. Men get nothing by silencing
those who reprove and warn them, for the word will have its course; so it
had here. (1.) The country shall be ruined (v. 4): I will give all
Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. It had long been God's own
land, but he will now transfer his title to it to Nebuchadnezzar, he shall
be master of the country and dispose of the inhabitants so me to the sword
and some to captivity, as he pleases, but none shall escape him. (2.) The
city shall be ruined too, v. 5. The king of Babylon shall spoil that,
and carry all that is valuable in it to Babylon. [1.] He shall seize their
magazines and military stores (here called the strength of this city)
and turn them against them. These they trusted to as their strength; but
what stead could they stand them in when they had thrown themselves out of
God's protection, and when he who was indeed their strength had departed
from them? [2.] He shall carry off all their stock in trade, their wares and
merchandises, here called their labours, because it was what they
laboured about and got by their labour. [3.] He shall plunder their fine
houses, and take away their rich furniture, here called their precious
things, because they valued them and set their hearts so much upon them.
Happy are those who have secured to themselves precious things in God's
precious promises, which are out of the reach of soldiers. [4.] He shall
rifle the exchequer, and take away the jewels of the crown and all the
treasures of the kings of Judah. This was that instance of the calamity
which was first of all threatened to Hezekiah long ago as his punishment for
showing his treasures to the king of Babylon's ambassadors, Isa. xxxix. 6.
The treasury, they thought, was their defence; but that betrayed them, and
became an easy prey to the enemy.
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The
Prophet's Impatient Appeal.
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B.
C. 600.
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7 O LORD,
thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and
hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. 8
For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word
of the LORD
was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. 9 Then I
said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his
word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was
weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. 10 For I
heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and
we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying,
Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we
shall take our revenge on him. 11 But the LORD is with me as a
mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall
not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their
everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. 12 But, O LORD
of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the
heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my
cause. 13 Sing unto the LORD,
praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the
soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
Pashur's doom was to be a terror to himself; Jeremiah, even now, in
this hour of temptation, is far from being so; and yet it cannot be denied
but that he is here, through the infirmity of the flesh, strangely agitated
within himself. Good men are but men at the best. God is not extreme to mark
what they say and do amiss, and therefore we must not be so, but make the
best of it. In these verses it appears that, upon occasion of the great
indignation and injury that Pashur did to Jeremiah, there was a struggle in
his breast between his graces and his corruptions. His discourse with
himself and with his God, upon this occasion, was somewhat perplexed; let us
try to methodize it.
I. Here is a sad representation of the wrong that was done him and the
affronts that were put upon him; and this representation, no doubt, was
according to truth, and deserves no blame, but was very justly and very
fitly made to him that sent him, and no doubt would bear him out. He
complains,
1. That he was ridiculed and laughed at; they made a jest of every thing he
said and did; and this cannot but be a great grievance to an ingenuous mind
(v. 7, 8): I am in derision; I am mocked. They played upon
him, and made themselves and one another merry with him, as if he had been a
fool, good for nothing but to make sport. Thus he was continually: I was
in derision daily. Thus he was universally: Every one mocks me;
the greatest so far forget their own gravity, and the meanest so far forget
mine. Thus our Lord Jesus, on the cross, was reviled both by priests and
people; and the revilings of each had their peculiar aggravation. And what
was it that thus exposed him to contempt and scorn? It was nothing but his
faithful and zealous discharge of the duty of his office, v. 8. They
could find nothing for which to deride him but his preaching; it was the
word of the Lord that was made a reproach. That for which they
should have honoured and respected him--that he was entrusted to deliver the
word of the Lord to them was the very thing for which they reproached
and reviled him. He never preached a sermon, but, though he kept as closely
as possible to his instructions, they found something or other in it for
which to banter and abuse him. Note, It is sad to think that, though divine
revelation be one of the greatest blessings and honours that ever was
bestowed upon the world, yet it has been turned very much to the reproach of
the most zealous preachers and believers of it. Two things they derided him
for:-- (1.) The manner of his preaching: Since he spoke, he cried out.
He had always been a lively affectionate preacher, and since he began to
speak in God's name he always spoke as a man in earnest; he cried aloud
and did not spare, spared neither himself nor those to whom he preached;
and this was enough for those to laugh at who hated to be serious. It is
common for those that are unaffected with and disaffected to, the things of
God themselves, to ridicule those that are much affected with them. Lively
preachers are the scorn of careless unbelieving hearers. (2.) The matter of
his preaching: He cried violence and spoil. He reproved them for the
violence and spoil which they were guilty of towards one another; and he
prophesied of the violence and spoil which should be brought upon them as
the punishment of that sin; for the former they ridiculed him as
over-precise, for the latter as over-credulous; in both he was provoking to
them, and therefore they resolved to run him down. This was bad enough, yet
he complains further.
2. That he was plotted against and his ruin contrived; he was not only
ridiculed as a weak man, but reproached and misrepresented as a bad man and
dangerous to the government. This he laments as his grievance, v. 10.
Being laughed at, though it touches a man in point of honour, is yet a thing
that may be easily laughed at again; for, as it has been well observed, it
is no shame to be laughed at, but to deserve to be so. But there were those
that acted a more spiteful part, and with more subtlety. (1.) They spoke ill
of him behind his back, when he had no opportunity of clearing himself, and
were industrious to spread false reports concerning him: I heard, at
second hand, the defaming of many, fear on every side (of many
Magor-missabibs, so some read it), of many such men as Pashur was, and
who may therefore expect his doom. Or this was the matter of their
defamation; they represented Jeremiah as a man that instilled fears and
jealousies on every side into the minds of the people, and so made them
uneasy under the government, and disposed them to a rebellion. Or he
perceived them to be so malicious against him that he could not but be afraid
on every side; wherever he was he had reason to fear informers; so that
they made him almost a Magor-missabib. These words are found in the
original, verbatim, the same, Ps. xxxi. 13, I have heard the
slander or defaming of many, fear on every side. Jeremiah, in his
complaint, chooses to make use of the same words that David had made use of
before him, that it might be a comfort to him to think that other good men
had suffered similar abuses before him, and to teach us to make use of
David's psalms with application to ourselves, as there is occasion. Whatever
we have to say, we may thence take with us words. See how Jeremiah's enemies
contrived the matter: Report, say they, and we will report it. They
resolve to cast an odium upon him, and this is the method they take:
"Let some very bad thing be said of him, which may render him obnoxious
to the government, and, though it be ever so false, we will second it, and
spread it, and add to it." (For the reproaches of good men lose nothing
by the carriage.) "Do you that frame a story plausibly, or you that can
pretend to some acquaintance with him, report it once, and we will all
report it from you, in all companies, that we come into. Do you say it, and
we will swear it; do you set it a going, and we will follow it." And
thus both are equally guilty, those that raise and those that propagate the
false report. The receiver is as bad as the thief. (2.) They flattered him
to his face, that they might get something from him on which to ground an
accusation, as the spies that came to Christ feigning themselves to be just
men, Luke xx. 20; xi. 53, 54. His familiars, that he conversed freely with
and put a confidence in, watched for his halting, observed what he
said, which they could by any strained innuendo put a bad
construction upon, and carried it to his enemies. His case was very sad when
those betrayed him whom he took to be his friends. They said among
themselves, "If we accost him kindly, and insinuate ourselves into his
acquaintance, per-adventure he will be enticed to own that he is in
confederacy with the enemy and a pensioner to the king of Babylon, or we
shall wheedle him to speak some treasonable words; and then we shall
prevail against him, and take our revenge upon him for telling us
of our faults and threatening us with the judgments of God." Note,
Neither the innocence of the dove, no, nor the prudence of the serpent to
help it, can secure men from unjust censure and false accusation.
II. Here is an account of the temptation he was in under this affliction;
his feet were almost gone, as the psalmist's, Ps. lxxiii. 2. And this
is that which is most to be dreaded in affliction, being driven by it to
sin, Neh. vi. 13. 1. He was tempted to quarrel with God for making him a
prophet. This he begins with (v. 7): O Lord! thou hast deceived
me, and I was deceived. This as we read it, sounds very harshly. God's
servants have been always ready to own that he is a faithful Master and
never cheated them; and therefore this is the language of Jeremiah's folly
and corruption. If, when God called him to be a prophet and told him he
would set him over the kingdoms (ch. i. 10) and make him a
defenced city, he flattered himself with an expectation of having
universal respect paid to him as a messenger from heaven, and living safe
and easy, and afterwards it proved otherwise, he must not say that God had
deceived him, but that he had deceived himself; for he knew how the prophets
before him had been persecuted, and had no reason to expect better
treatment. Nay, God had expressly told him that all the princes, priests,
and people of the land would fight against him (ch. i. 18, 19),
which he had forgotten, else he would not have laid the blame on God thus.
Christ thus told his disciples what opposition they should meet with, that
they might not be offended, John xvi. 1, 2. But the words may very well
be read thus: Thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded; it is the
same word that was used, Gen. ix. 27, margin, God shall persuade Japhet.
And Prov. xxv. 15, By much forbearance is a prince persuaded. And Hos.
ii. 14, I will allure her. And this agrees best with what follows:
"Thou wast stronger than I, didst over-persuade me with
argument; nay, didst overpower me, by the influence of thy Spirit upon me,
and thou hast prevailed." Jeremiah was very backward to
undertake the prophetic office; he pleaded that he was under age and unfit
for the service; but God over-ruled his pleas, and told him that he must
go, ch. i. 6, 7. "Now, Lord," says he, "since thou
hast put this office upon me, why dost thou not stand by me in it? Had I
thrust myself upon it, I might justly have been in derision; but why am I so
when thou didst thrust me into it?" It was Jeremiah's infirmity to
complain thus of God as putting a hardship upon him in calling him to be a
prophet, which he would not have done had he considered the lasting honour
thereby done him, sufficient to counterbalance the present contempt he was
under. Note, As long as we see ourselves in the way of God and duty it is
weakness and folly, when we meet with difficulties and discouragements in
it, to wish we had never set out in it. 2. He was tempted to quit his work
and give it over, partly because he himself met with so much hardship in it
and partly because those to whom he was sent, instead of being edified and
made better, were exasperated and made worse (v. 9): "Then I
said, Since by prophesying in the name of the Lord I gain nothing to him
or myself but dishonour and disgrace, I will not make mention of him
as my author for any thing I say, nor speak any more in his name;
since my enemies do all they can to silence me, I will even silence myself,
and speak no more, for I may as well speak to the stones as to them."
Note, It is a strong temptation to poor ministers to resolve that they will
preach no more when they see their preaching slighted and wholly
ineffectual. But let people dread putting their ministers into this
temptation. Let not their labour be in vain with us, lest we provoke them to
say that they will take no more pains with us, and provoke God to say, They
shall take no more. Yet let not ministers hearken to this temptation, but go
on in their duty, notwithstanding their discouragements, for this is the
more thankworthy; and, though Israel be not gathered, yet they shall
be glorious.
III. Here is an account of his faithful adherence to his work and cheerful
dependence on his God notwithstanding.
1. He found the grace of God mighty in him to keep him to this business,
notwithstanding the temptation he was in to throw it up: "I said,
in my haste, I will speak no more in his name; what I have in my
heart to deliver I will stifle and suppress. But I soon found it was in
my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, which glowed inwardly,
and must have vent; it was impossible to smother it; I was like a man in a
burning fever, uneasy and in a continual agitation; while I kept silence
from good my heart was hot within me, it was pain and grief to me,
and I must speak, that I might be refreshed;" Ps. xxix. 2, 3; Job xxxii.
20. While I kept silence, my bones waxed old, Ps. xxxii. 3. See the
power of the spirit of prophecy in those that were actuated by it; and thus
will a holy zeal for God even eat men up, and make them forget themselves. I
believed, therefore have I spoken. Jeremiah was soon weary with
forbearing to preach, and could not contain himself; nothing puts faithful
ministers to pain so much as being silenced, nor to terror so much as
silencing themselves. Their convictions will soon triumph over temptations
of that kind; for woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel, whatever
it cost me, 1 Cor. ix. 16. And it is really a mercy to have the word of God
thus mighty in us to overpower our corruptions.
2. He was assured of God's presence with him, which would be sufficient to
baffle all the attempts of his enemies against him (v. 11):
"They say, We shall prevail against him; the day will
undoubtedly be our own. But I am sure that they shall not prevail, they
shall not prosper. I can safely set them all at defiance, for the
Lord is with me, is on my side, to take my part against them (Rom. viii.
31), to protect me from all their malicious designs upon me. He is with me
to support me and bear me up under the burden which now presses me down. He
is with me to make the word I preach answer the end he designs, though not
the end I desire. He is with me as a mighty terrible one, to strike a terror
upon them, and so to overcome them." Note, Even that in God which is
terrible is really comfortable to his servants that trust in him, for it
shall be turned against those that seek to terrify his people. God's being a
mighty God bespeaks him a terrible God to all those that take up arms
against him or any one that, like Jeremiah, was commissioned by him. How
terrible will the wrath of God be to those that think to daunt all about
them and will themselves be daunted by nothing! The most formidable enemies
that act against us appear despicable when we see the Lord for us as a mighty
terrible one, Neh. iv. 14. Jeremiah speaks now with a good assurance:
"If the Lord be with me, my persecutors shall stumble, so that,
when they pursue me, they shall not overtake me (Ps. xxvii. 2), and then they
shall be greatly ashamed of their impotent malice and fruitless
attempts. Nay, their everlasting confusion and infamy shall never
be forgotten; they shall not forget it themselves, but it shall be to
them a constant and lasting vexation, whenever they think of it; others
shall not forget it, but it shall leave upon them an indelible
reproach."
3. He appeals to God against them as a righteous Judge, and prays judgment
upon his cause, v. 12. He looks upon God as the God that tries the
righteous, takes cognizance of them, and of every cause that they are
interested in. He does not judge in favour of them with partiality, but tries
them, and finding that they have right on their side, and that their
persecutors wrong them and are injurious to them, he gives sentence for
them. He that tries the righteous tries the unrighteous too, and he is very
well qualified to do both; for he sees the reins and the heart, he
certainly knows men's thoughts and affections, their aims and intentions,
and therefore can pass an unerring judgment on their words and actions. Now
this is the God, (1.) To whom the prophet here refers himself, and in whose
court he lodges his appeal: Unto thee have I opened my cause. Not but
that God perfectly knew his cause, and all the merits of it, without his
opening; but the cause we commit to God we must spread before him. He knows
it, but he will know it from us, and allows us to be particular in the
opening of it, not to affect him, but to affect ourselves. Note, It will be
an ease to our spirits, when we are oppressed and burdened, to open our
cause to God and pour out our complaints before him. (2.) By whom he expects
to be righted; "Let me see thy vengeance on them, such vengeance
as thou thinkest fit to take for their conviction and my vindication, the
vengeance thou usest to take on persecutors." Note, Whatever injuries
are done us, we must not study to avenge ourselves, but must leave it to
that God to do it to whom vengeance belongs, and who hath said, I
will repay.
4. He greatly rejoices and praises God, in a full confidence that God would
appear for his deliverance, v. 13. So full is he of the comfort of
God's presence with him, the divine protection he is under, and the divine
promise he has to depend upon, that in a transport of joy he stirs up
himself and others to give God the glory of it: Sing unto the Lord,
praise you the Lord. Here appears a great change with him since he began
this discourse; the clouds are blown over, his complaints all silenced and
turned into thanksgivings. He has now an entire confidence in that God whom
(v. 7) he was distrusting; he stirs up himself to praise that name
which (v. 9) he was resolving no more to make mention of. It was the
lively exercise of faith that made this happy change, that turned his sighs
into songs and his tremblings into triumphs. It is proper to express our
hope in God by our praising him, and our praising God by our singing to him.
That which is the matter of the praise is, He hath delivered the soul of
the poor from the hand of the evil-doers; he means especially himself,
his own poor soul. "He hath delivered me formerly when I was in
distress, and now of late out of the hand of Pashur, and he will continue to
deliver me, 2 Cor. i. 10. He will deliver my soul from the sin that I am in
danger of falling into when I am thus persecuted. He hath delivered me
from the hand of evil-doers, so that they have not gained their point,
nor had their will." Note, Those that are faithful in well-doing need
not fear those that are spiteful in evil-doing, for they have a God to trust
to who has well-doers under the hand of his protection and evil-doers under
the hand of his restraint.
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The
Prophet's Impatient Appeal.
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B.
C. 600.
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14 Cursed be the day wherein I was
born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. 15
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man
child is born unto thee; making him very glad. 16 And let that
man be as the cities which the LORD
overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and
the shouting at noontide; 17 Because he slew me not from the
womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be
always great with me. 18 Wherefore came I forth out of
the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with
shame?
What is the meaning of this? Does there proceed out of the same mouth
blessing and cursing? Could he that said so cheerfully (v. 13), Sing
unto the Lord, praise you the Lord, say so passionately (v. 14), Cursed
be the day wherein I was born? How shall we reconcile these? What we
have in these verses the prophet records, I suppose, to his own shame, as he
had recorded that in the foregoing verses to God's glory. It seems to be a
relation of the ferment he had been in while he was in the stocks, out of
which by faith and hope he had recovered himself, rather than a new
temptation which he afterwards fell into, and it should come in like that of
David (Ps. xxxi. 22), I said in my haste, I am cut off; this is also
implied, Ps. lxxvii. 7. When grace has got the victory it is good to
remember the struggles of corruption, that we may be ashamed of ourselves
and our own folly, may admire the goodness of God in not taking us at our
word, and may be warned by it to double our guard upon our spirits another
time. See here how strong the temptation was which the prophet, by divine
assistance, got the victory over, and how far he yielded to it, that we may
not despair if we through the weakness of the flesh be at any time thus
tempted. Let us see here,
I. What the prophet's language was in this temptation. 1. He fastened a
brand of infamy upon his birth-day, as Job did in a heat (ch. iii.
1): "Cursed be the day wherein I was born. It was an ill day to
me (v. 14), because it was the beginning of sorrows, and an inlet to
all this misery." It is a wish that he had never been born. Judas in
hell has reason to wish so (Matt. xxvi. 24), but no man on earth has reason
to wish so, because he knows not but he may yet become a vessel of mercy,
much less has any good man reason to wish so. Whereas some keep their
birth-day, at the return of the year with gladness, he will look upon his
birth-day as a melancholy day, and will solemnize it with sorrow, and will
have it looked upon as an ominous day. 2. He wished ill to the messenger
that brought his father the news of his birth, v. 15. It made his
father very glad to hear that he had a child born (perhaps it was his
first-born), especially that it was a man-child, for then, being of the
family of the priests, he might live to have the honour of serving God's
altar; and yet he is ready to curse the man that brought him the tidings,
when perhaps the father to whom they were brought gave him a gratuity for
it. Here Mr. Gataker well observes, "That parents are often much
rejoiced at the birth of their children when, if they did but foresee what
misery they are born to, they would rather lament over them than rejoice in
them." He is very free and very fierce in the curses he pronounces upon
the messenger of his birth (v. 16): "Let him be at the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah, which the Lord utterly overthrew, and repented not,
did not in the least mitigate of alleviate their misery. Let him hear the
cry of the invading besieging enemy in the morning, as soon as he
is stirring; then let him take the alarm, and by noon let him hear their shouting
for victory. And thus let him live in constant terror." 3. He is angry
that the fate of the Hebrews' children in Egypt was not his, that he was not
slain from the womb, that his first breath was not his last, and that
he was not strangled as soon as he came into the world, v. 17. He
wishes the messenger of his birth had been better employed and had been his
murderer; nay, that his mother of whom he was born had been, to her great
misery, always with child of him, and so the womb in which he was conceived
would have served, without more ado, as a grave for him to be buried in. Job
intimates a near alliance and resemblance between the womb and the grave,
Job i. 21. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return
thither. 4. He thinks his present calamities sufficient to justify these
passionate wishes (v. 18): "Wherefore came I forth out of the
womb, where I lay hid, was not seen, was not hated, where I lay safely
and knew no evil, to see all this labour and sorrow, nay to have my days
consumed with shame, to be continually vexed and abused, to have my life
not only spent in trouble, but wasted and worn away by trouble?"
II. What use we may make of this. It is not recorded for our imitation, and
yet we may learn good lessons from it. 1. See the vanity of human life and
the vexation of spirit that attends it. If there were not another life after
this, we should be tempted many a time to wish that we have never known
this; for our few days here are full of trouble. 2. See the folly and
absurdity of sinful passion, how unreasonably it talks when it is suffered
to ramble. What nonsense is it to curse a day--to curse a messenger for the
sake of his message! What a brutish barbarous thing for a child to wish his
own mother had never been delivered of him! See Isa. xlv. 10. We can easily
see the folly of it in others, and should take warning thence to suppress
all such intemperate heats and passions in ourselves, to stifle them at
first and not to suffer these evil spirits to speak. When the heart is hot,
let the tongue be bridled, Ps. xxxix. 1, 2. 3. See the weakness even of good
men, who are but men at the best. See how much those who think they stand
are concerned to take heed lest they fall, and to pray daily, Father in
heaven, lead us not into temptation!
