Jeremiah
the prophet, since he cannot persuade people to submit to God's precept, and
so to prevent the destruction of their country by the king of Babylon, is
here persuading them to submit to God's providence, by yielding tamely to
the king of Babylon, and becoming tributaries to him, which was the wisest
course they could now take, and would be a mitigation of the calamity, and
prevent the laying of their country waste by fire and sword; the sacrificing
of their liberties would be the saving of their lives. I. He gives this
counsel, in God's name, to the kings of the neighbouring nations, that they
might make the best of bad, assuring them that there was no remedy, but they
must serve the king of Babylon; and yet in time there should be relief, for
his dominion should last but 70 years, ver. 1-11. II. He gives this counsel
to Zedekiah king of
Judah particularly (ver. 12-15) and to the priests
and people, assuring them that the king of
Babylon should still proceed against them till
things were brought to the last extremity, and a patient submission would be
the only way to mitigate the calamity and make it easy, ver. 16-22. Thus the
prophet, if they would but have hearkened to him, would have directed them
in the paths of true policy as well as of true piety.
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Nebuchadnezzar's
Victories Predicted.
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B.
C. 597.
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1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim
the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD,
saying, 2 Thus saith the LORD
to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, 3
And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king
of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the
hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of
Judah; 4 And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;
5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the
ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto
whom it seemed meet unto me. 6 And now have I given all these
lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Babylon
, my servant; and the beasts of the field
have I given him also to serve him. 7 And all nations shall
serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land
come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of
him. 8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and
kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon,
and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that
nation will I punish, saith the LORD,
with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have
consumed them by his hand. 9 Therefore hearken not ye to your
prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your
enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall
not serve the king of Babylon: 10 For they prophesy a lie unto
you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and
ye should perish. 11 But the nations that bring their neck under
the yoke of the king of
Babylon
, and serve him, those will I let remain
still in their own land, saith the LORD;
and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
Some difficulty occurs in the date of this prophecy. This word is said to
come to Jeremiah in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (v.
1), and yet the messengers, to whom he is to deliver the badges of
servitude, are said (v. 3) to come to Zedekiah king of Judah,
who reigned not till eleven years after the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign.
Some make it an error of the copy, and think that it should be read (v.
1), In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, for which some
negligent scribe, having his eye on the title of the foregoing chapter,
wrote Jehoiakim. And, if one would admit a mistake any where, it
should be here, for Zedekiah is mentioned again (v. 12), and the next
prophecy is dated the same year, and said to be in the beginning of the
reign of Zedekiah, ch. xxviii. 1. Dr. Lightfoot solves it thus:
In the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign Jeremiah is to make these bonds and
yokes, and to put them upon his own neck, in token of Judah's subjection to
the king of Babylon, which began at that time; but he is to send them to the
neighbouring kings afterwards in the reign of Zedekiah, of whose succession
to Jehoiakim, and the ambassadors sent to him, mention is made by way of
prediction.
I. Jeremiah is to prepare a sign of the general reduction of all these
countries into subjection to the king of Babylon (v. 2): Make thee
bonds and yokes, yokes with bonds to fasten them, that the beast may not
slip his neck out of the yoke. Into these the prophet must put his own neck
to make them taken notice of as a prophetic representation; for every one
would enquire, What is the meaning of Jeremiah's yokes? We find him with one
on, ch. xxviii. 10. Hereby he intimated that he advised them to
nothing but what he was resolved to do himself; for he was not one of those
that bind heavy burdens on others, which they themselves will not touch
with one of their fingers. Ministers must thus lay themselves under the
weight and obligation of what they preach to others.
II. He is to send this, with a sermon annexed to it, to all the neighbouring
princes; those are mentioned (v. 3) that lay next to the land of
Canaan. It should seem, there was a treaty of alliance on foot between the
king of Judah and all those other kings. Jerusalem was the place appointed
for the treaty. Thither they all sent their plenipotentiaries; and it was
agreed that they should bind themselves in a league offensive and defensive,
to stand by one another, in opposition to the growing threatening greatness
of the king of Babylon, and to reduce his exorbitant power. They had great
confidence in their strength thus united, and were ready to call themselves
the high allies; but, when the envoys were returning to their respective
masters with the ratification of this treaty, Jeremiah gives each of them a
yoke to carry to his master, to signify to him that he must either by
consent or by compulsion become a servant to the king of Babylon, let him
choose which he will. In the sermon upon this sign, 1. God asserts his own
indisputable right to dispose of kingdoms as he pleases, v. 5. He is
the Creator of all things; he made the earth at first, established
it, and it abides: it is still the same, though one generation passes
away and another comes. He still by a continued creation produces man
and beast upon the ground, and it is by his great power and outstretched
arm. His arm has infinite strength, though it be stretched out. Upon
this account he may give and convey a property and dominion to whomsoever he
pleases. As he hath graciously given the earth to the children of men
in general (Ps. cxv. 16), so he give to each his share of it, be it more or
less. Note, Whatever any have of the good things of this world, it is what
God sees fit to give them; we ourselves should therefore be content, though
we have ever so little, and not envy any their share, though they have ever
so much. 2. He publishes a grant of all these countries to Nebuchadnezzar.
Know all men by these presents. Sciant præsentes et futuri--Let those of
the present and those of the future age know. "This is to certify
to all whom it may concern that I have given all these lands, with
all the wealth of them, into the hands of the king of Babylon; even
the beasts of the field, whether tame or wild, have I given to
him, parks and pastures; they are all his own." Nebuchadnezzar was
a proud wicked man, an idolater; and yet God, in his providence, gives him
this large dominion, these vast possessions. Note, The things of this world
are not the best things, for God often gives the largest share of them to
bad men, that are rivals with him and rebels against him. He was a wicked
man, and yet what he had he had by divine grant. Note, Dominion is not
founded in grace. Those that have not any colourable title to eternal
happiness may yet have a justifiable title to their temporal good things.
Nebuchadnezzar is a very bad man, and yet God calls him his servant, because
he employed him as an instrument of his providence for the chastising of the
nations, and particularly his own people; and for his service therein he
thus liberally repaid him. Those whom God makes use of shall not lose by
him; much more will he be found the bountiful rewarder of all those that
designedly and sincerely serve him. 3. He assures them that they should all
be unavoidably brought under the dominion of the king of Babylon for a time
(v. 7): All nations, all these nations and many others, shall
serve him, and his son, and his son's son. His son was Evil-merodach,
and his son's son Belshazzar, in whom his kingdom ceased: then the time of
reckoning with his land came, when the tables were turned, and many
nations and great kings, incorporated into the empire of the Medes and
Persians, served themselves of him, as before, ch. xxv. 14.
Thus Adonibezek was trampled upon himself, as he had trampled on other
kings. 4. He threatens those with military execution that stood out and
would not submit to the king of Babylon (v. 8): That nation that will
not put their neck under his yoke I will punish with sword and
famine, with one judgment after another, till it is consumed by his
hand. Nebuchadnezzar was very unjust and barbarous in invading the
rights and liberties of his neighbours thus, and forcing them into a
subjection to him; yet God had just and holy ends in permitting him to do
so, to punish these nations for their idolatry and gross immoralities. Those
that would not serve the God that made them were justly made to serve their
enemies that sought to ruin them. 5. He shows them the vanity of all the
hopes they fed themselves with, that they should preserve their liberties, v.
9, 10. These nations had their prophets too, that pretended to foretell
future events by the stars, or by dreams, or enchantments; and they, to
please their patrons, and because they would themselves have it so,
flattered them with assurances that they should not serve the king of
Babylon. Thus they designed to animate them to a vigorous resistance;
and, though they had no ground for it, they hoped hereby to do them service.
But he tells them that it would prove to their destruction; for by resisting
they would provoke the conqueror to deal severely with them, to remove
them, and drive them out into a miserable captivity, in which
they should all be lost and buried in oblivion. Particular prophecies
against these nations that bordered on Israel severally, the ruin of which
is here foretold in the general, we shall meet with, ch. xlviii. and
xlix., and Ezek. xxv., which had the same accomplishment with this here.
Note, When God judges he will overcome. 6. He puts them in a fair way
to prevent their destruction by a quiet and easy submission, v. 11.
The nations that will be content to serve the king of Babylon, and
pay him tribute for seventy years (ten apprenticeships), those will I let
remain still in their own land. Those that will bend shall not break.
Perhaps the dominion of the king of Babylon may bear no harder upon them
than that of their own kings had done. It is often more a point of honour
than true wisdom to prefer liberty before life. It is not mentioned to the
disgrace of Issachar that because he saw rest was good, and
the land pleasant, that he might peaceably enjoy it, he bowed his
shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute (Gen. xlix. 14,
15), as these are here advised to do: Serve the king of Babylon and you
shall till the land and dwell therein. Some would condemn this as
the evidence of a mean spirit, but the prophet recommends it as that of a
meek spirit, which yields to necessity, and by a quiet submission to the
hardest turns of Providence makes the best of bad: it is better to do so
than by struggling to make it worse.
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------Levius
fit patientia
Quicquid corrigere est nefas.----HOR.
------When we needs must bear,
Enduring patience makes the burden light.
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CREECH.
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Many might have prevented destroying providences by humbling themselves
under humbling providences. It is better to take up a lighter cross in our
way than to pull a heavier on our own head.
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Jeremiah's
Counsel to Zedekiah; Submission to Nebuchadnezzar Urged.
B.
C. 597
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12 I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah
according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the
king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. 13 Why
will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the
pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the
nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Therefore
hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye
shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
15 For I have not sent them, saith the LORD,
yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye
might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you. 16
Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD;
Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying,
Behold, the vessels of the LORD's
house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a
lie unto you. 17 Hearken not unto them; serve the king of
Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste? 18
But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD
be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD
of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD,
and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to
Babylon. 19 For thus saith the LORD
of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the
bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this
city, 20 Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he
carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from
Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
21 Yea, thus saith the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in
the house of the LORD,
and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day
that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them
up, and restore them to this place.
What was said to all the nations is here with a particular tenderness
applied to the nation of the Jews, for whom Jeremiah was sensibly concerned.
The case at present stood thus: Judah and Jerusalem had often contested with
the king of Babylon, and still were worsted; many both of their valuable
persons and their valuable goods were carried to Babylon already, and some
of the vessels of the Lord's house particularly. Now how this
struggle would issue was the question. They had those among them at
Jerusalem who pretended to be prophets, who bade them hold out and they
should, in a little time, be too hard for the king of Babylon and recover
all that they had lost. Now Jeremiah is sent to bid them yield and knock
under, for that, instead of recovering what they had lost, they should
otherwise lose all that remained; and to press them to this is the scope of
these verses.
I. Jeremiah humbly addresses the king of Judah, to persuade him to surrender
to the king of Babylon. His act would be the people's and would determine
them, and therefore he speaks to him as to them all (v. 12): Bring
your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and live. Is it their
wisdom to submit to the heavy iron yoke of a cruel tyrant, that they may
secure the lives of their bodies? And is it not much more our wisdom to
submit to the sweet and easy yoke of our rightful Lord and Master Jesus
Christ, that we may secure the lives of our souls? Bring down your spirits
to repentance and faith, and that is the way to bring up your spirits to
heaven and glory. And with much more cogency and compassion may we
expostulate with perishing souls than Jeremiah here expostulates with a
perishing people: "Why will you die by the sword and the famine--miserable
deaths, which you inevitably run yourselves upon, under pretence of avoiding
miserable lives?" What God had spoken, in general, of all those that
would not submit to the king of Babylon, he would have them to apply to
themselves and be afraid of. It were well if sinners would, in like manner,
be afraid of the destruction threatened against all those that will not have
Christ to reign over them, and reason thus with themselves, "Why
should we die the second death, which is a thousand times worse than
that by sword and famine, when we might submit and live?"
II. He addresses himself likewise to the priests and the people (v.
16), to persuade them to serve the king of Babylon, that they might live,
and might prevent the desolation of the city (v. 17): "Wherefore
should it be laid waste, as certainly it will be if you stand it
out?" The priests had been Jeremiah's enemies, and had sought his life
to destroy it, yet he approves himself their friend, and seeks their lives,
to preserve and secure them, which is an example to us to render good for
evil. When the blood-thirsty hate the upright, yet the just
seek his soul, and the welfare of it, Prov. xxix. 10. The matter was far
gone here; they were upon the brink of ruin, which they would not have been
brought to if they would have taken Jeremiah's counsel; yet he continues his
friendly admonitions to them, to save the last stake and manage that wisely,
and now at length in this their day to understand the things that belong
to their peace, when they had but one day to turn them in.
III. In both these addresses he warns them against giving credit to the
false prophets that rocked them asleep in their security, because they saw
that they loved to slumber: "Hearken not to the words of the
prophets (v. 14), your prophets, v. 16. They are
not God's prophets; he never sent them; they do not serve him, nor seek to
please him; they are yours, for they say what you would have them say, and
aim at nothing but to please you." Two things their prophets flattered
them into the belief of:-- 1. That the power which the king of Babylon had
gained over them should now shortly be broken. They said (v. 14),
"You shall not serve the king of Babylon; you need not submit
voluntarily, for you shall not be compelled to submit." This they
prophesied in the name of the Lord (v. 15), as if God had sent
them to the people on this errand, in kindness to them, that they might not
disparage themselves by an inglorious surrender. But it was a lie. They said
that God sent them; but that was false; he disowns it: I have not sent
them, saith the Lord. They said that they should never be brought into
subjection to the king of Babylon; but that was false too, the event proved
it so. They said that to hold out to the last would be the way to secure
themselves and their city; but that was false, for it would certainly end in
their being driven out and perishing. So that it was all a lie, from first
to last; and the prophets that deceived the people with these lies did, in
the issue, but deceive themselves; the blind leaders and the blind followers
fell together into the ditch: That you might perish, you, and the
prophets that prophesy unto you, who will be so far from warranting your
security that they cannot secure themselves. Note, Those that encourage
sinners to go on in their sinful ways will in the end perish with them. 2.
They prophesied that the vessels of the temple, which the king of Babylon
had already carried away, should now shortly be brought back (v. 16);
this they fed the priests with the hopes of, knowing how acceptable it would
be to them, who loved the gold of the temple better than the temple
that sanctified the gold. These vessels were taken away when Jeconiah
was carried captive into Babylon, v. 20. We have the story, and it is
a melancholy one, 2 Kings xxiv. 13, 15; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. All the goodly
vessels (that is, all the vessels of gold that were in the
house of the Lord), with all the treasures, were taken as prey, and
brought to Babylon. This was grievous to them above any thing; for the
temple was their pride and confidence, and the stripping of that was too
plain an indication of that which the true prophet told them, that their God
had departed from them. Their false prophets therefore had no other way
to make them easy than by telling them that the king of Babylon should be
forced to restore them in a little while. Now here, (1.) Jeremiah bids them
think of preserving the vessels that remained by their prayers, rather than
of bringing back those that were gone by their prophecies (v. 18): If
they be prophets, as they pretend, and if the word of the Lord be
with them--if they have any intercourse with heaven and any interest
there, let them improve it for the stopping of the progress of the judgment;
let them step into the gap, and stand with their censer between the
living and the dead, between that which is carried away and that which
remains, that the plague may be stayed; let them make intercession with
the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left go not after the
rest. [1.] Instead of prophesying, let them pray. Note, Prophets must be
praying men; by being much in prayer they must make it to appear that they
keep up a correspondence with heaven. We cannot think that those do, as
prophets, ever hear thence, who do not frequently by prayer send thither. By
praying for the safety and prosperity of the sanctuary they must make it to
appear that, as becomes prophets, they are of a public spirit; and by the
success of their prayers it will appear that God favours them. [2.] Instead
of being concerned for the retrieving of what they had lost, they must
bestir themselves for the securing of what was left, and take it as a great
favour if they can gain that point. When God's judgments are abroad we must
not seek great things, but be thankful for a little. (2.) He assures them
that even this point should not be gained, but the brazen vessels should go
after the golden ones, v. 19, 22. Nebuchadnezzar had found so good a
booty once that he would be sure to come again and take all he could find,
not only in the house of the Lord, but in the king's house.
They shall all be carried to Babylon in triumph, and there shall they be.
But he concludes with a gracious promise that the time should come when they
should all be returned: Until the day that I visit them in mercy,
according to appointment, and then I will bring those vessels up
again, and restore them to this place, to their place. Surely they were
under the protection of a special Providence, else they would have been
melted down and put to some other use; but there was to be a second temple,
for which they were to be reserved. We read particularly of the return of
them, Ezra i. 8. Note, Though the return of the church's prosperity do not
come in our time, we must not therefore despair of it, for it will come in
God's time. Though those who said, The vessels of the Lord's house
shall shortly be brought again, prophesied a lie (v. 16), yet
he that said, They shall at length be brought again, prophesied the
truth. We are apt to set our clock before God's dial, and then to quarrel
because they do not agree; but the Lord is a God of judgment, and it is fit
that we should wait for him.
