Johanan
and the captains being strongly bent upon going into Egypt, either their
affections or politics advising them to take that course, they had a great
desire that God should direct them to do so too like Balaam, who, when he
was determined to go and curse Israel, asked God leave. Here is, I. The fair
bargain that was made between Jeremiah and them about consulting God in this
matter, ver. 1-6. II. The message at large which God sent them, in answer to
their enquiry, in which, 1. They are commanded and encouraged to continue in
the
land
of
Judah, and assured that if they did so it should
be well with them, ver. 7-12. 2. They are forbidden to go to Egypt, and are plainly told that if they did it
would be their ruin, ver. 13-18. 3. They are charged with dissimulation in
their asking what God's will was in this matter and disobedience when they
were told what it was; and sentence is accordingly passed upon them, ver.
19-22.
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Jeremiah
Agrees to Consult God.
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B.
C. 588.
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1 Then all the captains of the forces, and
Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the
people from the least even unto the greatest, came near, 2 And
said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be
accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD
thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few
of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) 3 That the LORD
thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may
do. 4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you;
behold, I will pray unto the LORD
your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that
whatsoever thing the LORD
shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing
back from you. 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD
be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to
all things for the which the LORD
thy God shall send thee to us. 6 Whether it be good, or
whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD
our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the
voice of the LORD
our God.
We have reason to wonder how Jeremiah the prophet escaped the sword of
Ishmael; it seems he did escape, and it was not the first time that the Lord
hid him. It is strange also that in these violent turns he was not consulted
before now, and his advice asked and taken. But it should seem as if they
knew not that a prophet was among them. Though this people were as brands
plucked out of the fire, yet have they not returned to the Lord.
This people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; and contempt of
God and his providence, God and his prophets, is still the sin that most
easily besets them. But now at length, to serve a turn, Jeremiah is
sought out, and all the captains, Johanan himself not excepted, with all
the people from the least to the greatest, make him a visit; they came
near (v. 1), which intimates that hitherto they had kept at a
distance from the prophet and had been shy of him. Now here,
I. They desire him by prayer to ask direction from God what they should do
in the present critical juncture, v. 2, 3. They express themselves
wonderfully well. 1. With great respect to the prophet. Though he was poor
and low, and under their command, yet they apply to him with humility and
submissiveness, as petitioners for his assistance, which yet they intimate
their own unworthiness of: Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be
accepted before thee. They compliment him thus in hopes to persuade him
to say as they would have him say. 2. With a great opinion of his interest
in heaven: "Pray for us, who know not how to pray for ourselves.
Pray to the Lord thy God, for we are unworthy to call him ours, nor
have we reason to expect any favour from him." 3. With a great sense of
their need of divine direction. They speak of themselves as objects of
compassion: "We are but a remnant, but a few of many; how easily
will such a remnant be swallowed up, and yet it is a pity that it should. Thy
eyes see what distress we are in, what a plunge we are at; if thou canst
do any thing, help us." 4. With desire of divine direction: "Let the
Lord thy God take this ruin into his thoughts and under his hand, and show
us the way wherein we may walk and may expect to have his presence with
us, and the thing that we may do, the course we may take for our own
safety." Note, In every difficult doubtful case our eye must be up to
God for direction. They then might expect to be directed by a spirit of
prophecy, which has now ceased; but we may still in faith pray to be
guided by a spirit of wisdom in our hearts and the hints of
Providence.
II. Jeremiah faithfully promises them to pray for direction for them, and,
whatever message God should send to them by him, he would deliver it to them
just as he received it without adding, altering, or diminishing, v.
4. Ministers may hence learn, 1. Conscientiously to pray for those who
desire their prayers: I will pray for you according to your words.
Though they had slighted him, yet, like Samuel when he was slighted, he will
not sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for them, 1 Sam. xii. 23.
2. Conscientiously to advise those who desire their advice as near as they
can to the mind of God, not keeping back any thing that is profitable for
them, whether it be pleasing or no, but to declare to them the whole
counsel of God, that they may approve themselves true to their trust.
III. They fairly promise that they will be governed by the will of God, as
soon as they know what it is (v. 5, 6), and they had the impudence to
appeal to God concerning their sincerity herein, though at the same time
they dissembled: "The Lord be a true and faithful witness between
us; do thou in the fear of God tell us truly what his mind is and then
we will in the fear of God comply with it, and for this the Lord the Judge
be Judge between us." Note, Those that expect to have the benefit of
good ministers' prayers must conscientiously hearken to their preaching and
be governed by it, as far as it agrees with the mind of God. Nothing could
be better than this was: Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we
will obey the voice of the Lord our God, that it may be well with us. 1.
They now call God their God, for Jeremiah had encouraged them to call
him so (v. 4): I will pray to the Lord your God. He is ours,
and therefore we will obey his voice. Our relation to God strongly
obliges us to obedience. 2. They promise to obey his voice because
they sent the prophet to him to consult him. Note, We do not truly desire to
know the mind of God if we do not fully resolve to comply with it when we do
know it. 3. It is an implicit universal obedience that they here promise.
They will do what God appoints them to do, whether it be good or whether
it be evil: "Though it may seem evil to us, yet we will believe
that if God command it it is certainly good, and we must not dispute it, but
do it. Whatever God commands, whether it be easy or difficult, agreeable to
our inclinations or contrary to them, whether it be cheap or costly,
fashionable or unfashionable, whether we get or lose by it in our worldly
interests, if it be our duty, we will do it." 4. It is upon a very good
consideration that they promise this, a reasonable and powerful one, that
it may be well with us, which intimates a conviction that they could not
expect it should be well with them upon any other terms.
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Jeremiah's
Address to the People.
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B.
C. 588.
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7 And it came to pass after ten days, that
the word of the LORD
came unto Jeremiah. 8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah,
and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the
people from the least even to the greatest, 9 And said unto
them, Thus saith the LORD,
the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before
him; 10 If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build
you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you
up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. 11 Be
not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of
him, saith the LORD:
for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his
hand. 12 And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have
mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. 13 But
if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD
your God, 14 Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt,
where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have
hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: 15 And now therefore
hear the word of the LORD,
ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into
Egypt, and go to sojourn there; 16 Then it shall come to pass, that
the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt,
and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there
in Egypt; and there ye shall die. 17 So shall it be with all the
men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die
by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall
remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. 18
For thus saith the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured
forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth
upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and
an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no
more. 19 The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt:
know certainly that I have admonished you this day. 20 For ye
dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for
us unto the LORD
our God; and according unto all that the LORD
our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
21 And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not
obeyed the voice of the LORD
your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the
famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and
to sojourn.
We have here the answer which Jeremiah was sent to deliver to those who
employed him to ask counsel of God.
I. It did not come immediately, not till ten days after, v. 7.
They were thus long held in suspense, perhaps, to punish them for their
hypocrisy or to show that Jeremiah did not speak of himself, nor what he
would, for he could not speak when he would, but must wait for instructions.
However, it teaches us to continue waiting upon God for direction in our
way. The vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak.
II. When it did come he delivered it publicly, both to the captains
and to all the people, from the meanest to those in the highest
station; he delivered it fully and faithfully as he received it, as he had
promised that he would keep nothing back from them. If Jeremiah had been to
direct them by his own prudence, perhaps he could not have told what to
advise them to, the case was so difficult; but what he has to advise is what
the Lord the God of Israel saith, to whom they had sent him, and
therefore they were bound in honour and duty to observe it. And this he
tells them,
1. That it is the will of God that they should stay where they are, and his
promise that, if they do so, it shall undoubtedly be well with them
he would have them still to abide in this land, v. 10. Their
brethren were forced out of it into captivity, and this was their
affliction; let those therefore count it a mercy that they may stay in it
and a duty to stay in it. Let those whose lot is in Canaan never quit it
while they can keep it. It would have been enough to oblige them if God had
only said, "I charge you upon your allegiance to abide still in the
land;" but he rather persuades them to it as a friend than commands
it as a prince. (1.) He expresses a very tender concern for them in their
present calamitous condition: It repenteth me of the evil that I have
done unto you. Though they had shown small sign of their repenting of
their sins, yet God, as one grieved for the misery of Israel (Judg.
x. 16), begins to repent of the judgments he had brought upon them for their
sins. Not that he changed his mind, but he was very ready to change his way
and to return in mercy to them. God's time to repent himself concerning his
servants is when he sees that, as here, their strength is gone, and there
is none shut up or left, Deut. xxxii. 36. (2.) He answers the argument
they had against abiding in this land. They feared the king of Babylon
(ch. xli. 18), lest he should come and avenge the death of Gedaliah
upon them, though they were no way accessory to it, nay, had witnessed
against it. The surmise was foreign and unreasonable; but, if there had been
any ground for it, enough is here said to remove it (v. 11): "Be
not afraid of the king of Babylon, though he is a man of great might and
little mercy, and a very arbitrary prince, whose will is a law, and
therefore you are afraid he will upon this pretence, though without colour
of reason, take advantage against you; be not afraid of him, for that
fear will bring a snare: fear not him, for I am with you; and, if God
be for you to save you, who can be against you to hurt you?" Thus has
God provided to obviate and silence even the causeless fears of his people,
which discourage them in the way of their duty; there is enough in the
promises to encourage them. (3.) He assures them that if they will still
abide in this land they shall not only be safe from the king of Babylon, but
be made happy by the King of kings: "I will build you and plant you;
you shall take root again, and be the new foundation of another state, a
phoenix-kingdom, rising out of the ashes of the last." It is added (v.
12), I will show mercies unto you. Note, In all our comforts we may
read God's mercies. God will show them mercy in this, that not only the king
of Babylon shall not destroy them, but he shall have mercy upon them
and help to settle them. Note, Whatever kindness men do us we must attribute
it to God's kindness. He makes those whom he pities to be pitied even by those
who carried them captives, Ps. xvi. 46. "The king of Babylon,
having now the disposal of the country, shall cause you to return it to
your own land, shall settle you again in your own habitations and put
you in possession of the lands that formerly belonged to you." Note,
God has made that our duty which is really our privilege, and our obedience
will be its own recompence. "Abide in this land, and it shall be
your own land again and you shall continue in it. Do not quit it now that
you stand so fair for the enjoyment of it again. Be no so unwise as to forsake
your own mercies for lying vanities."
2. That as they tender the favour of God and their own happiness they must
by no means think of going into
Egypt
, not thither of all places, not to that land out of which God had delivered
their fathers and which he had so often warned them not to make alliance
with nor to put confidence in. Observe here, (1.) The sin they are supposed
to be guilty of (and to him that knew their hearts it was more than a
supposition): "You begin to say, We will not dwell in this land
(v. 13); we will never think that we can be safe in it, no, not
though God himself undertake our protection. We will not continue in it, no,
not in obedience to the voice of the Lord our God. He may say what he
please, but we will do what we please. We will go into the land
of
Egypt, and there will we dwell, whether God give us leave and go
along with us or no," v. 14. It is supposed that their hearts
were upon it: "If you wholly set your faces to enter into
Egypt, and are obstinately resolved that you will go and sojourn there,
though God oppose you in it both by his word and by his providence, then
take what follows." Now the reason they go upon in this resolution is
that "in
Egypt
we shall see no war, nor have hunger of bread; as we have had for a
long time in this land," v. 14. Note, It is folly to quit our place,
especially to quit the holy land, because we meet with trouble in it; but
greater folly to think by changing our place to escape the judgments of God,
and that evil which pursues sinners in every way of disobedience, and which
there is no escaping but by returning to our allegiance. (2.) The sentence
passed upon them for this sin, if they will persist in it. It is pronounced
in God's name (v. 15): "Hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of
Judah, who think that because you are a remnant you must be spared of
course (v. 2) and indulged in your own humour." [1.] Did the
sword and famine frighten them? Those very judgments shall pursue them into
Egypt, shall overtake them, and overcome them there (v. 16, 17):
"You think, because war and famine have long been raging in this land,
that they are entailed upon it; whereas, if you trust in God, he can make
even this land a land of peace to you; you think they are confined to it,
and, if you can get clear of this land, you shall get out of the reach of
them, but God will send them after you wherever you go." Note, the
evils we think to escape by sin we certainly and inevitably run ourselves
upon. The men that go to
Egypt
in contradiction to God's will, to escape the sword and famine, shall
die in
Egypt
by sword and famine. We may apply it to the common calamities of
human life; those that are impatient of them, and think to avoid them by
changing their place, will find that they are deceived and that they do not
at all better themselves. The grievances common to men will meet them
wherever they go. All our removes in this world are but from one wilderness
to another; still we are where we were. [2.] Did the desolations of
Jerusalem
frighten them? Were they willing to get as far as they could from them? They
shall meet with the second part of them too in
Egypt
(v. 18): As my anger and fury have been poured out here upon
Jerusalem
, so they shall be poured out upon you in
Egypt
. Note, Those that have by sin made God their enemy will find him a
consuming fire wherever they go. And then you shall be an execration and
an astonishment. The Hebrews were of old an abomination to the Egyptians
(Gen. xliii. 32), and now they shall be made more so than ever. When God's
professing people mingle with infidels, and make their court to them, they
lose their dignity and make themselves a reproach.
3. That God knew their hypocrisy in their enquiries of him, and that when
they asked what he would have them to do they were resolved to take their
own way; and therefore the sentence which was before pronounced
conditionally is made absolute. Having set before them good and evil, the
blessing and the curse, in the close he makes application of what he had
said. And here, (1.) He solemnly protests that he had faithfully delivered
his message, v. 19. The conclusion of the whole matter is, "Go
not down into Egypt; you disobey the command of God if you do, and what
I have said to you will be a witness against you; for know certainly
that, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear, I have
plainly admonished you; you cannot now plead ignorance of the mind of
God." (2.) He charges them with base dissimulation in the application
they made to him for divine direction (v. 20): "You
dissembled in your hearts; you professed one thing and intended another,
promising what you never meant to perform." You have used deceit
against your soul (so the margin reads it); for those that think to put
a cheat upon God will prove in the end to have put a damning cheat upon
themselves. (3.) He is already aware that they are determined to go contrary
to the command of God; probably they discovered it in their countenance and
secret mutterings already, before he had finished his discourse. However, he
spoke from him who knew their hearts: "You have not obeyed the voice
of the Lord your God; you have not a disposition to obey it." Thus
Moses, in the close of his farewell sermon, had told them (Deut. xxxi. 27,
29), I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck, and that you will
corrupt yourselves. Admire the patience of God, that he is pleased to
speak to those who, he knows, will not regard him, and deal with those who,
he knows, will deal very treacherously, Isa. xlviii. 8. (4.) He
therefore reads them their doom, ratifying what he had said before: Know
certainly that you shall die by the sword, v. 22. God's
threatenings may be vilified, but cannot be nullified, by the unbelief of
man. Famine and pestilence shall pursue these sinners; for there is
no place privileged from divine arrests, nor can any malefactors go out of
God's jurisdiction. You shall die in the place whither you desire to go.
Note, We know not what is good for ourselves; and that often proves
afflictive, and sometimes fatal, which we are most fond of and have our
hearts most set upon.
