J
E R E M I A H
CHAP. VII.
The
prophet having in God's name reproved the people for their sins, and given
them warning of the judgments of God that were coming upon them, in this
chapter prosecutes the same intention for their humiliation and awakening. I.
He shows them the invalidity of the plea they so much relied on, that they had
the temple of God among them and constantly attended the service of it, and
endeavours to take them off from their confidence in their external privileges
and performances, ver. 1-11. II. He reminds them of the desolations of Shiloh,
and foretels that such should be the desolations of Jerusalem, ver. 12-16.
III. He represents to the prophet their abominable idolatries, for which he
was thus incensed against them, ver. 17-20. IV. He sets before the people that
fundamental maxim of religion that "to obey is better than
sacrifice" (1 Sam. xv. 22), and that God would not accept the sacrifices
of those that obstinately persisted in disobedience, ver. 21-28. V. He
threatens to lay the land utterly waste for their idolatry and impiety, and to
multiply their slain as they had multiplied their sin, ver. 29-34.
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A
Call of Repentance.
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B.
C. 606.
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1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD,
saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's
house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD,
all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus saith the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause
you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying,
The temple of the LORD,
The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD,
are these. 5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your
doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his
neighbour; 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the
fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither
walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to
dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and
ever. 8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn
incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 10
And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and
say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? 11 Is this
house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name
at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people
Israel. 13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith
the LORD,
and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I
called you, but ye answered not; 14 Therefore will I do unto this
house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which
I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15
And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even
the whole seed of Ephraim.
These verses begin another sermon, which is continued in this and the two
following chapters, much to the same effect with those before, to reason them
to repentance. Observe,
I. The orders given to the prophet to preach this sermon; for he had not only
a general commission, but particular directions and instructions for every
message he delivered. This was a word that came to him from the
Lord, v. 1. We are not told when this sermon was to be preached;
but are told, 1. Where it must be preached--in the gate of the Lord's
house, through which they entered into the outer court, or the court of
the people. It would affront the priests, and expose the prophet to their
rage, to have such a message as this delivered within their precincts; but the
prophet must not fear the face of man, he cannot be faithful to his God if he
do. 2. To whom it must be preached--to the men of Judah, that enter in at
these gates to worship the Lord; probably it was at one of three feasts,
when all the males from all parts of the country were to appear before the
Lord in the courts of his house, and not to appear empty: then he had
many together to preach to, and that was the most seasonable time to admonish
them not to trust to their privileges. Note, (1.) Even those that profess
religion have need to be preached to as well as those that are without. (2.)
It is desirable to have opportunity of preaching to many together. Wisdom
chooses to cry in the chief place of concourse, and, as Jeremiah here, in
the opening of the gates, the temple-gates. (3.) When we are going to
worship God we have need to be admonished to worship him in the spirit,
and to have no confidence in the flesh, Phil. iii. 3.
II. The contents and scope of the sermon itself. It is delivered in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who commands the world, but
covenants with his people. As creatures we are bound to regard the Lord of
hosts, as Christians the God of Israel; what he said to them he
says to us, and it is much the same with that which John Baptist said to those
whom he baptized (Matt. iii. 8, 9), Bring forth fruits meet for repentance;
and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. The
prophet here tells them,
1. What were the true words of God, which they might trust to. In short, they
might depend upon it that if they would repent and reform their lives, and
return to God in a way of duty, he would restore and confirm their peace,
would redress their grievances, and return to them in a way of mercy (v.
3): Amend your ways and your doings. This implies that there had been
much amiss in their ways and doings, many faults and errors. But it is a great
instance of the favour of God to them that he gives them liberty to amend,
shows them where and how they must amend, and promises to accept them upon
their amendment: "I will cause you to dwell quietly and peaceably in
this place, and a stop shall be put to that which threatens your
expulsion." Reformation is the only way, and a sure way to ruin. He
explains himself (v. 5-7), and tells them particularly,
(1.) What the amendment was which he expected from them. They must thoroughly
amend; in making good, they must make good their ways and
doings; they must reform with resolution, and it must be a universal,
constant, preserving reformation--not partial, but entire--not hypocritical,
but sincere--not wavering, but constant. They must make the tree good, and so
make the fruit good, must amend their hearts and thoughts, and so amend their
ways and doings. In particular, [1.] They must be honest and just in all their
dealings. Those that had power in their hands must thoroughly execute
judgment between a man and his neighbour, without partiality, and
according as the merits of the cause appeared. They must not either in
judgment or in contract oppress the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow,
nor countenance or protect those that did oppress, nor refuse to do them
justice when they sought for it. They must not shed innocent blood, and
with it defile this place and the land wherein they dwelt. [2.] They
must keep closely to the worship of the true God only: "Neither walk
after other gods; do not hanker after them, nor hearken to those that
would draw you into communion with idolaters; for it is, and will be, to
your own hurt. Be not only so just to your God, but so wise for
yourselves, as not to throw away your adorations upon those who are not able
to help you, and thereby provoke him who is able to destroy you." Well,
this is all that God insists upon.
(2.) He tells them what the establishment is which, upon this amendment, they
may expect from him (v. 7): "Set about such a work of reformation
as this with all speed, go through with it, and abide by it; and I will
cause you to dwell in this place, this temple; it shall continue your
place of resort and refuge, the place of your comfortable meeting with God and
one another; and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers
for ever and ever, and it shall never be turned out either from God's
house or from your own." It is promised that they shall still enjoy their
civil and sacred privileges, that they shall have a comfortable enjoyment of
them: I will cause you to dwell here; and those dwell at ease to whom
God gives a settlement. They shall enjoy it by covenant, by virtue of the
grant made of it to their fathers, not by providence, but by promise. They
shall continue in the enjoyment of it without eviction or molestation; they
shall not be disturbed, much less dispossessed, for ever and ever;
nothing but sin could throw them out. An everlasting inheritance in the
heavenly Canaan is hereby secured to all that live in godliness and honesty.
And the vulgar Latin reads a further privilege here, v. 3, 7. Habitabo
vobiscum--I will dwell with you in this place; and we should find Canaan
itself but an uncomfortable place to dwell in if God did not dwell with us
there.
2. What were the lying words of their own hearts, which they must not trust
to. He cautions them against this self-deceit (v. 4): "Trust no
in lying words. You are told in what way, and upon what terms, you may be
easy safe, and happy; now do not flatter yourselves with an opinion that you
may be so on any other terms, or in any other way." Yet he charges them
with this self-deceit arising from vanity (v. 8): "Behold,
it is plain that you do trust in lying words, notwithstanding
what is said to you; you trust in words that cannot profit; you rely
upon a plea that will stand you in no stead." Those that slight the words
of truth, which would profit them, take shelter in words of falsehood, which
cannot profit them. Now these lying words were, "The temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. These
buildings, the courts, the holy place, and the holy of holies, are the temple
of the Lord, built by his appointment, to his glory; here he resides, here
he is worshipped, here we meet three times a year to pay our homage to him as
our King in his palace." This they thought was security enough to them to
keep God and his favours from leaving them, God and his judgments from
breaking in upon them. When the prophets told them how sinful they were, and
how miserable they were likely to be, still they appealed to the temple:
"How can we be either so or so, as long as we have that holy happy place
among us?" The prophet repeats it because they repeated it upon all
occasions. It was the cant of the times; it was in their mouths upon all
occasions. If they heard an awakening sermon, if any startling piece of news
was brought to them, they lulled themselves asleep again with this, "We
cannot but do well, for we have the temple of the Lord among us."
Note, The privileges of a form of godliness are often the pride and
confidence of those that are strangers and enemies to the power of it. It is
common for those that are furthest from God to boast themselves most of their
being near to the church. They are haughty because of the holy mountain
(Zeph. iii. 11), as if God's mercy were so tied to them that they might defy
his justice. Now to convince them what a frivolous plea this was, and what
little stead it would stand them in,
(1.) He shows them the gross absurdity of it in itself. If they knew any thing
either of the temple of the Lord or of the Lord of the temple,
they must think that to plead that, either in excuse of their sin against God
or in arrest of God's judgment against them, was the most ridiculous
unreasonable thing that could be. [1.] God is a holy God; but this plea made
him the patron of sin, of the worst of sins, which even the light of nature
condemns, v. 9, 10. "What," says he, "will you steal,
murder, and commit adultery, be guilty of the vilest immoralities, and
which the common interest, as well as the common sense, of mankind witness
against? Will you swear falsely, a crime which all nations (who with
the belief of a God have had a veneration for an oath) have always had a
horror of? Will you burn incense to Baal, a dunghill-deity, that sets
up as a rival with the great Jehovah, and, not content with that, will you
walk after other gods too, whom you know not, and by all these
crimes put a daring affront upon God, both as the Lord of hosts and as
the God of Israel? Will you exchange a God of whose power and goodness
you have had such a long experience for gods of whose ability and willingness
to help you you know nothing? And, when you have thus done the worst you can
against God, will you brazen your faces so far as to come and stand before
him in this house which is called by his name and in which his name is
called upon--stand before him as servants waiting his commands, as supplicants
expecting his favour? Will you act in open rebellion against him, and yet herd
among his subjects, among the best of them? By this, it should seem, you think
that either he does not discover or does not dislike your wicked practices, to
imagine either of which is to put the highest indignity possible upon him. It
is as if you should say, We are delivered to do all these abominations."
If they had not the front to say this, totidem verbis--in so many words,
yet their actions spoke it aloud. They could not but own that God, even their
own God, had many a time delivered them, and been a present help to them, when
otherwise they must have perished. He, in delivering them, designed to reduce
them to himself, and by his goodness to lead them to repentance; but they
resolved to persist in their abominations notwithstanding. As soon as they
were delivered (as of old in the days of the Judges) they did evil again in
the sight of the Lord, which was in effect to say, in direct contradiction
to the true intent and meaning of the providences which had affected them,
that God had delivered them in order to put them again into a capacity of
rebelling against him, by sacrificing the more profusely to their idols. Note,
Those who continue in sin because grace has abounded, or that grace may
abound, do in effect their idols. Note, Those who continue in sin because
grace has abounded, or that grace may abound, do in effect make Christ the
minister of sin. Some take it thus: "You present yourselves before God
with your sacrifices and sin-offerings, and then say, We are delivered,
we are discharged from our guilt, now it shall do us no hurt; when all this is
but to blind the world, and stop the mouth of conscience, that you may, the
more easily to yourselves and the more plausibly before others, do all
these abominations." [2.] His temple was a holy place; but this plea
made it a protection to the most unholy persons: "Has this house,
which is called by my name and is a standing sign of God's kingdom of sin
and Satan--has this become a den of robbers in your eyes? Do you think
it was built to be not only a rendezvous of, but a refuge and shelter to, the
vilest of malefactors?" No; though the horns of the altar were a
sanctuary to him that slew a man unawares, yet they were not so to a wilful
murderer, nor to one that did aught presumptuously, Exod. xxi. 14; 1 Kings ii.
29. Those that think to excuse themselves in unchristian practices with the
Christian name, and sin the more boldly and securely because there is a
sin-offering provided, do, in effect, make God's house of prayer a den of
thieves, as the priests in Christ's time, Matt. xxi. 13. But could they thus
impose upon God? No: Behold, I have seen it, saith the Lord, have seen
the real iniquity through the counterfeit and dissembled piety. Note, Though
men may deceive one another with the appearances of devotion, yet they cannot
deceive God.
(2.) He shows them the insufficiency of this plea adjudged long since in the
case of Shiloh. [1.] It is certain that Shiloh was ruined, though it had God's
sanctuary in it, when by its wickedness it profaned that sanctuary (v.
12): Go you now to my place which was in Shiloh. It is probable that
the ruins of that once flourishing city were yet remaining; they might, at
least, read the history of it, which ought to affect them as if they saw the
place. There God set his name at the first, there the tabernacle was
set up when Israel first took possession of Canaan (John xviii. 1), and
thither the tribes went up; but those that attended the service of the
tabernacle there corrupted both themselves and others, and from them arose the
wickedness of his people Israel; that fountain was poisoned, and sent
forth malignant streams; and what came of it? No; God forsook it (Ps.
lxxviii. 60), sent his ark into captivity, cut off the house of Eli that
presided there; and it is very probable that the city was quite destroyed, for
we never read any more of it but as a monument of divine vengeance upon holy
places when they harbour wicked people. Note, God's judgments upon others, who
have really revolted from God while they have kept up a profession of nearness
to him, should be a warning to us not to trust in lying words. It is
good to consult precedents, and make use of them. Remember Lot's wife;
remember Shiloh and the seven churches of Asia; and know that the ark and
candlestick are moveable things, Rev. ii. 5; Matt. xxi. 43. [2.] It is as
certain that Shiloh's fate will be Jerusalem's doom if a speedy and sincere
repentance prevent it not. First, Jerusalem was now as sinful as ever
Shiloh was; that is proved by the unerring testimony of God himself against
them (v. 13): "You have done all these works, you cannot
deny it:" and they continued obstinate in their sin; that is proved by
the testimony of God's return and repent, rising up early and speaking,
as one in care, as one in earnest, as one who would lose no time in dealing
with them, nay, who would take the fittest opportunity for speaking to them
early in the morning, when, if ever, they were sober, and had their
thoughts free and clear; but it was all in vain. God spoke, but they heard
not, they heeded not, they never minded; he called them, but they answered
not; they would not come at his call. Note, What God has spoken to us
greatly aggravates what we have done against him. Secondly, Jerusalem
shall shortly be as miserable as ever Shiloh was: Therefore I will do unto
this house as I did to Shiloh, ruin it, and lay it waste, v. 14.
Those that tread in the steps of the wickedness of those that went before them
must expect to fall by the like judgments, for all these things happened to
them for ensamples. The temple at Jerusalem, though ever so strongly
built, if wickedness was found in it, would be as unable to keep its ground
and as easily conquered as even the tabernacle in Shiloh was, when God's day
of vengeance had come. "This house" (says God) "is called by
my name, and therefore you may think that I should protect it; it is the
house in which you trust, and you think that it will protect you; this
land is the place, this city the place, which I gave to you and your
fathers, and therefore you are secure of the continuance of it, and think
that nothing can turn you out of it; but the men of Shiloh thus flattered
themselves and did but deceive themselves." He quotes another precedent (v.
15), the ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes, who were the seed of Abraham,
and had the covenant of circumcision, and possessed the land which God gave to
them and their fathers, and yet the idolatries threw them out and extirpated
them: "And can you think but that the same evil courses will be as fatal
to you?" Doubtless they will be so; for God is uniform and of a piece
with himself in his judicial proceedings. It is a rule of justice, ut
parium par sit ratio--that in similar cases the same judgment should proceed.
"You have corrupted yourselves as your brethren the seed of
Ephraim did, and have become their brethren in iniquity, and therefore I
will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast them." The
interpretation here given of the judgment makes it a terrible one indeed; the
casting of them out of their land signified God's casting them out of his
sight, as if he would never look upon them, never look after them, more.
Whenever we are cast, it is well enough, if we be kept in the love of God;
but, if we are thrown out of his favour, our case is miserable though we dwell
in our own land. This threatening, that God would make this house like Shiloh,
we shall meet with again, and find Jeremiah indicted for it, ch. xxvi.
6.
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Punishment
Predicted.
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B.
C. 606.
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16 Therefore pray not thou for this people,
neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for
I will not hear thee. 17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities
of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather
wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough,
to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto
other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke
me to anger? saith the LORD:
do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own
faces? 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man,
and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the
ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
God had shown them, in the foregoing verses, that the temple and the service
of it, of which they boasted and in which they trusted, should not avail to
prevent the judgment threatened. But there was another thing which might stand
them in some stead, and which yet they had no value for, and that was the
prophet's intercession for them; his prayers would do them more good than
their own pleas: now here that support is taken from them; and their case is
said indeed who have lost their interest in the prayers of God's ministers and
people.
I. God here forbids the prophet to pray for them (v. 16): "The
decree has gone forth, their ruin is resolved on, therefore pray not thou
for this people, that is, pray not for the preventing of this judgment
threatened; they have sinned unto death, and therefore pray not for
their life, but for the life of their souls," 1 John v. 16. See here, 1.
That God's prophets are praying men; Jeremiah foretold the destruction of
Judah and Jerusalem, and yet prayed for their preservation, not knowing that
the decree was absolute; and it is the will of God that we pray for the
peace of Jerusalem. Even when we threaten sinners with damnation we must
pray for their salvation, that they may turn and live. Jeremiah was
hated, and persecuted, and reproached, by the children of his people, and yet
he prayed for them; for it becomes us to render good for evil. 2. That God's
praying prophets have a great interest in heaven, how little soever they have
on earth. When God has determined to destroy this people, he bespeaks the
prophet not to pray for them, because he would not have his prayers to lie (as
prophets' prayers seldom did) unanswered. God said to Moses, Let me alone,
Exod. xxii. 10. 3. It is an ill omen to a people when God restrains the
spirits of his ministers and people from praying for them, and gives them to
see their case so desperate that they have no heart to speak a good word for
them. 4. Those that will not regard good ministers' preaching cannot expect
any benefit by their praying. If you will not hear us when we speak from God
to you, God will not hear us when we speak to him for you.
II. He gives him a reason for this prohibition. Praying breath is too precious
a thing to be lost and thrown away upon a people hardened in sin and marked
for ruin.
1. They are resolved to persist in their rebellion against God, and will not
be turned back by the prophet's preaching. For this he appeals to the prophet
himself, and his own inspection and observation (v. 17): Seest thou
not what they do openly and publicly, without either shame or fear, in
the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? This intimates both
that the sin was evident and could not be denied and that the sinners were
impudent and would not be reclaimed; they committed their wickedness even in
the prophet's presence and under his eye; he saw what they did, and yet they
did it, which was an affront to his office, and to him whose officer he was,
and bade defiance to both. Now observe,
(1.) What the sin is with which they are here charged--it is idolatry, v.
18. Their idolatrous respects are paid to the queen of heaven, the
moon, either in an image or in the original, or both. They worshipped it
probably under the name of Ashtaroth, or some other of their goddesses,
being in love with the brightness in which they saw the moon walk, and
thinking themselves indebted to her for her benign influences or fearing her
malignant ones, Job xxxi. 26. The worshipping of the moon was much in use
among the heathen nations, ch. xliv. 17, 19. Some read it the frame
or workmanship of heaven. The whole celestial globe with all its
ornaments and powers was the object of their adoration. They worshipped the
host of heaven, Acts vii. 42. The homage they should have paid to their
Prince they paid to the statues that beautified the frontispiece of his
palace; they worshipped the creatures instead of him that made them, the
servants instead of him that commands them, and the gifts instead of him that
gave them. With the queen of heaven they worshipped other gods,
images of things not only in heaven above, but in earth beneath, and in the
waters under the earth; for those that forsake the true God wander
endlessly after false ones. To these deities of their own making they offer cakes
for meat-offerings, and pour out drink-offerings, as if they had their
meat and drink from them and were obliged to make to them their
acknowledgments: and see how busy they are, and how every hand is employed in
the service of these idols, according as they used to be employed in their
domestic services. The children were sent to gather wood; the
fathers kindled the fire to heat the oven, being of the poorer sort that
could not afford to keep servants to do it, yet they would rather do it
themselves than it should be undone; the women kneaded the dough with
their own hands, for perhaps, though they had servants to do it, they took a
pride in showing their zeal for their idols by doing it themselves. Let us be
instructed, even by this bad example, in the service of our God. [1.] Let us honour
him with our substance, as those that have our subsistence from him, and
eat and drink to the glory of him from whom we have our meat and drink. [2.]
Let us not decline the hardest services, nor disdain to stoop to the meanest,
by which God may be honoured; for none shall kindle a fire on God's altar
for nought. Let us think it an honour to be employed in any work for God.
[3.] Let us bring up our children in the acts of devotion; let them, as they
are capable, be employed in doing something towards the keeping up of
religious exercises.
(2.) What is the direct tendency of this sin: "It is that they may
provoke me to anger; they cannot design any thing else in it. But (v.
19) do they provoke me to anger? Is it because I am hard to be pleased,
or easily provoked? Or am I to bear the blame of the resentment? No; it is
their own doing; they may thank themselves, and they alone shall bear
it." Is it against God that they provoke him to wrath? Is he the
worse for it? Does it do him any real damage? No; is it not against
themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? It is malice
against God, but it is impotent malice; it cannot hurt him: nay, it is foolish
malice; it will hurt themselves. They show their spite against God, but they
do the spite to themselves. Canst thou think any other than that a people,
thus desperately set upon their own ruin, should be abandoned?
2. God is resolved to proceed in his judgments against them, and will not be
turned back by the prophet's prayers (v. 20): Thus saith the Lord
God, and what he saith he will not unsay, nor can all the world gainsay
it; hear it therefore, and tremble. "Behold, my anger and my fury
shall be poured out upon this place, as the flood of waters was upon the
old world or the shower of fire and brimstone upon Sodom; since they will
anger me, let them see what will come of it." They shall soon find, (1.)
That there is no escaping this deluge of fire, either by flying from it or
fencing against it; it shall be poured out on this place, though it be
a holy place, the Lord's house. It shall reach both man and beast, like
the plagues of Egypt, and, like some of them, shall destroy the trees of
the field and the fruit of the ground, which they had designed and prepared
for Baal, and of which they had made cakes to the queen of heaven.
(2.) There is no extinguishing it: It shall burn and shall not be quenched;
prayers and tears shall then avail nothing. When his wrath is kindled but a
little, much more when it is kindled to such a degree, there shall be no
quenching it. God's wrath is that fire unquenchable which eternity itself will
not see the period of. Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire.
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Obedience
Better than Sacrifice.
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B.
C. 606.
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21 Thus saith the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices,
and eat flesh. 22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded
them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt
offerings or sacrifices: 23 But this thing commanded I them,
saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and
walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto
you. 24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked
in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went
backward, and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came
forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my
servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their
neck: they did worse than their fathers. 27 Therefore thou shalt
speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt
also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. 28 But thou
shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the
LORD
their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from
their mouth.
God, having shown the people that the temple would not protect them while they
polluted it with their wickedness, here shows them that their sacrifices would
not atone for them, nor be accepted, while they went on in disobedience. See
with what contempt he here speaks of their ceremonial service (v. 21).
"Put your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices; go on in them as
long as you please; add one sort of sacrifice to another; turn your burnt-offerings
(which were to be wholly burnt to the honour of God) into peace-offerings"
(which the offerer himself had a considerable share of), "that you may eat
flesh, for that is all the good you are likely to have from your
sacrifices, a good meal's meat or two; but expect not any other benefit by
them while you live at this loose rate. Keep your sacrifices to yourselves"
(so some understand it); "let them be served up at your own table, for
they are no way acceptable at God's altars." For the opening of this,
I. He shows them that obedience was the only thing he required of them, v.
22, 23. He appeals to the original contract, by which they were first formed
into a people, when they were brought out of Egypt. God made them a kingdom
of priests to himself, not that he might be regaled with their sacrifices,
as the devils, whom the heathen worshipped, which are represented as eating
with pleasure the fat of their sacrifices and drinking the wine of their
drink-offerings, Deut. xxxii. 38. No: Will God eat the flesh of bulls?
Ps. l. 13. I spoke not to your fathers concerning burnt-offerings or
sacrifices, not of them at first. The precepts of the moral law
were given before the ceremonial institutions; and those came afterwards, as
trials of their obedience and assistances to their repentance and faith. The
Levitical law begins thus: If any man of you will bring an offering, he
must do so and so (Lev. i. 2, ii. 1), as if it were intended rather to
regulate sacrifice than to require it. But that which God commanded, which he
bound them to by his supreme authority and which he insisted upon as the
condition of the covenant, was, Obey my voice; see Exod. xv. 26, where
this was the statute and the ordinance by which God proved them: Hearken
diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God. The condition of their being
God's peculiar people was this (Exod. xix. 5), If you will obey my voice
indeed. "Make conscience of the duties of natural religion, observe
positive institutions from a principle of obedience, and then I will be
your God and you shall be my people," which is the greatest honour,
happiness, and satisfaction, that any of the children of men are capable of.
"Let your conversation be regular, and in every thing study to comply
with the will and word of God; walk within the bounds that I have set
you, and in all the ways that I have commanded you, and then you may
assure yourselves that it shall be well with you." The demand here
is very reasonable, that we should be directed by Infinite Wisdom to that
which is fit, that he that made us should command us, and that he should give
us law who gives us our being and all the supports of it; and the promise is
very encouraging: Let God's will be your rule and his favour shall be your
felicity.
II. He shows them that disobedience was the only thing for which he had a
quarrel with them. He would not reprove them for their sacrifices, for
the omission of them; they had been continually before him (Ps. l. 8);
with them they hoped to bribe God, and purchase a license to go on in sin.
That therefore which God had all along laid to their charge was breaking his
commandments in the course of their conversation, while they observed them, in
some instances, in the course of their devotion, v. 24, 25, &c. 1.
They set up their own will in competition with the will of God: They
hearkened not to God and to his law; they never heeded that; it was to
them as if it had never been given or were of no force; they inclined not
their ear to attend to it, much less their hearts to comply with it. But
they would have their own way, would do as they chose, and not as they were
bidden. Their own counsels were their guide, and not the dictates of
divine wisdom; that shall be lawful and good with them which they think so,
though the word of God says quite contrary. The imagination of their evil
heart, the appetites and passions of it, shall be a law to them, and they
will walk in the way of it, and in the sight of their eyes. 2. If they began
well, yet they did not proceed, but soon flew off. They went backward,
when they talked of making a captain, and returning to Egypt again, and would
not go forward under God's conduct. They promised fair: All that the Lord
shall say unto us we well do; and, if they would but have kept in that
good mind, all would have been well; but, instead of going on in the way of
duty, they drew back into the way of sin, and were worse than ever. 3. When
God sent to them by word of mouth to put them in mind of the written word,
which was the business of the prophets, it was all one; still they were
disobedient. God had servants of his among them in every age, since they
came out of Egypt unto this day, some or other to tell them of their
faults and put them in mind of their duty, whom he rose up early to send
(as before, v. 13), as men rise up early to call servants to their
work; but they were as deaf to the prophets as they were to the law (v.
26): Yet they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear. This had been
their way and manner all along; they were of the same stubborn refractory
disposition with those that went before them; it had all along been the genius
of the nation, and an evil genius it was, that continually haunted them till
it ruined them at last. 4. Their practice and character were still the same.
They are worse, and not better, than their fathers. (1.) Jeremiah can
himself witness against them that they were disobedient, or he shall soon find
it so (v. 27): "Thou shalt speak all these words to them,
shalt particularly charge them with disobedience and obstinacy. But even that
will not work upon them: They will not hearken to thee, nor heed thee.
Thou shalt go, and call to them with all the plainness and earnestness
imaginable, but they will not answer thee; they will either give thee
no answer at all or not an obedient answer; they will not come at thy
call." (2.) He must therefore own that they deserved the character of a
disobedient people, that were ripe for destruction, and must go to them and
tell them so to their faces (v. 28): "Say unto them, This is a
nation that obeys not the voice of the Lord their God. They are notorious
for their obstinacy; they sacrifice to the Lord as their God, but they will
not be ruled by him as their God; they will not receive either the instruction
of his word or the correction of his rod; they will not be reclaimed or
reformed by either. Truth has perished among them; they cannot receive
it; they will not submit to it nor be governed by it. They will not speak
truth; there is no believing a word they say, for it is cut off from their
mouth, and lying comes in the room of it. They are false both to God and
man."
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The
Desolation of Judah.
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B.
C. 606.
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29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and
cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD
hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30 For the
children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD:
they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to
pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet,
which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and
their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came
it into my heart. 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom,
but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no
place. 33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the
fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them
away. 34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and
from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be
desolate.
Here is, I. A loud call to weeping and mourning. Jerusalem, that had been a
joyous city, the joy of the whole earth, must now take up a lamentation on
high places (v. 29), the high places where they had served their
idols; there must they now bemoan their misery. In token both of sorrow and
slavery, Jerusalem must now cut off her hair and cast it away; the word
is peculiar to the hair of the Nazarites, which was the badge and token of
their dedication to God, and it is called their crown. Jerusalem had
been a city which was a Nazarite to God, but now must cut off her hair,
must be profaned, degraded, and separated from God, as she had been separated
to him. It is time for those that have lost their holiness to lay aside their
joy.
II. Just cause given for this great lamentation.
1. The sin of Jerusalem appears here very heinous, nowhere worse, or more
exceedingly sinful (v. 30): "The children of Judah"
(God's profession people, that came forth out of the waters of Judah,
Isa. xlviii. 1) "have done evil in my sight, under my eye, in my
presence; they have affronted me to my face, which very much aggravates the
affront:" or, "They have done that which they know to be evil in
my sight, and in the highest degree offensive to me." Idolatry was
the sin which was above all other sins evil in God's sight. Now here are two
things charged upon them in their idolatry, which were very provoking: (1.)
That they were very impudent in it towards God and set him at defiance: They
have set their abominations (their abominable idols and the altars erected
to them) in the house that is called by my name, in the very courts of
the temple, to pollute it (Manasseh did so, 2 Kings xxi. 7, xxiii. 12),
as if they thought God would connive at it, or cared not though he was ever so
much displeased with it, or as if they would reconcile heaven and hell, God
and Baal. The heart is the place which God has chosen to put his name
there; if sin have the innermost and uppermost place there, we pollute the
temple of the Lord, and therefore he resents nothing more than setting up
idols in the heart, Ezek. xiv. 4. (2.) That they were very barbarous in it
towards their own children, v. 31. They have particularly built the
high places of Tophet, where the image of Moloch was set up, in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, adjoining to Jerusalem; and there they
burnt their sons and their daughters in the fire, burnt them alive, killed
them, and killed them in the most cruel manner imaginable, to honour or
appease those idols that were devils and not gods. This was surely the
greatest instance that ever was of the power of Satan in the children of
disobedience, and of the degeneracy and corruption of the human nature. One
would willingly hope that there were not many instances of such a barbarous
idolatry; but it is amazing that there should be any, that men could be so
perfectly void of natural affection as to do a thing so inhuman as to burn
little innocent children, and their own too, that they should be so perfectly
void of natural religion as to think it lawful to do this, nay, to think it
acceptable. Surely it was in a way of righteous judgment, because they had
changed the glory of God into the similitude of a beast, that God gave them up
to such vile affections that changed them into worse than beasts. God says of
this that it was what he commanded them not, neither cam it into his heart,
which is not meant of his not commanding them thus to worship Moloch (this he
had expressly forbidden them), but he had never commanded that his
worshippers should be at such an expense, nor put such a force upon their
natural affection, in honouring him; it never came into his heart to have
children offered to him, yet they had forsaken his service for the service of
such gods as, by commanding this, showed themselves to be indeed enemies to
mankind.
2. The destruction of
Jerusalem
appears here very terrible. That speaks misery enough in general (v.
29), The Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
Sin makes those the generation of God's wrath that had ben the generation of
his love. And God will reject and quite forsake those who have thus made
themselves vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. He will disown them
for his. "Verily, I say unto you, I know you not." And he will give
them up to the terrors of their own guilt, and leave them in those hands. (1.)
Death shall triumph over them, v. 32, 33. Sin reigns unto death; for
that is the wages of it, the end of those things. Tophet, the valley
adjoining to
Jerusalem
, shall be called the valley of slaughter, for there multitudes shall
be slain, when, in their sallies out of the city and their attempts to escape,
they fall into the hands of the besiegers. Or it shall be called the valley
of slaughtered ones, because thither the corpses of those that are slain
shall be brought to be buried, all other burying places being full; and there
they shall bury until there be no more place to make a grave. This
intimates the multitude of those that shall die by the sword, pestilence, and
famine. Death shall ride on prosperously, with dreadful pomp and power, conquering
and to conquer. The slain of the Lord shall be many. This valley of Tophet
was a place where the citizens of Jerusalem walked to take the air; but it
shall now be spoiled for that use, for it shall be so full of graves that
there shall be no walking there, because of the danger of contracting a
ceremonial pollution by the touch of a grave. There it was that they
sacrificed some of their children, and dedicated others to Moloch, and there
they should fall as victims to divine justice. Tophet had formerly been the
burying place, or burning place, of the dead bodies of the besiegers, when the
Assyrian army was routed by an angel; and for this it was ordained of old,
Isa. xxx. 33. But they having forgotten this mercy, and made it the place of
their sin, God will now turn it into a burying place for the besieged. In
allusion to this valley, hell is in the New Testament called Gehenna--the
valley of Hinnom, for there were buried both the invading Assyrians and
the revolting Jews; so hell is a receptacle after death both for infidels and
hypocrites, the open enemies of God's church and its treacherous friends; it
is the congregation of the dead; it is prepared for the generation
of God's wrath. But so great shall that slaughter be that even the
spacious valley of Tophet shall not be able to contain the slain; and at
length there shall not be enough left alive to bury the dead, so that the
carcases of the people shall be meat for the birds and beasts of prey,
that shall feed upon them like carrion, and none shall have the concern or
courage to frighten them away, as Rizpah did from the dead bodies of Saul's
sons, 2 Sam. xxviii. 26, Thy carcase shall be meat to the fowls and beasts,
and no man shall drive them away. Thus do the law and the prophets agree,
and the execution with both. The decent burying of the dead is a piece of
humanity, in remembrance of what the dead body has been--the tabernacle of a
reasonable soul. Nay, it is a piece of divinity, in expectation of what the
dead body shall be at the resurrection. The want of it has sometimes been an
instance of the rage of men against God's witnesses, Rev. xi. 9. Here it is
threatened as an instance of the wrath of God against his enemies, and is an
intimation that evil pursues sinners even after death. (2.) Joy shall
depart from them (v. 34): Then will I cause to cease the voice of
mirth. God had called by his prophets, and by less judgments, to
weeping and mourning; but they walked contrary to him, and would hear of
nothing but joy and gladness, Isa. xxii. 12, 13. And what came of it? Now God called
to lamentation (v. 29), and he made his call effectual, leaving
them neither cause nor heart for joy and gladness. Those that will not weep
shall weep; those that will not by the grace of God be cured of their vain
mirth shall by the justice of God be deprived of all mirth; for when God
judges he will overcome. It is threatened here that there shall be nothing
to rejoice in. There shall be none of the joy of weddings; no mirth, for there
shall be no marriages. The comforts of life shall be abandoned, and all care
to keep up mankind upon earth cast off; there shall be none of the voice of
the bridegroom and the bride, no music, no nuptial songs. Nor shall
there be any more of the joy of the harvest, for the land shall be
desolate, uncultivated and unimproved. Both the cities of Judah and the
streets of Jerusalem shall look thus melancholy; and when they thus look
about them, and see no cause to rejoice, no marvel if they retire into
themselves and find no heart to rejoice. Note, God can soon mar the mirth of
the most jovial, and make it to cease, which is a reason why we should always
rejoice with trembling, be merry and wise.
Contents
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