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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
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Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. X.
We may conjecture that the prophecy of this chapter was delivered after
the first captivity, in the time of Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, when many
were carried away to Babylon; for it has a double reference:–
I. To those that were carried away into the land of the Chaldeans, a
country notorious above any other for idolatry and superstition; and
they are here cautioned against the infection of the place, not to
learn the way of the heathen
(ver. 1, 2),
for their astrology and idolatry are both foolish things
(ver. 3-5),
and the worshippers of idols brutish,
So it will appear in the day of their visitation,
They are likewise exhorted to adhere firmly to the God of Israel, for
there is none like him,
He is the true God, lives for ever, and has the government of the world
(ver. 10-13),
and his people are happy in him,
II. To those that yet remained in their own land. They are cautioned
against security, and told to expect distress
and that by a foreign enemy, which God would bring upon them for their
sin,
This calamity the prophet laments
(ver. 19)
and prays for the mitigation of it,
| Solemn Charge to Israel; The Folly of Idolatry. | B. C. 606. |
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1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of
Israel:
2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be
not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed
at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a
tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman,
with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with
nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must
needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them;
for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou
art great, and thy name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth
it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the
nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto
thee.
8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a
doctrine of vanities.
9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold
from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the
founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the
work of cunning men.
10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and
an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and
the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the
heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth,
and from under these heavens.
12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the
world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his
discretion.
13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters
in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the
ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth
forth the wind out of his treasures.
14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is
confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is
falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of
their visitation they shall perish.
16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the
former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his
inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
The prophet Isaiah, when he prophesied of the captivity in Babylon,
added warnings against idolatry and largely exposed the sottishness of
idolaters, not only because the temptations in Babylon would be in
danger of drawing the Jews there to idolatry, but because the
afflictions in Babylon were designed to cure them of their idolatry.
Thus the prophet Jeremiah here arms people against the idolatrous
usages and customs of the heathen, not only for the use of those that
had gone to Babylon, but of those also that staid behind, that being
convinced and reclaimed, by the word of God, the rod might be
prevented; and it is written for our learning. Observe here,
I. A solemn charge given to the people of God not to conform themselves
to the ways and customs of the heathen. Let the house of Israel hear
and receive this word from the God of Israel: “Learn not the way of
the heathen, do not approve of it, no, nor think indifferently
concerning it, much less imitate it or accustom yourselves to it. Let
not any of their customs steal in among you (as they are apt to do
insensibly) nor mingle themselves with your religion.” Note, It ill
becomes those that are taught of God to learn the way of the
heathen, and to think of worshipping the true God with such rites
and ceremonies as they used in the worship of their false gods. See
It was the way of the heathen to worship the host of heaven, the sun,
moon, and stars; to them they gave divine honours, and from them they
expected divine favours, and therefore, according as the signs of
heaven were, whether they were auspicious or ominous, they thought
themselves countenanced or discountenanced by their deities, which
made them observe those signs, the eclipses of the sun and moon, the
conjunctions and oppositions of the planets, and all the unusual
phenomena of the celestial globe, with a great deal of anxiety and
trembling. Business was stopped if any thing occurred that was thought
to bode ill; if it did but thunder on their left hand, they were almost
as if they had been thunderstruck. Now God would not have his people to
be dismayed at the signs of heaven, to reverence the stars as
deities, nor to frighten themselves with any prognostications grounded
upon them. Let them fear the God of heaven, and keep up a reverence of
his providence, and then they need not be dismayed at the signs of
heaven, for the stars in their courses fight not against any
that are at peace with God. The heathen are dismayed at these signs,
for they know no better; but let not the house of Israel, that
are taught of God, be so.
II. Divers good reasons given to enforce this charge.
1. The way of the heathen is very ridiculous and absurd, and is
condemned even by the dictates of right reason,
v. 3.
The statutes and ordinances of the heathen are vanity itself; they
cannot stand the test of a rational disquisition. This is again and
again insisted upon here, as it was by Isaiah. The Chaldeans valued
themselves upon their wisdom, in which they thought that they excelled
all their neighbours; but the prophet here shows that they, and all
others that worshipped idols and expected help and relief from them,
were brutish and sottish, and had not common sense.
(1.) Consider what the idol is that is worshipped. It was a tree cut
out of the forest originally. It was fitted up by the hands of
the workman, squared, and sawed, and worked into shape; see
&c. But, after all, it was but the stock of a tree, fitter to make a
gate-post of than any thing else. But, to hide the wood, they deck
it with silver and gold, they gild or lacquer it, or they deck it
with gold and silver lace, or cloth of tissue. They fasten it to
its place, which they themselves have assigned it, with nails and
hammers, that it fall not, nor be thrown down, nor stolen away,
v. 4.
The image is made straight enough, and it cannot be denied but that the
workman did his part, for it is upright as the palm-tree
(v. 5);
it looks stately, and stands up as if it were going to speak to you,
but it cannot speak; it is a poor dumb creature; nor can it take
one step towards your relief. If there be any occasion for it to shift
its place, it must be carried in procession, for it cannot go.
Very fitly does the admonition come in here, “Be not afraid of
them, any more than of the signs of heaven; be not afraid of
incurring their displeasure, for they can do no evil; be not
afraid of forfeiting their favour, for neither is it in them to do
good. If you think to mend the matter by mending the materials of
which the idol is made, you deceive yourselves. Idols of gold and
silver are an unworthy to be worshipped as wooden gods. The stock is
a doctrine of vanities,
v. 8.
It teaches lies, teaches lies concerning God. It is an instruction
of vanities; it is wood.” It is probable that the idols of gold and
silver had wood underneath for the substratum, and then silver
spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, imported from beyond
sea, and gold from Uphaz, or Phaz, which is sometimes
rendered the fine or pure gold,
Ps. xxi. 3.
A great deal of art is used, and pains taken, about it. They are not
such ordinary mechanics that are employed about these as about the
wooden gods,
v. 3.
These are cunning men; it is the work of the workman; the graver
must do his part when it has passed through the hands of the
founder. Those were but decked here and there with silver and gold;
these are silver and gold all over. And, that these gods might be
reverenced as kings, blue and purple are their clothing, the
colour of royal robes
(v. 9),
which amuses ignorant worshippers, but makes the matter no better. For
what is the idol when it is made and when they have made the best they
can of it? He tells us
(v. 14):
They are falsehood; they are not what they pretend to be, but a
great cheat put upon the world. They are worshipped as the gods that
give us breath and life and sense, whereas they are lifeless senseless
things themselves, and there is no breath in them; there is
no spirit in them (so the word is); they are not animated, or
inhabited, as they are supposed to be, by any divine spirit or
numen–divinity. They are so far from being gods that they have
not so much as the spirit of a beast that goes downward. They are
vanity, and the work of errors,
v. 15.
Enquire into the use of them and you will find they are vanity; they
are good for nothing; no help is to be expected from them nor any
confidence put in them. They are a deceitful work, works of
illusions, or mere mockeries; so some read the following
clause. They delude those that put their trust in them, make
fools of them, or, rather, they make fools of themselves. Enquire into
the use of them and you will find they are the work of errors,
grounded upon the grossest mistakes that ever men who pretended to
reason were guilty of. They are the creatures of a deluded fancy; and
the errors by which they were produced they propagate among their
worshippers.
(2.) Infer hence what the idolaters are that worship these idols.
(v. 8):
They are altogether brutish and foolish. Those that make them
are like unto them, senseless and stupid, and there is no spirit in
them–no use of reason, else they would never stoop to them,
Every man that makes or worships idols has become brutish in
his knowledge, that is, brutish for want of knowledge, or brutish
in that very thing which one would think they should be fully
acquainted with; compare
What they know naturally, what they cannot but know by the light
of nature, in those things as brute beasts they corrupt
themselves. Though in the works of creation they cannot but see the
eternal power and godhead of the Creator, yet they have become vain
in their imaginations, not liking to retain God in their knowledge.
See
Nay, whereas they thought it a piece of wisdom thus to multiply gods,
it really was the greatest folly they could be guilty of. The world
by wisdom knew not God,
1 Cor. i. 21; Rom. i. 22.
Every founder is himself confounded by the graven image;
when he has made it by a mistake he is more and more confirmed in his
mistake by it; he is bewildered, bewitched, and cannot disentangle
himself from the snare; or it is what he will one time or other be
ashamed of.
2. The God of Israel is the one only living and true God, and those
that have him for their God need not make their application to any
other; nay, to set up any other in competition with him is the greatest
affront and injury that can be done him. Let the house of Israel cleave
to the God of Israel and serve and worship him only, for,
(1.) He is a non-such. Whatever men may set in competition with him,
there is none to be compared with him. The prophet turns from speaking
with the utmost disdain of the idols of the heathen (as well he might)
to speak with the most profound and awful reverence of the God of
Israel
(v. 6, 7):
“Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord! none of all
the heroes which the heathen have deified and make such ado about,” the
dead men of whom they made dead images, and whom they worshipped.
“Some were deified and adored for their wisdom; but, among all the
wise men of the nations, the greatest philosophers or statesmen, as
Apollo or Hermes, there is none like thee. Others were deified
and adored for their dominion; but, in all their royalty” (so it
may be read), “among all their kings, as Saturn and Jupiter, there
is none like unto thee.” What is the glory of a man that invented a
useful art or founded a flourishing kingdom (and these were grounds
sufficient among the heathen to entitle a man to an apotheosis)
compared with the glory of him that is the Creator of the world and
that forms the spirit of man within him? What is the glory of
the greatest prince or potentate, compared with the glory of him whose
kingdom rules over all? He acknowledges
(v. 6),
O Lord! thou art great, infinite and immense, and thy name is
great in might; thou hast all power, and art known to have it.
Men’s name is often beyond their might; they are thought to be greater
than they are; but God’s name is great, and no greater than he
really is. And therefore who would not fear thee, O King of
nations? Who would not choose to worship such a God as this, that
can do every thing, rather than such dead idols as the heathen worship,
that can do nothing? Who would not be afraid of offending or forsaking
a God whose name is so great in might? Which of all the nations,
if they understood their interests aright, would not fear him
who is the King of nations? Note, There is an admirable decency
and congruity in the worshipping of God only. It is fit that he who is
God alone should alone be served, that he who is Lord of all should be
served by all, that he who is great should be greatly feared and
greatly praised.
(2.) His verity is as evident as the idol’s vanity,
They are the work of men’s hands, and therefore nothing is more plain
than that it is a jest to worship them, if that may be called a jest
which is so great an indignity to him that made us: But the Lord is
the true God, the God of truth; he is God in truth. God Jehovah
is truth; he is not a counterfeit and pretender, as they are, but
is really what he has revealed himself to be; he is one we may depend
upon, in whom and by whom we cannot be deceived.
[1.] Look upon him as he is in himself, and he is the living
God. He is life itself, has life in himself, and is the fountain of
life to all the creatures. The gods of the heathen are dead things,
worthless and useless, but ours is a living God, and hath immortality.
[2.] Look upon him with relation to his creatures, he is a King,
and absolute monarch, over them all, is their owner and ruler, has an
incontestable right both to command them and dispose of them. As a
king, he protects the creatures, provides for their welfare, and
preserves peace among them. He is an everlasting king. The
counsels of his kingdom were from everlasting and the continuance of it
will be to everlasting. He is a King of eternity. The idols whom
they call their kings are but of yesterday, and will soon be abolished;
and the kings of the earth, that set them up to be worshipped, will
themselves be in the dust shortly; but the Lord shall reign for
ever, thy God, O Zion! unto all generations.
(3.) None knows the power of his anger. Let us stand in awe, and not
dare to provoke him by giving that glory to another which is due to him
alone; for at his wrath the earth shall tremble, even the
strongest and stoutest of the kings of the earth; nay, the earth,
firmly as it is fixed, when he pleases is made to quake and the rocks
to tremble,
Though the nations should join together to contend with him, and unite
their force, yet they would be found utterly unable not only to resist,
but even to abide his indignation. Not only can they not make
head against it, for it would overcome them, but they cannot bear up
under it, for it would overload them,
(4.) He is the God of nature, the fountain of all being; and all the
powers of nature are at his command and disposal,
The God we worship is he that made the heavens and the earth, and has a
sovereign dominion over both; so that his invisible things are
manifested and proved in the things that are seen.
[1.] If we look back, we find that the whole world owed its origin to
him as its first cause. It was a common saying even among the
Greeks–He that sets up to be another god ought first to make
another world. While the heathen worship gods that they made, we
worship the God that made us and all things. First, The earth is
a body of vast bulk, has valuable treasures in its bowels and more
valuable fruit on its surface. It and them he has made by his
power; and it is by no less than an infinite power that it hangs
upon nothing, as it does
(Job xxvi. 7)–
ponderibus librata suis–poised by its own weight. Secondly, The
world, the habitable part of the earth, is admirably fitted for the
use and service of man, and he hath established it so by his
wisdom, so that it continues serviceable in constant changes and
yet a continual stability from one generation to another. Therefore
both the earth and the world are his,
Thirdly, The heavens are wonderfully stretched out to an
incredible extent, and it is by his discretion that they are so,
and that the motions of the heavenly bodies are directed for the
benefit of this lower world. These declare his glory
(Ps. xix. 1),
and oblige us to declare it, and not give that glory to the heavens
which is due to him that made them.
[2.] If we look up, we see his providence to be a continued creation
(v. 13):
When he uttereth his voice (gives the word of command) there
is a multitude of waters in the heavens, which are poured out on
the earth, whether for judgment or mercy, as he intends them. When he
utters his voice in the thunder, immediately there follow
thunder-showers, in which there are a multitude of waters; and those
come with a noise, as the margin reads it; and we read of the
noise of abundance of rain,
1 Kings xviii. 41.
Nay, there are wonders done daily in the kingdom of nature without
noise: He causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the
earth, from all parts of the earth, even the most remote, and
chiefly those that lie next the sea. All the earth pays the tribute of
vapours, because all the earth receives the blessing of rain. And thus
the moisture in the universe, like the money in a kingdom and the blood
in the body, is continually circulating for the good of the whole.
Those vapours produce wonders, for of them are formed lightnings for
the rain, and the winds which God from time to time
brings forth out of his treasures, as there is occasion for
them, directing them all in such measure and for such use as he thinks
fit, as payments are made out of the treasury. All the meteors are so
ready to serve God’s purposes that he seems to have treasures of them,
that cannot be exhausted and may at any time be drawn from,
God glories in the treasures he has of these,
This God can do; but which of the idols of the heathen can do the like?
Note, There is no sort of weather but what furnishes us with a proof
and instance of the wisdom and power of the great Creator.
(5.) This God is Israel’s God in covenant, and the felicity of every
Israelite indeed. Therefore let the house of Israel cleave to him, and
not forsake him to embrace idols; for, if they do, they certainly
change for the worse, for
(v. 16)
the portion of Jacob is not like them; their rock is not as our
rock
nor ours like their mole-hills. Note,
[1.] Those that have the Lord for their God have a full and complete
happiness in him. The God of Jacob is the portion of
Jacob; he is his all, and in him he has enough and needs no more in
this world nor the other. In him we have a worthy portion,
[2.] If we have entire satisfaction and complacency in God as our
portion, he will have a gracious delight in us as his people, whom he
owns as the rod of his inheritance, his possession and treasure,
with whom he dwells and by whom he is served and honoured.
[3.] It is the unspeakable comfort of all the Lord’s people that he who
is their God is the former of all things, and therefore is able
to do all that for them, and give all that to them, which they stand in
need of. Their help stands in his name who made heaven and
earth. And he is the Lord of hosts, of all the hosts in
heaven and earth, has them all at his command, and will command them
into the service of his people when there is occasion. This is the
name by which they know him, which they first give him the glory of and
then take to themselves the comfort of.
[4.] Herein God’s people are happy above all other people, happy
indeed, bona si sua norint–did they but know their blessedness.
The gods which the heathen pride, and please, and so portion themselves
in, are vanity and a lie; but the portion of Jacob is not like
them.
3. The prophet, having thus compared the gods of the heathen with the
God of Israel (between whom there is no comparison), reads the doom,
the certain doom, of all those pretenders, and directs the Jews, in
God’s name, to read it to the worshippers of idols, though they were
their lords and masters
(v. 11):
Thus shall you say unto them (and the God you serve will bear
you out in saying it), The gods which have not made the heavens and
the earth (and therefore are no gods, but usurpers of the honour
due to him only who did make heaven and earth) shall perish,
perish of course, because they are vanity–perish by his righteous
sentence, because they are rivals with him. As gods they shall perish
from off the earth (even all those things on earth
beneath which they make gods of) and from under these
heavens, even all those things in the firmament of heaven, under
the highest heavens, which are deified, according to the distribution
in the second commandment. These words in the original are not in the
Hebrew, like all the rest, but in the Chaldee dialect, that the Jews in
captivity might have this ready to say to the Chaldeans in their own
language when they tempted them to idolatry: “Do you press us to
worship your gods? We will never do that; for,”
(1.) “They are counterfeit deities; they are no gods, for they have
not made the heavens and the earth, and therefore are not entitled
to our homage, nor are we indebted to them either for the products of
the earth or the influences of heaven, as we are to the God of Israel.”
The primitive Christians would say, when they were urged to worship
such a god, Let him make a world and he shall be my god. While
we have him to worship who made heaven and earth, it is very absurd to
worship any other.
(2.) “They are condemned deities. They shall perish; the time
shall come when they shall be no more respected as they are now, but
shall be buried in oblivion, and they and their worshippers shall sink
together. The earth shall no longer bear them; the heavens shall no
longer cover them; but both shall abandon them.” It is repeated
(v. 15),
In the time of their visitation they shall perish. When God
comes to reckon with idolaters he will make them weary of their idols,
and glad to be rid of them. They shall cast them to the moles and to
the bats,
Isa. ii. 20.
Whatever runs against God and religion will be run down at last.
| Lamentation of Judah; Sovereignty of Divine Providence; Prophetic Imprecations. | B. C. 606. |
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17 Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the
fortress.
18 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the
inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them,
that they may find it so.
19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said,
Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my
children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is
none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my
curtains.
21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the
LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks
shall be scattered.
22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great
commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah
desolate, and a den of dragons.
23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it
is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger,
lest thou bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and
upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten
up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his
habitation desolate.
In these verses,
I. The prophet threatens, in God’s name, the approaching ruin of Judah
and Jerusalem,
The Jews that continued in their own land, after some were carried into
captivity, were very secure; they thought themselves inhabitants of
a fortress; their country was their strong hold, and, in their own
conceit, impregnable; but they are here told to think of leaving it:
they must prepare to go after their brethren, and pack up their effects
in expectation of it: “Gather up thy wares out of the land;
contract your affairs, and bring them into as small a compass as you
can. Arise, depart, this is not your rest,”
Let not what you have lie scattered, for the Chaldeans will be upon you
again, to be the executioners of the sentence God has passed upon you
(v. 18):
“Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this
once; they have hitherto dropped out, by a few at a time, but one
captivity more shall make a thorough riddance, and they shall be slung
out as a stone out of a sling, so easily, so thoroughly shall they be
cast out; nothing of them shall remain. They shall be thrown out with
violence, and driven to a place at a great distance off, in a little
time.” See this comparison used to signify an utter destruction,
Yet once more God will shake their land, and shake the wicked
out of it,
Heb. xii. 26.
He adds, And I will distress them, that they may find it so. He
will not only throw them out hence (that he may do and yet they may be
easy elsewhere); but, whithersoever they go, trouble shall follow them;
they shall be continually perplexed and straitened, and at a loss
within themselves: and who or what can make those easy whom God will
distress, whom he will distress that they may find it so,
that they may feel that which they would not believe? They were often
told of the weight of God’s wrath and their utter inability to make
head against it, or bear up under it. They were told that their sin
would be their ruin, and they would not regard nor credit what was told
them; but now they shall find it so; and therefore God
will pursue them with his judgments, that they may find it so,
and be forced to acknowledge it. Note, sooner or later sinners will
find it just as the word of God has represented things to them, and no
better, and that the threatenings were not bugbears.
II. He brings in the people sadly lamenting their calamities
(v. 19):
Woe is me for my hurt! Some make this the prophet’s own
lamentation, not for himself, but for the calamities and desolations of
his country. He mourned for those that would not be persuaded to mourn
for themselves; and, since there were none that had so much sense as to
join with them, he weeps in secret, and cries out, Woe is me! In
mournful times it becomes us to be of a mournful spirit. But it may be
taken as the language of the people, considered as a body, and
therefore speaking as a single person. The prophet puts into their
mouths the words they should say; whether they would say them or
no, they should have cause to say them. Some among them would thus
bemoan themselves, and all of them, at last, would be forced to do it.
1. They lament that the affliction is very great, and it is very hard
to them to bear it, the more hard because they had not been used to
trouble and now did not expect it: “Woe is me for my hurt, not
for what I fear, but for what I feel;” for they are not, as some are,
worse frightened than hurt. Nor is it a slight hurt, but a
wound, a wound that is grievous, very painful, and very
threatening.
2. That there is no remedy but patience. They cannot help themselves,
but must sit still, and abide it: But I said, when I was about
to complain of my wound, To what purpose is it to complain? This is
a grief, and I must bear it as well as I can. This is the language
rather of a sullen than of a gracious submission, of a patience per
force, not a patience by principle. When I am in affliction I should
say, “This is an evil, and I will bear it, because it is the will of
God that I should, because his wisdom has appointed this for me and his
grace will make it work for good to me.” This is receiving evil
at the hand of God,
But to say, “This is an evil, and I must bear it, because I
cannot help it,” is but a brutal patience, and argues a want of those
good thoughts of God which we should always have, even under our
afflictions, saying, not only, God can and will do what he pleases,
but, Let him do what he pleases.
3. That the country was quite ruined and wasted
(v. 20):
My tabernacle is spoiled. Jerusalem, though a strong city, now
proves as weak and moveable as a tabernacle or tent, when it is taken
down, and all its cords, that should keep it together, are
broken. Or by the tabernacle here may be meant the temple, the
sanctuary, which at first was but a tabernacle, and is now called so,
as then it was sometimes called a temple. Their church is ruined, and
all the supports of it fail. It was a general destruction of church and
state, city and country, and there were none to repair these
desolations. “My children have gone forth of me; some have fled,
others are slain, others carried into captivity, so that as to me,
they are not; I am likely to be an outcast, and to perish for
want of shelter; for there is none to stretch forth my tent any
more, none of my children that used to do it for me, none to set
up my curtains, none to do me any service.” Jerusalem has none
to guide her of all her sons,
Isa. li. 18.
4. That the rulers took no care, nor any proper measures, for the
redress of their grievances and the re-establishing of heir ruined
state
(v. 21):
The pastors have become brutish. When the tents, the shepherds’
tents, were spoiled
(v. 20),
it concerned the shepherds to look after them; but they were foolish
shepherds. Their kings and princes had no regard at all for the public
welfare, seemed to have no sense of the desolations of the land, but
were quite besotted and infatuated. The priests, the pastors of God’s
tabernacle, did a great deal towards the ruin of religion, but nothing
towards the repair of it. They are brutish indeed, for they
have not sought the Lord; they have neither made their peace with
him nor their prayer to him; they had no eye to him and his providence,
in their management of affairs; they neither acknowledged the judgment,
nor expected the deliverance, to come from his hand. Note, Those are
brutish people that do not seek the Lord, that live without prayer, and
live without God in the world. Every man is either a saint or a brute.
But it is sad indeed with a people when their pastors, that should
feed them with knowledge and understanding, are themselves thus
brutish. And what comes of it? Therefore they shall not
prosper; none of their attempts for the public safety shall
succeed. Note, Those cannot expect to prosper who do not by faith and
prayer take God along with them in all their ways. And, when the
pastors are brutish, what else can be expected but that all their
flocks should be scattered? For, if the blind lead the blind,
both will fall into the ditch. The ruin of a people is often owing
to the brutishness of their pastors.
5. That the report of the enemy’s approach was very dreadful
(v. 22):
The noise of the bruit has come, of the report which at first
was but whispered and bruited abroad, as wanting confirmation. It now
proves too true: A great commotion arises out of the north
country, which threatens to make all the cities of Judah
desolate and a den of dragons; for they must all expect to be
sacrificed to the avarice and fury of the Chaldean army. And what else
can that place expect but to be made a den of dragons which has by sin
made itself a den of thieves?
III. He turns to God, and addresses himself to him, finding it to
little purpose to speak to the people. It is some comfort to poor
ministers that, if men will not hear them, God will; and to him they
have liberty of access at all times. Let them close their preaching
with prayer, as the prophet, and then they shall have no reason to say
that they have laboured in vain.
1. The prophet here acknowledges the sovereignty and dominion of the
divine Providence, that by it, and not by their own will and wisdom,
the affairs both of nations and particular persons are directed and
determined,
This is an article of our faith which it is very proper for us to make
confession of at the throne of grace when we are complaining of an
affliction or suing for a mercy: “O Lord, I know, and believe,
that the way of man is not in himself; Nebuchadnezzar did not
come of himself against our land, but by the direction of a divine
Providence.” We cannot of ourselves do any thing for our own relief,
unless God work with us and command deliverance for us; for it is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps, though he seem in his
walking to be perfectly at liberty and to choose his own way. Those
that had promised themselves a long enjoyment of their estates and
possessions were made to know, by sad experience, when they were thrown
out by the Chaldeans, that the way of man is not in himself; he
designs which men lay deep, and think well-formed, are dashed to pieces
in a moment. We must all apply this to ourselves, and mix faith with
it, that we are not at our own disposal, but under a divine direction;
the event is often overruled so as to be quite contrary to our
intention and expectation. We are not masters of our own way, nor can
we think that every thing should be according to our mind; we must
therefore refer ourselves to God and acquiesce in his will. Some think
that the prophet here mentions this with a design to make this
comfortable use of it, that, the way of the Chaldean army being not in
themselves, they can do no more than God permits them; he can set
bounds to thee proud waves, and say, Hitherto they shall come, and
no further. And a quieting consideration it is that the most
formidable enemies have no power against us but what is given them
from above.
2. He deprecates the divine wrath, that it might not fall upon God’s
Israel,
He speaks not for himself only, but on the behalf of his people: O
Lord, correct me, but with judgment (in measure and with
moderation, and in wisdom, no more than is necessary for driving out of
the foolishness that is bound up in our hearts), not in thy
anger (how severe soever the correction be, let it come from thy
love, and be designed for our good and made to work for good), not to
bring us to nothing, but to bring us home to thyself. Let it not
be according to the desert of our sins, but according to the design of
thy grace. Note,
(1.) We cannot pray in faith that we may never be corrected, while we
are conscious to ourselves that we need correction and deserve it, and
know that as many as God loves he chastens.
(2.) The great thing we should dread in affliction is the wrath of God.
Say not, Lord, do not correct me, but, Lord, do not correct me
in anger; for that will infuse wormwood and gall into the
affliction and misery that will bring us to nothing. We may bear
the smart of his rod, but we cannot bear the weight of his wrath.
3. He imprecates the divine wrath against the oppressors and
persecutors of Israel
(v. 25):
Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not. This
prayer does not come from a spirit of malice or revenge, nor is it
intended to prescribe to God whom he should execute his judgments upon,
or in what order; but,
(1.) It is an appeal to his justice. As if he had said, “Lord, we are a
provoking people; but are there not other nations that are more so? And
shall we only be punished? We are thy children, and may expect a
fatherly correction; but they are thy enemies, and against them we have
reason to think thy indignation should be, not against us.” This is
God’s usual method. The cup put into the hands of God’s people
is full of mixtures, mixtures of mercy; but the dregs of the
cup are reserved for the wicked of the earth, let them
wring them out,
Ps. lxxv. 8.
(2.) It is a prediction of God’s judgments upon all the impenitent
enemies of his church and kingdom. If judgment begin thus at
the house of God, what shall be the end of those that obey not
his gospel?
1 Pet. iv. 17.
See how the heathen are described, on whom God’s fury shall be poured
out.
[1.] They are strangers to God, and are content to be so. They know
him not, nor desire to know him. They are families that live
without prayer, that have nothing of religion among them; they call
not on God’s name. Those that restrain prayer prove that they know
not God; for those that know him will seek to him and entreat his
favour.
[2.] They are persecutors of the people of God and are resolved to be
so. They have eaten up Jacob with as much greediness as those
that are hungry eat their necessary food; nay, with more, they have
devoured him, and consumed him, and made his habitation
desolate, that is, the land in which he lives, or the temple of
God, which is his habitation among them. Note, What the heathen, in
their rage and malice, do against the people of God, though therein he
makes use of them as the instruments of his correction, yet he will,
for that, make them the objects of his indignation. This prayer is
taken from
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