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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. VIII.
The prophet proceeds, in this chapter, both to magnify and to justify
the destruction that God was bringing upon this people, to show how
grievous it would be and yet how righteous.
I. He represents the judgments coming as so very terrible that death
should appear so as most to be dreaded and yet should be desired,
II. He aggravates the wretched stupidity and wilfulness of this people
as that which brought this ruin upon them,
III. He describes the great confusion and consternation that the whole
land should be in upon the alarm of it,
IV. The prophet is himself deeply affected with it and lays it very
much to heart,
| Indignities Threatened to the Dead. | B. C. 606. |
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1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones
of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the
bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the
bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and
all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have
served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have
sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be
gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of
the earth.
3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue
of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the
places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
These verses might fitly have been joined to the close of the foregoing
chapter, as giving a further description of the dreadful desolation
which the army of the Chaldeans should make in the land. It shall
strangely alter the property of death itself, and for the worse
too.
I. Death shall not now be, as it always used to be–the repose of the
dead. When Job makes his court to the grave it is in hope of this, that
there he shall rest with kings and counsellors of the earth; but
now the ashes of the dead, even of kings and princes,
shall be disturbed, and their bones scattered at the grave’s
mouth,
Ps. cxli. 7.
It was threatened in the close of the former chapter that the slain
should be unburied; that might be through neglect, and was not so
strange; but here we find the graves of those that were buried
industriously and maliciously opened by the victorious enemy, who
either for covetousness, hoping to find treasure in the graves, or for
spite to the nation and in a rage against it, brought out the bones
of the kings of Judah and the princes. The dignity of their
sepulchres could not secure them, nay, did the more expose them to be
rifled; but it was base and barbarous thus to trample upon royal dust.
We will hope that the bones of good Josiah were not disturbed, because
he piously protected the bones of the man of God when he burnt the
bones of the idolatrous priests,
The bones of the priests and prophets too were digged up and thrown
about. Some think the false prophets and the idol-priests, God putting
this mark of ignominy upon them: but, if they were God’s prophets and
his priests, it is what the Psalmist complains of as the fruit of the
outrage of the enemies,
Nay, those of the spiteful Chaldeans that could not reach to violate
the sepulchres of princes and priests would rather play at small game
than sit out, and therefore pulled the bones of the ordinary
inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. The barbarous
nations were sometimes guilty of these absurd and inhuman triumphs over
those they had conquered, and God permitted it here, for a mark of his
displeasure against the generation of his wrath, and for terror to
those that survived. The bones, being dug out of the graves, were
spread abroad upon the face of the earth in contempt, and to make the
reproach the more spreading and lasting. They spread them to be dried
that they might carry them about in triumph, or might make fuel of
them, or make some superstitious use of them. They shall be spread
before the sun (for they shall not be ashamed openly to avow the
fact at noon day) and before the moon and stars, even all the
host of heaven, whom they have made idols of,
v. 2.
From the mention of the sun, moon, and stars, which should be
the unconcerned spectators of this tragedy, the prophet takes occasion
to show how they had idolized them, and paid those respects to them
which they should have paid to God only, that it might be observed how
little they got by worshipping the creature, for the creatures they
worshipped when they were in distress saw it, but regarded it not, nor
gave them any relief, but were rather pleased to see those abused in
being vilified by whom they had been abused in being deified. See how
their respects to their idols are enumerated, to show how we ought to
behave towards our God.
1. They loved them. As amiable being and bountiful benefactors
they esteemed them and delighted in them, and therefore did all that
follows.
2. They served them, did all they could in honour of them, and
thought nothing too much; they conformed to all the laws of their
superstition, without disputing.
3. They walked after them, strove to imitate and resemble them,
according to the characters and accounts of them they had received,
which gave rise and countenance to much of the abominable wickedness of
the heathen.
4. They sought them, consulted them as oracles, appealed to them
as judges, implored their favour, and prayed to them as their
benefactors.
5. They worshipped them, gave them divine honour, as having a
sovereign dominion over them. Before these light of heaven, which they
had courted, shall their dead bodies be cast, and left to putrefy, and
to be as dung upon the face of the earth; and the sun’s shining
upon them will but make them the more noisome and offensive. Whatever
we make a god of but the true God only, it will stand us in no stead on
the other side death and the grave, nor for the body, much less for the
soul.
II. Death shall now be what it never used to be–the choice of the
living, not because there appears in it any thing delightsome; on the
contrary, death never appeared in more horrid frightful shapes than
now, when they cannot promise themselves either a comfortable death or
a human burial; and yet every thing in this world shall become so
irksome, and all the prospects so black and dismal, that death shall
be chosen rather than life
(v. 3),
not in a believing hope of happiness in the other life, but in an utter
despair of any ease in this life. The nation is now reduced to a
family, so small is the residue of those that remain in
it; and it is an evil family, still as bad as ever, their hearts
unhumbled and their lusts unmortified. These remain alive (and
that is all) in the many places whither they were driven by the
judgments of God, some prisoners in the country of their enemies,
others beggars in their neighbour’s country, and others fugitives and
vagabonds there and in their own country. And, though those that died
died very miserably, yet those that survived and were thus driven out
should live yet more miserably, so that they should choose death
rather than life, and wish a thousand times that they had fallen
with those that fell by the sword. Let this cure us of the inordinate
love of life, that the case may be such that it may become a burden and
terror, and we may be strongly tempted to choose strangling and
death rather.
| Full of Impenitent Sinners; Hardened Wickedness of Judah. | B. C. 606. |
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4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall
they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a
perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to
return.
6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man
repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every
one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and
the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of
their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is
with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the
scribes is in vain.
9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo,
they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in
them?
10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their
fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the
least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the
prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people
slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay,
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore
shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their
visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
The prophet here is instructed to set before this people the folly of
their impenitence, which was it that brought this ruin upon them. They
are here represented as the most stupid senseless people in the world,
that would not be made wise by all the methods that Infinite Wisdom
took to bring them to themselves and their right mind, and so to
prevent the ruin that was coming upon them.
I. They would not attend to the dictates of reason. They would not act
in the affairs of their souls with the same common prudence with which
they acted in other things. Sinners would become saints if they would
but show themselves men, and religion would soon rule them if right
reason might. Observe it here. Come, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord
(v. 4, 5):
Shall men fall and not arise? If men happen to fall to the
ground, to fall into the dirt, will they not get up again as fast as
they can? They are not such fools as to lie still when they are down.
Shall a man turn aside out of the right way? Yes, the most
careful traveller may miss his way; but then, as soon as he is aware of
it, will he not return? Yes, certainly he will, with all speed,
and will thank him that showed him his mistake. Thus men do in other
things. Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a
perpetual backsliding? Why do not they, when they have fallen into
sin, hasten to get up again by repentance? Why do not they, when they
see they have missed their way, correct their error and reform? No man
in his wits will go on in a way that he knows will never bring him to
his journey’s end; why then has this people slidden back by a
perpetual backsliding? See the nature of sin–it is a
backsliding it is going back from the right way, not only into a
by-path, but into a contrary path, back from the way that leads to life
to that which leads to utter destruction. And this backsliding, if
almighty grace do not interpose to prevent it, will be a perpetual
backsliding. The sinner not only wanders endlessly, but proceeds
end-ways towards ruin. The same subtlety of the tempter that brings men
to sin holds them fast in it, and they contribute to their own
captivity: They hold fast deceit. Sin is a great cheat, and they
hold it fast; they love it dearly, and resolve to stick to it,
and baffle all the methods God takes to separate between them and their
sins. The excuses they make for their sins are deceits, and so are all
their hopes of impunity; yet they hold fast these, and will not be
undeceived, and therefore they refuse to return. Note, There is
some deceit or other which those hold fast that go on wilfully in
sinful ways, some lie in their right hand, by which they keep
hold of their sins.
II. They would not attend to the dictates of conscience, which is our
reason reflecting upon ourselves and our own actions,
v. 6.
Observe,
1. What expectations there were from them, that they would bethink
themselves: I hearkened and heard. The prophet listened to see
what effect his preaching had upon them; God himself listened, as one
that desires not the death of sinners, that would have been glad to
hear any thing that promised repentance, that would certainly have
heard it if there had been any thing said of that tendency, and would
soon have answered it with comfort, as he did David when he said, I
will confess,
Ps. xxxii. 5.
God looks upon men when they have done amiss
to see what they will do next; he hearkens and hears.
2. How these expectations were disappointed: They spoke not
aright, as I thought they would have done. They did not only not
do right, but not so much as speak right; God could not
get a good word from them, nothing on which to ground any favour to
them or hopes concerning them. There was none of them that
spoke aright, none that repented him of his wickedness.
those that have sinned then, and then only, speak aright when they
speak of repenting; and it is sad when those that have made so much
work for repentance do not say a word of repenting. Not only did God
not find any repenting of the national wickedness, which might have
helped to empty the measure of public guilt, but none repented of that
particular wickedness which he knew himself guilty of.
(1.) They did not so much as take the first step towards repentance;
they did not so much as say, What have I done? There was no
motion towards it, not the least sign or token of it. Note, True
repentance beings in a serious and impartial inquiry into ourselves,
what have we done, arising from a conviction that we have done
amiss.
(2.) They were so far from repenting of their sins that they went on
resolutely in their sins: Every one turned to his course, his
wicked course, that course of sin which he had chosen and accustomed
himself to, as the horse rushes into the battle, eager upon
action, and scorning to be curbed. How the horse rushes into the battle
is elegantly described,
&c. He mocks at fear and is not affrighted. Thus the daring
sinner laughs at the threatenings of the word as bugbears, and runs
violently upon the instruments of death and slaughter, and nothing will
be restrained from him.
III. They would not attend to the dictates of providence, nor
understand the voice of God in them,
v. 7.
It is an instance of their sottishness that, though they are God’s
people, and therefore should readily understand his mind upon every
intimation of it, yet they know not the judgment of the Lord;
they apprehend not the meaning either of a mercy or an affliction, not
how to accommodate themselves to either, nor to answer God’s intention
in either. They know not how to improve the seasons of grave that God
affords them when he sends them his prophets, nor how to make use of
the rebukes they are under when his voice cries in the city.
They discern not the signs of the times
(Matt. xvi. 3),
nor are aware how God is dealing with them. They know not that way of
duty which God had prescribed them, though it be written both in their
hearts and in their books.
2. It is an aggravation of their sottishness that there is so much
sagacity in the inferior creatures. The stork in the heaven knows
her appointed times of coming and continuing; so do other
season-birds, the turtle, the crane, and the swallow. These by a
natural instinct change their quarters, as the temper of the air
alters; they come when the spring comes, and go, we know not whither,
when the winter approaches, probably into warmer climates, as some
birds come with winter and go when that is over.
IV. They would not attend to the dictates of the written word. They
say, We are wise; but how can they say so?
v. 8.
With what face can they pretend to any thing of wisdom, when they do
not understand themselves so well as the brute-creatures? Why, truly,
they think they are wise because the law of the Lord is with
them, the book of the law and the interpreters of it; and their
neighbours, for the same reason, conclude they are wise,
But their pretensions are groundless for all this: Lo, certainly in
vain made he it; surely never any people had Bibles to so little
purpose as they have. They might as well have been without the law,
unless they had made a better use of it. God has indeed made it able to
make men wise to salvation, but as to them it is made so in vain, for
they are never the wiser for it: The pen of the scribes, of
those that first wrote the law and of those that now write expositions
of it, is in vain. Both the favour of their God and the labour
of their scribes are lost upon them; they receive the grace of God
therein in vain. Note, There are many that enjoy abundance of the means
of grace, that have great plenty of Bibles and ministers, but they have
them in vain; they do not answer the end of their having them. But it
might be said, They have some wise men among them, to whom the law and
the pen of the scribes are not in vain. To this it is answered
(v. 9):
The wise men are ashamed, that is, they have reasons to be so,
that they have not made a better use of their wisdom, and lived more up
to it. They are confounded and taken; all their wisdom has not
served to keep them from those courses that tend to their ruin. They
are taken in the same snares that others of their neighbours, who have
not pretended to so much wisdom, are taken in, and filled with the same
confusion. Those that have more knowledge than others, and yet do no
better than others for their own souls, have reason to be ashamed. They
talk of their wisdom, but, Lo, they have rejected the word of the
Lord; they would not be governed by it, would not follow its
direction, would not do what they knew; and then what wisdom
is in them? None to any purpose; none that will be found to their
praise at the great day, how much soever it is found to their pride
now. The pretenders to wisdom, who said, “We are wise and the law of
the Lord is with us,” were the priests and the false prophets; with
them the prophet here deals plainly.
1. He threatens the judgments of God against them. Their families and
estates shall be ruined
(v. 10):
Their wives shall be given to others, when they are taken
captives, and their fields. shall be taken from them by their
victorious enemy and shall be given to those that shall inherit
them, not only strip them for once, but take possession of them as
their own and acquire a property in them as their own and acquire a
property in them, which they shall transmit to their posterity. And
(v. 12),
notwithstanding all their pretensions to wisdom and sanctity, they
shall fall among those that fall; for, if the blind lead the
blind, both shall fall together into the ditch. In the time of their
visitation, when the wickedness of the land comes to be enquired
into, it will be found that they have contributed to it more than any,
and therefore they shall be sure to be cast down and cast
out.
2. He gives a reason for these judgments
(v. 10-12),
even the same account of their badness which we meet with before
where it was opened at large.
(1.) They were greedy of the wealth of this world, which is bad enough
in any, but worst in prophets and priests, who should be best
acquainted with another world and therefore should be most dead to
this. But these, from the least to the greatest, were given
to covetousness. The priests teach for hire and the
prophets divine for money,
Mic. iii. 11.
(2.) They made no conscience of speaking truth, no, not when they spoke
as priests and prophets: Every one deals falsely, looks one way
and rows another. There is no such thing as sincerity among them.
(3.) They flattered people in their sins, and so flattered them into
destruction. They pretended to be the physicians of the state, but
knew not how to apply proper remedies to its growing maladies; they
healed them slightly, killed the patient with palliative cures,
silencing their fears and complaints with, “Peace, peace, all is
well, and there is no danger,” when the God of heaven was proceeding in
his controversy with them, so that there could be no peace to them.
(4.) When it was made to appear how basely they prevaricated
they were not at all ashamed of it, but rather gloried in it,
(v. 12):
They could not blush, so perfectly lost were they to all sense
of virtue and honour. When they were convicted of the grossest
forgeries they would justify what they had done, and laugh at those
whom they had imposed upon. Such as these were ripe for ruin.
| Destruction Threatened for Sin; Despair of Sinners in Trouble; The Prophet’s Lamentation. | B. C. 606. |
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13 I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be
no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf
shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass
away from them.
14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter
into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the
LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall
to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of
health, and behold trouble!
16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole
land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones;
for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in
it; the city, and those that dwell therein.
17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you,
which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the
LORD.
18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is
faint in me.
19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people
because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in
Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to
anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?
20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not
saved.
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am
black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?
why then is not the health of the daughter of my people
recovered?
In these verses we have,
I. God threatening the destruction of a sinful people. He has borne
long with them, but they are still more and more provoking, and
therefore now their ruin is resolved on: I will surely consume them
(v. 13),
consuming I will consume them, not only surely, but utterly,
consume them, will follow them with one judgment after another, till
they are quite consumed; it is a consumption determined,
Isa. x. 23.
1. They shall be quite stripped of all their comforts
(v. 13):
There shall be no grapes on the vine. Some understand this as
intimating their sin; God came looking for grapes from this vineyard,
seeking fruit upon this fig-tree, but he found none (as
nay, they had not so much as leaves,
But it is rather to be understood of God’s judgments upon them, and may
be meant literally–The enemy shall seize the fruits of the earth,
shall pluck the grapes and figs for themselves and beat down the very
leaves with them; or, rather, figuratively–They shall be deprived of
all their comforts and shall have nothing left them wherewith to
make glad their hearts. It is expounded in the last clause:
The things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
Note, God’s gifts are upon condition, and revocable upon
non-performance of the condition. Mercies abused are forfeited, and it
is just with God to take the forfeiture.
2. They shall be set upon by all manner of grievances, and surrounded
with calamities
(v. 17):
I will send serpents among you, the Chaldean army, fiery
serpents, flying serpents, cockatrices; these shall bite them with
their venomous teeth, give them wounds that shall be mortal; and they
shall not be charmed, as some serpents used to be, with music.
These are serpents of another nature, that are not so wrought upon, or
they are as the deaf adder, that stops her ear, and will not hear
the voice of the charmer. The enemies are so intent upon making
slaughter that it will be to no purpose to accost them gently, or offer
any thing to pacify them, or mollify them, or to bring them to a better
temper. No peace with God, therefore none with them.
II. The people sinking into despair under the pressure of those
calamities. Those that were void of fear (when the trouble was at a
distance) and set it at defiance, are void of hope now that it breaks
in upon them, and have no heart either to make head against it or to
bear up under it,
They cannot think themselves safe in the open villages: Why do we
sit still here? Let us assemble, and go into a body into
the defenced cities. Though they could expect no other than to be
surely cut off there at last, yet not so soon as in the country, and
therefore, “Let us go, and be silent there; let us attempt
nothing, nor so much as make a complaint; for to what purpose?” It is
not a submissive, but a sullen silence, that they here condemn
themselves to. Those that are most jovial in their prosperity commonly
despond most, and are most melancholy, in trouble. Now observe what it
is that sinks them.
1. They are sensible that God is angry with them: “The Lord our God
has put us to silence, has struck us with astonishment, and
given us water of gall to drink, which is both bitter and
stupifying, or intoxicating.
Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. We had
better sit still than rise up and fall; better say nothing than say
nothing to the purpose. To what purpose is it to contend with our fate
when God himself has become our enemy and fights against us?
Because we have sinned against the Lord, therefore we are
brought to the plunge.” This may be taken as the language,
(1.) Of their indignation. They seem to quarrel with God as if he had
dealt hardly with them in putting them to silence, not permitting them
to speak for themselves, and then telling them that it was because they
had sinned against him. Thus men’s foolishness perverts their way,
and then their hearts fret against the Lord. Or rather,
(2.) Of their convictions. At length they begin to see the hand of God
lifted up against them, and stretched out in the calamities under which
they are now groaning, and to own that they have provoked him to
contend with them. Note, Sooner or later God will bring the most
obstinate to acknowledge both his providence and his justice in all the
troubles they are brought into, to see and say both that it is his hand
and that he is righteous.
2. They are sensible that the enemy is likely to be too hard for them,
They are soon apprehensive that it is to no purpose to make head
against such a mighty force; they and their people are quite
dispirited; and, when the courage of a nation is gone, their numbers
will stand them in little stead. The snorting of the horses was
heard from Dan, that is, the report of the formidable strength of
their cavalry was soon carried all the nation over and every body
trembled at the sound of the neighing of his steeds; for they
have devoured the land and all that is in the city; both town and
country are laid waste before them, not only the wealth, but the
inhabitants, of both, those that dwell therein. Note, When God
appears against us, every thing else that is against us appears very
formidable; whereas, if he be for us, every thing appears very
despicable,
3. They are disappointed in their expectations of deliverance out of
their troubles, as they had been surprised when their troubles came
upon them; and this double disappointment very much aggravated their
calamity.
(1.) The trouble came when they little expected it
(v. 15):
We looked for peace, the continuance of our peace, but no
good came, no good news from abroad; we looked for a time of
health and prosperity to our nation, but, behold, trouble,
the alarms of war; for, as it follows
(v. 16),
the noise of the enemies’ horses was heard from Dan.
Their false prophets had cried Peace, peace, to them, which made
it the more terrible when the scene of war opened on a sudden. This
complaint will occur again,
(2.) The deliverance did not come when they had long expected it
(v. 20):
The harvest is past, the summer is ended; that is, there is a
great deal of time gone. Harvest and summer are parts of the year, and
when they are gone the year draws towards a conclusion; so the meaning
is, “One year passes after another, one campaign after another, and yet
our affairs are in as bad a posture as ever they were; no relief comes,
nor is any thing done towards it: We are not saved.” Nay, there
is a great deal of opportunity lost, the season of action is over and
slipped, the summer and harvest are gone, and a cold and melancholy
winter succeeds. Note, The salvation of God’s church and people often
goes on very slowly, and God keeps his people long in the expectation
of it, for wise and holy ends. Nay, they stand in their own light, and
put a bar in their own door, and are not saved because they are not
ready for salvation.
4. They are deceived in those things which were their confidence and
which they thought would have secured their peace to them
(v. 19):
The daughter of my people cries, cries aloud, because of
those that dwell in a far country, because of the foreign enemy
that invades them, that comes from a far country to take possession of
ours; this occasions the cry; and what is the cry? It is this: Is
not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? These were the two
things that they had all along buoyed up themselves with and depended
upon,
(1.) That they had among them the temple of God, and the tokens of his
special presence with them. The common cant was, “Is not the Lord in
Zion? What danger then need we fear?” And they held by this when
the trouble was breaking in upon them. “Surely we shall do well enough,
for have we not God among us?” But, when it grew to an extremity, it
was an aggravation of their misery that they had thus flattered
themselves.
(2.) That they had the throne of the house of David. As they had a
temple, so they had a monarchy, jure divino–by divine right: Is not
Zion’s king in her? And will not Zion’s God protect Zion’s king and
his kingdom? Surely he will; but why does he not? “What” (say they)
“has Zion neither a God nor a king to stand by her and help her, that
she is thus run down and likely to be ruined?” This outcry of theirs
reflects upon God, as if his power and promise were broken or weakened;
and therefore he returns an answer to it immediately: Why have they
provoked me to anger with their graven images? They quarrel with
God as if he had dealt unkindly by them in forsaking them, whereas they
by their idolatry had driven him from them; they have withdrawn from
their allegiance to him, and so have thrown themselves out of this
protection. They fret themselves, and curse their king and their
God
when it is their own sin that separates between them and God
(Isa. lix. 2);
they feared not the Lord, and then what can a king do for
them?
Hos. x. 3.
III. We have here the prophet himself bewailing the calamity and ruin
of his people; for there were more of the lamentations of Jeremiah than
those we find in the book that bears that title. Observe here,
1. How great his griefs were. He was an eyewitness of the desolations
of his country, and saw those things which by the spirit of prophecy he
had foreseen. In the foresight, much more in the sight, of them, he
cries out, “My heart is faint in me, I sink, I die away at the
consideration of it,
When I would comfort myself against my sorrow, I do but labour
in vain; nay, every attempt to alleviate the grief does but aggravate
it.” It is our wisdom and duty, under mournful events, to do what we
can to comfort ourselves against our sorrow, by suggesting to
ourselves such considerations as are proper to allay the grief and
balance the grievance. But sometimes the sorrow is such that the more
it is repressed the more strongly it recoils. This may sometimes be the
case of very good men, as of the prophet here, whose soul refused to be
comforted and fainted at the cordial,
He tells us
(v. 21)
what was the matter: “It is for the hurt of the daughter of my
people that I am thus hurt; it is for their sin, and
the miseries they have brought upon themselves by it; it is for this
that I am black, that I look black, that I go in black as
mourners do, and that astonishment has taken hold on me, so that
I know not what to do nor which way to turn.” Note, The miseries of our
country ought to be very much the grief of our souls. A gracious spirit
will be a public spirit, a tender spirit, a mourning spirit. It becomes
us to lament the miseries of our fellow-creatures, much more to lay to
heart the calamities of our country, and especially of the church of
God, to grieve for the affliction of Joseph. Jeremiah had
prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, and, though the truth of his
prophecy was questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the
truth of his prophecy was questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the
proof of the truth of it by the accomplishment of it, preferring the
welfare of his country before his own reputation. If Jerusalem had
repented and been spared, he would have been far from fretting as Jonah
did. Jeremiah had many enemies in Judah and Jerusalem, that hated, and
reproached, and persecuted him; and in the judgments brought upon them
God reckoned with them for it and pleaded his prophet’s cause; yet he
was far from rejoicing in it, so truly did he forgive his enemies and
desire that God would forgive them.
2. How small his hopes were
(v. 22):
“Is there no balm in Gilead–no medicine proper for a sick and
dying kingdom? Is there no physician there–no skilful faithful
hand to apply the medicine?” He looks upon the case to be deplorable
and past relief. There is no balm in Gilead that can cure the disease
of sin, no physician there that can restore the health of a nation
quite overrun by such a foreign army as that of the Chaldeans. The
desolations made are irreparable, and the disease has presently come to
such a height that there is no checking it. Or
may be understood as laying all the blame of the incurableness of their
disease upon themselves; and so the question must be answered
affirmatively: Is there no balm in Gilead–no physician there?
Yes, certainly there is; God is able to help and heal them, there is a
sufficiency in him to redress all their grievances. Gilead was a place
in their own land, not far off. They had among themselves God’s law and
his prophets, with the help of which they might have been brought to
repentance, and their ruin might have been prevented. They had princes
and priests, whose business it was to reform the nation and redress
their grievances. What could have been done more than had been done for
their recovery? Why then was not their health restored?
Certainly it was not owing to God, but to themselves; it was not for
want of balm and a physician, but because they would not admit the
application nor submit to the methods of cure. The physician and
physic were both ready, but the patient was wilful and irregular, would
not be tied to rules, but must be humoured. Note, If sinners die of
their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ
is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the physician there, both sufficient,
all-sufficient, so that they might have been healed, but would not.
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