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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. XX.
Such plain dealing as Jeremiah used in the foregoing chapter, one might
easily foresee, if it did not convince and humble men, would provoke
and exasperate them; and so it did; for here we find,
I. Jeremiah persecuted by Pashur for preaching that sermon,
II. Pashur threatened for so doing, and the word which Jeremiah had
preached confirmed,
III. Jeremiah complaining to God concerning it, and the other instances
of hard measure that he had since he began to be a prophet, and the
grievous temptations he had struggled with
(ver. 7-10),
encouraging himself in God, lodging his appeal with him, not doubting
but that he shall yet praise him, by which it appears that he had much
grace
and yet peevishly cursing the day of his birth
(ver. 14-18),
by which it appears that he had sad remainders of corruption in him
too, and was a man subject to like passions as we are.
| The Sin and Doom of Pashur. | B. C. 600. |
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1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief
governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied
these things.
2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the
stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by
the house of the LORD.
3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth
Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD
hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib.
4 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to
thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword
of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will
give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall
carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the
sword.
5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and
all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and
all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand
of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and
carry them to Babylon.
6 And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go
into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou
shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends,
to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
Here is,
I. Pashur’s unjust displeasure against Jeremiah, and the fruits of that
displeasure,
This Pashur was a priest, and therefore, one would think, should have
protected Jeremiah, who was of his own order, a priest too, and the
more because he was a prophet of the Lord, whose interests the priests,
his ministers, ought to consult. But this priest was a persecutor of
him whom he should have patronized. He was the son of Immer;
that is, he was of the sixteenth course of the priests, of which Immer,
when these courses were first settled by David, was father
as Zechariah was of the order of Abiah,
Thus this Pashur is distinguished from another of the same name
mentioned
who was of the fifth course. This Pashur was chief governor in the
temple; perhaps he was only so pro tempore–for a short
period, the course he was head of being now in waiting, or he was
suffragan to the high priest, or perhaps captain of the temple or of
the guards about it.
This was Jeremiah’s great enemy. The greatest malignity to God’s
prophets was found among those that professed sanctity and concern for
God and the church. We cannot suppose that Pashur was one of those
ancients of the priests that went with Jeremiah to the valley of Tophet
to hear him prophesy, unless it were with a malicious design to take
advantage against him; but, when he came into the courts of the Lord’s
house, it is probable that he was himself a witness of what he said,
and so it may be read
(v. 1),
He heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. As we read it, the
information was brought to him by others, whose examinations he took:
He heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things, and could not
bear it, especially that he should dare to preach in the courts of the
Lord’s house, where he was chief governor, without his leave.
When power in the church is abused, it is the most dangerous power that
can be employed against it. Being incensed at Jeremiah,
1. He smote him, struck him with his hand or staff of
authority. Perhaps it was a blow intended only to disgrace him, like
that which the high priest ordered to be given to Paul
he struck him on the mouth, and bade him hold his prating. Or perhaps
he gave him many blows intended to hurt him; he beat him severely, as a
malefactor. It is charged upon the husbandmen
that they beat the servants. The method of proceeding here was illegal;
the high priest, and the rest of the priests, ought to have been
consulted, Jeremiah’s credentials examined, and the matter enquired
into, whether he had an authority to say what he said. But these rules
of justice are set aside and despised, as mere formalities; right or
wrong, Jeremiah must be run down. The enemies of piety would never
suffer themselves to be bound by the laws of equity.
2. He put him in the stocks. Some make it only a place of
confinement; he imprisoned him. It rather seems to be an instrument of
closer restraint, and intended to put him both to pain and shame. Some
think it was a pillory for his neck and arms; others (as we) a pair of
stocks for his legs: whatever engine it was, he continued in it all
night, and in a public place too, in the high gate of Benjamin,
which was in, or by, the house of the Lord, probably a gate
through which they passed between the city and the temple. Pashur
intended thus to chastise him, that he might deter him from
prophesying; and thus to expose him to contempt and render him odious,
that he might not be regarded if he did prophesy. Thus have the best
men met with the worst treatment from this ungracious ungrateful world;
and the greatest blessings of their age have been counted as the
off-scouring of all things. Would it not raise a pious
indignation to see such a man as Pashur upon the bench and such a man
as Jeremiah in the stocks? It is well that there is another life after
this, when persons and things will appear with another face.
II. God’s just displeasure against Pashur, and the tokens of it. On
the morrow Pashur gave Jeremiah his discharge, brought him out
of the stocks
(v. 3);
it is probable that he continued him there, in little-ease, as long as
was usual to continue any in that punishment. And now Jeremiah has a
message from God to him. We do not find that, when Pashur put Jeremiah
in the stocks, the latter gave him any check for which he did; he
appears to have quietly and silently submitted to the abuse; when he
suffered, he threatened not. But, when he brought him out of the
stocks, then God put a word into the prophet’s mouth, which would
awaken his conscience, if he had any. For, when the prophet of the
Lord was bound, the word of the Lord was not. What can we think
Pashur aimed at in smiting and abusing Jeremiah? Whatever it is, we
shall see by what God says to him that he is disappointed.
1. Did he aim to establish himself, and make himself easy, by silencing
one that told him of his faults and would be likely to lessen his
reputation with the people? He shall not gain this point; for,
(1.) Though the prophet should be silent, his own conscience shall fly
in his face and make him always uneasy. To confirm this he shall have a
name given him, Magor-missabib–Terror round about, or Fear
on every side. God himself shall give him this name, whose calling
him so will make him so. It seems to be a proverbial expression,
bespeaking a man not only in distress but in despair, not only in
danger on every side (that a man may be and yet by faith may be in no
terror, as David,
but in fear on every side, and that a man may be when there appears no
danger. The wicked flee when no man pursues, are in great
gear where no fear is. This shall be Pashur’s case
(v. 4):
“Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself; that is, thou
shalt be subject to continual frights, and thy own fancy and
imagination shall create thee a constant uneasiness.” Note, God can
make the most daring sinner a terror to himself, and will find out a
way to frighten those that frighten his people from doing their duty.
And those that will not hear of their faults from God’s prophets, that
are reprovers in the gate, shall be made to hear of them from
conscience, which is a reprover in their own bosoms that will not be
daunted nor silenced. And miserable is the man that is thus made a
terror to himself. Yet this is not all; some are very much a terror to
themselves, but they conceal it and seem to others to be pleasant; but,
“I will make thee a terror to all thy friends; thou shalt, upon
all occasions, express thyself with so much horror and amazement that
all thy friends shall be afraid of conversing with thee and shall
choose to stand aloof from thy torment.” Persons in deep melancholy and
distraction are a terror to themselves and all about them, which is a
good reason why we should be very thankful, so long as God continues to
us the use of our reason and the peace of our consciences.
(2.) His friends, whom he put a confidence in and perhaps studied to
oblige in what he did against Jeremiah, shall all fail him. God does
not presently strike him dead for what he did against Jeremiah, but
lets him live miserably, like Cain in the land of shaking, in
such a continual consternation that wherever he goes he shall be a
monument of divine justice; and, when it is asked, “What makes this man
in such a continual terror?” it shall be answered, “It is God’s hand
upon him for putting Jeremiah in the stocks.” His friends, who should
encourage him, shall all be cut off; they shall fall by the sword of
the enemy, and his eyes shall behold it, which dreadful
sight shall increase his terror.
(3.) He shall find, in the issue, that his terror is not causeless, but
that divine vengeance is waiting for him
(v. 6);
he and his family shall go into captivity, even to
Babylon; he shall neither die before the evil comes, as Josiah,
nor live to survive it, as some did, but he shall die a captive, and
shall in effect be buried in his chains, he and all his friends.
Thus far is the doom of Pashur. Let persecutors read it, and tremble;
tremble to repentance before they be made to tremble to their ruin.
2. Did he aim to keep the people easy, to prevent the destruction that
Jeremiah prophesied of, and by sinking his reputation to make his words
fall to the ground? It is probable that he did; for it appears by
that he did himself set up for a prophet, and told the people that they
should have peace. He prophesied lies to them; and because
Jeremiah’s prophecy contradicted his, and tended to awaken those whom
he endeavoured to rock asleep in their sins, therefore he set himself
against him. But could he gain his point? No; Jeremiah stands to what
he has said against Judah and Jerusalem, and God by his mouth repeats
it. Men get nothing by silencing those who reprove and warn them, for
the word will have its course; so it had here.
(1.) The country shall be ruined
(v. 4):
I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. It
had long been God’s own land, but he will now transfer his title to it
to Nebuchadnezzar, he shall be master of the country and dispose of the
inhabitants so me to the sword and some to captivity, as he pleases,
but none shall escape him.
(2.) The city shall be ruined too,
v. 5.
The king of Babylon shall spoil that, and carry all that is valuable in
it to Babylon.
[1.] He shall seize their magazines and military stores (here called
the strength of this city) and turn them against them. These
they trusted to as their strength; but what stead could they stand them
in when they had thrown themselves out of God’s protection, and when he
who was indeed their strength had departed from them?
[2.] He shall carry off all their stock in trade, their wares and
merchandises, here called their labours, because it was what
they laboured about and got by their labour.
[3.] He shall plunder their fine houses, and take away their rich
furniture, here called their precious things, because they
valued them and set their hearts so much upon them. Happy are those who
have secured to themselves precious things in God’s precious promises,
which are out of the reach of soldiers.
[4.] He shall rifle the exchequer, and take away the jewels of the
crown and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. This was that
instance of the calamity which was first of all threatened to Hezekiah
long ago as his punishment for showing his treasures to the king of
Babylon’s ambassadors,
The treasury, they thought, was their defence; but that betrayed them,
and became an easy prey to the enemy.
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7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art
stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily,
every one mocketh me.
8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil;
because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a
derision, daily.
9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any
more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning
fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I
could not stay.
10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side.
Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars
watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be
enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our
revenge on him.
11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one:
therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not
prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not
prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
12 But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest
the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for
unto thee have I opened my cause.
13 Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath
delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
Pashur’s doom was to be a terror to himself; Jeremiah, even now,
in this hour of temptation, is far from being so; and yet it cannot be
denied but that he is here, through the infirmity of the flesh,
strangely agitated within himself. Good men are but men at the best.
God is not extreme to mark what they say and do amiss, and therefore we
must not be so, but make the best of it. In these verses it appears
that, upon occasion of the great indignation and injury that Pashur did
to Jeremiah, there was a struggle in his breast between his graces and
his corruptions. His discourse with himself and with his God, upon this
occasion, was somewhat perplexed; let us try to methodize it.
I. Here is a sad representation of the wrong that was done him and the
affronts that were put upon him; and this representation, no doubt, was
according to truth, and deserves no blame, but was very justly and very
fitly made to him that sent him, and no doubt would bear him out. He
complains,
1. That he was ridiculed and laughed at; they made a jest of every
thing he said and did; and this cannot but be a great grievance to an
ingenuous mind
(v. 7, 8):
I am in derision; I am mocked. They played upon him, and made
themselves and one another merry with him, as if he had been a fool,
good for nothing but to make sport. Thus he was continually: I was
in derision daily. Thus he was universally: Every one mocks
me; the greatest so far forget their own gravity, and the meanest
so far forget mine. Thus our Lord Jesus, on the cross, was reviled both
by priests and people; and the revilings of each had their peculiar
aggravation. And what was it that thus exposed him to contempt and
scorn? It was nothing but his faithful and zealous discharge of the
duty of his office,
v. 8.
They could find nothing for which to deride him but his preaching; it
was the word of the Lord that was made a reproach. That
for which they should have honoured and respected him–that he was
entrusted to deliver the word of the Lord to them was the very
thing for which they reproached and reviled him. He never preached a
sermon, but, though he kept as closely as possible to his instructions,
they found something or other in it for which to banter and abuse him.
Note, It is sad to think that, though divine revelation be one of the
greatest blessings and honours that ever was bestowed upon the world,
yet it has been turned very much to the reproach of the most zealous
preachers and believers of it. Two things they derided him for:–
(1.) The manner of his preaching: Since he spoke, he cried out.
He had always been a lively affectionate preacher, and since he began
to speak in God’s name he always spoke as a man in earnest; he cried
aloud and did not spare, spared neither himself nor those to whom
he preached; and this was enough for those to laugh at who hated to be
serious. It is common for those that are unaffected with and
disaffected to, the things of God themselves, to ridicule those that
are much affected with them. Lively preachers are the scorn of careless
unbelieving hearers.
(2.) The matter of his preaching: He cried violence and spoil.
He reproved them for the violence and spoil which they were guilty of
towards one another; and he prophesied of the violence and spoil which
should be brought upon them as the punishment of that sin; for the
former they ridiculed him as over-precise, for the latter as
over-credulous; in both he was provoking to them, and therefore they
resolved to run him down. This was bad enough, yet he complains
further.
2. That he was plotted against and his ruin contrived; he was not only
ridiculed as a weak man, but reproached and misrepresented as a bad man
and dangerous to the government. This he laments as his grievance,
Being laughed at, though it touches a man in point of honour, is yet a
thing that may be easily laughed at again; for, as it has been well
observed, it is no shame to be laughed at, but to deserve to be so. But
there were those that acted a more spiteful part, and with more
subtlety.
(1.) They spoke ill of him behind his back, when he had no opportunity
of clearing himself, and were industrious to spread false reports
concerning him: I heard, at second hand, the defaming of
many, fear on every side (of many Magor-missabibs, so some
read it), of many such men as Pashur was, and who may therefore expect
his doom. Or this was the matter of their defamation; they represented
Jeremiah as a man that instilled fears and jealousies on every side
into the minds of the people, and so made them uneasy under the
government, and disposed them to a rebellion. Or he perceived them to
be so malicious against him that he could not but be afraid on every
side; wherever he was he had reason to fear informers; so that they
made him almost a Magor-missabib. These words are found in the
original, verbatim, the same,
I have heard the slander or defaming of many, fear on every
side. Jeremiah, in his complaint, chooses to make use of the same
words that David had made use of before him, that it might be a comfort
to him to think that other good men had suffered similar abuses before
him, and to teach us to make use of David’s psalms with application to
ourselves, as there is occasion. Whatever we have to say, we may thence
take with us words. See how Jeremiah’s enemies contrived the matter:
Report, say they, and we will report it. They resolve to cast an
odium upon him, and this is the method they take: “Let some very bad
thing be said of him, which may render him obnoxious to the government,
and, though it be ever so false, we will second it, and spread it, and
add to it.” (For the reproaches of good men lose nothing by the
carriage.) “Do you that frame a story plausibly, or you that can
pretend to some acquaintance with him, report it once, and we will all
report it from you, in all companies, that we come into. Do you say it,
and we will swear it; do you set it a going, and we will follow it.”
And thus both are equally guilty, those that raise and those that
propagate the false report. The receiver is as bad as the thief.
(2.) They flattered him to his face, that they might get something from
him on which to ground an accusation, as the spies that came to Christ
feigning themselves to be just men,
His familiars, that he conversed freely with and put a confidence in,
watched for his halting, observed what he said, which they could
by any strained innuendo put a bad construction upon, and
carried it to his enemies. His case was very sad when those betrayed
him whom he took to be his friends. They said among themselves, “If we
accost him kindly, and insinuate ourselves into his acquaintance,
per-adventure he will be enticed to own that he is in confederacy with
the enemy and a pensioner to the king of Babylon, or we shall wheedle
him to speak some treasonable words; and then we shall prevail
against him, and take our revenge upon him for telling us of
our faults and threatening us with the judgments of God.” Note, Neither
the innocence of the dove, no, nor the prudence of the serpent to help
it, can secure men from unjust censure and false accusation.
II. Here is an account of the temptation he was in under this
affliction; his feet were almost gone, as the psalmist’s,
And this is that which is most to be dreaded in affliction, being
driven by it to sin,
1. He was tempted to quarrel with God for making him a prophet. This he
begins with
(v. 7):
O Lord! thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. This as we
read it, sounds very harshly. God’s servants have been always ready to
own that he is a faithful Master and never cheated them; and therefore
this is the language of Jeremiah’s folly and corruption. If, when God
called him to be a prophet and told him he would set him over the
kingdoms
and make him a defenced city, he flattered himself with an
expectation of having universal respect paid to him as a messenger from
heaven, and living safe and easy, and afterwards it proved otherwise,
he must not say that God had deceived him, but that he had deceived
himself; for he knew how the prophets before him had been persecuted,
and had no reason to expect better treatment. Nay, God had expressly
told him that all the princes, priests, and people of the land would
fight against him
which he had forgotten, else he would not have laid the blame on God
thus. Christ thus told his disciples what opposition they should meet
with, that they might not be offended,
John xvi. 1, 2.
But the words may very well be read thus: Thou hast persuaded me,
and I was persuaded; it is the same word that was used,
margin, God shall persuade Japhet. And
By much forbearance is a prince persuaded. And
I will allure her. And this agrees best with what follows:
“Thou wast stronger than I, didst over-persuade me with
argument; nay, didst overpower me, by the influence of thy Spirit upon
me, and thou hast prevailed.” Jeremiah was very backward to
undertake the prophetic office; he pleaded that he was under age and
unfit for the service; but God over-ruled his pleas, and told him that
he must go,
ch. i. 6, 7.
“Now, Lord,” says he, “since thou hast put this office upon me, why
dost thou not stand by me in it? Had I thrust myself upon it, I might
justly have been in derision; but why am I so when thou didst thrust me
into it?” It was Jeremiah’s infirmity to complain thus of God as
putting a hardship upon him in calling him to be a prophet, which he
would not have done had he considered the lasting honour thereby done
him, sufficient to counterbalance the present contempt he was under.
Note, As long as we see ourselves in the way of God and duty it is
weakness and folly, when we meet with difficulties and discouragements
in it, to wish we had never set out in it.
2. He was tempted to quit his work and give it over, partly because he
himself met with so much hardship in it and partly because those to
whom he was sent, instead of being edified and made better, were
exasperated and made worse
(v. 9):
“Then I said, Since by prophesying in the name of the Lord I
gain nothing to him or myself but dishonour and disgrace, I will not
make mention of him as my author for any thing I say, nor speak
any more in his name; since my enemies do all they can to silence
me, I will even silence myself, and speak no more, for I may as well
speak to the stones as to them.” Note, It is a strong temptation to
poor ministers to resolve that they will preach no more when they see
their preaching slighted and wholly ineffectual. But let people dread
putting their ministers into this temptation. Let not their labour be
in vain with us, lest we provoke them to say that they will take no
more pains with us, and provoke God to say, They shall take no more.
Yet let not ministers hearken to this temptation, but go on in their
duty, notwithstanding their discouragements, for this is the more
thankworthy; and, though Israel be not gathered, yet they
shall be glorious.
III. Here is an account of his faithful adherence to his work and
cheerful dependence on his God notwithstanding.
1. He found the grace of God mighty in him to keep him to this
business, notwithstanding the temptation he was in to throw it up:
“I said, in my haste, I will speak no more in his name;
what I have in my heart to deliver I will stifle and suppress. But I
soon found it was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my
bones, which glowed inwardly, and must have vent; it was impossible
to smother it; I was like a man in a burning fever, uneasy and in a
continual agitation; while I kept silence from good my heart was hot
within me, it was pain and grief to me, and I must speak,
that I might be refreshed;”
Ps. xxix. 2, 3; Job xxxii. 20.
While I kept silence, my bones waxed old,
Ps. xxxii. 3.
See the power of the spirit of prophecy in those that were actuated by
it; and thus will a holy zeal for God even eat men up, and make them
forget themselves. I believed, therefore have I spoken. Jeremiah
was soon weary with forbearing to preach, and could not contain
himself; nothing puts faithful ministers to pain so much as being
silenced, nor to terror so much as silencing themselves. Their
convictions will soon triumph over temptations of that kind; for woe
is unto me if I preach not the gospel, whatever it cost me,
And it is really a mercy to have the word of God thus mighty in us to
overpower our corruptions.
2. He was assured of God’s presence with him, which would be sufficient
to baffle all the attempts of his enemies against him
(v. 11):
“They say, We shall prevail against him; the day will
undoubtedly be our own. But I am sure that they shall not prevail,
they shall not prosper. I can safely set them all at defiance, for
the Lord is with me, is on my side, to take my part against them
to protect me from all their malicious designs upon me. He is with me
to support me and bear me up under the burden which now presses me
down. He is with me to make the word I preach answer the end he
designs, though not the end I desire. He is with me as a mighty
terrible one, to strike a terror upon them, and so to overcome them.”
Note, Even that in God which is terrible is really comfortable to his
servants that trust in him, for it shall be turned against those that
seek to terrify his people. God’s being a mighty God bespeaks him a
terrible God to all those that take up arms against him or any one
that, like Jeremiah, was commissioned by him. How terrible will the
wrath of God be to those that think to daunt all about them and will
themselves be daunted by nothing! The most formidable enemies that act
against us appear despicable when we see the Lord for us as a mighty
terrible one,
Neh. iv. 14.
Jeremiah speaks now with a good assurance: “If the Lord be with me,
my persecutors shall stumble, so that, when they pursue me, they
shall not overtake me
(Ps. xxvii. 2),
and then they shall be greatly ashamed of their impotent malice
and fruitless attempts. Nay, their everlasting confusion and
infamy shall never be forgotten; they shall not forget it
themselves, but it shall be to them a constant and lasting vexation,
whenever they think of it; others shall not forget it, but it shall
leave upon them an indelible reproach.”
3. He appeals to God against them as a righteous Judge, and prays
judgment upon his cause,
He looks upon God as the God that tries the righteous, takes
cognizance of them, and of every cause that they are interested in. He
does not judge in favour of them with partiality, but tries
them, and finding that they have right on their side, and that
their persecutors wrong them and are injurious to them, he gives
sentence for them. He that tries the righteous tries the unrighteous
too, and he is very well qualified to do both; for he sees the reins
and the heart, he certainly knows men’s thoughts and affections,
their aims and intentions, and therefore can pass an unerring judgment
on their words and actions. Now this is the God,
(1.) To whom the prophet here refers himself, and in whose court he
lodges his appeal: Unto thee have I opened my cause. Not but
that God perfectly knew his cause, and all the merits of it, without
his opening; but the cause we commit to God we must spread before him.
He knows it, but he will know it from us, and allows us to be
particular in the opening of it, not to affect him, but to affect
ourselves. Note, It will be an ease to our spirits, when we are
oppressed and burdened, to open our cause to God and pour out our
complaints before him.
(2.) By whom he expects to be righted; “Let me see thy vengeance on
them, such vengeance as thou thinkest fit to take for their
conviction and my vindication, the vengeance thou usest to take on
persecutors.” Note, Whatever injuries are done us, we must not study to
avenge ourselves, but must leave it to that God to do it to whom
vengeance belongs, and who hath said, I will repay.
4. He greatly rejoices and praises God, in a full confidence that God
would appear for his deliverance,
So full is he of the comfort of God’s presence with him, the divine
protection he is under, and the divine promise he has to depend upon,
that in a transport of joy he stirs up himself and others to give God
the glory of it: Sing unto the Lord, praise you the Lord. Here
appears a great change with him since he began this discourse; the
clouds are blown over, his complaints all silenced and turned into
thanksgivings. He has now an entire confidence in that God whom
(v. 7)
he was distrusting; he stirs up himself to praise that name which
(v. 9)
he was resolving no more to make mention of. It was the lively exercise
of faith that made this happy change, that turned his sighs into songs
and his tremblings into triumphs. It is proper to express our hope in
God by our praising him, and our praising God by our singing to him.
That which is the matter of the praise is, He hath delivered the
soul of the poor from the hand of the evil-doers; he means
especially himself, his own poor soul. “He hath delivered me formerly
when I was in distress, and now of late out of the hand of Pashur, and
he will continue to deliver me,
He will deliver my soul from the sin that I am in danger of falling
into when I am thus persecuted. He hath delivered me from the hand
of evil-doers, so that they have not gained their point, nor had
their will.” Note, Those that are faithful in well-doing need not fear
those that are spiteful in evil-doing, for they have a God to trust to
who has well-doers under the hand of his protection and evil-doers
under the hand of his restraint.
| The Prophet’s Impatient Appeal. | B. C. 600. |
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14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day
wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father,
saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
16 And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew,
and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and
the shouting at noontide;
17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother
might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with
me.
18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and
sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
What is the meaning of this? Does there proceed out of the same
mouth blessing and cursing? Could he that said so cheerfully
(v. 13),
Sing unto the Lord, praise you the Lord, say so passionately
(v. 14),
Cursed be the day wherein I was born? How shall we reconcile
these? What we have in these verses the prophet records, I suppose, to
his own shame, as he had recorded that in the foregoing verses to God’s
glory. It seems to be a relation of the ferment he had been in while he
was in the stocks, out of which by faith and hope he had recovered
himself, rather than a new temptation which he afterwards fell into,
and it should come in like that of David
(Ps. xxxi. 22),
I said in my haste, I am cut off; this is also implied,
When grace has got the victory it is good to remember the struggles of
corruption, that we may be ashamed of ourselves and our own folly, may
admire the goodness of God in not taking us at our word, and may be
warned by it to double our guard upon our spirits another time. See
here how strong the temptation was which the prophet, by divine
assistance, got the victory over, and how far he yielded to it, that we
may not despair if we through the weakness of the flesh be at any time
thus tempted. Let us see here,
I. What the prophet’s language was in this temptation.
1. He fastened a brand of infamy upon his birth-day, as Job did in a
heat
(ch. iii. 1):
“Cursed be the day wherein I was born. It was an ill day to me
(v. 14),
because it was the beginning of sorrows, and an inlet to all this
misery.” It is a wish that he had never been born. Judas in hell has
reason to wish so
but no man on earth has reason to wish so, because he knows not but he
may yet become a vessel of mercy, much less has any good man reason to
wish so. Whereas some keep their birth-day, at the return of the year
with gladness, he will look upon his birth-day as a melancholy day, and
will solemnize it with sorrow, and will have it looked upon as an
ominous day.
2. He wished ill to the messenger that brought his father the news of
his birth,
It made his father very glad to hear that he had a child born (perhaps
it was his first-born), especially that it was a man-child, for then,
being of the family of the priests, he might live to have the honour of
serving God’s altar; and yet he is ready to curse the man that brought
him the tidings, when perhaps the father to whom they were brought gave
him a gratuity for it. Here Mr. Gataker well observes, “That parents
are often much rejoiced at the birth of their children when, if they
did but foresee what misery they are born to, they would rather lament
over them than rejoice in them.” He is very free and very fierce in the
curses he pronounces upon the messenger of his birth
(v. 16):
“Let him be at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which the Lord
utterly overthrew, and repented not, did not in the least mitigate
of alleviate their misery. Let him hear the cry of the invading
besieging enemy in the morning, as soon as he is stirring; then
let him take the alarm, and by noon let him hear their shouting
for victory. And thus let him live in constant terror.”
3. He is angry that the fate of the Hebrews’ children in Egypt was not
his, that he was not slain from the womb, that his first breath
was not his last, and that he was not strangled as soon as he came into
the world,
He wishes the messenger of his birth had been better employed and had
been his murderer; nay, that his mother of whom he was born had been,
to her great misery, always with child of him, and so the womb in which
he was conceived would have served, without more ado, as a grave for
him to be buried in. Job intimates a near alliance and resemblance
between the womb and the grave,
Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return
thither.
4. He thinks his present calamities sufficient to justify these
passionate wishes
(v. 18):
“Wherefore came I forth out of the womb, where I lay hid, was
not seen, was not hated, where I lay safely and knew no evil, to see
all this labour and sorrow, nay to have my days consumed with
shame, to be continually vexed and abused, to have my life not only
spent in trouble, but wasted and worn away by trouble?”
II. What use we may make of this. It is not recorded for our imitation,
and yet we may learn good lessons from it.
1. See the vanity of human life and the vexation of spirit that attends
it. If there were not another life after this, we should be tempted
many a time to wish that we have never known this; for our few days
here are full of trouble.
2. See the folly and absurdity of sinful passion, how unreasonably it
talks when it is suffered to ramble. What nonsense is it to curse a
day–to curse a messenger for the sake of his message! What a brutish
barbarous thing for a child to wish his own mother had never been
delivered of him! See
We can easily see the folly of it in others, and should take warning
thence to suppress all such intemperate heats and passions in
ourselves, to stifle them at first and not to suffer these evil spirits
to speak. When the heart is hot, let the tongue be bridled,
3. See the weakness even of good men, who are but men at the best. See
how much those who think they stand are concerned to take heed lest
they fall, and to pray daily, Father in heaven, lead us not into
temptation!
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