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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. XXIII.
In this chapter the prophet, in God’s name, is dealing his reproofs and
threatenings,
I. Among the careless princes, or pastors of the people
(ver. 1, 2),
yet promising to take care of the flock, which they had been wanting in
their duty to,
II. Among the wicked prophets and priests, whose bad character is here
given at large in divers instances, especially their imposing upon the
people with their pretended inspirations, at which the prophet is
astonished, and for which they must expect to be punished,
III. Among the profane people, who ridiculed God’s prophets and
bantered them,
When all have thus corrupted their way they must all expect to be told
faithfully of it.
| Evangelical Predictions. | B. C. 590. |
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1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of
my pasture! saith the LORD.
2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the
pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and
driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit
upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all
countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again
to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them:
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they
be lacking, saith the LORD.
5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they
shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed
of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all
countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in
their own land.
I. Here is a word of terror to the negligent shepherds. The day is at
hand when God will reckon with them concerning the trust and charge
committed to them: Woe be to the pastors (to the rulers,
both in church and state) who should be to those they are set over as
pastors to lead them, feed them, protect them, and take care of them.
They are not owners of the sheep. God here calls them the sheep of
my pasture, whom I am interested in, and have provided good pasture
for. Woe be to those therefore who are commanded to feed God’s people,
and pretend to do it, but who, instead of that, scatter the
flock, and drive them away by their violence and oppression,
and have not visited them, nor taken any care for their welfare,
nor concerned themselves at all to do them good. In not visiting them,
and doing their duty to them, they did in effect scatter them and drive
them away. The beasts of prey scattered them, and the shepherds are in
the fault, who should have kept them together. Woe be to them
when God will visit upon them the evil of their doings and deal with
them as they deserve. They would not visit the flock in a way of duty,
and therefore God will visit them in a way of vengeance.
II. Here is a word of comfort to the neglected sheep. Though the
under-shepherds take no care of them, no pains with them, but betray
them, the chief Shepherd will look after them. When my father and my
mother forsake me, then the Lord taketh me up. Though the interests
of God’s church in the world are neglected by those who should take
care of them, and postponed to their own private secular interests, yet
they shall not therefore sink. God will perform his promise, though
those he employs do not perform their duty.
1. The dispersed Jews shall at length return to their own land, and be
happily settled there under a good government,
Though there be but a remnant of God’s flock left, a little remnant,
that has narrowly escaped destruction, he will gather that remnant,
will find them out wherever they are and find out ways and means to
bring them back out of all countries whither he had driven them.
It was the justice of God, for the sin of their shepherds, that
dispersed them; but the mercy of God shall gather in the sheep, when
the shepherds that betrayed them are cut off. They shall be
brought to their former habitations, as sheep to their folds, and
there they shall be fruitful, and increase in numbers. And,
though their former shepherds took no care of them, it does not
therefore follow that they shall have no more. If some have abused a
sacred office, that is no good reason why it should be abolished. “They
destroyed the sheep, but I will set shepherds over them who shall make
it their business to feed them.” Formerly they were continually exposed
and disturbed with some alarm or other; but now they shall fear no
more, nor be dismayed; they shall be in no danger from without, in
no fright from within. Formerly some or other of them were ever and
anon picked up by the beasts of prey; but now none of them shall be
lacking, none of them missing. Though the times may have been long
bad with the church, it does not follow that they will be ever so. Such
pastors as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, though they lived not in the pomp
that Jehoiakim and Jeconiah did, nor made such a figure, were as great
blessings to the people as the others were plagues to them. The
church’s peace is not bound up in the pomp of her rulers.
2. Messiah the Prince, that great and good Shepherd of the sheep, shall
in the latter days be raised up to bless his church, and to be the
glory of his people Israel,
v. 5, 6.
The house of David seemed to be quite sunk and ruined by that
threatening against Jeconiah
(ch. xxii. 30),
that none of his seed should ever sit upon the throne of David.
But here is a promise which effectually secures the honour of the
covenant made with David notwithstanding; for by it the house will be
raised out of its ruins to a greater lustre than ever, and shine
brighter far than it did in Solomon himself. We have not so many
prophecies of Christ in this book as we had in that of the prophet
Isaiah; but here we have one, and a very illustrious one; of him
doubtless the prophet here speaks, of him, and of no other man. The
first words intimate that it would be long ere this promise should have
its accomplishment: The days come, but they are not yet. I
shall see him, but not now. But all the rest intimate that the
accomplishment of it will be glorious.
(1.) Christ is here spoken of as a branch from David, the man
the branch
(Zech. iii. 8),
his appearance mean, his beginnings small, like those of a bud or
sprout, and his rise seemingly out of the earth, but growing to be
green, to be great, to be loaded with fruits. A branch from David’s
family, when it seemed to be a root in a dry ground, buried, and
not likely to revive. Christ is the root and offspring of David,
Rev. xxii. 16.
In him doth the horn of David bud,
Ps. cxxxii. 17, 18.
He is a branch of God’s raising up; he sanctified him, and sent him
into the world, gave him his commission and qualifications. He is a
righteous branch, for he is righteous himself, and through him
many, even all that are his, are made righteous. As an advocate, he is
Jesus Christ the righteous.
(2.) He is here spoken of as his church’s King. This branch shall be
raised as high as the throne of his father David, and there he shall
reign and prosper, not as the kings that now were of the house of
David, who went backward in all their affairs. No; he shall set up a
kingdom in the world that shall be victorious over all opposition. In
the chariot of the everlasting gospel he shall go forth, he shall go on
conquering and to conquer. If God raise him up, he will prosper
him, for he will own the work of his own hands; what is the good
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in the hands of those to
whom it is committed. He shall prosper; for he shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth, all the world over,
The present kings of the house of David were unjust and oppressive, and
therefore it is no wonder that they did not prosper. But Christ shall,
by his gospel, break the usurped power of Satan, institute a perfect
rule of holy living, and, as far as it prevails, make all the world
righteous. The effect of this shall be a holy security and serenity of
mind in all his faithful loyal subjects. In his days, under his
dominion, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely;
that is, all the spiritual seed of believing Abraham and praying Jacob
shall be protected from the curse of heaven and the malice of hell,
shall be privileged from the arrests of God’s law and delivered from
the attempts of Satan’s power, shall be saved from sin, the guilt and
dominion of it, and then shall dwell safely, and be quiet from
the fear of all evil. See
Those that shall be saved hereafter from the wrath to come may dwell
safely now; for, if God be for us, who can be against us? In the
days of Christ’s government in the soul, when he is uppermost there,
the soul dwells at ease.
(3.) He is here spoken of as The Lord our righteousness.
Observe,
[1.] Who and what he is. As God, he is Jehovah, the
incommunicable name of God, denoting his eternity and self-existence.
As Mediator, he is our righteousness. By making satisfaction to
the justice of God for the sin of man, he has brought in an everlasting
righteousness, and so made it over to us in the covenant of grace that,
upon our believing consent to that covenant, it becomes ours. His being
Jehovah our righteousness implies that he is so our
righteousness as no creature could be. He is a sovereign,
all-sufficient, eternal righteousness. All our righteousness has its
being from him, and by him it subsists, and we are made the
righteousness of God in him.
[2.] The profession and declaration of this: This is the name
whereby he shall be called, not only he shall be so, but he shall
be known to be so. God shall call him by this name, for he shall
appoint him to be our righteousness. By this name Israel shall
call him, every true believer shall call him, and call upon him. That
is our righteousness by which, as an allowed plea, we are justified
before God, acquitted from guilt, and accepted into favour; and nothing
else have we to plead but this, “Christ has died, yea, rather has risen
again;” and we have taken him for our Lord.
3. This great salvation, which will come to the Jews in the latter days
of their state, after their return out of Babylon, shall be so
illustrious as far to outshine the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt
(v. 7, 8):
They shall no more say, The Lord liveth that brought up Israel out
of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth that brought them up out of the
north. This we had before,
But here it seems to point more plainly than it did there to the days
of the Messiah, and to compare not so much the two deliverances
themselves (giving the preference to the latter) as the two states to
which the church by degrees grew after those deliverances. Observe the
proportion: Just 480 years after they had come out of Egypt Solomon’s
temple was built
and at that time that nation, which was so wonderfully brought up out
of Egypt, had gradually arrived to its height, to its zenith. Just 490
years (70 weeks) after they came out of Babylon Messiah the Prince set
up the gospel temple, which was the greatest glory of that nation that
was so wonderfully brought out of Babylon; see
Now the spiritual glory of the second part of that nation, especially
as transferred to the gospel church, is much more admirable and
illustrious than all the temporal glory of the first part of it in the
days of Solomon; for that was no glory compared with the glory which
excelleth.
| Guilt of False Prophets. | B. C. 600. |
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9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all
my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine
hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of
his holiness.
10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing
the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are
dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not
right.
11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house
have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in
the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I
will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation,
saith the LORD.
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they
prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible
thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen
also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his
wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the
inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the
prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them
drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is
profaneness gone forth into all the land.
16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of
the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they
speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of
the LORD.
17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath
said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that
walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall
come upon you.
18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath
perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard
it?
19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even
a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of
the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have
executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart:
in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not
spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my
people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from
their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar
off?
24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see
him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the
LORD.
25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in
my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that
prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their
own heart;
27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their
dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their
fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he
that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is
the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.
29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a
hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the
LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.
31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that
use their tongues, and say, He saith.
32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams,
saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by
their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor
commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at
all, saith the LORD.
Here is a long lesson for the false prophets. As none were more bitter
and spiteful against God’s true prophets than they, so there were none
on whom the true prophets were more severe, and justly. The prophet had
complained to God of those false prophets
(ch. xiv. 13),
and had often foretold that they should be involved in the common ruin;
but here they have woes of their own.
I. He expresses the deep concern that he was under upon this account,
and what a trouble it was to him to see men who pretended to a divine
commission and inspiration ruining themselves, and the people among
whom they dwelt, by their falsehood and treachery
(v. 9):
My heart within me is broken; I am like a drunken man. His head
was in confusion with wonder and astonishment; his heart was under
oppression with grief and vexation. Jeremiah was a man that laid things
much to heart, and what was any way threatening to his country made a
deep impression upon his spirits. He is here in trouble,
1. Because of the prophets and their sin, the false doctrine
they preached, the wicked lives they lived; especially it filled him
with horror to hear them making use of God’s name and pretending to
have their instruction from him. Never was the Lord so abused, and
the words of his holiness, as by these men. Note, The dishonour
done to God’s name, and the profanation of his holy word, are the
greatest grief imaginable to a gracious soul.
2. “Because of the Lord, and his judgments, which by this means
are brought in upon us like a deluge.” He trembled to think of the ruin
and desolation which were coming from the face of the Lord (so
the word is) and from the face of the word of his holiness,
which will be inflicted by the power of God’s wrath, according to the
threatenings of his word, confirmed by his holiness. Note, Even
those that have God for them cannot but tremble to think of the misery
of those that have God against them.
II. He laments the abounding abominable wickedness of the land and the
present tokens of God’s displeasure they were under for it
(v. 10):
The land is full of adulterers; it is full both of spiritual and
corporal whoredom. They go a whoring from God, and, having cast off the
fear of him, no marvel that they abandon themselves to all manner of
lewdness; and, having dishonoured themselves and their own bodies, they
dishonour God and his name by rash and false swearing, because of
which the land mourns. Both perjury and common swearing are sins
for which a land must mourn in true repentance or it will be made to
mourn under the judgments of God. Their land mourned now under the
judgment of famine; the pleasant places, or rather the
pastures, or (as some read it) the habitations of the
wilderness, are dried up for want of rain, and yet we see no signs
of repentance. They answer not the end of the correction. The tenour
and tendency of men’s conversations are sinful, their course
continues evil, as bad as ever, and they will not be diverted from
it. They have a great deal of resolution, but it is turned the wrong
way; they are zealously affected, but not in a good thing:
Their force is not right; their heart is fully set in them to do
evil, and they are not valiant for the truth, have not courage
enough to break off their evil courses, though they see God thus
contending with them.
III. He charges it all upon the prophets and priests, especially the
prophets. They are both profane
(v. 11);
the priests profane the ordinances of God they pretend to administer;
the prophets profane the word of God they pretend to deliver; their
converse and all their conversation are profane, and then it is not
strange that the people are so debauched. They both play the
hypocrite (so some read it); under sacred pretensions they carry on
the vilest designs; yea, not only in their own houses, and the bad
houses they frequent, but in my house have I found their
wickedness; in the temple, where the priests ministered, where the
prophets prophesied, there were they guilty both of idolatry and
immorality. See a woeful instance in Hophni and Phinehas,
God searches his house, and what wickedness is there he will find it
out; and the nearer it is to him the more offensive it is. Two things
are charged upon them:–
1. That they taught people to sin by their examples. He compares them
with the prophets of Samaria, the head city of the kingdom of the ten
tribes, which had been long since laid waste. It was the folly of the
prophets of Samaria that they prophesied in Baal, in Baal’s
name; so Ahab’s prophets did, and so they caused my people Israel to
err, to forsake the service of the true God and to worship Baal,
Now the prophets of Jerusalem did not do so; they prophesied in the
name of the true God, and valued themselves upon that, that they were
not like the prophets of Samaria, who prophesied in Baal; but what the
better, when they debauched the nation as much by their immoralities as
the other had done by their idolatries? It is a horrible thing in the
prophets of Jerusalem that they make use of the name of the holy God,
and yet wallow in all manner of impurity; they make nothing of
committing adultery. They make use of the name of the God of truth, and
yet walk in lies; they not only prophesy lies, but in their
common conversation one cannot believe a word they say. It is all
either jest and banter or fraud and design. Thus they encourage sinners
to go on in their wicked ways; for every one will say, “Surely we may
do as the prophets do; who can expect that we should be better than our
teachers?” By this means it is that none returns from his wickedness;
but they all say that they shall have peace, though they go on,
for their prophets tell them so. By this means Judah and Jerusalem have
become as Sodom and Gomorrah, that were wicked, and sinners
before the Lord exceedingly; and God looked upon them accordingly
as fit for nothing but to be destroyed, as they were, with fire and
brimstone.
2. That they encouraged people in sin by their false prophecies. They
made themselves believe that there was no harm, no danger in sin, and
practiced accordingly; and then no marvel that they made others believe
so too
(v. 16):
They speak a vision of their own heart; it is the product of
their own invention, and agrees with their own inclination, but it is
not out of the mouth of the Lord; he never dictated it to them,
nor did it agree either with the law of Moses or with what God has
spoken by other prophets. They tell sinners that it shall be well with
them though they persist in their sins,
See here who those are that they encourage–those that despise
God, that slight his authority, and have low and mean thoughts of
his institutions, and those that walk after the imagination of their
own heart, that are worshippers of idols and slaves to their own
lusts; those that are devoted to their pleasures put contempt upon
their God. Yet see how these prophets caressed and flattered them: they
should have been still saying, There is no peace to those that go on in
their evil ways–Those that despise God shall be lightly
esteemed–Woe, and a thousand woes, to them; but they still said,
You shall have peace; no evil shall come upon you. And, which
was worst of all, they told them, God has said so, so making him
to patronize sin, and to contradict himself. Note, Those that are
resolved to go on in their evil ways will justly be given up to believe
the strong delusions of those who tell them that they shall have peace
though they go on.
IV. God disowns all that these false prophets said to sooth people up
in their sins
(v. 21):
I have not sent these prophets; they never had any mission from
God. They were not only not sent by him on this errand, but they were
never sent by him on any errand; he never had employed them in any
service or business for him; and, as to this matter, whereas they
pretended to have instructions from him to assure this people of peace,
he declares that he never gave them any such instructions. Yet they
were very forward–they ran; they were very bold–they
prophesied without any of that difficulty with which the true
prophets sometimes struggled. They said to sinners, You shall have
peace. But
(v. 18):
“Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord? Who of you has, that
are so confident of this? You deliver this message with a great deal
of assurance; but have you consulted God about it? No; you never
considered whether it be agreeable to the discoveries God has made of
himself, whether it will consist with the honour of his holiness and
justice, to let sinners go unpunished. You have not perceived and
heard his word, nor marked that; you have not compared this
with the scripture; if you had taken notice of that, and of the
constant tenour of it, you would never have delivered such a message.”
The prophets themselves must try the spirits by the touchstone of the
law and of the testimony, as well as those to whom they prophesy; but
which of those did so that prophesied of peace? That they did not
stand in God’s counsel nor hear his word is proved
afterwards,
If they had stood in my counsel, as they pretend,
1. They would have made the scriptures their standard: They would
have caused my people to hear my words, and would have
conscientiously kept closely to them. But, not speaking according to
that rule, it is a plain evidence that there is no light in them.
2. They would have made the conversion of souls their business, and
would have aimed at that in all their preaching. They would have done
all they could to turn people from their evil way in
general and from all the particular evil of their doings. They
would have encouraged and assisted the reformation of manners, would
have made this their scope in all their preaching, to part between men
and their sins; but it appeared that this was a thing they never aimed
at, but, on the contrary, to encourage sinners in their sins.
3. They would have had some seals of their ministry. This sense our
translation gives it: If they had stood in my counsel, and the
words they had preached had been my words, then they should
have turned them from their evil way; a divine power should have
gone along with the word for the conviction of sinners. God will bless
his own institutions. Yet this is no certain rule; Jeremiah himself,
though God sent him, prevailed with but few to turn from their evil
way.
V. God threatens to punish these prophets for their wickedness. They
promised the people peace; and to show them the folly of that
God tells them that they should have no peace themselves. They were
very unfit to warrant the people, and pass their word to them that no
evil shall come upon them, when all evil is coming upon themselves and
they are not aware of it,
Because the prophets and priests are profane, therefore their ways
shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness. Those that
undertake to lead others, because they mislead them, and know they do
so, shall themselves have no comfort in their way.
1. They pretend to show others the way, but they shall themselves be in
the dark, or in a mist; their light or sight shall fail, so that they
shall not be able to look before them, shall have no forecast for
themselves.
2. They pretend to give assurances to others, but they themselves shall
find no firm footing: Their ways shall be to them as slippery
ways, in which they shall not go with any steadiness, safety, or
satisfaction.
3. They pretend to make the people easy with their flatteries, but they
shall themselves be uneasy: They shall be driven, forced forward
as captives, or making their escape as those that are pursued, and
they shall fall in the way by which they hoped to escape, and so
fall into the enemies’ hands.
4. They pretend to prevent the evil that threatens others, but God will
bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, the
time fixed for calling them to an account; such a time is fixed
concerning all that do not judge themselves, and it will be an evil
time. The year of visitation is the year of recompenses. It is
further threatened
(v. 15),
I will feed them with wormwood, or poison, with that which is
not only nauseous, but noxious, and make them drink waters of
gall, or (as some read it) juice of hemlock; see
Justly is the cup of trembling put into their hand first, for from
the prophets of Jerusalem, who should have been patterns of piety
and every thing that is praiseworthy, even from them has profaneness
gone forth into all the lands. Nothing more effectually debauches a
nation than the debauchery of ministers.
VI. The people are here warned not to give any credit to these false
prophets; for, though they flattered them with hopes of impunity, the
judgments of God would certainly break out against them, unless they
repented
(v. 16):
“Take notice of what God says, and hearken not to the words of these
prophets; for you will find, in the issue, that God’s word shall
stand, and not theirs. God’s word will make you serious, but they
make you vain, feed you with vain hopes, which will fail you at
last. They tell you, No evil shall come upon you; but hear what
God says
(v. 19),
Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury. They
tell you, All shall be calm and serene; but God tells you, There is a
storm coming, a whirlwind of the Lord, of his sending, and
therefore there is no standing before it. It is a whirlwind raised by
divine wrath; it has gone forth in fury, a wind that is brought
forth out of the treasuries of divine vengeance; and therefore it is a
grievous whirlwind, and shall light heavily, with rain and hail,
upon the head of the wicked, which they cannot avoid nor find
any shelter from.” It shall fall upon the wicked prophets
themselves who deceived the people, and the wicked people who suffered
themselves to be deceived. A horrible tempest shall be the
portion of their cup,
Ps. xi. 6.
This sentence is bound on as irreversible
(v. 20):
The anger of the Lord shall not return, for the decree has gone
forth. God will not alter his mind, nor suffer his anger to be turned
away, till he have executed the sentence and performed the
thoughts of his heart. God’s whirlwind, when it comes down from
heaven, returns not thither, but accomplishes that for which he sent
it,
Isa. lv. 11.
This they will not consider now; but in the latter days you shall
consider it perfectly, consider it with understanding (so
the word is) or with consideration. Note, Those that will not
fear the threatenings shall feel the execution of them, and will then
perfectly understand what they will not now admit the evidence of, what
a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of a just and
jealous God. Those that will not consider in time will be made to
consider when it is too late. Son, remember.
VII. Several things are here offered to the consideration of these
false prophets for their conviction, that, if possible, they might be
brought to recant their error and acknowledge the cheat they had put
upon God’s people.
1. Let them consider that though they may impose upon men God is too
wise to be imposed upon. Men cannot see through their fallacies, but
God can and does. Here,
(1.) God asserts his own omnipresence and omniscience in general,
When they told the people that no evil should befall them though they
went on in their evil ways they went upon atheistical principles, that
the Lord doth not see their sin, that he cannot judge through the dark
cloud, that he will not require it; and therefore they must be taught
the first principles of their religion, and confronted with the most
incontestable self-evident truths.
[1.] That though God’s throne is prepared in the heavens, and this
earth seems to be at a distance from him, yet he is a God here in this
lower world, which seems to be afar off, as well as in the upper world,
which seems to be at hand,
The eye of God is the same on earth that it is in heaven. Here it
runs to and fro as well as there
and what is in the minds of men, whose spirits are veiled in flesh, is
as clearly seen by him as what is in the mind of angels, those unveiled
spirits above that surround his throne. The power of God is the same on
earth among its inhabitants that it is in heaven among its armies. With
us nearness and distance make a great difference both in our
observations and in our operations, but it is not so with God; to him
darkness and light, at hand and afar off, are both alike.
[2.] That, how ingenious and industrious soever men are to disguise
themselves and their own characters and counsels, they cannot possibly
be concealed from God’s all-seeing eye
(v. 24):
“Can any hide himself in the secret places of the earth, that
I shall not see him? Can any hide his projects and intentions in
the secret places of the heart, that I shall not see them?” No arts of
concealment can hide men from the eye of God, nor deceive his judgment
of them.
[3.] That he is every where present; he does not only rule heaven and
earth, and uphold both by his universal providence, but he fills
heaven and earth by his essential presence,
&c. No place can either include him or exclude him.
(2.) He applies this to these prophets, who had a notable art of
disguising themselves
(v. 25, 26):
I have heard what the prophets said that prophesy lies in my
name. They thought that he was so wholly taken up with the other
world that he had no leisure to take cognizance of what passed in this.
But God will make them know that he knows all their impostures, all the
shams they have put upon the world, under colour of divine revelation.
What they intended to humour the people with they pretended to have had
from God in a dream, when there was no such thing. This they could not
discover. If a man tell me that he dreamed so and so, I cannot
contradict him; he knows I cannot. But God discovered the fraud.
Perhaps the false prophets whispered what they had to say in the ears
of such as were their confidants, saying, So and so I have
dreamed; but God overheard them. The heart-searching eye of God
traced them in all the methods they took to deceive the people, and he
cries out, How long? Shall I always bear with them? Is it in
the hearts of those prophets (so some read it) to be ever
prophesying lies and prophesying the deceits of their own hearts?
Will they never see what an affront they put upon God, what an abuse
they put upon the people, and what judgments they are preparing for
themselves?
2. Let them consider that their palming upon people counterfeit
revelations, and fathering their own fancies upon divine inspiration,
was the ready way to bring all religion into contempt and make men turn
atheists and infidels; and this was the thing they really intended,
though they frequently made mention of the name of God, and prefaced
all they said with, Thus saith the Lord. Yet, says God, They
think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams. They
designed to draw people off from the worship of God, from all regard to
God’s laws and ordinances and the true prophets, as their fathers
forgot God’s name for Baal. Note, The great thing Satan aims at
is to make people forget God, and all that whereby he has made himself
known; and he has many subtle methods to bring them to this. Sometimes
he does it by setting up false gods (bring men in love with Baal, and
they soon forget the name of God), sometimes by misrepresenting the
true God, as if he were altogether such a one as ourselves. Pretenses
to new revelation may prove as dangerous to religion as the denying of
all revelation; and false prophets in God’s name may perhaps do more
mischief to the power of godliness than false prophets in Baal’s name,
as being less guarded against.
3. Let them consider what a vast difference there was between their
prophecies and those that were delivered by the true prophets of the
Lord
(v. 28):
The prophet that has a dream, which was the way of inspiration
that the false prophets most pretended to, if he has a dream, let
him tell it as a dream; so Mr. Gataker reads it. “Let him lay no
more stress upon it than men do upon their dreams, nor expect any more
regard to be had to it. Let them not say that it is from God, nor call
their foolish dreams divine oracles. But let the true prophet, that
has my word, speak my word faithfully, speak it as a
truth” (so some read it): “let him keep closely to his
instructions, and you will soon perceive a vast difference between the
dreams that the false prophets tell and the divine dictates which the
true prophets deliver. He that pretends to have a message from God,
whether by dream or voice, let him declare it, and it will easily
appear which is of God and which is not. Those that have spiritual
senses exercised will be able to distinguish; for what is the chaff
to the wheat? The promises of peace which these prophets make to
you are no more to be compared to God’s promises than chaff to wheat.”
Men’s fancies are light, and vain, and worthless, as the chaff which
the wind drives away. But the word of God has substance in it; it
is of value, is food for the soul, the bread of life. Wheat was the
staple commodity of Canaan, that valley of vision,
Deut. viii. 8; Ezek. xxvii. 17.
There is as much difference between the vain fancies of men and the
pure word of God as between the chaff and the wheat. It follows
(v. 29),
Is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord? Is their word so?
Has it the power and efficacy that the word of God has? No; nothing
like it; there is no more comparison than between painted fire and real
fire. Theirs is like an ignis fatuus–a deceiving meteor,
leading men into by-paths and dangerous precipices. Note, The word of
God is like fire. The law was a fiery law
and of the gospel Christ says, I have come to send fire on the
earth,
Luke xii. 49.
Fire has different effects, according as the matter is on which it
works; it hardens clay, but softens wax; it consumes the dross, but
purifies the gold. So the word of God is to some a savour of life
unto life, to others of death unto death. God appeals here to the
consciences of those to whom the word was sent: “Is not my word like
fire? Has it not been so to you?
Speak as you have found.” It is compared likewise to a hammer
breaking the rock in pieces. The unhumbled heart of man is like a
rock; if it will not be melted by the word of God as the fire, it will
be broken to pieces by it as the hammer. Whatever opposition is given
to the word, it will be borne down and broken to pieces.
4. Let them consider that while they went on in this course God was
against them. Three times they are told this,
Behold, I am against the prophets. They pretended to be for God,
and made use of his name, but were really against him; he looks upon
them as they were really, and is against them. How can they be long
safe, or at all easy, that have a God of almighty power against them?
While these prophets were promising peace to the people God was
proclaiming war against them. They stand indicted here,
(1.) For robbery: They steal my word every one from his
neighbour. Some understand it of that word of God which the good
prophets preached; they stole their sermons, their expressions, and
mingled them with their own, as hucksters mingle bad wares with some
that are good, to make them vendible. Those that were strangers to the
spirit of the true prophets mimicked their language, picked up some
good sayings of theirs, and delivered them to the people as if they had
been their own, but with an ill grace; they were not of a piece with
the rest of their discourses. The legs of the lame are not equal, so
is a parable in the mouth of fools,
Prov. xxvi. 7.
Others understand it of the word of God as it was received and
entertained by some of the people; they stole it out of their hearts,
as the wicked one in the parable is said to steal the good seed of the
word,
By their insinuations they diminished the authority, and so weakened
the efficacy, of the word of God upon the minds of those that seemed to
be under convictions by it.
(2.) They stand indicted for counterfeiting the broad seal.
Therefore God is against them
(v. 31),
because they use their tongues at their pleasure in their
discourses to the people; they say what they themselves think fit, and
then father it upon God, pretend they had it from him, and say, He
saith it. Some read it, They smooth their tongues; they are very
complaisant to the people, and say nothing but what is pleasing and
plausible; they never reprove them nor threaten them, but their
words are smoother than butter. Thus they ingratiate themselves
with them, and get money by them; and they have the impudence and
impiety to make God the patron of their lies; they say, “He saith so.”
What greater indignity can be done to the God of truth than to lay the
brats of the father of lies at his door?
(3.) They stand indicted as common cheats
(v. 32):
I am against them, for they prophesy false dreams,
pretending that to be a divine inspiration which is but an invention of
their own. This is a horrid fraud; nor will it excuse them to say,
Caveat emptor–Let the buyer take care of himself, and Si
populus vult decipi, decipiatur–If people will be deceived, let
them. No; it is the people’s fault that they err, that they take
things upon trust, and do not try the spirits; but it is much more the
prophets’ fault that they cause God’s people to err by their lies
and by their lightness, by the flatteries of their preaching
soothing them up in their sins, and by the looseness and lewdness of
their conversation encouraging them to persist in them.
[1.] God disowns their having any commission from him: I sent them
not, nor commanded them; they are not God’s messengers, nor is what
they say his message.
[2.] He therefore justly denies his blessing with them: Therefore
they shall not profit this people at all. All the profit they aim
at is to make them easy; but they shall not so much as do that, for
God’s providences will at the same time be making them uneasy. They
do not profit this people (so some read it); and more is implied
than is expressed; they not only do them no good, but do them a great
deal of hurt. Note, Those that corrupt the word of God, while they
pretend to preach it, are so far from edifying the church that they do
it the greatest mischief imaginable.
| Profaneness of the People; Reproofs and Threatenings. | B. C. 600. |
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33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask
thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then
say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the
LORD.
34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people,
that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that
man and his house.
35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one
to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the
LORD spoken?
36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for
every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the
words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.
37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD
answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
38 But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus
saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD,
and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of
the LORD;
39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I
will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers,
and cast you out of my presence:
40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
The profaneness of the people, with that of the priests and prophets,
is here reproved in a particular instance, which may seem of small
moment in comparison of their greater crimes; but profaneness in common
discourse, and the debauching of the language of a nation, being a
notorious evidence of the prevalency of wickedness in it, we are not to
think it strange that this matter was so largely and warmly insisted
upon here. Observe,
I. The sin here charged upon them is bantering God’s prophets and
dialect they used, and jesting with sacred things. They asked, What
is the burden of the Lord?
v. 33 and v. 34.
They say, The burden of the Lord,
v. 38.
This was the word that gave great offence to God, that, whenever they
spoke of the word of the Lord, they called it, in scorn and
derision, the burden of the Lord. Now,
1. This was a word that the prophets much used, and used it seriously,
to show what a weight the word of God was upon their spirits, of what
importance it was, and how pressingly it should come upon those that
heard it. The words of the false prophets had nothing ponderous in
them, but God’s words had; those were as chaff, these as wheat. Now the
profane scoffers took this word, and made a jest and a byword of it;
they made people merry with it, that so, when the prophets used it,
they might not make people serious with it. Note, It has been the
artifice of Satan, in all ages, to obstruct the efficacy of sacred
things by turning them into matter of sport and ridicule; the mocking
of God’s messengers was the baffling of his messages.
2. Perhaps this word was caught at and reproached by the scoffers as
an improper word, newly-coined by the prophets, and not used in that
sense by any classic author. It was only in this and the last age that
the word of the Lord was called the burden of the Lord,
and it could not be found in their lexicons to have that signification.
But if men take a liberty, as we see they do, to form new phrases which
they think more expressive and significant in other parts of learning,
why not in divinity? But especially we must observe it as a rule that
the Spirit of God is not tied to our rules of speaking.
3. Some think that because when the word of the Lord is called
a burden it signifies some word of reproof and threatening,
which would lay a load upon the hearers (yet I know not whether that
observation will always hold), therefore in using this word the
burden of the Lord in a canting way they reflected upon God as
always bearing hard upon them, always teasing them, always frightening
them, and so making the word of God a perpetual uneasiness to them.
They make the word of God a burden to themselves, and then quarrel with
the ministers for making it a burden to them. Thus the scoffers of the
latter days, while they slight heaven and salvation, reproach faithful
ministers for preaching hell and damnation. Upon the whole we may
observe that, how light soever men may make of it, the great God takes
notice of, and is much displeased with, those who burlesque sacred
things, and who, that they may make a jest of scripture truths and
laws, put jests upon scripture language. In such wit as this I am sure
there is no wisdom, and so it will appear at last. Be you not
mockers, lest your bands be made strong. Those that were here
guilty of this sin were some of the false prophets, who perhaps came to
steal the word of God from the true prophets, some of the priests, who
perhaps came to seek occasions against them on which to ground an
information, and some of the people, who had learned of the profane
priests and prophets to play with the things of God. The people would
not have affronted the prophet and his God thus if the priests and the
prophets, those ringleaders of mischief, had not shown them the
way.
II. When they are reproved for this profane way of speaking they are
directed how to express themselves more decently. We do not find that
the prophets are directed to make no more use of this word; we find it
used long after this
Mal. i. 1; Nah. i. 1; Hab. i. 1);
and we do not find it once used in this sense by Jeremiah either before
or after. It is true indeed that in many cases it is advisable to make
no use of such words and things as some have made a bad use of, and it
may be prudent to avoid such phrases as, though innocent enough, are in
danger of being perverted and made stumbling-blocks. But here God will
have the prophet keep to his rule
(ch. xv. 19),
Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them. Do not
thou leave off using this word, but let them leave off abusing it. You
shall not mention the burden of the Lord any more in this
profane careless manner
(v. 36),
for it is perverting the words of the living God and making a
bad use of them, which is an impious dangerous thing; for, consider, he
is the Lord of hosts our God. Note, If we will but look upon God
as we ought to do in his greatness and goodness, and be but duly
sensible of our relation and obligation to him, it may be hoped that we
shall not dare to affront him by making a jest of his words. It is an
impudent thing to abuse him that is the living God, the Lord
of hosts, and our God. How then must they express
themselves? He tells them
(v. 37):
Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, when thou art enquiring of
him, What hath the Lord answered thee? And what hath the Lord
spoken? And they must say thus when they enquire of their
neighbours,
v. 35.
Note, We must always speak of the things of God reverently and
seriously, and as becomes the oracles of God. It is a commendable
practice to enquire after the mind of God, to enquire of our brethren
what they have heard, to enquire of our prophets what they have to say
from God; but then, to show that we enquire for a right end, we must do
it after a right manner. Ministers may learn here, when they reprove
people for what they say and do amiss, to teach them how to say and do
better.
III. Because they would not leave off this bad way of speaking, though
they were admonished of it, God threatens them here with utter ruin.
They would still say, The burden of the Lord, though God had
sent to them to forbid them,
What little regard have those to the divine authority that will not be
persuaded by it to leave an idle word! But see what will come of it.
1. Those shall be severely reckoned with that thus pervert the
words of God, that put a wrong construction on them and make a bad
use of them; and it shall be made to appear that it is a great
provocation to God to mock his messengers: I will even punish that
man and his house; whether he be prophet or priest, or one of the
common people, it shall be visited upon him,
Perverting God’s word, and ridiculing the preachers of it, are sins
that bring ruining judgments upon families and entail a curse upon a
house. Another threatening we have
Every man’s word shall be his own burden; that is, the guilt of
this sin shall be so heavy upon him as to sink him into the pit of
destruction. God shall make their own tongue to fall upon them,
Ps. lxiv. 8.
God will give them enough of their jest, so that the burden of the
Lord they shall have no heart to mention any more; it will be too
heavy to make a jest of. They are as the madman that casts
firebrands, arrows, and death, while they pretend to be in
sport.
2. The words of God, though thus perverted, shall be accomplished. Do
they ask, What is the burden of the Lord? Let the prophet ask
them, What burden do you mean? Is it this: I will even
forsake you?
v. 33.
This is the burden that shall be laid and bound upon them
(v. 39, 40):
“Behold I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake
you. I will leave you, and have no thoughts of returning to you.”
Those are miserable indeed that are forsaken and forgotten of God; and
men’s bantering God’s judgments will not baffle them. Jerusalem was the
city God had taken to himself as a holy city, and then given to them
and their fathers; but that shall now be forsaken and forgotten.
God had taken them to be a people near to him; but they shall now be
cast out of his presence. They had been great and honourable
among the nations; but now God will bring upon them an everlasting
reproach and a perpetual shame. Both their sin and their
punishment shall be their lasting disgrace. It is here upon record, to
their infamy, and will remain so to the world’s end. Note, God’s word
will be magnified and made honourable when those that mock at it shall
be vilified and made contemptible. Those that despise me shall be
lightly esteemed.
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