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Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. XXVII.
Jeremiah the prophet, since he cannot persuade people to submit to
God’s precept, and so to prevent the destruction of their country by
the king of Babylon, is here persuading them to submit to God’s
providence, by yielding tamely to the king of Babylon, and becoming
tributaries to him, which was the wisest course they could now take,
and would be a mitigation of the calamity, and prevent the laying of
their country waste by fire and sword; the sacrificing of their
liberties would be the saving of their lives.
I. He gives this counsel, in God’s name, to the kings of the
neighbouring nations, that they might make the best of bad, assuring
them that there was no remedy, but they must serve the king of Babylon;
and yet in time there should be relief, for his dominion should last
but 70 years,
II. He gives this counsel to Zedekiah king of Judah particularly
and to the priests and people, assuring them that the king of Babylon
should still proceed against them till things were brought to the last
extremity, and a patient submission would be the only way to mitigate
the calamity and make it easy,
Thus the prophet, if they would but have hearkened to him, would have
directed them in the paths of true policy as well as of true piety.
| Nebuchadnezzar’s Victories Predicted. | B. C. 597. |
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1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah
king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put
them upon thy neck,
3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab,
and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and
to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to
Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
4 And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the
LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your
masters;
5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon
the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and
have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of
the field have I given him also to serve him.
7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s
son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations
and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom
which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon,
and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of
Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the
sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have
consumed them by his hand.
9 Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your
diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to
your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve
the king of Babylon:
10 For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from
your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.
11 But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the
king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in
their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell
therein.
Some difficulty occurs in the date of this prophecy. This word is said
to come to Jeremiah in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim
(v. 1),
and yet the messengers, to whom he is to deliver the badges of
servitude, are said
(v. 3)
to come to Zedekiah king of Judah, who reigned not till eleven
years after the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign. Some make it an error
of the copy, and think that it should be read
(v. 1),
In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, for which some
negligent scribe, having his eye on the title of the foregoing chapter,
wrote Jehoiakim. And, if one would admit a mistake any where, it
should be here, for Zedekiah is mentioned again
(v. 12),
and the next prophecy is dated the same year, and said to be in the
beginning of the reign of Zedekiah,
ch. xxviii. 1.
Dr. Lightfoot solves it thus: In the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign
Jeremiah is to make these bonds and yokes, and to put them upon his own
neck, in token of Judah’s subjection to the king of Babylon, which
began at that time; but he is to send them to the neighbouring kings
afterwards in the reign of Zedekiah, of whose succession to Jehoiakim,
and the ambassadors sent to him, mention is made by way of
prediction.
I. Jeremiah is to prepare a sign of the general reduction of all these
countries into subjection to the king of Babylon
(v. 2):
Make thee bonds and yokes, yokes with bonds to fasten them, that
the beast may not slip his neck out of the yoke. Into these the
prophet must put his own neck to make them taken notice of as a
prophetic representation; for every one would enquire, What is the
meaning of Jeremiah’s yokes? We find him with one on,
Hereby he intimated that he advised them to nothing but what he was
resolved to do himself; for he was not one of those that bind heavy
burdens on others, which they themselves will not touch with one
of their fingers. Ministers must thus lay themselves under the
weight and obligation of what they preach to others.
II. He is to send this, with a sermon annexed to it, to all the
neighbouring princes; those are mentioned
(v. 3)
that lay next to the land of Canaan. It should seem, there was a treaty
of alliance on foot between the king of Judah and all those other
kings. Jerusalem was the place appointed for the treaty. Thither they
all sent their plenipotentiaries; and it was agreed that they should
bind themselves in a league offensive and defensive, to stand by one
another, in opposition to the growing threatening greatness of the king
of Babylon, and to reduce his exorbitant power. They had great
confidence in their strength thus united, and were ready to call
themselves the high allies; but, when the envoys were returning to
their respective masters with the ratification of this treaty, Jeremiah
gives each of them a yoke to carry to his master, to signify to him
that he must either by consent or by compulsion become a servant to the
king of Babylon, let him choose which he will. In the sermon upon this
sign,
1. God asserts his own indisputable right to dispose of kingdoms as he
pleases,
v. 5.
He is the Creator of all things; he made the earth at first,
established it, and it abides: it is still the same, though one
generation passes away and another comes. He still by a continued
creation produces man and beast upon the ground, and it is by
his great power and outstretched arm. His arm has
infinite strength, though it be stretched out. Upon this account he
may give and convey a property and dominion to whomsoever he pleases.
As he hath graciously given the earth to the children of men in
general
(Ps. cxv. 16),
so he give to each his share of it, be it more or less. Note, Whatever
any have of the good things of this world, it is what God sees fit to
give them; we ourselves should therefore be content, though we have
ever so little, and not envy any their share, though they have ever so
much.
2. He publishes a grant of all these countries to Nebuchadnezzar. Know
all men by these presents. Sciant præsentes et futuri–Let
those of the present and those of the future age know. “This is to
certify to all whom it may concern that I have given all these
lands, with all the wealth of them, into the hands of the king
of Babylon; even the beasts of the field, whether tame or
wild, have I given to him, parks and pastures; they are all his
own.” Nebuchadnezzar was a proud wicked man, an idolater; and yet God,
in his providence, gives him this large dominion, these vast
possessions. Note, The things of this world are not the best things,
for God often gives the largest share of them to bad men, that are
rivals with him and rebels against him. He was a wicked man, and yet
what he had he had by divine grant. Note, Dominion is not founded in
grace. Those that have not any colourable title to eternal happiness
may yet have a justifiable title to their temporal good things.
Nebuchadnezzar is a very bad man, and yet God calls him his servant,
because he employed him as an instrument of his providence for the
chastising of the nations, and particularly his own people; and for his
service therein he thus liberally repaid him. Those whom God makes use
of shall not lose by him; much more will he be found the bountiful
rewarder of all those that designedly and sincerely serve him.
3. He assures them that they should all be unavoidably brought under
the dominion of the king of Babylon for a time
(v. 7):
All nations, all these nations and many others, shall serve
him, and his son, and his son’s son. His son was Evil-merodach,
and his son’s son Belshazzar, in whom his kingdom ceased: then the time
of reckoning with his land came, when the tables were turned, and
many nations and great kings, incorporated into the empire of
the Medes and Persians, served themselves of him, as before,
Thus Adonibezek was trampled upon himself, as he had trampled on other
kings.
4. He threatens those with military execution that stood out and would
not submit to the king of Babylon
(v. 8):
That nation that will not put their neck under his yoke I will
punish with sword and famine, with one judgment after another,
till it is consumed by his hand. Nebuchadnezzar was very unjust
and barbarous in invading the rights and liberties of his neighbours
thus, and forcing them into a subjection to him; yet God had just and
holy ends in permitting him to do so, to punish these nations for their
idolatry and gross immoralities. Those that would not serve the God
that made them were justly made to serve their enemies that sought to
ruin them.
5. He shows them the vanity of all the hopes they fed themselves with,
that they should preserve their liberties,
These nations had their prophets too, that pretended to foretell future
events by the stars, or by dreams, or enchantments; and they, to please
their patrons, and because they would themselves have it so, flattered
them with assurances that they should not serve the king of
Babylon. Thus they designed to animate them to a vigorous
resistance; and, though they had no ground for it, they hoped hereby to
do them service. But he tells them that it would prove to their
destruction; for by resisting they would provoke the conqueror to deal
severely with them, to remove them, and drive them out
into a miserable captivity, in which they should all be lost and buried
in oblivion. Particular prophecies against these nations that bordered
on Israel severally, the ruin of which is here foretold in the general,
we shall meet with,
and Ezek. xxv.,
which had the same accomplishment with this here. Note, When God
judges he will overcome.
6. He puts them in a fair way to prevent their destruction by a quiet
and easy submission,
The nations that will be content to serve the king of Babylon,
and pay him tribute for seventy years (ten apprenticeships), those
will I let remain still in their own land. Those that will bend
shall not break. Perhaps the dominion of the king of Babylon may bear
no harder upon them than that of their own kings had done. It is often
more a point of honour than true wisdom to prefer liberty before life.
It is not mentioned to the disgrace of Issachar that because he saw
rest was good, and the land pleasant, that he
might peaceably enjoy it, he bowed his shoulder to bear, and
became a servant to tribute
as these are here advised to do: Serve the king of Babylon and you
shall till the land and dwell therein. Some would condemn
this as the evidence of a mean spirit, but the prophet recommends it as
that of a meek spirit, which yields to necessity, and by a quiet
submission to the hardest turns of Providence makes the best of bad: it
is better to do so than by struggling to make it worse.
| ——Levius fit patientia
Quicquid corrigere est nefas.—-HOR. ——When we needs must bear, Enduring patience makes the burden light. |
| CREECH. |
Many might have prevented destroying providences by humbling themselves
under humbling providences. It is better to take up a lighter cross in
our way than to pull a heavier on our own head.
| Jeremiah’s Counsel to Zedekiah; Submission to Nebuchadnezzar Urged. | B. C. 597. |
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12 I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all
these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king
of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
13 Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the
famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against
the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
14 Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that
speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
for they prophesy a lie unto you.
15 For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy
a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might
perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
16 Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying,
Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets
that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD‘s
house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they
prophesy a lie unto you.
17 Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live:
wherefore should this city be laid waste?
18 But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be
with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts,
that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and
in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to
Babylon.
19 For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and
concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the
residue of the vessels that remain in this city,
20 Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he
carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah
from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and
Jerusalem;
21 Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,
concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD,
and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be
until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I
bring them up, and restore them to this place.
What was said to all the nations is here with a particular tenderness
applied to the nation of the Jews, for whom Jeremiah was sensibly
concerned. The case at present stood thus: Judah and Jerusalem had
often contested with the king of Babylon, and still were worsted; many
both of their valuable persons and their valuable goods were carried to
Babylon already, and some of the vessels of the Lord’s house
particularly. Now how this struggle would issue was the question. They
had those among them at Jerusalem who pretended to be prophets, who
bade them hold out and they should, in a little time, be too hard for
the king of Babylon and recover all that they had lost. Now Jeremiah is
sent to bid them yield and knock under, for that, instead of recovering
what they had lost, they should otherwise lose all that remained; and
to press them to this is the scope of these verses.
I. Jeremiah humbly addresses the king of Judah, to persuade him to
surrender to the king of Babylon. His act would be the people’s and
would determine them, and therefore he speaks to him as to them all
(v. 12):
Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and live.
Is it their wisdom to submit to the heavy iron yoke of a cruel tyrant,
that they may secure the lives of their bodies? And is it not much more
our wisdom to submit to the sweet and easy yoke of our rightful Lord
and Master Jesus Christ, that we may secure the lives of our souls?
Bring down your spirits to repentance and faith, and that is the way to
bring up your spirits to heaven and glory. And with much more cogency
and compassion may we expostulate with perishing souls than Jeremiah
here expostulates with a perishing people: “Why will you die by the
sword and the famine–miserable deaths, which you inevitably run
yourselves upon, under pretence of avoiding miserable lives?” What God
had spoken, in general, of all those that would not submit to the king
of Babylon, he would have them to apply to themselves and be afraid of.
It were well if sinners would, in like manner, be afraid of the
destruction threatened against all those that will not have Christ
to reign over them, and reason thus with themselves, “Why should
we die the second death, which is a thousand times worse than that
by sword and famine, when we might submit and live?”
II. He addresses himself likewise to the priests and the people
(v. 16),
to persuade them to serve the king of Babylon, that they might
live, and might prevent the desolation of the city
(v. 17):
“Wherefore should it be laid waste, as certainly it will be if
you stand it out?” The priests had been Jeremiah’s enemies, and had
sought his life to destroy it, yet he approves himself their friend,
and seeks their lives, to preserve and secure them, which is an example
to us to render good for evil. When the blood-thirsty hate
the upright, yet the just seek his soul, and the welfare of
it,
The matter was far gone here; they were upon the brink of ruin, which
they would not have been brought to if they would have taken Jeremiah’s
counsel; yet he continues his friendly admonitions to them, to save the
last stake and manage that wisely, and now at length in this their day
to understand the things that belong to their peace, when they
had but one day to turn them in.
III. In both these addresses he warns them against giving credit to the
false prophets that rocked them asleep in their security, because they
saw that they loved to slumber: “Hearken not to the words of the
prophets
(v. 14),
your prophets,
v. 16.
They are not God’s prophets; he never sent them; they do not serve him,
nor seek to please him; they are yours, for they say what you would
have them say, and aim at nothing but to please you.” Two things their
prophets flattered them into the belief of:–
1. That the power which the king of Babylon had gained over them should
now shortly be broken. They said
(v. 14),
“You shall not serve the king of Babylon; you need not submit
voluntarily, for you shall not be compelled to submit.” This they
prophesied in the name of the Lord
(v. 15),
as if God had sent them to the people on this errand, in kindness to
them, that they might not disparage themselves by an inglorious
surrender. But it was a lie. They said that God sent them; but that
was false; he disowns it: I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
They said that they should never be brought into subjection to the king
of Babylon; but that was false too, the event proved it so. They said
that to hold out to the last would be the way to secure themselves and
their city; but that was false, for it would certainly end in their
being driven out and perishing. So that it was all a lie, from first to
last; and the prophets that deceived the people with these lies did, in
the issue, but deceive themselves; the blind leaders and the blind
followers fell together into the ditch: That you might perish, you,
and the prophets that prophesy unto you, who will be so far from
warranting your security that they cannot secure themselves. Note,
Those that encourage sinners to go on in their sinful ways will in the
end perish with them.
2. They prophesied that the vessels of the temple, which the king of
Babylon had already carried away, should now shortly be brought back
(v. 16);
this they fed the priests with the hopes of, knowing how acceptable it
would be to them, who loved the gold of the temple better than
the temple that sanctified the gold. These vessels were taken
away when Jeconiah was carried captive into Babylon,
We have the story, and it is a melancholy one,
2 Chron. xxxvi. 10.
All the goodly vessels (that is, all the vessels of gold
that were in the house of the Lord), with all the treasures,
were taken as prey, and brought to Babylon. This was grievous to them
above any thing; for the temple was their pride and confidence, and the
stripping of that was too plain an indication of that which the true
prophet told them, that their God had departed from them. Their
false prophets therefore had no other way to make them easy than by
telling them that the king of Babylon should be forced to restore them
in a little while. Now here,
(1.) Jeremiah bids them think of preserving the vessels that remained
by their prayers, rather than of bringing back those that were gone by
their prophecies
(v. 18):
If they be prophets, as they pretend, and if the word of the
Lord be with them–if they have any intercourse with heaven and any
interest there, let them improve it for the stopping of the progress of
the judgment; let them step into the gap, and stand with their censer
between the living and the dead, between that which is carried
away and that which remains, that the plague may be stayed; let them
make intercession with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which
are left go not after the rest.
[1.] Instead of prophesying, let them pray. Note, Prophets must be
praying men; by being much in prayer they must make it to appear that
they keep up a correspondence with heaven. We cannot think that those
do, as prophets, ever hear thence, who do not frequently by prayer send
thither. By praying for the safety and prosperity of the sanctuary they
must make it to appear that, as becomes prophets, they are of a public
spirit; and by the success of their prayers it will appear that God
favours them.
[2.] Instead of being concerned for the retrieving of what they had
lost, they must bestir themselves for the securing of what was left,
and take it as a great favour if they can gain that point. When God’s
judgments are abroad we must not seek great things, but be thankful for
a little.
(2.) He assures them that even this point should not be gained, but the
brazen vessels should go after the golden ones,
Nebuchadnezzar had found so good a booty once that he would be sure to
come again and take all he could find, not only in the house of the
Lord, but in the king’s house. They shall all be carried to
Babylon in triumph, and there shall they be. But he concludes
with a gracious promise that the time should come when they should all
be returned: Until the day that I visit them in mercy, according
to appointment, and then I will bring those vessels up again,
and restore them to this place, to their place. Surely they were
under the protection of a special Providence, else they would have been
melted down and put to some other use; but there was to be a second
temple, for which they were to be reserved. We read particularly of the
return of them,
Note, Though the return of the church’s prosperity do not come in our
time, we must not therefore despair of it, for it will come in God’s
time. Though those who said, The vessels of the Lord’s house
shall shortly be brought again, prophesied a lie
(v. 16),
yet he that said, They shall at length be brought again,
prophesied the truth. We are apt to set our clock before God’s dial,
and then to quarrel because they do not agree; but the Lord is a God of
judgment, and it is fit that we should wait for him.
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