To whom the Word of the Lord came. Jeremiah 1:9 The Word of God F. Lynch. Words are often used in two ways — one specific, definite; the other general, figurative. Thus, when we use the word "heart," we mean specifically that organ which pumps the blood throughout our being; on the other hand, we use it broadly as the seat of the affections and centre of highest being. So it is with the term "word," Primarily, it stands for a written or spoken term composed of letters; then we enlarge its content and use it in the sense of a message, "What word did our friend send?" Then as the Psalmist used it, where the heavens have a word for us, a message. Then we go on until we come to find that any expression of God is called a Word of God. This is the use of "word" in the Bible. The Word of God is always an expression of God's being. I. There is a Word of God for us IN NATURE. The very heavens have a Word of God for us. They tell us that an attribute of His is glory, majesty, far-reaching grandeur. Days and nights all speak of His glory and infinite resource. How many words of God come to us through Nature! How the writers of the Psalms saw it! How Jesus saw in Nature the Word of God's care and watchfulness! 1. Thus honesty is a Word of God, written on all the face of Nature as an attribute. Nature tells us God is honest, true to Himself, to the laws He has made, to man. The foundation Principle of the physical universe is honesty. The stars swing true to their courses. Suns rise and set and do not deceive us. If we did not know this universe was run honestly, we would not dare enter a new day. 2. As we are reading, in these days, more and more deeply into Nature, we are hearing another great Word of God, namely, that God is a God of purpose. This is a great message. Many people think He is not a God of purpose, but that the universe is being run with no end in view. Nature is full of prophecy, life everywhere throbs with expectancy of greater being; God begins with the simplest and works towards the greatest, He starts with a cell of living matter, and ends with the wonderful human frame, He starts with a spark of life and ends with a spirit in His own image. The best lies before us, the golden age is yet to be. God has great destinies in view for the human soul. II. There has been a distinctive Word of God spoken THROUGH PROPHETS AND STATESMEN who have been wrapped up in the progress of nations. We might see this in the history of any nation, of old or of today, but I will take Israel, because we are more familiar with its history and its prophets. One Word of God that came through Israel was justice. God was a just God. He was not like the gods of the Babylonians, fickle, full of whims, acting by impulse, but He was a God who weighed and considered; who looked at motives as well as deeds; who meted out rewards and punishments by desert. Another Word of God that came to Israel was that He was a shield and reward, a defender of His people. "The Word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." Ah, how well Israel learned that word in all her devious history! And how deeply impressed upon her was the word that God was a jealous God — jealous for the welfare of His people, a present help, a refuge, and a strength. Another word that came through Israel was that God was a patient, long-suffering God. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah were continually giving this Word of God. And every other nation through its people and prophets has some great Word of God to give to the world. For God is not dumb, and His prophets today are not deaf. III. It is THROUGH LIFE that God must speak His largest word, make the fullest revelation of His Being. It is life that speaks to life, heart that comforts heart. All the prophets of Israel saying that God is long-suffering will not move a man to see it so much as one soul here exhibiting the forbearance of God. Preachers may preach forever that God is love, and it will not have the force of one God-filled deed of love. So it is with all the attributes of God. They cannot be revealed in their great, Divine reality except as they are manifest in human life. So when the fulness of time had come God spoke to men through a human soul. Then was His true glory revealed, then His nature made manifest. It was when the word, the expression, the character of God became flesh and dwelt among us that we beheld His glory. Jesus is the living manifestation of the Word of God. Now I have seen Jesus I know God identifies Himself with men. For He has come into our humanity. I ask God what word He has for me in my sorrows and loneliness, and the answer comes to me in the life of Jesus that God is love. I see God living as love before me. I see His love going out to wretched men and women. I see Him serving as only love can serve. I see Him gathering to Himself outcasts and sinners, and recreating them in a new atmosphere of love. I see Him taking little children upon His knee and blessing them. I see Him suffering because He loved the world. What is the nature of God? In Jesus see how He is a Father. See how Jesus' whole life was a living word speaking the Fatherhood of God. How does God treat sinful beings? Look how Jesus treated sinful women who came to Him, and see how God treats sinners. How does God feel over the sins of the world? See Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. Will God suffer to save men? See Jesus giving His rest, and strength, and life, that men may see to what ends God will go to save His children. Let us remember that it was because Jesus was one with the Father that He could be the medium of the Word of God. But when He said, "I and the Father are one," He referred to a spiritual oneness. So wherever there is a soul today who is one with the Father, there you will find a living Word of God. There is a very striking scene in George Macdonald's "Robert Falconer" which shows how today a Word of God may come through life. Eric Ericson, a poor Scotch student, tramping on to Edinburgh, stops footsore and weary at the "Boar's Head," the inn kept by Letty Napier. After resting awhile, he starts to go on, although so footsore he can hardly walk. But Miss Letty makes him go up to a room and take off his shoes, and let her bathe his feet. He expostulates, for he has not a shilling in the world. But Miss Letty makes him stay three days and rest, while she ministers to him, and then starts him off to Edinburgh, a new man, and a couple of pieces in his pocket. Eric had been a sceptic, but as he walks with Robert he says, with the tears welling up in his eyes, "If I only knew that God was as good as that woman, I should die content." Robert answers, "But surely ye dinna think God's nae as guid as she is? Surely He's as guid as He can be. He is good, ye know." Eric answers, "Oh, yes, they say so. And then they tell you something about Him that isn't good, and go on calling Him good all the same. But calling anybody good doesn't make him good, you know." Yes, poor Eric was right — calling Him good does not make Him good. But when Eric felt love in this godly woman it set him to thinking about the goodness in God. It was a living word from God straight to his heart. So, every time you do a deed of love, you are speaking a word of God. ( F. Lynch. ) The call of Jeremiah F. B. Meyer, B. A. It is not to be expected that a superficial gaze will discern the special qualifications that attracted the Divine choice to Jeremiah. But that is no wonder. The instruments of the Divine purpose in all ages have not been such as man would have selected. There were several reasons why Jeremiah might have been passed over. 1. He was young. How young we do not know; but young enough for him to start back at the Divine proposal with the cry, "Ah! Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child." Without doubt, as a boy he had enjoyed peculiar advantages. God has often selected the young for posts of eminent service: Samuel and Timothy; Joseph and David; Daniel and John the Baptist. 2. He was naturally timid and sensitive. By nature he seemed cast in too delicate a mould to be able to combat the dangers and difficulties of his time. He reminds us of a denizen of the sea, accustomed to live within its shell, but suddenly deprived of its strong encasement, and thrown without covering on the sharp edges of the rocks. The bitter complaint of his afterlife was that his mother had brought him into a world of strife and contention. Many are moulded upon this type. They have the sensitiveness of a girl, and the nervous organism of a gazelle. They love the shallows, with their carpet of silver sand, rather than the strong billows that test a man's endurance. For them it is enough to run with footmen; they have no desire to contend with horses. Yet such, like Jeremiah, may play an heroic part on the world's stage, if only they will let God lay down the iron of His might along the lines of their natural weakness. His strength is only made perfect in weakness. It is to those who have no might that He increaseth strength. 3. He specially shrank from the burden he was summoned to bear. His chosen theme would have been God's mercy — the boundlessness of His compassion, the tenderness of His pity. But to be charged with a message of judgment; to announce the woeful day; to oppose every suggestion of heroic resistance; to charge home on the prophetic and the priestly orders, to each of which he belonged, and the anger of each of which he incurred, the crimes by which they were disgraced — this was the commission that was furthest from his choice ( Jeremiah 17:16 ). 4. He was conscious of his deficiency in speech. Like Moses, he could say, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." The best speakers for God are frequently they who are least gifted with human eloquence; for if that be richly present — the mighty power of moving men — there is an imminent peril of relying on it, and attributing the results to its magnetic spell. God cannot give His glory to another. He may not share His praise with man. He dare not expose His servants to the temptation of sacrificing to their own net or trusting their own ability. Do not, then, despair because of these apparent disqualifications. Notwithstanding all, the Word of the Lord shall come to thee; not for thy sake alone, but for those to whom thou shalt be sent. The one thing that God demands of thee is absolute consecration to His purpose, and willingness to go on any errand on which He may send thee. ( F. B. Meyer, B. A. ) In the days of Josiah...also in the days of Jehoiakim Mutations of life Henry Smith. When one sea floweth, another ebbeth. When one star riseth, another setteth. When light is in Goshen, darkness is in Egypt. When Mordecai groweth into favour, Haman groweth out of favour. When Benjamin beginneth, Rachel endeth. Thus we are rising or setting, getting or spending, winning or losing, growing or fading, until we arrive at heaven or hell. ( Henry Smith. ) Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. Jeremiah 1:4-10 Childhood prophetic Of Charles Kingsley it is written: "His poems and sermons date from four years old. His delight was to make a little pulpit in his nursery from which, after putting on a pinafore as a surplice, he would preach to an imaginary congregation. His mother unknown to him took down his sermons at the time, and showed them to the Bishop of Peterborough, who predicted that the boy would grow up to be no ordinary man." I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Election and mediation J. Parker, D. D. The two great blessings of election and mediation are here distinctly taught. God did not speak to the nations directly, but mediatorially He created a minister who should be His mouthpiece. Observation itself teaches us that men are called and chosen of God to do special work in all departments of life. The difficult lesson for some of us to learn is that we are called to obscurity, and yet this is as clearly a Divine appointment as is the choice of an Isaiah or a Jeremiah. If you look at life, you will see that the most of men are called to quietness, to honest industry, and to what is mistakenly called common place existence. What of it? Shall the plain murmur because it is not a mountain? Shall the green fields complain that Mont Blanc is higher than they? If they have not his majesty, neither have they his barrenness. To see our calling, to accept it, to honour it, that is the truly godly and noble life! Every man is born to realise some purpose. Find that purpose out, and fulfil it if you would lovingly serve God. We find no difficulty in persuading a man that he is a Jeremiah or a Daniel, at any rate that, under certain circumstances, he might easily have turned out a Hannibal or a Wellington. The difficulty, on the contrary, is to persuade a man that the lowliest lot, as well as the highest, is the appointment of God; that door keeping is a promotion in the Divine gift; and that to light a lamp may be as surely a call of God as to found an empire or to rule a world. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The prophet's call and consecration C. F. Keil. I. THE CALL OF JEHOVAH. Not the product of a reflective musing, nor the result of an inward impulse, but a supernatural Divine revelation, an inspiration, a voice from without. II. HIS DIVINE CONSECRATION. He felt the hand of the Lord touch him: a palpable pledge of His support. Touching his mouth meant endowment. Equipment and qualification for God's work must be from God. III. SIGNS WHICH UNVEIL HIS MISSION. These he saw in spirit, God interpreted them to him as confirmatory tokens of his Divine commission. IV. SUPERNATURAL ASSURANCES OF HELP. God will furnish strength, will make him valiant and impregnable. ( C. F. Keil. ) Calling to service J. Spencer. Like as a sword being committed into the hands of a soldier, by the captain general, he is not to smite before he be commanded to fight, and before the trumpet be sounded to battle: even so, though a man have excellences given him, yet he is not to execute any function, especially publicly, before he receive a particular warrant and calling from God ( Revelation 16:1 ). As the ostrich hath wings and flieth not; so some men have a calling, but they answer it not; they have knowledge, but they practise it not; they have words, but they work not. ( J. Spencer. ) The ways in which men are called to service J. Parker, D. D. It is very remarkable that the ancient prophets always kept steadily before them the exact way by which they were led up to their office, and were always ready to vindicate themselves by a plain statement of facts. It is remarkable, too, that they could trace their heavenly election, as clearly as their earthly parentage; so much so, that, as a rule, they put on record both pedigrees, so to speak, side by side; first, that which was natural; afterwards, that which was spiritual; and the one was as much a living and indisputable fact as the other. Thus Jeremiah said, "Hilkiah was my father, and the Word of the Lord came unto me," two things separated by an infinite distance, yet both matters of positive and unquestionable certainty. Jeremiah would have treated with equal indifference or contempt the suggestion that Hilkiah was not his father and that the Lord had never spoken to him. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) I formed thee F. B. Meyer, B. A. Ask what thy work in the world is. That for which thou wast born, to which thou wast appointed, on account of which thou wast conceived in the creative thought of God. That there is a Divine purpose in thy being is indubitable. Seek that thou mayest be permitted to realise it. And never doubt that thou hast been endowed with all the special aptitudes which that purpose may demand. God has formed thee for it, storing thy mind with all that He knew to be requisite for thy life work. I. THE DIVINE PURPOSE. "I knew thee...I sanctified thee...I have appointed thee a prophet." In that degenerate age the great Lover of souls needed a spokesman; and the Divine decree determined the conditions of Jeremiah's birth and character and life. How this could be consistent with the exercise of personal volition and choice on the part of the youthful prophet we cannot say. We can only see the two piers of the mighty arch, but not the arch itself, since the mists of time veil it, and we are dim of sight. It is wise to ascertain, if possible, while life is yet young, the direction of the Divine purpose. There are four considerations that will help us. First, the indication of our natural aptitudes; for these, when touched by the Divine Spirit, become talents or gifts. Secondly, the inward impulse or energy of the Divine Spirit, working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Thirdly, the teaching of the Word of God. Fourthly, the evidence of the circumstances and demands of life. When these concur, and focus in one point, there need be no doubt as to the Divine purpose and plan. But in cases where the Divine purpose is not so clearly disclosed, in which life is necessarily lived piecemeal, and the bits of marble for the tesselated floor are heaped together with no apparent plan, we must dare to believe that God has an intention for each of us; and that if we are true to our noblest ideals we shall certainly work out the Divine pattern, and be permitted some day to see it in its unveiled symmetry and beauty. To run errands for God! To be like the angels that excel in strength, and do His commandment, hearkening to the voice of His Word! To resemble the boy messengers in some of our large cities, that wait in readiness to discharge any commission that may be entrusted to them! II. FORMATIVE INFLUENCES. It is very interesting to study the formative influences that were brought to bear on the character of Jeremiah. There were the character and disposition of his mother, and the priestly office of his father. There was the picturesque beauty of his birthplace, the village of Anathoth, lying on the high road three miles north of Jerusalem, encircled by the famous hills of Benjamin; and looking down the ravine on the blue waters of the Dead Sea, gleaming at the foot of the purple hills of Moab. There was the near proximity of the holy city, rendering it possible for the boy to be present at all the holy festivals, and to receive such instruction as the best seminaries could provide. There was the companionship and association of godly families, like those of Shaphan and Maaseiah, who themselves had passed away, but whose children preserved the religion of their forefathers, and treasured as sacred relies the literature, psalms, and history of purer and better days. His uncle, Shallum, was the husband of the illustrious and devoted prophetess, Huldah; and their son Hanameel shared with Baruch, the grandson of Maaseiah, the close friendship of the prophet, probably from the days that they were boys together. There were also the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah, who were burning as bright constellations in that dark sky, to be soon joined by himself. His mind was evidently very sensitive to all the influences of his early life. His speech is saturated with references to natural emblems and national customs, to the life of men, and the older literature of the Bible. Take, for instance, his earliest sermon in which he refers to the story of the Exodus, and the pleadings of Deuteronomy; to the roar of the young lion, and the habits of the wild ass; to the young camel traversing her ways, and the Arabian of the wilderness; to the murmur of the brook, and the hewing of the cistern. His quick and sensitive soul eagerly incorporated the influences of the varied life around him, and reproduced them. It is thus that God is ever at work, forming and moulding us. The purpose of God gives meaning to many of its strange experiences. Be brave, strong, and trustful! III. THERE WAS ALSO A SPECIAL PREPARATION FOR HIS LIFE WORK — "The Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth." In a similar manner had the seraph touched the lips of Isaiah years before. And we are reminded that the Lord Jesus promised that the Spirit of the Father should put appropriate words into the lips of His disciples when summoned before the tribunals of their foes. Words are the special gift of God. God never asks us to go on His errands ( Jeremiah 1:7 ) without telling us what to say. If we are living in fellowship with Him, He will impress His messages on our minds and enrich our life with the appropriate utterances by which those messages shall be conveyed to our fellows. Two other assurances were also given. First, "Thou shalt go to whomsoever I shall send thee." This gave a definiteness and directness to the prophet's speech. Secondly, "Be not afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." IV. GOD VOUCHSAFED A TWO-FOLD VISION TO HIS CHILD. On the one hand, the swift-blossoming almond tree assured him that God would watch over him, and see to the swift performance of his predictions; on the other, the seething cauldron, turned towards the north, indicated the breaking out of evil. So the pendulum of life swings to and fro; now to light, and then to dark. But happy is the man whose heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. There was a period in Jeremiah's life when he seems to have swerved from the pathway of complete obedience ( Jeremiah 15:19 ), and to have gone back from following the God-given plan. Surrounded by contention and strife; cursed as though he were a usurer; reproached and threatened with death — he lost heart, and fainted in the precipitous path. Immediately he had good reason to fear that the Divine protection had been withdrawn. We are only safe when we are on God's plan. But as he returned again to his allegiance, these precious promises were renewed, and again sounded in his ears: "I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible." ( F. B. Meyer, B. A. ) A call to service Christian Age. "It was no vision that called me to the foreign field," said a missionary at Clifton Springs, last summer. "I read with intense interest 'All power is given unto Me, go ye, therefore.' This was the foundation stone of my call to be a missionary. Later, while I was in the seminary, a letter was read from Dr. Butler, asking for five new men for India, 'a chance to put your life to the best use for the Master.' Though I had no outward vision, the illumination of the heart is the best vision one can have, and from that day I have never been sorry, and I have never doubted that God called me to this work." ( Christian Age. ) I cannot speak: for I am a child. Fears and comforts in prospect of labour for God R. A. Griffin. I. THE FEAR OF GOD'S SERVANT IN PROSPECT OF LABOUR. 1. He feels his weakness. (1) Having no influence. (2) Having no experience. (3) Being unstable. 2. He feels his ignorance. 3. He feels his unworthiness. 4. He dreads the enmity of man. II. THE COMFORTS OF GOD'S SERVANTS IN PROSPECT OF LABOUR. 1. The assurance they are called to the work. 2. The knowledge of the purpose of God. 3. The promise of the presence of God. 4. The fact that the message was from God. ( R. A. Griffin. ) A young preacher's oppressive sense of responsibility When I first became a pastor in London my success appalled me; and the thought of the career which it seemed to open up, so far from elating me, cast me into the lowest depths outer which I uttered my "miserere," and found no room for a "gloria in excelsis." Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude? I would betake me to my village obscurity, or emigrate to America and find a solitary nest in the backwoods, where I might be sufficient for the things that would be demanded of me. It was just then that the curtain was rising upon my life work, and I dreaded what it might reveal. I hope I was not faithless, but I was timorous and filled with a sense of my own unworthiness. I dreaded the work which a gracious providence had prepared for me. I felt myself a mere child, and trembled as I heard the voice which said, "Arise and thresh the mountains and make them as chaff." ( C. H. Spurgeon s Autobiography. ) A sense of helplessness as a preparation for ministry F. B. Meyer, B. A. How many of the greatest men have been broken under a sense of their insufficiency! That passage in the life of John Livingstone comes back to me as I write. He had spoken at the yearly communion at Kirk o' Shotts on the Sabbath with marvellous power, and had been requested to preach on the following morning, which he promised to do on condition that his friends should spend the night in prayer. But, as he awoke in the morning, he was so overwhelmed with the sense of his incompetence, that he went three and a half miles out of the town, to be brought back, however, and to preach so marvellously that five hundred souls were converted. The writer, years ago, when in great anxiety to learn whether his was a true vocation to the Christian ministry, the Bible opened to this page, and he can bear witness that God has been faithful. ( F. B. Meyer, B. A. ) God achieves His work by seemingly inadequate workmen that the glory may be His In using such ill-adapted tools for the accomplishment of His designs, God shows His own transparent power. That famous well cover at Antwerp, just opposite the cathedral — one of the finest pieces of wrought-iron that was ever known — is said to have been made by Quintyn Matsys with nothing but a hammer and a file, his fellow workman having taken away his tools. If it be so, the more praise to him for his consummate skill. All God's works redound to His glory; but when the tools He uses appear to be totally inadequate to the results He achieves our reverence is excited, while our reason is abashed, and we marvel at a power we cannot understand. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Reluctance overcome Y. Burns, D. D. Farel , alike humble and courageous, had often asked if another would not succeed better than he, and a sort of presentiment had bidden him wait in hope for such a man. Calvin was unwilling to undertake the work, he was not made, he said, for such an office Farel is urgent Calvin educes fresh reasons, and it seemed as though he wanted to deter Farel by exhibiting to him the defects of his future colleague. Once more he asked that he might be left in obscurity to busy himself in studies. Then Farel broke out, "Thy studies are a pretext. I tell thee that if thou refuse to associate thyself with my works God will curse thee for having sought thyself and not Christ." Calvin was henceforth prompt and sincere in the work of the Lord. Say not, I am a child. — Jeremiah's mission: — I. HIS OBJECTION NOT UNREASONABLE. 1. Inexperience. 2. Insufficient knowledge. 3. Modest diffidence. 4. Yet his ago and defects time would remedy. II. HOW GOD OVERRULES HIS OBJECTION. 1. He refers to His preordination. 2. He refers to His commission. 3. He was to speak God's words. 4. Divine presence pledged. 5. Supernatural communication.Lessons: 1. God, not man, arranges the affairs of His moral kingdom. 2. God qualifies His instruments. 3. God often selects His agents, not as men would do. 4. God gives His own message to His messengers. 5. The ministry of God's servants is mighty for good or evil. (1) Listen when God speaks. (2) Obey when He commands (3) Trust when He promises. ( Y. Burns, D. D. ) God teaching His prophet F. G. Crossman. I. WHAT IT IS, IN SPIRITUAL LANGUAGE, TO BE A CHILD. This is one of the most comforting of Gospel names, when it unites us with God as our Father, and thus implies that there is the holy principle of a new birth unto righteousness within us. 1. A child in this sense, is one who has been translated out of his own unrighteous nature into the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ; and this translation takes him at once from under the dominion of the law, and brings him into the glorious liberty of the Gospel. 2. A child, in scriptural acceptation, because he feels himself to be a sinning child, will bear submissively, every trying dispensation that shall be laid upon him, and in a child-like spirit. 3. Every child of God's adoption will study the will of God, and strive to make it his own. II. WHAT INFLUENCES WERE OPERATING UPON THE PROPHETS, WHEN HE SAID, "I CANNOT SPEAK, FOR I AM A CHILD." 1. There was the influence of a fallen and diseased nature. It is a great blessing to be able to look into the drowning sea of our own evil hearts, and to know the things we ought to pray for, and the rocks and quicksands it is our interest to avoid. But it is perilous to linger too long in an enemy's country, and to roll our meditations overmuch through the defiled places; because the very sight and knowledge of what we are, in our natural weakness and deformity, if they are steeped for too long a time in the bitterness of soul humiliation, will be apt to produce a feeling of darkness akin to despair. 2. There was a distrust of God's providence. This is a common sin in very many, who are without a question, children of the covenant. They have a faith, but it is not equal to their emergencies; there is a light in it, but it does not warm them; it staggers and hesitates, when it ought to be going forwards and realising. III. WHAT IT WAS THAT GOD INTENDED HIS PROPHET TO UNDERSTAND, WHEN HE REPLIED, "SAY NOT, I AM A CHILD," etc. 1. First He taught him that His simple word is the best rock for dependence: "Thou shalt go and thou shalt speak." This is the way in which God most loves to teach His children, because it is the simplest, I do not say the easiest lesson, for their faith to embrace. It is a trial for their confidence to improve. 2. But God's word to the prophet, "Say not I am a child," implies more. Jeremiah was to work for God; but God was to work in Jeremiah, and to supply him with a strength fully equal to what he had to do. Here is another link that binds God in His omnipotence to a covenant child in his weakness. ( F. G. Crossman. ) The Divine mission of children D. J. Hamer. If we judge by inference and analogy from these words, rather than from the circumstances and person to whom they belong, we reach a truth like this: that by a messenger, incompetent because of his weakness, some messages from God come more forcefully to the ears and heart of men. What the prophet was comparatively many are actually, and the same truth holds good throughout, and so we reach a point which may well occupy our thought: the Divine mission and office of children, what they have to say, what they have to do. Is it not wrong to think of children as incomplete growth, of youth as nothing more than incomplete maturity? Such treatment injures them, for it fosters the idea into strength that today is nothing, and tomorrow everything, that the present is valueless, and the future holds all hope. Such treatment injures us, for we only exist impatiently till this time shall have passed, and miss all the instruction we might gather from the earliest impulses of life. In the home, and in the Church which is the larger home, there is a place for them to occupy, a mission to fulfil. Take two or three points as hints. 1. First the meaning and the power of simple faith. It is a word that some of us perhaps for years have been trying to learn the meaning of. Faith, trust. Have you children of your own, or have you seen such, nestling fearless and trustful at their parent's knee! Your child believes in you, in something more than the fact of your existence. It lives in your love. It trusts your care. Faith is a belief that leads to the committal of the whole being to the hands of One who is our Father, our Helper, our Saviour; and as we grow up into strength, the highest of all motive impulse, at first it may be fear or expectation of good that induces obedience, but no long time can pass, if the relation be truly sustained, before love is the impulse of every action; and because your child loves you it delights to do your will. As such is the truth which appears in the earliest years of children, can it be a mistake to suppose that God intended the truth to be learned from such illustration of His word? 2. Does there not come to us in this self-same way, too, a hint of the folly and wro

Benson Commentary Jeremiah 1:1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: Jeremiah 1:1-2 . The words of Jeremiah — That is, the sermons or prophecies, the contents of which he received from God, that he might declare them unto the people, and which are comprised in this book under his name. See on Isaiah 2:1 . The son of Hilkiah — Some have supposed this to have been Hilkiah the high-priest, by whom the book of the law was found in the temple, in the reign of Josiah; but for this opinion there is no better ground than his being of the same name, which was not an uncommon one among the Jews; whereas, had he been in reality the high-priest, he would doubtless have been mentioned by that distinguishing title, and not put upon a level with the priests of an ordinary and inferior class. Besides this, Hilkiah dwelt at Anathoth, which was indeed one of the cities allotted to the priests, but not the place of residence of the high-priest, who always lived at Jerusalem. It may be observed here, that Jeremiah, being of the family of Aaron, would have been a teacher of the people even if he had not been called to the extraordinary office of prophesying. To whom the word of the Lord came — Not only a charge and commission to prophesy, but also a revelation of the things themselves which he was to deliver; in the days of Josiah — That young but good king, who, in the twelfth year of his reign, began a work of reformation, applying himself with all sincerity and diligence to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the groves, the images, and the high places, 2 Chronicles 34:3 . Now the very next year was this young prophet seasonably raised up to assist and encourage the young king in that good work. And it might have been expected that, by the joint efforts of such a prince and such a prophet, both young, and likely to continue long to be useful, such a complete reformation would have been effected, as would have prevented the ruin of the church and state. But, alas! it proved quite otherwise: and their united labours, with respect to the generality of their countrymen, only served to aggravate their guilt and accelerate their destruction. Jeremiah 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. Jeremiah 1:3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Jeremiah 1:3 . It came also — Namely, the word of the Lord, as Jeremiah 1:2 ; in the days of Jehoiakim — Called at first by Josiah, Eliakim, 2 Kings 23:34 . It must be observed, that Jehoahaz, who reigned before him, (2 Kings 28:8,) and Jehoiakim, who succeeded him, are not mentioned here, because each of them reigned only three months, and could hardly be said to be established in the government. Unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah — The meaning is, that he prophesied not only during the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim, but also during the whole reign of Zedekiah, which was eleven years: unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive — That great event of which he had so often prophesied. He continued, indeed, to prophesy after that, ( Jeremiah 40:1 ,) but the computation of the time is here made to end with that event, because it was the accomplishment of many of his predictions: and from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the captivity was just forty years. It is observed from Dr. Lightfoot, that as Moses was forty years a teacher of the Israelites in the wilderness, till they entered into their own land; Jeremiah was so long a teacher in their own land before they were sent into the wilderness of the heathen: and he thinks that therefore a special mark is set upon the last forty years of the iniquity of Judah, which Ezekiel bore forty days, a day for a year, because, during all that time, they had Jeremiah prophesying among them, which was a great aggravation of their impenitency. Jeremiah 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah 1:4-5 . Then the word of the Lord came unto me — With a satisfying assurance to himself, that it was the word of the Lord, and not a delusion. Before I formed thee in the belly — That is, the womb. Having spoken before on the time of his call, he now speaks of the manner of it. I knew thee — That is, I had thee in my view, or approved thee as a fit minister for this work, in the same sense as it is said, Acts 15:18 , Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world; he contemplated the plan of them, and approved it in his mind, before he created and brought them into being. I sanctified thee — I set thee apart in my counsel for executing the office of a prophet. We have examples of a similar designation with that mentioned here, in John the Baptist and St. Paul, as the reader will see if he consult the texts referred to in the margin. And ordained thee a prophet unto the nations — He speaks thus to Jeremiah, not to the other prophets, because he stood in need of greater encouragement than they, both in respect to the tenderness of his years, and the difficulties which he was to encounter. And ordained thee a prophet to the nations — To other nations besides the Jews. Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Jeremiah 1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. Jeremiah 1:6 . Then said I, Ah, Lord God, &c. — He modestly excuses himself from a consideration of the weight of the work, and the tenderness of his age, as in the next expression. Behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child — We cannot infer from this, that Jeremiah was within the years of what is properly called childhood. For he might call himself a child by way of extenuating his abilities; as Solomon calls himself a little child, 1 Kings 1:7 , although at that time he was married, and must have been at least twenty years of age. And the word child, or youth, is elsewhere used of those who were arrived at the first years of manhood. Jeremiah 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Jeremiah 1:7-8 . But the Lord said unto me, &c. — God refuses to accept of his excuse, and renews his commission to him to execute the prophetic office. Thus God refused to accept the excuse of Moses, made on a like occasion. See Exodus 6:30 ; and Exodus 7:1-2 . Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee — This is not so much a command as a promise: as much as to say, I will enable thee, notwithstanding thy youth, to go with proper boldness to those to whom I send thee, and to declare my commands with that dignity and precision wherewith they ought to be uttered. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee, &c. — The style of God’s commission to his prophets and messengers commonly runs in these words, I am with thee, (see the margin,) importing that God, who sent them, would enable them to discharge the office he had committed to them, and would give them strength proportionable to the work in which they engaged. To reprove the faults of all persons, of the high as well as the low, the rich as well as the poor, with that plainness and impartiality which the prophets used, required a more than ordinary degree of courage, as well as of prudence, for which cause the promise of God’s presence with them was particularly necessary, to encourage them in the discharge of their duty. Jeremiah 1:8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. Jeremiah 1:9-10 . Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth — This appeared to the prophet to be done in his vision; whereby he was taught that the divine help should go along with him, that the gift of utterance should be bestowed upon him, and that he should be able to declare the divine commands in a proper spirit and manner: compare Isaiah 6:7 ; and Isaiah 51:16 . Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth — By the seeing of this symbolical action in his vision, and the hearing of these words, Jeremiah could not but be assured that he should be able to speak in the proper language of a prophet, or with words becoming his office, and that he should have that firmness and boldness given him which were necessary for the purpose. Jeremiah does not indeed equal Isaiah in eloquence of speech, but he seems to have been no way inferior to him in firmness of mind. See, I have this day set thee over the nations — Namely, to speak to them in my name, for this is all that is meant here by being set over them. To root out and to pull down, &c. — In the style of Scripture the prophets are said to do what they declare shall be done; and therefore Jeremiah is here said to root out, &c., because he was authorized to make known the purposes of God, and because the events here mentioned would follow in consequence of his prophecies. See Isaiah 6:9 ; and Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, vol. 1. Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. Jeremiah 1:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Jeremiah 1:11-12 . Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me — Probably at the same time, and in the same vision, wherein he was first appointed to his office; saying, What seest thou — Here, by symbolical representations, the meaning of which God immediately interpreted, future things were presented to his view. This method of instruction or information sinks deeper into the mind, and leaves a more lasting impression there, than any mere words can do; and therefore the prophets frequently received communications from God in this way. And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree — Namely, which had leaves, and possibly blossoms on it, like Aaron’s rod; otherwise the prophet could not so readily have discerned of what kind of wood it was. The almond-tree is one of the first that wakes and rises from its winter repose, flowering, in the warm southern countries, in the month of January, and by March bringing its fruits to maturity. From this circumstance, which is mentioned by Pliny, lib. 16. cap. 42, it is supposed to have received its name, ???? , shaked, as being intent, and, as it were, on the watch to seize the first opportunity of emitting its buds and blossoms: which is the proper sense of the verb, from which that noun is derived. A branch of this tree, therefore, with buds or leaves, and blossoms upon it, was a proper emblem to denote God’s hastening the execution of the predictions which he declared by this prophet, who lived to see most of his prophecies fulfilled. There is also in the original a remarkable paranomasia, or affinity in sound, between shaked, an almond-tree, and shoked, hastening, which makes the words more striking than they can possibly be in any translation. For not only the nature of the almond-tree, but the very sound of the Hebrew word, which signifies it, denoted God’s hastening to fulfil the prophecies which Jeremiah uttered by his directions. Thou hast well seen — Or, thou hast seen and judged right. Hebrew, ?????? ????? , Thou hast done well to see, that is, in seeing so. For I will hasten my word — Literally, I will act like the almond-tree respecting my word; namely, my word of threatening, against Judah and Jerusalem, to perform it. Jeremiah 1:12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. Jeremiah 1:13 . I see a seething-pot — Or, a pot boiling. The steam of this boiling pot represented God’s judgments, which are often compared to a fire, as the afflictions of Israel were to a smoking furnace. Genesis 15:17 . And the face thereof was toward the north — The steam was represented to the prophet as raised by a fire, or driven by a wind coming from the north. Thus interpreted, the pot or caldron denoted Judea or Jerusalem, expressed by the same figure, Ezekiel 11:3 ; Ezekiel 11:7 ; Ezekiel 24:3 . But the Hebrew ???? ???? ????? , seems to be more exactly rendered by Blaney; The face thereof is turned from the north, or, as it is expressed in the margin, from the face of the north. For it appears from the next verse, that the evil was to come from the north; and therefore the steam, which was designed for an emblem of that evil, must have issued from that quarter. According to this interpretation, the pot denoted the empire of the Chaldeans, lying to the north of Judea, and pouring forth its multitudes like a thick vapour. Jeremiah 1:14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. Jeremiah 1:15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. Jeremiah 1:15-16 . For lo, I will call — Or, I am upon calling, or, about to call; all the families of the kingdoms of the north — By these seem to be meant the different nations who were subject to Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, and who served in their armies, such as the Medes, Armenians, Chaldeans, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and Syrians. The kings of Assyria were formerly troublesome to the Jews, chiefly under Ahaz and Hezekiah; but they do not seem to be spoken of here, but only those people who, from the thirteenth year of Josiah, when Jeremiah had this vision, grievously harassed Judea, until the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, to whom the kings of the north were either tributaries or auxiliaries. And they shall set every one his throne, &c. — To set up a throne in, or over, any place, denotes taking full possession of it, as appears from Jeremiah 43:10 ; Jeremiah 49:38 : but, by thrones here, seats, pavilions, or tents pitched, may be intended; and so this prophecy was fulfilled when the city was taken by Nebuchadnezzar: see Jeremiah 39:3 . And I will utter my judgments against them — Namely, against the Jews, for this is spoken of them, and not of the kings or people, mentioned in the foregoing verse; touching their wickedness — Then I will no longer speak unto them by my prophets, whose threatenings they have disregarded; but the judgments which I will bring upon them shall declare their wickedness, and the vengeance due unto them for it. Jeremiah 1:16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. Jeremiah 1:17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. Jeremiah 1:17 . Thou therefore gird up thy loins — Prepare to do the work to which I call and appoint thee. For, it being the custom of the eastern people to wear long garments, which they girded about their loins when any business required great activity or expedition; by thus speaking the Lord enjoins his prophet to use all possible vigour and intention of mind as well as of body, that he might execute, with diligence and despatch, the office which God had assigned him. And arise — Another expression of the same meaning. And speak all that I command thee — Hebrew, shall command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces — Discover no fear, and conceal no message; lest I confound thee — The Hebrew verb is the same in both parts of the sentence, which may be literally rendered thus: Be not confounded at their faces, (namely, when thou appearest in their presence,) lest I confound thee before them. God exhorts him not to be dismayed at the scoffs and ill treatment he should meet with from hardened sinners, especially from those who thought their power and authority set them above reproof, and would bear them out in whatsoever they did: see Ezekiel 11:6 . He tells him it is better to bear the reproaches of men than the reproofs of God, who would call him to a strict account how he discharged his duty. Jeremiah 1:18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. Jeremiah 1:18-19 . For I have made thee this day a defenced city — That is, from this day I will so defend thee that they shall be no more able to hurt thee than they would be if thou wast in a strongly-fortified and impregnable city. And brazen walls — Which cannot be broken or battered down with any force. Against the whole land, against the kings, &c. — All its inhabitants in general; intimating that, though men of all degrees should set themselves against him, yet God would support him against them all, and would carry him through his work, although his troubles would not only be great, but long, extended through several kings’ reigns. And they shall fight against thee — Shall oppose thee, and manifest much hostile hatred against thee; but they shall not prevail — They shall not be able, by all their devices, to shorten thy days, or to prevent thy executing the charge given thee. For I am with thee, to deliver thee — I will show my power in protecting and delivering thee out of all thy troubles, when thy adversaries shall become a prey to their enemies. Jeremiah 1:19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . 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Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 1:1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: { e-Sword Note: In the printed edition, this material appeared near the end of 2 Kings.} JEREMIAH AND HIS PROPHECIES Jereremiah 1:1 - Jeremiah 5:31 "Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes-they were souls that stood alone, While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone; Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, By one man’s plain truth to manhood and to God’s supreme design." - LOWELL TRULY Jeremiah was a prophet of evil. The king might have addressed him in the words with which Agamemnon reproaches Kalchas. "Augur accursed! denouncing mischief still: Prophet of plagues, forever boding ill! Still must that tongue some wounding message bring, And still thy priestly pride provoke thy king." Never was there a sadder man. Like Phocion, he believed in the enemies of his country more than he believed in his own people. He saw "Too late" written upon everything. "He saw himself all but universally execrated as a coward, as a traitor, as one who weakened the nerves and damped the courage of those who were fighting against fearful odds for their wives and children, the ashes of their fathers, their altars, and their hearths. It had become his fixed conviction that any prophets-and there were a multitude of them-who prophesied peace were false prophets, and ipso facto proved themselves conspirators against the true well-being of the land Jeremiah 6:14 ; Jeremiah 8:11 Ezekiel 13:10 . In point of fact, Jeremiah lived to witness the death struggle of the idea of religion in its predominantly national character. {Jer 7:8-16; Jer 6:8} The continuity of the national faith refused to be bound up with the continuance of the nation. When the nation is dissolved into individual elements, the continuity and ultimate victory of the true faith depends on the relations of Jehovah to individual souls out of which the nation shall be bound up." And now a sad misfortune happened to Jeremiah. His home was not at Jerusalem, but at Anathoth, though he had long been driven from his native village by the murderous plots of his own kindred, and of those who had been infuriated by his incessant prophecies of doom. When the Chaldaeans retired from Jerusalem to encounter Pharaoh, he left the distressed city for the land of Benjamin, "to receive his portion from thence in the midst of the people"-apparently, for the sense is doubtful, to claim his dues of maintenance as a priest. But at the city gate he was arrested by Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the captain of the watch, who charged him with the intention of deserting to the Chaldaeans. Jeremiah pronounced the charge to be a lie; but Irijah took him before the princes, who hated him, and consigned him to dreary and dangerous imprisonment in the house of Jonathan the scribe. In the vaults of this house of the pit he continued many days. {Jer 37:11-15} The king sympathized with him: he would gladly have delivered him, if he could, from the rage of the princes; but he did not dare. Meanwhile, the siege went on, and the people never forgot the anguish of despair with which they waited the re-investiture of the city. Ever since that day it has been kept as a fast-the fast of Tebeth. Zedekiah, yearning for some advice, or comfort-if comfort were to be had-from the only man whom he really trusted, sent for Jeremiah to the palace, and asked him in despicable secrecy, "Is there any word from the Lord?" The answer was the old one: "Yes! Thou shalt be delivered into the hands of the King of Babylon." Jeremiah gave it without quailing, but seized the opportunity to ask on what plea he was imprisoned. Was he not a prophet? Had he not prophesied the return of the Chaldaean host? Where now were all the prophets who had prophesied peace? Would not the king at least save him from the detestable prison in which he was dying by inches? The king heard his petition, and he was removed to a better prison in the court of the watch where he received his daily piece of bread out of the bakers’ street until all the bread in the city was spent. For now utter famine came upon the wretched Jews, to add to the horrors and accidents of the siege. If we would know what that famine was in its appalling intensity, we must turn to the Book of Lamentations. Those elegies, so unutterably plaintive, may not be by the prophet himself, but only by his school but they show us what was the frightful condition of the people of Jerusalem before and during the last six months of the siege. "The sword of the wilderness"-the roving and plundering Bedouin-made it impossible to get out of the city in any direction. Things were as dreadfully hopeless as they had been in Samaria when it was besieged by Benhadad. {Lam 5:4} Hunger and thirst reduce human nature to its most animal conditions. They obliterate the merest elements of morality. They make men like beasts, and reveal the ferocity which is never quite dead in any but the purest and loftiest souls. They arouse the least human instincts of the aboriginal animal. The day came when there was no more bread left in Jerusalem. {Jer 37:21; Jer 38:9; Jer 52:6} The fair and ruddyNazarites, who had been purer than snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than corals, lovely as sapphires, became like withered boughs, {Lam 4:7-8} and even their friends did not recognize them in those ghastly and emaciated figures which crept about the streets. The daughters of Zion, more cruel in their hunger than the very jackals, lost the instincts of pity and motherhood. Mothers and fathers devoured their own little unweaned children. There was parricide as well as infanticide in the horrible houses. They seemed to plead that none could blame them, since the lives of many had become an intolerable anguish, and no man had bread for his little ones, and their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouth. All that happened six centuries later, during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, happened now. Then Martha, the daughter of Nicodemus ben-Gorion, once a lady of enormous wealth, was seen picking the grains of corn from the offal of the streets; now the women who had fed delicately and been brought up in scarlet were seen sitting desolate on heaps of dung. And Jehovah did not raise His hand to save His guilty and dying people. It was too late! And as is always the case in such extremities, there were men who stood defiant and selfish amid the universal misery. Murder, oppression, and luxury continued to prevail. The godless nobles did not intermit the building of their luxurious houses, asserting to themselves and others that, after all, the final catastrophe was not near at hand. The sudden death of one of them-Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah-while Ezekiel was prophesying, terrified the prophet so much that he flung himself on his face and cried with a loud voice, "Ah, Lord God! wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?" But on the others this death by the visitation of God seems to have produced no effect; and the glory of God left the city, borne away upon its cherubim-chariot. {Eze 11:22} Even under the stress of these dreadful circumstances the Jews held out with that desperate tenacity which has often been shown by nations fighting behind strong walls for their very existence, but by no nation more decidedly than by the Jews. And if the rebel-party, and the lying prophets who had brought the city to this pass, still entertained any hopes either of a diversion caused by Pharaoh Hophrah, or of some miraculous deliverance such as that which had saved the city from Sennacherib years earlier, it is not unnatural that they should have regarded Jeremiah with positive fury. For he still continued to prophesy the captivity. What specially angered them was his message to the people that all who remained in Jerusalem should die by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, but that those who deserted to the Chaldaeans should live. It was on the ground of his having said this that they had imprisoned him as a deserter; and when Pashur and his son Gedaliah heard that he was still saying this, they and the other princes entreated Zedekiah to put him to death as a pernicious traitor, who weakened the hands of the patriot soldiers. Jeremiah was not guilty of the lack of patriotism with which they charged him. The day of independence had passed forever, and Babylon, not Egypt, was the appointed suzerain. The counseling of submission-as many a victorious chieftain has been forced at last to counsel it, from the days of Hannibal to those of Thiers-is often the true and the only possible patriotism in doomed and decadent nations. Zedekiah timidly abandoned the prophet to the rage of his enemies; but being afraid to murder him openly as Urijah had been murdered, they flung him into a well in the dungeon of Mal-chiah, the king’s son. Into the mire of this pit he sank up to the arms, and there they purposely left him to starve and rot. But if no Israelite pitied him, his condition moved the compassion of Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian, one of the king’s eunuch-chamberlains. He hurried to the king in a storm of pity and indignation. He found him sitting, as a king should do, at the post of danger in the gate of Benjamin; for Zedekiah was not a physical, though he was a moral, coward. Ebed-Melech told the king that Jeremiah was dying of starvation, and Zedekiah bade him take three men with him and rescue the dying man. The faithful Ethiopian hurried to a cellar under the treasury, took with him some old, worn fragments of robes, and, letting them down by cords, called to Jeremiah to put them under his arm-pits. He did so, and they drew him up into the light of day, though he still remained in prison. It seems to have been at this time that, in spite of his grim vaticination of immediate retribution, Jeremiah showed his serene confidence in the ultimate future by accepting the proposal of his cousin Hanameel to buy some of the paternal fields at Anathoth, though at that very moment they were in the hands of the Chaldaeans. Such an act, publicly performed, must have caused some consolation to the besieged, just as did the courage of the Roman senator who gave a good price for the estate outside the walls of Rome on which Hannibal was actually encamped. Then Zedekiah once more secretly sent for him, and implored him to tell the unvarnished truth. "If I do, " said the prophet, "will you not kill me? and will you in any case hearken to me?" Zedekiah swore not to betray him to his enemies; and Jeremiah told him that, even at that eleventh hour, if he would go out and make submission to the Babylonians, the city should not be burnt, and he should save the lives of himself and of his family. Zedekiah believed him, but pleaded that he was afraid of the mockery of the deserters to whom he might be delivered. Jeremiah assured him that he should not be so delivered, and, that, if he refused to obey, nothing remained for the city, and for him and his wives and children, but final ruin. The king was too weak to follow what he must now have felt to be the last chance which God had opened out for him. He could only "attain to half-believe." He entrusted the result to chance, with miserable vacillation of purpose; and the door of hope was closed upon him. His one desire was to conceal the interview; and if it came to the ears of the princes-of whom he was shamefully afraid-he begged Jeremiah to say that he had only entreated the king not to send him back to die in Jonathan’s prison. As he had suspected, it became known that Jeremiah had been summoned to an interview with the king. They questioned the prophet in prison. He told them the story which the king had suggested to him, and the truth remained undiscovered. For this deflection from exact truth it is tolerably certain that, in the state of men’s consciences upon the subject of veracity in those days, the prophet’s moral sense did not for a moment reproach him. He remained in his prison, guarded probably by the faithful Ebed-Melech, until Jerusalem was taken. Let us pity the dreadful plight of Zedekiah, aggravated as it was by his weak temperament. "He stands at the head of a people determined to defend itself, but is himself without either hope or courage." CHAPTER I THE CALL AND CONSECRATION IN the foregoing pages we have considered the principal events in the life of the prophet Jeremiah, by way of introduction to the more detailed study of his writings. Preparation of this kind seemed to be necessary, if we were to enter upon that study with something more than the vaguest perception of the real personality of the prophet. On the other hand, I hope we shall not fail to find our mental image of the man, and our conception of the times in which he lived, and of the conditions under which he laboured as a servant of God, corrected and perfected by that closer examination of his works to which I now invite you. And so we shall be better equipped for the attainment of that which must be the ultimate object of all such studies; the deepening and strengthening of the life of faith in ourselves, by which alone we can hope to follow in the steps of the saints of old, and like them to realise the great end of our being, the service of the All-Perfect. I shall consider the various discourses in what appears to be their natural order, so far as possible, taking those chapters together which appear to be connected in occasion and subject. Chapter 1 evidently stands apart, as a self-complete and independent whole. It consists of a chronological superscription ( Jeremiah 1:1-3 ), assigning the temporal limits of the prophet’s activity; and secondly, of an inaugural discourse, which sets before us his first call, and the general scope of the mission which he was chosen to fulfil. This discourse, again, in like manner falls into two sections, of which the former ( Jeremiah 1:4-10 ) relates how the prophet was appointed and qualified by Iahvah to be a spokesman for Him; while the latter ( Jeremiah 11:1-19 ), under the form of two visions, expresses the assurance that Iahvah will accomplish His word, and pictures the mode of fulfilment, closing with a renewed summons to enter upon the work, and with a promise, of effectual support against all opposition. It is plain that we have before us the author’s introduction to the whole book; and if we would gain an adequate conception of the meaning of the prophet’s activity both for his own time and for ours, we must weigh well the force of these prefatory words. The career of a true prophet, or spokesman for God, undoubtedly implies a special call or vocation to the office. In this preface to the summarised account of his life’s work, Jeremiah represents that call as a single and definite event in his life’s history. Must we take this in its literal sense? We are not astonished by such a statement as "the word of the Lord came unto me"; it may be understood in more senses than one, and perhaps we are unconsciously prone to understand it in what is called a natural sense. Perhaps we think of a result of pious reflection pondering the moral state of the nation and the needs of the time perhaps of that inward voice which is nothing strange to any soul that has attained to the rudiments of spiritual development. But when we read such an assertion as that of Jeremiah 1:9 , "Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth," we cannot but pause and ask what it was that the writer meant to convey by words so strange and startling. Thoughtful readers cannot avoid the question whether such statements are consonant with what we otherwise know of the dealings of God with man; whether an outward and visible act of the kind spoken of conforms with that whole conception of the Divine Being, which is, so far as it reflects reality, the outcome of His own contact with our human spirits. The obvious answer is that such corporeal actions are incompatible with all our experience and all our reasoned conceptions of the Divine Essence, which fills all things and controls all things, precisely because it is not limited by a bodily organism, because its actions are not dependent upon such imperfect and restricted media as hands and feet. If, then, we are bound to a literal sense, we can only understand that the prophet saw a vision, in which a Divine hand seemed to touch his lips, and a Divine voice to sound in his ears. But are we bound to a literal sense? It is noteworthy that Jeremiah does not say that Iahvah Himself appeared to him. In this respect, he stands in conspicuous contrast with his predecessor Isaiah, who writes, { Isaiah 6:1 } "In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up"; and with his successor Ezekiel, who affirms in his opening verse { Ezekiel 1:1 } that on a certain definite occasion "the heavens opened," and he saw "visions of God." Nor does Jeremiah use that striking phrase of the younger prophet’s, "The hand of Iahvah was upon me," or "was strong upon me." But when he says, "Iahvah put forth His hand and touched my mouth," he is evidently thinking of the seraph that touched Isaiah’s mouth with the live coal from the heavenly altar. { Isaiah 6:7 } The words are identical, and might be regarded as a quotation. It is true that, supposing Jeremiah to be relating the experience of a trance-like condition or ecstasy, we need not assume tiny conscious imitation of his predecessor. The sights and sounds which affect a man in such a condition may be partly repetitions of former experience, whether one’s own or that of others; and in part wholly new and strange. In a dream one might imagine things happening to oneself, which one had heard or read of in connection with others. And Jeremiah’s writings generally prove his intimate acquaintance with those of Isaiah and the older prophets. But as a trance or ecstasy is itself an involuntary state, so the thoughts and feelings of the subject of it must be independent of the individual will, and as it were imposed from without. Is then the prophet describing the experience of such an abnormal state-a state like that of St. Peter in his momentous vision on the housetop at Joppa, or like that of St. Paul when he was "caught up to the third heaven," and saw many wonderful things which he durst not reveal? The question has been answered in the negative on two principal grounds. It is said that the vision of Jeremiah 1:11-12 , derives its significance not from the visible thing itself, but from the name of it, which is, of course, not an object of sight at all; and consequently, the so called vision is really "a well-devised and ingenious product of cool reflection." But is this so? We may translate the original passage thus: "And there fell a word of Iahvah unto me, saying, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, A rod of a wake tree" ( i.e., an almond) "is what I see. And Iahvah said unto me, Thou hast well seen; for wakeful am I over My word, to do it." Doubtless there is here one of those plays on words which are so well known a feature of the prophetic style; but to admit this is by no means tantamount to an admission that the vision derives its force and meaning from the "invisible name" rather than from the visible thing. Surely it is plain that the significance of the vision depends on the fact which the name implies; a fact which would be at once suggested by the sight of the tree. It is the well known characteristic of the almond tree that it wakes, as it were, from the long sleep of winter before all other trees, and displays its beautiful garland of blossom, while its companions remain leafless and apparently lifeless. This quality of early wakefulness is expressed by the Hebrew name of the almond tree; for shaqued means waking or wakeful. If this tree, in virtue of its remarkable peculiarity, was a proverb of watching and waking, the sight of it, or of a branch of it, in a prophetic vision would be sufficient to suggest that idea, independently of the name. The allusion to the name, therefore, is only a literary device for expressing with inimitable force and neatness the significance of the visible symbol of the "rod of the almond tree," as it was intuitively apprehended by the prophet in his vision. Another and more radical ground is discovered in the substance of the Divine communication. It is said that the anticipatory statement of the contents and purpose of the subsequent prophesyings of the seer ( Jeremiah 1:10 ), the announcement beforehand of his fortunes ( Jeremiah 1:8 , Jeremiah 1:18 , Jeremiah 1:19 ); and the warning addressed to the prophet personally ( Jeremiah 1:17 ), are only conceivable as results of a process of abstraction from real experience, as prophecies conformed to the event ( ex eventu ). "The call of the prophet," says the writer whose arguments we are examining," was the moment when, battling down the doubts and scruples of the natural man ( Jeremiah 1:7-8 ), and full of holy courage, he took the resolution ( Jeremiah 1:17 ) to proclaim God’s word. Certainly he was animated by the hope of Divine assistance ( Jeremiah 1:18 ), the promise of which he heard inwardly in the heart. More than this cannot be affirmed. But in this chapter ( Jeremiah 1:17-18 ), the measure and direction of the Divine help are already clear to the writer; he is aware that opposition awaits him ( Jeremiah 1:19 ); he knows the content of his prophecies ( Jeremiah 1:10 ). Such knowledge was only possible for him in the middle or at the end of his career; and therefore the composition of this opening chapter must be referred to such a later period. As, however, the final catastrophe, after which his language would have taken a wholly different complexion, is still hidden from him here; and as the only edition of his prophecies prepared by himself, that we know of, belongs to the fourth year of Jehoiakim; { Jeremiah 36:1-2 } the section is best referred to that very time, when the posture of affairs promised well for the fulfilment of the threatenings of many years (cf. Jeremiah 25:9 with Jeremiah 1:15 , Jeremiah 1:10 ; Jeremiah 25:13 with Jeremiah 1:12-17 ; Jeremiah 25:6 with Jeremiah 1:16 . And Jeremiah 1:18 is virtually repeated, Jeremiah 15:20 , which belongs to the same period)." The first part of this is an obvious inference from the narrative itself. The prophet’s own statement makes it abundantly clear that his conviction of a call was accompanied by doubts and fears, which were only silenced by that faith which moves mountains. That lofty confidence in the purpose and strength of the Unseen, which has enabled weak and trembling humanity to endure martyrdom, might well be sufficient to nerve a young man to undertake the task of preaching unpopular truths, even at the risk of frequent persecution and occasional peril. But surely we need not suppose that, when Jeremiah started on his prophetic career, he was as one who takes a leap in the dark. Surely it is not necessary to suppose him profoundly ignorant of the subject matter of prophecy in general, of the kind of success he might look for, of his own shrinking timidity and desponding temperament, of "the measure and direction of the Divine help." Had the son of Hilkiah been the first of the prophets of Israel instead of one of the latest; had there been no prophets before him; we might recognise some force in this criticism. As the facts lie, however, we can hardly avoid an obvious answer. With the experience of many notable predecessors before his eyes; with the message of a Hosea, an Amos, a Micah, an Isaiah, graven upon his heart; with his minute knowledge of their history, their struggles and successes, the fierce antagonisms they roused, the cruel persecutions they were called upon to face in the discharge of their Divine commission; with his profound sense that nothing but the good help of their God had enabled them to endure the strain of a lifelong battle; it is not in the least wonderful that Jeremiah should have foreseen the like experience for himself. The wonder would have been, if, with such speaking examples before him, he had not anticipated "the measure and direction of the Divine help"; if he had been ignorant "that opposition awaited him"; if he had not already possessed a general knowledge of the "contents" of his own as of all prophecies. For there is a substantial unity underlying all the manifold outpourings of the prophetic spirit. Indeed, it would seem that it is to the diversity of personal gifts, to differences of training and temperament, to the rich variety of character and circumstance, rather than to any essential contrasts in the substance and purport of prophecy itself, that the absence of monotony, the impress of individuality and originality is due, which characterises the Utterances of the principal prophets. Apart from the unsatisfactory nature of the reasons alleged, it is very probable that this opening chapter was penned by Jeremiah as an introduction to the first collection of his prophecies, which dates from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, that is, circ. B.C. 606. In that case, it must not be forgotten that the prophet is relating events which, as he tells us himself, { Jeremiah 25:3 } had taken place three and twenty years ago; and as his description is probably drawn from memory, something may be allowed for unconscious transformation of facts in the light of after experience. Still, the peculiar events that attended so marked a crisis in his life as his first consciousness of a Divine call must, in any case, have constituted, cannot but have left a deep and abiding impress upon the prophet’s memory; and there really seems to be no good reason for refusing to believe that that initial experience took the form of a twofold vision seen under conditions of trance or ecstasy. At the same time, bearing in mind the Oriental passion for metaphor and imagery, we are not perhaps debarred from seeing in the whole chapter a figurative description, or rather an attempt to describe through the medium of figurative language, that which must always ultimately transcend description-the communion of the Divine with the human spirit. Real, most real of real facts, as that communion was and is, it can never be directly communicated in words; it can only be hinted and suggested through the medium of symbolic and metaphorical phraseology. Language itself, being more than half material, breaks down in the attempt to express things wholly spiritual. I shall not stop to discuss the importance of the general superscription or heading of the book, which is given in the first three years. But before passing on, I will ask you to notice that, whereas the Hebrew text opens with the phrase " Dibre Yirmeyahu " "The words of Jeremiah," the oldest translation we have, viz., the Septuagint, reads: "The word of God which came to Jeremiah" toneto ejpian . It is possible, therefore, that the old Greek translator had a Hebrew text different from that which has come down to us, and opening with the same formula which we find at the beginning of the older prophets Hosea, Joel, and Micah. In fact, Amos is the only prophet, besides Jeremiah, whose book begins with the phrase in question; and although it is more appropriate there than here, owing to the continuation "And he said," it looks suspicious even there, when we compare Isaiah 1:1 , and observe how much more suitable the term "vision" would be. It is likely that the LXX has preserved the original reading of Jeremiah, and that some editor of the Hebrew text altered it because of the apparent tautology with the opening of Jeremiah 1:2 : "To whom the word of the Lord came" in the "days of Josiah." Such changes were freely made by the scribes in the days before the settlement of the O.T. canon; changes which may occasion much perplexity to those, if any there be, who hold by the unintelligent and obsolete theory of verbal and even literal inspiration, but none at all to such as recognise a Divine hand in the facts of history, and are content to believe that in holy books, as in holy men, there is a Divine treasure in earthen vessels. The textual difference in question may serve to call our attention to the peculiar way in which the prophets identified their work with the Divine will, and their words with the Divine thoughts; so that the words of an Amos or a Jeremiah were in all good faith held and believed to be self-attesting utterances of the Unseen God. The conviction which wrought in them was, in fact, identical with that which in after times moved St. Paul to affirm the high calling and inalienable dignity of the Christian ministry in those impressive words, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." Jeremiah 1:5-10 , which relate how the prophet became aware that he was in future to receive revelations from above, constitute in themselves an important revelation. Under Divine influence he becomes aware of a special mission. "Ere I began to form" (mould, fashion, as the potter moulds the clay) "thee in the belly, I knew thee; and ere thou begannest to come forth from the womb, I had dedicated thee," not ‘regarded’ thee as Isaiah 8:13 ; nor perhaps "declared thee holy," as Ges.; but "hallowed thee," i.e., dedicated thee to God ( Jdg 17:3 ; 1 Kings 9:3 ; especially Leviticus 27:14 ; of money and houses. The pi of "consecrating" priests, Exodus 28:41 ; altar, Exodus 29:36 , temple, mountain, etc.) ; perhaps also, "consecrated" thee for the discharge of a sacred office. Even soldiers are called "consecrated," { Isaiah 13:3 } as ministers of the Lord of Hosts, and probably as having been formally devoted to His service at the outset of a campaign by special solemnities of lustration and sacrifice; while guests bidden to a sacrificial feast had to undergo a preliminary form of "consecration," { Zephaniah 1:7 } to fit them for communion with Deity. With the certainty of his own Divine calling, it became clear to the prophet that the choice was not an arbitrary caprice; it was the execution of a Divine purpose, conceived long, long before its realisation in time and space. The God whose foreknowledge and will direct the whole course of human history-whose control of events and direction of human energies is most signally evident in precisely those instances where men and nations are most regardless of Him, and imagine the vain thought that they are independent of Him { Isaiah 22:11 ; Isaiah 37:26 } -this sovereign Being, in the development of whose eternal purposes he himself, and every son of man was necessarily a factor, had from the first "known him,"-known the individual character and capacities which would constitute his fitness for the special work of his life; -and "sanctified" him; devoted and consecrated him to the doing of it when the time of his earthly manifestation should arrive. Like others who have played a notable part in the affairs of men, Jeremiah saw with clearest vision that he was himself the embodiment in flesh and blood of a Divine idea; he knew himself to be a deliberately planned and chosen instrument of the Divine activity. It was this seeing himself as God saw him which constituted his difference from his fellows, who only knew their individual appetites, pleasures, and interests, and were blinded, by their absorption in these, to the perception of any higher reality. It was the coming to this knowledge of "himself," of the meaning and purpose of HIS individual unity of powers and aspirations in the great universe of being, of his true relation to God and to man, which constituted the first revelation to Jeremiah, and which was the secret of his personal greatness. This knowledge, however, might have come to him in vain. Moments of illumination are not always accompanied by noble resolves and corresponding actions. It does not follow that, because a man sees his calling, he will at once renounce all, and pursue it. Jeremiah would not have been human, had he not hesitated a while, when, after the inward light, came the voice, "A spokesman," or Divine interpreter, "to the nations appoint I thee." To have passing flashes of spiritual insight and heavenly inspiration is one thing; to undertake now, in the actual present, the course of conduct which they unquestionably indicate and involve, is quite another. And so, when the hour of spiritual illumination has passed, the darkness may and often does become deeper than before. "And I said, Alas! O Lord Iahvah, behold I know not how to sp