060. VII. Illustrated Sermons
VII ILLUSTRATED SERMONS 1. The Lesson from the Potter (Jeremiah 18)
Jehovah’s influence in human history (Jeremiah 18:1-10). Rejected by rulers and people, I was led, in my time of discouragement, to learn from the potter important lessons concerning the providential rule of the world. As I watched him shaping the pliant clay, remodeling the imperfect vessels until they conformed to his ideal, Jehovah revealed to me the manner in which he is able to mold at his will the nations. At the same time I realized that man may render God’s work imperfect. The fulfilment of all predictions, either of good or of evil, are conditioned upon the conduct of those respecting whom they are made.
Judah’s future hopeless, simply because she will not reform (Jeremiah 18:11-17). Therefore, O Judeans, learn and apply the practical lesson. Jehovah has announced that he will destroy your nation, but the desolation is conditioned on your continued sinning. Change those conditions by repenting, and, in accordance with his eternal purpose, you will yet be delivered. Alas! you are doomed, because you are so set in your evil ways that you make no effort to reform. Heathendom offers no such example of horrible apostasy as do his people. Contrary to all natural analogies, they have abandoned their traditions to adopt gross superstitions. Therefore they give Jehovah no opportunity to show his mercy. Nothing remains but to give them over to that judgment which they have brought upon themselves.
Plots against the prophet (Jeremiah 18:18). Instead of being moved to repentance, the leaders of the people urged them to pay no attention to the unpleasant truths presented by Jeremiah, assuring them that many other priests, wise men, and prophets, would be left to give them religious instruction, if this troublesome prophet were put out of the way. They even took measures to accomplish this end by preferring false charges against him.
Prophet’s prayer for vengeance (Jeremiah 18:19-23). Aroused beyond the point of human endurance by their machinations, Jeremiah prayed in his anger: “Thou seest, Lord, how these men have tried by base treachery to take my life. Thou knowest also how I have repeatedly interceded for them. I do so no more. Visit upon them all the horrors of war. Show no pity.”
2. Symbolic Declarations of Coming Ruin (Jeremiah 13:1-14)
Symbolism of the linen girdle (Jeremiah 13:1-7). At the instigation of Jehovah, I purchased a linen girdle, and wore it for a time about my waist, carefully preserving it from all contact with anything that might soil it. Then the divine command came to bury it beside the river Euphrates, and leave it there for a time. The result can be imagined. When I dug it up again, the girdle, which I had cherished so carefully, was ruined, so that it was worthless.
Application to the Judeans (Jeremiah 13:8-11). This is the explanation of my strange proceeding. The linen girdle represents the people of Israel and Judah whom Jehovah chose and brought into a peculiarly intimate relationship with himself, protecting them from contact with whatever might defile, that they might worthily represent and glorify him. But they stubbornly refused to obey his commands, and paid their homage to other gods. Therefore, as my girdle was ruined by being buried beside the Euphrates, so shall they lose all their strength and beauty as a nation; for Jehovah has determined to cast them aside, and to allow them to languish in captivity beside the same great river.
Symbolism of the filling of the winejars (Jeremiah 13:12-14). Jehovah further directed me to utter in the presence of the people the trite proverb, “Every jar shall be filled with wine.” When they contemptuously retorted, “Of course it will,” I added, giving a deeper meaning to the commonplace, “Jehovah will fill all the inhabtants of the land with the wine of his righteous judgment, so that kings, priests, and prophets shall reel like drunken men. None will he spare.”
3. The Lesson of the Broken Earthen Bottle (19) The complete ruin of the nation (Jeremiah 19:1-15). On another occasion, that I might impress my message upon unwilling hearers, I was divinely impelled to provide myself with an earthen bottle, and to invite certain of the representatives of the people and of the priests to go down with me into the valley of Hinnom, beside the gate of the potsherds, and there to proclaim to them: “O leaders of Judah, Jehovah declares that because of the hideous heathen orgies which you and your fathers have practiced here at Tophet, in this valley of Hinnom, he will bring upon you a judgment far exceeding anything yet known to human experience. This scene of your crimes shall witness your punishment You shall know the extreme horrors by plague and siege. Even as I break this earthen bottle into a thousand fragments, so will Jehovah shatter Jerusalem; every place where heathen rites have been practiced shall become like Tophet here, defiled with all loathsome uncleanness.” Returning, Jeremiah preached the same sermon in the temple court in the presence of the assembled people.
4. Humiliation and Despondency of the Prophet (20)
Imprisonment of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:1-2). When Pashhur, the chief officer of the temple guard, heard Jeremiah uttering these prophecies, he beat him, and put him into stocks in the watch-room of the northern gate of the temple court, leaving him there until morning.
Sentence upon Pashhur and the nation (Jeremiah 20:3-6). The next day, when released by Pashhur, the prophet, as did Amos at an earlier time in similar circumstances, directed against the official a prophecy applicable also to the nation of which he was a prominent representative: “The most appropriate name for you would be ‘Terror on every side,’ for you shall be encircled and overtaken by terrible perils. You shall see your friends die by the swords of the Chaldeans. Those of your nation who survive, together with the treasures of the city, shall be carried off as spoil to Babylon. You, who by your false predictions have misled the people, shall be among that unhappy band of captives who shall die and be buried in the land of your enforced exile.”
Bitter complaint of the prophet (Jeremiah 20:7-18). Thou, O Jehovah, who art irresistible, didst persuade me to assume the duties of a prophet, in the fulfilling of which I am being subjected to ridicule and indignities. I have but one message, and that is, “Judgment and destruction are coming.” No wonder that the people dislike the message and the messenger. And yet if I resolve to say nothing I am still more unhappy, for, whenever I behold their needs and mistakes, it is painful to refrain from declaring the truth which thou hast revealed to me concerning this erring people. Foes attack; perils thicken; trusted friends fail, and seek to betray me; yet. while I am often disheartened, I am never afraid, for thou, the Almighty, art defending me. My persecutors, I know, will ultimately be overtaken by disgrace and calamity; but I sometimes long, O thou Vindicator of the righteous, to see that judgment speedily executed. As I think of my unhappy lot, I also often wish that I had never been born to such a life of sorrow, and I curse the day of my birth.
5. The Lesson Drawn from the Fidelity of the Rechabites (35) An example of obedience (Jeremiah 35:1-11). During the latter days of Jehoiakim’s reign, when the Aramean hordes set loose by Nebuchadrezzar had driven the wandering Rechabites from their haunts east of the Jordan to seek refuge within Jerusalem, I was impelled to conduct them into one of the rooms connected with the temple, and publicly to offer them wine to drink. As I had anticipated, they absolutely refused to partake, saying: “As a tribe we drink no wine, for so our honored ancestor Jonadab commanded us. Inspired by an intense antipathy for the corrupt and idolatrous agricultural civilization which flourished in Canaan, he further enjoined upon us not to build houses, nor till the soil, nor cultivate the vine, but to cherish the simple nomadic life and customs, that we might thus enjoy the blessing of long life. Those injunctions we have faithfully heeded, and we are now here in the city simply that we may escape the horrors of war.”
Judah stands in unfavorable contrast (Jeremiah 35:12-19). Will you not, O Judeans, heed and profit by the example of the Rechabites? In accordance with the command of their forefather, Jonadab, they regulate their entire life, conforming in every detail to the instructions laid down by him. You, however, have been instructed plainly and repeatedly respecting the commands of your God, and yet you have persistently disobeyed his will and paid homage to other deities. Will you not abandon your course of crime and apostasy, and, as penitents, return to him? But no; your faces and your acts do not reveal the least contrition. You give Jehovah no opportunity to avert the painful sentence which he has pronounced against you. When he longs to send blessings, your deeds and attitude compel him to destroy you. Since these barbarian Rechabites have obeyed the commands of their ancestor, their tribe shall continue to flourish long after your disobedient nation has gone down to ruin.