Jeremiah 12
Butler3. He appeals to God: “Thou knowest my heart toward Thee.” We are as our hearts are, and our hearts are good or bad, according as they are or are not toward God; and this is that therefore concerning which we should examine ourselves, that we may approve ourselves to God. The cognizance to which he appeals: “Thou knowest me better than I know myself, not by hearsay or report, for Thou hast seen me not with a transient glance, but Thou hast tried my heart.” God’s knowing of us is as clear and exact and certain as if He had made the most strict scrutiny. The God with whom we have to do perfectly knows how our hearts are toward Him. He knows both the guile of the hypocrite and the sincerity of the upright. H.
4. Because they said, He shall not see our last end.** That is, He will not concern Himself about rewarding or punishing us hereafter. The inference which bad men are apt to draw from God’s past forbearance is, that He is totally regardless of the moral conduct of mankind. Hence, promising themselves the same impunity in future which they have hitherto experienced, they are led to a free indulgence of all their vicious inclinations. Accordingly the Psalmist, complaining, as the prophet does here, of the prosperity of the wicked, represents their behavior and their principles in terms exactly similar. (See Ps. 94: 5, 6, 7.) Blayney.
5. The close connection of verse 6 with this verse 5 requires us to interpret this as spoken to the prophet, and as implying that greater toils and conflicts await him, and therefore it is not well for him to faint under these of lesser severity. He has already encountered some persecution; much more and worse is near at hand. H. C.—If the injuries done him by the men of Anathoth made such an impression upon him, what would he do when the princes and chief priests at Jerusalem should set upon him with their power, as they did afterward (chaps. 20: 2; 32: 2). H.
The expressions are proverbial, but clear and forcible. If in a race with footmen he found himself wearied, how could he stand a race with horses? If in a quiet, peaceful land, where he had no reason to fear dangerous animals, he was in terror, how would he do along the thickets of Jordan, where the lions had their lairs? This phrase translated “the swelling of Jordan” occurs elsewhere in this prophet (49: 19; 50: 44); also in Zech. 11: 3). In Jeremiah it is uniformly rendered as here, but in Zechariah, “the pride of Jordan.” In each of these three passages it is thought of as the place where lions had their coverts. Hence, the phrase cannot refer to the rise of the waters of the Jordan, but must refer to the thickets and shrubbery which might be considered the pride and glory of Jordan. The original word means that which is high, excellent, distinguished. The connection of verse 5 with what precedes may seem abrupt. It is rather thought than expressed. The tone of the prophet’s remarks throughout verses 1-4 reveals a mind much exercised with the wickedness of men who were probably thought of by him as his personal enemies and persecutors. The Lord proceeds here somewhat abruptly to apprise him that worse enemies and sterner conflicts await him. H. C.
The prophet of God was weary-hearted. Like Job, like the writer of the thirty-seventh psalm, like John the Baptist, he was sore perplexed at God’s dealings. The wicked prospered, the righteous were cast down. Hence he sadly asks, “Wherefore doth?” etc. (verse 1). Now, God answers such questionings as these in different ways. Sometimes by showing His servant the true state of the ungodly, making him “to understand their end.” Sometimes by revealing to the righteous the vast superiority of their portion over that of the ungodly. Sometimes by gently soothing the ruffled spirit. At other times, as here, by rousing rebuke and sharp remonstrance, bidding him bethink himself, if he broke down under these comparatively small trials, how would he bear up when much more terrible ones had to be endured? If running with “footmen” was too much for him, then how would he “contend” with the swift “horses”? If he could feel secure only in a quiet land, how would he do in a region full of peril like that of the jungle-land, the lair of the lion and other fierce beasts of prey, which stretched along the banks of the Jordan? Greater trials were to come to him than he had as yet known; how would he meet them if he failed in the presence of these lesser ones? C.
God has chosen to let the great and learned sometimes fall, to show us what is in man; and to hold up the timid woman and the feeble child, to show us what is in God. But what preparation have we for trials, losses, fears, pains, bereavements and death? If we can ill bear the daily crosses of life, and are easily affrighted by the sneers or the inconveniences that befall us; if amid these days of easy and honorable Christianity we find it so hard to be Christians, how will it be when we come into the billows of mighty conflict? J. W. A.
Holy habits of living store away reserves of strength which make one secure from the pressure of life’s trials. One whose daily life is careless is always weak. But one who habitually serves God and walks in the paths of uprightness and obedience grows strong in the fountains of His being. Exercise develops all the powers of life. Doing good continually adds to one’s capacity for doing good. Victory in temptation puts new fibre into the victor’s arm. Thus he who forms habits of well-doing is continually piling away in his soul reserves of strength by which he will be ready to meet the sudden shocks of danger or trial or the unexpected demands of duty. J. R. M.
6. The general sentiment of this verse is, that his own brothers of the same father and family were dealing treacherously with him, speaking fair words, but plotting foulest deeds. This would be the severest of all his trials, corresponding to the race with horses or to meeting the lions that spring forth from the thickets on the Jordan. H. C.
7-17. God expressly challenges the national calamities as the result of His own special determination and judgment. He had discarded His people for their malicious behavior toward Him, and they were therefore given up to the outrage and devastation of fierce and merciless invaders (verses 7-13). At last He promises them a restoration in future, and threatens punishment upon their heathen neighbors who had oppressed them; but with this reservation, that such of these as would come over to His established worship, He would receive and incorporate into His Church; but the unbelieving part should be utterly extirpated. Blayney.
14-17. The prophets sometimes, in God’s name, delivered messages both of judgment and mercy to the nations that bordered on the land of Israel; but here is a message to them all in general, who had in their turns been one way or other injurious to God’s people, had either oppressed them or triumphed in their being oppressed. H.
Mercy and judgment. In these verses we have one of the “larger words” which make the whole world’s testament of salvation and life. The threatenings are stern, and will be executed to the letter; but the promises seem to transcend the immediate occasion. A gate of hope and redemption was herein opened to multitudes who at that date were not included in the covenant of Israel. The conditions upon which their possible comprehension within the future Israel is based are moral and spiritual, and therefore truly universal. M.
The tide that has no ebb, but ever flows. Such is the grace of God. The tide has never gone back; it has been but delayed. Wise and holy fatherly love is at the root of all things, and is the key which unlocks, as none else will, all the problems of life. That love held His people down to the sufferings they had to endure until the evil mind departed from them, and so it holds humanity down and individual souls down to what they have to endure until they be changed in the spirit of their minds. But all this while the tide of His gracious purpose is rising, and soon that which hinders shall be taken out of the way. Judah was to go into captivity, but Judah was to be “plucked out” from thence, and that is but a pattern of God’s dealings with us all.
But not only has this tide no ebb, it flows on evermore. Not only was Judah to be restored, but forgiveness and salvation are offered to her “evil neighbors” (verse 14), who had done her harm. God’s purpose in the election of some is not the reprobation of the rest, but the salvation of all. “In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The “evil neighbors” had corrupted Judah (verse 16), and they had persecuted her (verse 14); but now the set time to favor them also had come, and salvation is offered to them (verse 16). Thus the tide of God’s grace flows on evermore, and where it seemed as if it would never come. From all which we may learn: The redemption of the world is the purpose of God. But every nation and people in their own order. The elect are the first-fruits; those nearest to them come next. If any refuse, their national life is lost (verse 17). But the unfaithfulness of man shall not make the faith of God of none effect. Let us take this tide at its flood; it will lead us on to life eternal. It is the “tide in the affairs of men” which calls us to launch forth upon it, that it may bear us to never-ending bliss. C.