Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - Jeremiah 23:23 - 23:32
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jer_23:23-32
And not a God at a distance?
24 If a man conceal himself in a hiding place,
Shall I not see him? saith Jehovah.
Am I not he, who filleth heaven and earth? saith Jehovah.
25 I have heard what the prophets say,
Who prophesy falsely in my name;
“I have dreamed, I have dreamed.”
26 How long still is the fire in the heart of the prophets,
Who prophesy falsehood,—
The prophets of the deceit of their own heart?
27 Who make the endeavor to cause my people
To forget my name by their dreams,
Which they relate one to another,
As their fathers forgot my name through Baal.
28 Let the prophet, to whom a dream came, relate the dream,
Let him to whom my word came, relate my word truly.
What has the straw to do with the grain? saith Jehovah.
29 Is not my word just like the fire? saith Jehovah,
And like the hammer, which breaketh rocks in pieces?
30 Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah,
Who steal my words one from another!
31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah,
Who take their tongue and pronounce oracles.
32 Behold, I am against them, who prophesy false dreams, saith Jehovah,
And relate them and lead my people astray,
By their falsehood and by their boasting.
I had not sent them nor commissioned them,
They can also be of no profit to this people, saith Jehovah.
Jer_23:23-24. Am I a God … saith Jehovah. The audacity of the false prophets, who did not fear to cover themselves with the name of Jehovah, is founded on the delusion that He was not in a condition to perceive their presumption. They regard the Lord as a God, who is only able to behold that which is near, i.e. can overlook only a limited domain. In opposition to this the Lord calls Himself àìäé îøç÷ , i. e. a God who takes note of that which occurs even in the remotest distance, who from His throne in heaven overlooks also the earth, because as filling heaven and earth He is present in both. Comp. Amo_9:2-4; Job_11:8-9; Psa_139:7-12.
Jer_23:25. I have heard … dreamed. This is the main charge, the sin which stands first in view of the omnipresent and omniscient God. Dreams were in themselves an acknowledged and legitimate medium of divine revelation. Comp. Num_12:6; 1Sa_28:6; 1Sa_28:15; Joe_3:1; Dan_7:1. But they occupy a low stage among the forms of divine communication. Comp. Knobel, Proph. d. Hebr., I., S. 174 sqq. Herzog, Real-Enc., XVI., S. 297 ff.; Delitzsch, Psychologie, Kap. IV., § 14.—These false prophets always speak only of their dreams as the media of their divine illumination. Of course ! For the dream is most withdrawn from the control of other men. Nothing is easier than to say, Last night I dreamed this or that. Who can refute it? The prophets thus make an immoderate and in itself suspicious use of dreams. They are dreamers, and it is remarkable that in Deu_13:1; Deu_13:3, ðָáִéà by which there a false prophet is always meant, is regularly distinguished also as äֹìֵí çֲìíֹ , a dreamer of dreams. [“Although it pleased God to reveal Himself sometimes in dreams to His faithful people of old, yet when false prophets arose, who opposed the true, such revelations were rare. We have no instance of them in Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, or other prophets who were opposed by false prophets.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
Jer_23:26-27. How long … through Baal. By how long the Lord makes known that the conduct of these prophets, which is more particularly described in these two verses, is intolerable to Him. Great difficulty is caused by çֲéֵùׁ . The ancient translations coolly omit the äֲ and make it otherwise convenient to themselves. Vulg. and Chald.: usque quo istud est in corde, etc. LXX.: ἕùò ðüôå ἔóôáé ἐí êáñäßᾳ , etc. Syr.: quousque erunt in ore falsorum prophetarum prophetic falsæ?—The interpretations which adhere to the text are three: 1. The question is asked by a double interrogative îָúַé and äֲ , which, however, amounts to this that the latter is quite superfluous. Hitzig appeals indeed to Jer_48:27 and Mic_6:10. But in neither of these places is there a double interrogative. Besides the subject is wanting, and the thought: How long have they still the material for dreams? is certainly strange. 2. ðְáְּéàֵé and ðְáִéàֵé are rendered according to the construction åַéָçֶì ðֹçַ àִéùׁ äָàֲãָîָä , Gen_9:20. Comp. Ewald, § 298 b, Naegelsb. Gr., § 95, g, Anm. Thus Ewald and Meier. But apart from this that both ignore the interrogative He, the construction with éֵùׁ is without a precedent, forced and feeble in sense, for it seems as though the Lord expected an alteration in these prophets, though He had previously represented them as incurably corrupt (comp. Jer_23:11; Jer_23:14), and according to Jer_23:27, expects nothing from them but the endeavor to bring Him into forgetfulness among the people. Is the thought suitable in this connection: “How long do the prophets purpose to be false prophets?” (Meier). 3. The interpretation is most satisfactory which was first offered by Ludwig de Dieu and adopted by Seb. Schmidt, Chr. B. Michaelis, Rosen mueller, Umbreit, Graf and others, according to which òã îúé is to be rendered as an independent sentence (=how long still will this last?) úֲéֵùׁ áְּìֵá to be taken as = have in mind? and úַäùְׁáִéí , Jer_23:27, to be regarded as a resumption of the question interrupted by the words following áìá : have in mind the prophets, who …. think they, to make my people forget? Although this interpretation gives a sense which is tolerably satisfactory, it is opposed by the grammatical difficulty, that úֵí should stand after ääùׁáéí as a recapitulation of the subject, which could not be absent after the interruption and the removal thereby effected of the proper subject. If then this interpretation also is not perfectly satisfactory, it is natural to suppose that the test is faulty. Should we not read äָàֵùׁ instead of ÷ִäֲéֵùׁ Jeremiah had above, Jer_20:9, compared the irresistible impulse to proclaim the word of the Lord, to a fire burning in his heart. Could not he who loves to quote himself, and who knows how to wield the weapon of irony against his opponents, in order to set forth incisively the difference between the true and false prophets, ironically presuppose in the latter what, as he well knew, was possessed only by the true prophets? He, staggering under the burden of persecution, had said (Jer_20:9): “I will not speak any more in His name,” but he was obliged to do so. Those who ought not compelled themselves to prophesy in the name of Jehovah. Did then such a fire burn also in their hearts? And if so, how long will it continue? Every one is summoned by these questions to make the comparison, but every one will also be obliged to confess that the miserable little flame of human egotism is not to be compared with the high and noble flame of divine inspiration, which burned in the prophet’s breast.—The prophets of the deceit, etc. They deceive others, after and because they have deceived themselves. Comp. Jer_14:14; Eze_13:2.—Cause to forget. On the subject-matter comp. Jer_2:32; Jer_3:21; Jer_13:25; Jer_18:15; Jer_50:6.—One to another. Not every one to his colleagues, but every one to his fellow. For they have corrupted the people by their lies. Comp. ver 32; Jer_14:13 sqq.; Jer_23:14 sqq.; Jer_50:6.—Through Baal. Comp. Jer_2:8. It is apparent that these false prophets did not prophesy in the name of an idol, but in the name of Jehovah, hut they proclaimed in His name not His word but the deceit of their own heart.
Jer_23:28-29. Let the prophet … rocks in pieces. The Lord does not object if the prophets relate their own dreams as such. But they are not to mix them with the true word of God, and on the ground of this mingling utter them as a divine revelation. As the dreams are to be related as such, so also the real revelation of God is to be handed down purely, i.e. without addition or subtraction. It is clear that the connection requires this meaning for àîú . Comp. Jer_2:21; Pro_11:18. A mixture of the two elements is just as unsuitable as a mingling of empty straw with grain. The straw cannot be used with the grain, nor the grain with the straw. This comparison, and the following one of the hammer and “who steal,” Jer_23:30, shows that Jeremiah here, i e. from Jer_23:25, has in view not the presentation of the products of human, subjectivity as the products of divine objectivity, but the mingling of the two elements. He censures the former in Jer_23:25-27. As merchants often sell wholly sham goods, or those which are partly sham and partly genuine, as genuine, so do these prophets. Both are certainly ùׁ÷ã .—Is not my word like a fire?etc. A point in the comparison with straw is further developed. The straw is not only false ware, when found (as chopped straw) among the bread-corn, but simply as straw it has no strength, and is useless for defence or offence. So is also the word of the false prophets. In opposition to this, God’s word is like the all-conquering fire (comp. Son_8:6-7), or like the hammer crushing the hardest rock (Heb_4:12; Ecc_12:11). How despicable does the word of the pseudo-prophets appear in these comparisons and what a disgraceful mesalliance do they cause by their mingling! I do not think that the prevalent minatory and punitive import of the genuine prophecies was meant, for the Gospel is the most intensive force (1Co_1:18-24; 1Co_2:4; Rom_1:16).
Jer_23:30-32. Therefore behold … saith Jehovah. These three similarly opening verses recapitulate the main thoughts of the section in reverse order, in such wise also, that a point latent in the foregoing context (Jer_23:31), is now plainly set forth. Jer_23:30 evidently corresponds to Jer_23:28. They steal the genuine words of God, not directly every one from his colleague (Jer_23:27), but every one from his fellow as he pleases, thus in part at first hand from true prophets, in part at second band from false prophets, or wheresoever they can find them. Unmixed falsehood betrays itself too easily and is insipid. But falsehood mingled with truth is powerful, error, and the beauty of truth serves as an ornamental covering to its deformity. The second Behold, etc., Jer_23:31, corresponds to “who prophesy falsely in my name,” Jer_23:25-26. For thereby it is implicitly declared that they proclaimed, their lies in the same form as the true prophets, as oracles of Jehovah. But how cheaply they hold these? All they needed was to set their tongues to work. How dear on the other hand did Jeremiah account the honor of being Jehovah’s true prophet! Comp. Jer_20:7-9.—The third Behold, etc., corresponds to vers 25–27, the import of which it plainly repeats.
2. On Jer_21:8. “It is pure grace on the part of God, when He leaves to man the choice between the good and the evil; not that it is permitted him to choose the evil, but that he may choose freely the good, which he is under obligation to do, Deu_30:19.” Starke. “God lays before us the way of life and the way of death. The way of life is however always contrary to human reason, and that on which it sees merely death and shame. … If thou wilt save thyself thou must leave the false Jerusalem, fallen under the judgment, and seek thy life where there seems to be only death. He who would save his life must lose it, and he who devotes it for the sake of the truth will save it.” Diedrich.
3. On Jer_21:11-14. “To be such a king is to be an abomination to the Lord, and severe judgment will follow. God appoints magistrates for His service and for the use of men; he who only seeks his own enjoyment in office, is lost. Jerusalem, situated on rocks in the midst of a plain, looks secure; but against God neither rocks avail nor aught else. The fire will break out even in them, and consume all around, together with the forest of cedar-houses in the city. The corruption is seated within, and therefore proceeds from within outwards, so that nothing of the former stock can remain. What shall a government do which no longer bears the sword of justice? What shall a church do which is no longer founded on God’s truth as its only power?” Diedrich. Comp. moreover on the whole of Jeremiah 24. the extended moral reflections of Cyrillus Alex. ðåñὶ ôῆò ἐí ðíåýìáôé êáὶ ἀëçè . ðñïóêõíÞóåùò . Lib. I.
4. On Jer_22:1. “Jeremiah is to deliver a sermon at court, in which he reminds the king of his office of magistrate, in which he is to administer justice to every man.” Cramer.
It was no easy task for Jeremiah to go into the lions’ den and deliver such an uncourtly message to him. We are reminded of the prophet Jonah. But Jeremiah did not flee as he did.
5. On Jer_22:1-3. [“But we ought the more carefully to notice this passage, that we may learn to strengthen ourselves against bad examples, lest the impiety of men should overturn our faith; when we see in God’s church things in such disorder, that those who glory in the name of God are become like robbers, we must beware lest we become on this account alienated from true religion. We must, indeed, desert such monsters, but we must take care lest God’s word, through men’s wickedness, should lose its value in our esteem. We ought then to remember the admonition of Christ, to hear the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses’ seat (Mat_23:2).” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
6. On Jer_22:10. [“Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied. And so dismal perhaps the prospect of the times may be, that tears even for a Josiah, even for a Jesus, must be restrained, that they may be reserved for ourselves and our children (Luk_23:28).” Henry.—S. R. A.]
“Nequaquam gentilis plangendus est atque Judæus, qui in ecclesia non fuerunt et simul mortui sunt, de quibus Salvator dicit: dimitte mortuos sepelire mortuos suos (Mat_8:22). Sed eos plange, qui per scelera atque peccata egrediuntur de ecclesia et nolunt ultra reverti ad earn damnatione vitiorum.” Hieron. Epist. 46 ad Rusticam. “Nolite flere mortuum, sed plorate raptorem avarum, pecuniæ sitientem et inexplebilem auri cupidinem. Cur mortuos inutiliter ploramus? Eos ploremus, qui in melius mutari possunt.” Basilius Seleucensis. Comp. Basil, Magn. Homil. 4 de Gratiarum actione post dimid.—Ghislerus.
7. On Jer_22:6-9. “God does not spare even the authorities. For though He has said that they are gods, when they do not rightly administer their office they must die like men (Psa_82:6) … No cedars are too high for God, no splendor too mighty; He can destroy all at once, and overturn, and overturn, and overturn. Eze_21:27,” Cramer.
Another passage from which it is seen how perverse and unjustifiable is the illusion that God’s election is a surety against His anger, and a permit to any wilfulness. The individual representatives of the objects of divine election should never forget that God can march over their carcases, and the ruins of their glory, to the fulfilment of His promise, and that He can rebuild on a higher stage, what He has destroyed on a lower. Comp. remarks on Jer_22:24.
8. On Jer_22:13-19. It is blasphemy to imagine that God will be frère et compagnon to all princes as such, and that He has a predilection for them as of His own kind. Does He not say to his majesty the king of Judah, with whom, in respect of the eminence of his dynasty and throne no other prince of earth could compare, that he should be buried like an ass, dragged and cast out before the gates of Jerusalem? This Jehoiakim was however an aristocrat, a heartless, selfish tyrant, who for his own pleasure trampled divine and human rights under foot. If such things were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
“He who builds his house with other people’s property, collects stones for his grave.” Cramer.
9. On Jer_22:14. [“It was a proof of luxury when men began to indulge in superfluities. In old times the windows were small; for use only was regarded by frugal men; but afterwards a sort of madness possessed the minds of many, so that they sought to be suspended as it were in the air. And hence they began to have wider windows. The thing in itself, as I have said, is not what God condemns; but we must ever remember, that men never go to excesses in external things, except when their hearts are infected with pride, so that they do not regard what is useful, what is becoming, but are carried away by fondness for excess.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
10. On Jer_22:15. “God may grant the great lords a preference in eating and drinking and the splendor of royal courts, but it is not His will that these be regarded as the main things, but that true religion, right and justice must have the precedence;—this is the Lord’s work. But cursed is he who does the Lord’s work remissly. Jer_48:10.” Cramer.
11. On Jer_22:17. “Description of haughty, proud, magnificent, merciless and tyrannical lords and rulers, who are accomplices of thieves.” Cramer.
12. On Jer_22:19. [“God would have burial a proof to distinguish us from brute animals even after death, as we in life excel them, and as our condition is much nobler than that of the brute creation. Burial is also a pledge as it were of immortality; for when man’s body is laid hid in the earth, it is as it were a mirror of a future life. Since then burial is an evidence of God’s grace and favor towards mankind, it is on the other hand a sign of a curse, when burial is denied.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_22:24. “Great lords often imagine that they not only sit in the bosom of God, but that they are a pearl in His crown; or as the prophet says here, God’s signet-ring. Therefore, it is impossible that they should not succeed in their designs. But God looks not on the person of the princes, and knows the magnificent no more than the poor. Job_34:19.” Cramer.
14. On Jer_22:28. [“What is idolized will, first or last, be despised and broken, what is unjustly honored will be justly contemned, and rivals with God will be the scorn of man. Whatever we idolize we shall be disappointed in, and then shall despise.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
“The compliment is a very poor one for a king, who thinks somewhat of himself, and to whom it in a certain measure pertains that he be honored….But here it is the word of the Lord, and in consideration of these words it is declared in 2Ch_36:12, to be evil on the part of Zedekiah, that he did not humble himself before Jeremiah. Teachers must be much on their guard against assuming such purely prophetic, that is, extraordinary acts. It cost the servants of the Lord many a death, who were obliged thus to employ themselves, and when it is easy for one to ape it without a divine calling he thus betrays his frivolity and incompetence, if not his pride and delusion.” Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer_22:28-30. Irenæus (Adv. Hær. 3:30) uses this passage to prove that the Lord could not have been Joseph’s natural son, for otherwise he would have fallen under the curse of this passage, and appear as one not entitled to dominion (“qui eum dicunt ex Joseph generatum et in eo habere spem, abdicatos se faciunt a regno, sub maledictione et increpatione decidentes, quæ erga Jechoniam et in semen ejus est”). Basil the Great (Epist. ad Amphilochium) endeavors to show that this passage, with its declaration that none of Jeconiah’s descendants should sit on David’s throne, is not in contradiction to the prophecy of Jacob (Gen_49:10), that a ruler should not be lacking from Judah, till He came for whom the nations were hoping. Basil distinguishes in this relation between dominion and royal dignity.—The former continued, the latter ceased, and this period of, so to speak, latent royalty, was the bridge to the present, in which Christ rules in an invisible manner, but yet in real power and glory as royal priest, and at the same time represents Himself as the fulfilment of the hope of the nations. In like manner John of Damascus concludes that according to this passage there could be no prospect of the fulfilment of the promise in Gen_49:10, if Mary had not virgineo modo borne the scion of David, who however was not to occupy the visible throne of David. (Orat. II. in Nativ. B. Mariæ p. med.)—Ambrose finally (Comment. in Ev. Luc. L. III. cap. ult.) raises the question how Jeremiah could say, that ex semine Jechoniæ neminem regnaturum esse, since Christ was of the seed of Jeconiah and reigned? He answers: “Illic (Jer_22:30) futuros ex semine Jechoniæ posteros non negatur et ideo de semine ejus est Christus (comp. Mat_1:11), et quod regnavit Christus, non contra prophetiam est, non enim seculari honore regnavit, nee in Jechoniæ sedibus sedit, sed regnavit in sede David.” Ghislerus.
16. On Jer_23:2. “Nonnulli præsmles gregis quosdam pro peccato a communione ceiciunt, ut pæniteant, sed quali sorte vivere debeant ad melius exhortando non visitant. Quibus congrue increpans sermo divinus comminatur: pastores, qui pascunt populum meum, vos dispersistis gregem meum, ejecistis et non visitastis eum.” Isidor. Hisp. de summo bono she LL. sentt. Cap. 46. Ghislerus.
17. On Jer_23:5-6. Eusebius (Dem. Ev. VII. 9) remarks that Christ among all the descendants of David is the only one, who rules over the whole earth, and everywhere not only preaches justice and righteousness by His doctrine but is Himself also the author of the rising [of the Sun] of righteousness for all, according to Psa_72:7 : ἀíáôåëåῖ ἐí ôáῖò ἡìÝñáéò áὐôïῦ äéêáéïóýíç , êáὶ ðëῆèïò åἰñÞíçò ἕùò ïὗ ἀíôáíáéñåèῇ ἡ óåëÞíç (LXX.) Cyril of Alex. (Glaphyr. in Gen. I. p. 133) explains ἸùóåäÝê as justitia Dei, in so far as we are made righteous in Him, not for the sake of the works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His great mercy. Rom_3:24; Tit_3:5.
18. On Jer_23:6. [“If we regard God in Himself, He is indeed righteous, but not our righteousness. If we desire to have God as our righteousness, we must seek Christ; for this cannot be found except in Him. … Paul says that He has been given or made to us righteousness,—for what end? that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (1Co_1:30). Since, then, Christ is made our righteousness, and we are counted the righteousness of God in Him, we hence learn how properly and fitly it has been said that He would be Jehovah, not only that the power of His divinity might defend us, but also that we might become righteous in Him, for He is not only righteous for Himself, but He is our righteousness.” Calvin. See also a long note in Wordsworth, to show that Jehovah our Righteousness refers to Christ;—S. R. A.]
“The character of a true church is when the Lytrum, the ransom-money of Jesus Christ, is known and valued by all, and when they have written this secret, foolish and absolutely inscrutable to reason, in the heart with the finger of the living God: that Jesus by His blood has taken away the sins of the world. ‘O let it ne’er escape my thought, at what a price my soul was bought.’ This is the evening and morning prayer of every church, which is a true sister from above.” Zinzendorf.
19. On Jer_23:5-8. “The return under Ezra was also a fulfilment of this promise, but inferior and preliminary: not all came, and those who did come brought their sins back with them. They were still under the Law and had to wait for Righteousness; still in their return they had a pledge that the Messiah was yet to come and prepare the true city of peace. Now, however, all has been long fulfilled and we can enjoy it perfectly, if we have the mind for it. We have now a country of which no tyrant can rob us; our walk and citizenship is in heaven. We have been delivered from all our suffering, when we sit down at the feet of Jesus to hear His word. Then there is a power of resurrection within us, So that we can fly with our souls beyond the world and laugh at all our foes. For Christ has made us righteous by His daily forgiveness, so that we may also bring ourselves daily into heaven. Yea verily, the kingdom of heaven is come very nigh unto us! Jeremiah then longed to see and hear this more nearly, and now we can have it.” Diedrich.
20. On Jer_23:9. “Great love renders God’s servant so ardent, that he deals powerful blows on the seducers. He does not think that he has struck a wasp’s nest and embittered his life here forever, for he has a higher life and gives the lower one willingly for love. Yet all the world will hold him for an incorrigible and mad enthusiast, who spares no one. He says himself that he is as it were drunk with God and His word, when he on the other hand contemplates the country.” Diedrich.
21. On Jer_23:11. “They are rogues. They know how to find subterfuges, and I would like to see him who accuses a false and unfaithful teacher, and manages his own case so that he does not himself come into the dilemma.” Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer_23:13-14. “In the prophets of Samaria I see folly. This is the character which the Lord gives to error, false religion, heterodoxy. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I find abomination. This is the description of the or thodox, when they apply their doctrine, so that either the wicked are strengthened or no one is converted.” Zinzendorf.
23. On Jer_23:15. “From the prophets of Jerusalem hypocrisy goes forth into all the land. This is the natural consequence of the superiority, which the consistories, academies, ministers, etc., have and in due measure ought to have, that when they become corrupt they communicate their corruption to the whole region, and it is apparent in the whole land what sort of theologians sit at the helm.” Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer_23:16. Listen not to the words of the prophets, they deceive you. Luther says (Altenb. Tom. II. p. 330): “But a Christian has so much power that he may and ought to come forward even among Christians and teach, where he sees that the teacher himself is wanting,” etc.; and “The hearers altogether have the right to judge and decide concerning all doctrine. Therefore the priests and liveried Christians have snatched this office to themselves; because, if this office remained in the church, the aforesaid could retain nothing for their own.” (Altenb. Tom. II. p. 508).—The exercise of this right on the part of members of the church has its difficulties. May not misunderstanding, ignorance, even wickedness cause this to be a heavy and unjust pressure on the ministers of the word, and thus mediately tend to the injury of the church? Certainly. Still it is better for the church to exercise this right than not to do so. The former is a sign of spiritual life, the latter of spiritual death. It will be easier to find a corrective for some extravagances than to save a church become religiously indifferent from the fate of Laodicea (Rev_3:16).
25. On Jer_23:16. [“But here a question may be raised, How can the common people understand that some speak from God’s mouth, and that others propound their own glosses? I answer, That the doctrine of the Law was then sufficient to guide the minds of the people, provided they closed not their eyes; and if the Law was sufficient at that time, God does now most surely give us a clearer light by His prophets, and especially by His Gospel.” Calvin—S. R. A.]
26. On Jer_23:17. “The pastors, who are welcome and gladly seen at a rich man’s table, wish him in fact long life, good health, and all prosperity. What they wish they prophesy. This is not unnatural; but he who is softened by it is ill-advised.” Zinzendorf.
27. On Jer_23:21. [“There is a twofold call; one is internal, the other belongs to order, and may therefore be called external or ecclesiastical. But the external call is never legitimate, except it be preceded by the internal; for it does not belong to us to create prophets, or apostles, or pastors, as this is the special work of the Holy Spirit. … But it often happens that the call of God is sufficient, especially for a time. For when there is no church, there is no remedy for the evil, except God raise up extraordinary teachers.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
28. On Jer_23:22. “If I knew that my teacher was a most abominable miscreant, personally, and in heart the worst enemy of God in his parish; so long as, for any reason, he preaches, expounds, develops, inculcates the word of God; even though he should betray here and there in his expressions, that this word was not dwelling in him; if only he does not ex professo at one time throw down what at another time he teaches of good and true quasi aliud agendo: I assure you before the Lord that I should fear to censure his preaching.” Zinzendorf.
29. On Jer_23:23. “ God’s essential attribute is Omnipresence. For He is higher than heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know? Longer than the earth and broader than the sea (Job_4:8). And He is not far from every one of us (Act_17:27).” Cramer.—“We often think God is quite far from us, when He is yet near to us, has us in His arms, presses us to His heart and kisses us.” Luther.—“ When we think the Sun of righteousness, Jesus, is not risen, and is still behind the mountain, and will not come to us, He is yet nearest to us. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. (Psa_34:19) ”—“Deus et omni et nullo loco “—” Cuncta Deus replens molem se fundit in omnem.” MS. notes to my copy of Cramer’s Bibel.—“ Si vis peccare, O homo, quære tibi locum, ubi Deus non videat.” Augustine.
30. On Jer_23:28. [“When any one rejects the wheat because it is covered with chaff, and who will pity him who says that he has indeed wheat on his floor, but that it is mixed with chaff, and therefore not fit for food? … If we be negligent, and think that it is a sufficient excuse for despising the Word of God, because Satan brings in his fallacies, we shall perish in our sloth like him who neglects to cleanse his wheat that he might turn it to bread.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
He who cannot restrain his mouth or his ink let him expectorate. But let him say openly and honestly that they are his own dreams, which he preaches. The false prophets certainly know that mere falsehood is empty straw. They therefore always mingle some of the genuine word of God amongst it. An unavailing mixture! It is in this mingling that Satan’s highest art is displayed, so that he at the same time furthers his own work and testifies against himself. Comp. Genesis 3
31. On Jer_23:29. God’s word is the highest reality, life and power, while the dreams of the false prophets are pretence, death and weakness. God’s word is therefore compared to a fire which burns, warms, and enlightens, so that it burns up the hardest flint, melts the thickest ice, illuminates the deepest obscurities. It is compared further to a hammer which crushes the hardest rocks into sand.—He who mingles God’s wheat among his straw, will find that the wheat will become fire and burn up the straw (1Co_3:12-15). He Who handles the word of the Lord purely, let him not despair if he sees before him hearts of adamant (Zec_7:12). He who seeks peace is not ashamed to bow beneath the hammer of the word. For the destructive power of the word applies to that in us which is opposed to God, while the God-related elements are loosed and set free by those very crushing blows.—He, however, to whom the peace of God is an object of derision, may feed on the straw of this world. But how will it be when finally the day comes that God will come upon him with fire and hammer? What then remains to him as the result of his straw-diet, which is in a condition to withstand the blows of the hammer and the fire?
Help, Lord, against Thy scornful foes,
Who seek our souls to lead astray;
Whose mockeries at mortal woes
Will end in terrible dismay!
Grant that Thy holy word may root
Deep in our hearts, and richer fruit
May ever bear to endless day.
“God’s word converts, all other doctrine befools.” Luther.
32. On Jer_23:29. “God’s word in general is like a fire: the more it is urged the more widely and brightly it extends. God has caused His word to be proclaimed to the world as a matter, which they can dispense with as little as fire. Fire often smoulders long in secret before it breaks out, thus the power of the divine word operates in its time. God’s word can make people as warm as if glowing coals lay upon them; it shines as brightly upon them, as if a lamp were held under their eyes; it tells every one the truth and purifies from all vices. He who deals evilly with God’s word burns himself by it, he who opposes it is consumed by it. But the word of God is as little to blame as a lamp or a fire when an unskilful person is burned by it. Yet it happens that often it will not be suffered in the world, then there is fire in all the streets. That is the unhappy fire of persecution, which is kindled incidentally in the world by the preaching of the Gospel.” Jos. Conr. Schaller, Pastor at Cautendorf, Sermons on the Gospels, 1742.
33. On Jer_23:30. “Teachers and preachers are not to steal their sermons from other books, but take them from the Bible, and testify that which they speak from their inward experience (Joh_3:11). False teachers steal God’s word, inventing a foreign meaning for it, and using this for the palliation of their errors.” Starke—“Hinc illi æῆëïé at auctions, who can obtain this or that good book, this or that manuscript? Here they are thus declared to be plagiarios; and they are necessarily so because they are not taught of God. But I would rather they would steal from true men of God than from each other.”—Zinzendorf.
34. On Jer_23:33-40. “ When the word of God becomes intolerable to men, then men in their turn become intolerable to our Lord God; yea, they are no more than inutile pondus terræ, which the land can no more bear, therefore they must be winnowed out, Jer_15:17.” Cramer.
35. On Jer_24:5-7. “ He who willingly and readily resigns himself to the will of God even to the cross, may escape misfortune. But he who opposes himself to the hand of God cannot escape.” Cramer.—“The captives are dearest to God. By the first greater affliction He prepares their souls for repentance and radical conversion, so that He has in them again His people and inheritance. O the gracious God, that He allows even those who on account of sin must be so deeply degraded and rendered slaves, even in such humiliation to be His people! The captives are forgiven their opposition to God; they are separated from the number of nations existing in the world, politically they are dead and banished to the interior. Now, God will show them what His love can do; they shall return, and in true nearness to God be His true Israel.” Diedrich.
36. On Jer_24:7. [“Since He affirms that He would give them a heart to understand, we hence learn that men are by nature blind, and also that when they are blinded by the devil they cannot return to the right way, and that they cannot be otherwise capable of light than by having God to illuminate them by His Spirit. … This passage also shows, that we cannot really turn to God until we acknowledge Him to be the Judge; for until the sinner sets himself before God’s tribunal he will never be touched with the feeling of true repentance. … Though God rules the whole world. He yet declares that He is the God of the Church; and the faithful whom He has adopted He favors with this high distinction, that they are His people; and He does this that they may be persuaded that there is safety in Him, according to what is said by Habakkuk, ‘Thou art our God, we shall not die’ (Hab_1:12). And of this sentence Christ Himself is the best interpreter, when He says, that He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Luk_20:38).” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
2. On Jer_22:2-9. In how far the divine election is conditional and unconditional. I. It is conditional with respect to individual elected men, places, things. For 1, these become partakers of the salvation promised by the election only by behaviour well-pleasing to God; 2, if they behave in a manner displeasing to God, the election does not protect them from destruction. II. The election is unconditional with respect to the eternal ideas lying at the foundation of the single appearances, and their absolute realizations.
3. On Jer_22:24. [Payson:—“The punishment of the impenitent inevitable and justifiable. I. To mention some awful instances in which God has verified this declaration: (a), the apostate angels; (b) our first parents; (c) destruction of mankind by the flood; (d) the children of Israel; (e) Moses, David, the disobedient prophet, Christ. II. Some of the reasons for such a declaration. Not a disposition to give pain or desire for revenge. It is the nature and tendency of sin to produce misery.”—S. R. A.]
4. On Jer_23:5-6. The Son of David. What the prophet declares of Him is fourfold: 1. He will Himself be righteous; 2. He will rule well as king and execute judgment and righteousness; 3. He will be our righteousness; 4. Under Him shall Judah be helped and Israel dwell safely.
5. On Jer_23:14. [Lathrop: “The horrible guilt of those who strengthen the hands of the wicked. 1. All sin is horrible in its nature. 2. This is to oppose the government of the Almighty. 3. It directly tends to the misery of mankind. 4. It supports the cause of the Evil Spirit. 5. It is to become partakers of their sins. 6. It is horrible as directly contrary to the command of God, and marked with His peculiar abhorrence.”—S. R. A.]
6. On Jer_23:23-24. The Omnipresence of God. 1. What it means. God is everywhere present, (a). He fills heaven and earth; (b) there is no removal from Him in space; (c) nothing is hidden from Him. 2. There is in this for us (a) a glorious consolation, (b) an earnest admonition. [Charnock, Jortin, and Wesley have sermons on this text, all of very similar outline. The following are Jortin’s practical conclusions; “ This doctrine 1. Should lead us to seek to resemble God’s perfections 2. Should deter us from sin. 3. Should teach us humility. 4. Should encourage us to reliance and contentment, to faith and hope.”—S. R. A.]
7. On Jer_23:29-30. God’s Word and man’s word. 1. The former is life and power (wheat, fire, hammer). The latter pretence and weakness (dream, straw). 2. The two are not to be mixed with each other. [Cecil: This shows 1. The vanity of all human imaginations in religion, (a). What do they afford to man? (b). How much do they hinder? 2. The energy of spiritual truth. Let us entreat God that our estimate may be practical.—S. R. A.]
8. On Jer_24:1-10. The good and bad figs an emblem of humanity well-pleasing and displeasing to God. 1. The prisoners and broken-hearted are, like the good figs, well-pleasing to God. For (a) they know the Lord and turn to Him; (b) He is their God and they are His people. 2. Those who dwell proudly and securely are displeasing to God, like the bad figs. For (a) they live on in foolish blindness; (b) they challenge the judgment of God.
Footnotes:
Jer_23:23 :—On the construction, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 63, 4 e.
Jer_23:27.— ääùׁáéí in apposition to ðáàéí in Jer_23:26.
Jer_23:27.— ìäùׁëéç , Hiphil, here only.
Jer_23:28.— àֱîֶú , Accus. adverb. Comp. Jer_10:10; Naegelsb. Gr., § 70, k.
Jer_23:31.— åַéִðְàֲîå . Of the whole verb, besides this single form, we find only ðְàֻí .
Jer_23:32.— ôַçֲæåּú is ἃðáî ëåã . The meaning (comp. Jdg_9:1; Zep_3:4; Gen_49:4=insolentia, impudent boasting.