Jeremiah 14:7-9 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your name's sake: for our backslidings are many… I. A MOURNFUL FACT ACKNOWLEDGED. 1. Even in the case of God's own people, sin does not pass away and die after it is committed, no, nor even after it is pardoned. 2. The sins of God's people bear testimony against them, an open and public testimony. (1) They witness against them before God. (2) They witness against them to others. They proclaim them to the whole spiritual world to be vile, guilty creatures, undeserving of any one of the many blessings they are receiving; yea, deserving of nothing but Jehovah's utmost abhorrence and displeasure. (3) And our sins, the prophet intimates, testify against us at times to ourselves also. And this appears to be the leading idea in the prophet's words. 3. Our sins are peculiarly apt to bear this secret testimony against us, when we attempt to draw near to God. A sense of guilt, shame, and self-loathing, takes possession of us, and sometimes well-nigh breaks our hearts. II. A PETITION OFFERED. 1. Its humble boldness. Under other circumstances there would be nothing remarkable in this, but we have here a prayer offered up while sin is accusing and conscience smiting. When our iniquities testify loudly against us, when we feel sin brought home powerfully by the Holy Spirit to our consciences, "There is an end to prayer," we are tempted to say: "with all this guilt and pollution upon us, we must not attempt to go into God's presence." Now one of the hardest lessons we have to learn in Christ's school, is to overcome this tendency in sin to drive us from the Lord. God, as He is revealed to us in the Gospel, is the sinner's God, and what the sinner has to learn in the Gospel is, that as a sinner he may draw near to Him, and find favour with Him, and be accepted by Him, and pardoned, and loved. If your iniquities are testifying against you, do not aim to silence their voice; let no one ever make you believe that God does not hear the witness they bear, and that you need not heed it; but aim at this — to believe all that your sins say against you, and yet in spite of it all to seek God's mercy and trust in it. 2. The lowly submission it manifests. It stands in the original simply, "Do Thou." There can be no doubt but that next to the pardon of her sin, deliverance from her troubles was the blessing the afflicted Church most desired at this time; but she does not ask for it. Her mouth seems suddenly stopped as she is about to ask for it. She feels as though in her situation, with her enormous sins crying out so loudly against her, she must not dare to choose for herself any blessing. All she says is, "Do Thou. Do Thou something for us. Interfere for us. Give us not up. We will bless Thee for anything Thou doest, so that Thou wilt not abandon us." And in a manner like this does every soul pray, that is deeply contrite. It has boldness enough amidst all its guilt to come to God's throne and to keep there, but beyond this it has sometimes no boldness at all. It leaves God to show mercy to it in His own way, and to deal with it after His own will. All it desires is to be treated as His child, and then come what may, it will bless Him for it. III. THE PLEA THE PROPHET URGES IN SUPPORT OF HIS PRAYER. It is the name or glory of God; "O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name's sake." This prayer then, you perceive, is more than a simple prayer for mercy. The publican's prayer in the temple was that. Any really contrite sinner may offer it; he will offer it and offer it often even to his dying hour. But the prayer before us implies a considerable degree of spiritual knowledge, as well as deep contrition. No man will offer it, till he is become well acquainted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; till he has discovered the wisdom and glory, as well as the grace, of it, and imbibed something of its spirit. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee. |
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