Jeremiah 4:27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. This Divine resolve regarding the reserved remnant of the people of Judah and Jerusalem, who should be excepted from the desolation that was coming, is declared several times. Here in the text, then again in Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 30:11, and once again in Jeremiah 46:28. And these are but the echo of what God said to Israel long ages before in the desert of Sinai, as we read in Leviticus 26:44. And in other parts of Jeremiah's prophecies, and in the writings of all the prophets, this Divine resolve to mercifully reserve from destruction a portion of Israel is more or less plainly declared. Thus, then, God does not conceal that the end he makes will not be a full end. And there were many reasons why this fact should be declared. 1. It would show that God was mindful of his covenant with their fathers; that their "unfaithfulness could not make the faithfulness of God of none effect." The scoff of the unbeliever, the dismay of the true-hearted, would be alike prevented, for, by God's not making a full end, the way was yet plain for the accomplishment of all that he had spoken. 2. Moreover, such declaration would sustain the faith of the faithful. They would see how they were not forgotten, that God's watchful care was over them, and that amid the coming desolations he would find means to deliver those who put their trust in him. 3. And the keeping open of this door of hope was calculated to persuade some to enter through that door and so be saved. This is why, even when a man has sinned away well-nigh all his life, when he has made an end of nearly every opportunity of return to God, we go and stand by his bedside, dying sinner as he is, and tell him that "a full end" is not yet made; even now Christ waits to be gracious, and will in no wise cast out. We toll of this hope in the trust that now, even at the last, the guilty one may turn to Christ and live. But we know that an "end" was indeed made to the national life of Israel. The terrific judgments which came upon them, and which the prophet in this chapter so vividly describes and so bitterly bewails, did make an end to all their national glory. Their land became desolate, their cities were destroyed, the holy and beautiful house of God was burnt with fire, their kings were slain, the throne overturned, the whole people carried into captivity; their cup of national sorrow was full to overflowing. But God did not suffer the agents of his righteous judgment to make a full end. Accordingly, in the days of Cyrus and his successors there came a restoration, although partial, poor, and incomplete, and under Ezra and Nehemiah Jerusalem and the house of the Lord were raised from their ruins and rebuilt. A remnant of the people was saved, the full end was not allowed to come, has never been allowed to come, though Israel's national glory, yea, their very existence as a nation, has long since passed away. But whilst the oft-repeated words of the text refer mainly to Judah and Jerusalem, they really declare a principle of the Divine procedure, a continual law of his government and rule. God's way is, when making an end, not to make a full end. He has ever a reserve of mercy. Now, concerning this principle, we observe I. IT IS IN PERPETUAL OPERATION. 1. It finds illustration, yea, may be said to be ever ruthlessly at work, in the kingdom of nature. Look at the story of oration. Whatever may have been the material condition of our globe prior to the period told of in the sacred record, we cannot conceive of it as having been eternally "without form and void." The researches of science seem to give a very different account from that. But whatever may have been its condition, and we can hardly doubt that it had an order and beauty of its own, an end was made to all that ere the last creation era dawned. But yet not a full end. The material for the new creation was there and it took new form and order according to the creative word. All had become desolate, but out of that God brought forth a new condition of things, which he himself declared to be "very good." And what is this doctrine of evolution, concerning which in these days we hear so much - what is it but a further illustration in the kingdom of nature of the law of the text? "The survival of the fittest" - what does that imply but that there has been an end made of all the unfit and the less fit. But the whole order has not perished; there has been an end, but not a full end, and the fittest have been reserved. 2. And how frequent in the pages of history are the illustrations and examples of this principle of the Divine procedure! The destruction of the world by the Flood, - that was an end, but not a full end, for Noah and his house were saved Earlier still, when God drove out from Eden the parents of our race, - what an end was then made of all that was bright and blessed in their lives! but still not a full end. For, as St. Paul tells us, "the creature was made subject to vanity, in hope." Hope, the hope, of redemption and restoration through the promised Seed of the woman, was God's illustration of this law then. The destruction of the generation of Israel that came up out of Egypt with Moses, and whose carcasses fell in the wilderness; but their children were God's reserve of mercy in their case. And outside the pages of the Bible, thoughtful students of history, who love to trace the hand of God therein, are able to point to many an illustration of this law. Take the story of one man - Alfred the Great: he and the little Saxon band that clave to him were God's reserve of mercy for our land in those dark days, and saved us from coming to a full end, though we had come so near to it. And there are many, many more to which we cannot now allude. And in the history of the Church also how often has this been seen! Take the call of Abraham, for example. The religion of the ancient patriarchs had all but died out, an end had nearly come. But by the Divine call of Abraham it was prevented from being a full end; a new era was introduced when he became "the father of the faithful and the friend of God." And to pass over all intermediate illustrations of this same law, though they be many, and some of them most notable, we may refer to the revival of evangelical religion in the last century. An end had come to well nigh all earnest religion; the land was desolate with more than a material desolation. There was "a famine, not of bread, but of the hearing of the Word of the Lord." But God suffered it not to be a full end. Wesley and his trusty band, Whitefield and those who labored with him, became, under God, the means of a new departure, the introducers of a better order of things, which has continued to this day. And it has been the same in families. Take the prophetic family in the days of Samuel. But for him it would have come to a full end. Take the most illustrious instance of all, - the house and lineage of David. To what nearness to extinction it had come when the Savior, the predicted Stem who should grow out of the root of Jesse, was born at Bethlehem, and that course of events began which have made the name of David, great before, yet infinitely and eternally great now by means of him of whom it was foretold by the angel to his mother, that he should" sit upon the throne of his father David," and of whose kingdom David himself sang that it "should have no end." 3. And what are many of God's providential dealings with men, his afflictive dispensations especially, but further illustrations of this same law? "Ye have heard of the patience of Job." The lives of Joseph, of David, of Elijah, of Daniel, of Paul, and, above all, of our Lord, - what are they but instances in which "it pleased the Lord to bruise them, and to put them to grief?" He saw fit to make an end to much of that which naturally they loved, and for a weary while to cloud over and conceal well-nigh all the brightness of their lives. But in no ease was there a full end made, nor ever will there be. To many of us the Lord God comes and makes an end of what we would so much like to guard and keep - health, wealth, friends, prosperity, our inward joys, our outward gladness; God sends his angel of discipline and bids him make an end - though not a full end - of these things. Yes, it is oftentimes God's way. 4. And what are his spiritual disciplines but the carrying out of the same principle? Do we not read, "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God?" of the prodigal, that "he came to himself," and said, "I will arise and go to my father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned?" of Peter, "he went out and wept bitterly?" Yes, often does he bring down our hearts so that we cry out, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" But he never makes a full end. False hope and trust have to go, but trust that is, real, hope that is of God, come under the law of his reserve of mercy - they are the pared remnant, and whilst an end is made of all the rest, these survive. 5. And what will death itself be but our last experience of this law? Heart and flesh shall fail, the outward man shall perish, there shall be an end made of all that belongs to this world so far as we are concerned, and the place that has known us here shall know us no more forever. But whilst it will be an end, so much so that our bodies shall return, "earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes," still it will not be "a full end." We - the true self - shall still remain; though the body go back to its earth, "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Yes, the law of the text is seen everywhere. It is a principle of the Divine procedure that is in perpetual operation; it was brought to bear upon Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah, and it bears upon nations, Churches, families, individuals, men, whenever God sees that the time has come for its application. But - II. IT IS A PRINCIPLE THAT PROMPTS INQUIRY AS TO ITS REASON AND INTENT. This making an end, even though it be not a full end, has much about it that may well, if not perplex, yet give rise to earnest, thoughtful inquiry on the part of him who observes it. Without question, it is often a severe law, a principle prolific in pain. It was so in the case of those to whom Jeremiah wrote. "The righteous scarcely were saved," but "the ungodly and the sinners," who formed the vast majority, were not saved at all. Yes, though God made not a full end, the end he did make was terrible indeed. Now, we know it is not possible for us so to understand all the ways of God that we may fully rise to - "The height of this high argument, And justify the ways of God to me." But this much we may say: the surgeon's knife that cuts away the poisoned flesh in order to save life is a severe operation, yet one that even he who writhes beneath it will consent to and be thankful for. The burning houses that cannot be saved are allowed to burn on, and men's efforts are all turned towards the saving of those that are yet untouched. If Israel was to be preserved faithful as the keeper of the oracles of God - and, humanly speaking, the welfare of the whole world depended upon her fidelity in this matter - then the cankered portion of her people must be cut off, that the rest, yet in health, might continue so. "Our God is a consuming fire." His judgments will, must, burn on until all that is rotten and unsound has perished from the way. The dread doom of the world to come is described by a word that tells of the action of the surgeon's knife, or of the vine-dresser's pruning implements, which are used to cut away that which is evil or worthless, that that which is healthful may be preserved, strengthened, and developed according to the will of God. Yes, it is dreadful when God comes forth to make an end of wickedness and the wicked; but it would be more dreadful still - the whole history of mankind attests it - if he did not. But it is a work from which he shrinks. "As I live, saith the Lord" -and can we dare, or would we wish, to disbelieve him? - "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live." "Why will ye die, O ye house of Israel?" And we may say more than this. In the repetition of our text, which we have in the tenth verse of the next chapter, we see another purpose designed by these terrible dealings of God with his people. They were getting behind "battlements," trusting in defenses and safeguards which were of no avail; withdrawing their confidence from God, who had never failed them, to place it in those professed protectors who would always fail them, even as they had ever done. Hence one purpose of the stern process through which Judah and Jerusalem bad to pass was the taking away of those "battlements" which were "not the Lord's." Their looking to the rulers of other nations, the gods of other nations, or to such poor material resources as they could themselves supply, was fatal to that reliance on the Lord God, which had been their distinguishing feature in their happiest and most glorious days. But it was essential to the fulfillment of God's purposes in regard to them that this reliance upon God should by any means be restored. Therefore it was necessary that God should make an end of and destroy these "battlements," taking them utterly away. And in pursuance of this same main design, God would set the faithful amongst them free to live a new, a happier, holier, and every way better life. For they were hampered, entangled, ensnared, thwarted, and hindered at every turn by the hideous mass of moral wreckage by which they were surrounded. They could hardly move for it. There must, therefore, be a clearance made if God's people were to enter upon, as he was determined that they should, that new that better life, to which he recommended them, and after which they yearned. "Now all these things happened unto them for an ensample," and we may see in them, we will, the motive and intent of the like dealings of God with men in our day. Thou troubled child of God, afflicted very much, of whose earthly comforts, enjoyments, and possessions God has been pleased to make so large an end, thou seest the reason why. And thou whose soul he has brought very low, taking from thee all thy trust and confidence, so that now he has made "thy very spirit poor," canst thou not understand wherefore he hath so dealt with thee? And our death, which makes an end of all that in this world we have called our own, it too finds its explanation in what was the evident purpose of God's dealing with his ancient people. It was and it is, either for the putting away - if even by a terrible process - of the evil and wrong that are yet in men; or for the destruction of every false confidence, or for the setting the soul free - as his disciplines do, and as at last his messenger, Death, will do - to serve him in newness of life to his honor and glory, and to our own eternal joy. But in what has now been advanced we have only spoken of the reason wherefore God makes an end of so much, why he comes in these often terrible ways. We have yet to ask," Why are we spared? Why is there this reserve of mercy. Why is not a full end made?" And looking at the history of God's ancient people, answers to these questions also may readily be found. To have made a full end would have given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. We remember how Moses pleaded this argument when sore wrath had gone out against Israel, and it seemed as if a full end was to be made. And the promise of God to Abraham would have been set aside, the covenant which he made with their fathers in the days of old. And the language which we find in the Scriptures, the language of intense tenderness and love towards his people, proves that to have made a full end would have broken the heart of God. "How shall I give thee up?" "I have written thee on the palms of my hands." "Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget; yet will not I forget thee." In view of such love, how could there be a full end? And the Lord Jesus Christ has rendered such condemnation needless. For they who are spared when God judges the world, are spared not for any inherent intrinsic excellency in themselves, but they are they who have believed on the Name of God's dear Son. Hence they have the righteousness of faith, the germ, the guarantee, the generator of all righteousness; and they have the indwelling of the Holy Ghost by whom they shall be strengthened to live in newness of life. All the possibilities to secure which God makes an end of so much in those who have not come to faith, they already have, and hence God is able, even as he is willing, to except them from the destruction that comes on all beside. And to mention but one other reason for this reserve of mercy - for God not making a full end; he sees in these spared ones those by whom his "way shall be made known upon earth, and his saving health among all nations." They are to be the instruments of his grace, his channel of untold blessing to all mankind. Therefore doth God care for and guard them, and amid all destruction no evil is suffered to befall them, nor any plague to come nigh their dwelling. III. And now, lastly, we note that this principle of the Divine procedure which we have been considering. Is ONE WHICH WE MUST ALL OF US BE PREPARED TO HAVE APPLIED TO OURSELVES. Yes, God will look down upon us all, as Churches, families, individuals, and will mark What in us and who of us will be found worthy to stand in the great day when he separates the chaff from the wheat. Ah! this is the great question which concerns us. "Where, then, shall I myself be? Shall it be amongst those whom God must put away, or amongst those whom he shall delightedly spare?" What question can compare with this? But the material for its answer may be found by asking - Where are we now? The destroying powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil are abroad; they are slaying their thousands and their tens of thousands. But are they destroying us? Or are we - as God grant it may be - amongst his "reserve of mercy ?" Are we living unto God? Can we look up to our Lord and Savior and appeal to him who knoweth all things, to attest the love and trust towards him that abide in our heart? Oh, if it be so, and the life of prayer, of obedience, of self-surrender, be ours now, then we can, with humble but strong confidence, predict that when the last destroyer comes, even Death, whilst he will be permitted to make an end of much that here we rejoice in, yet he shall by no means make "a full end" of us. No, his coming, which is so terrible to the unbeliever, shall for us be but a setting us free, a delivering us from the bondage of corruption" into the glorious liberty of the children of God," so that our soul shall escape as a bird from out the snare of the fowler, and we henceforth shall "live unto God." "Then shall the day, dear Lord, appear That we shall mount and dwell above, And stand and how amongst them there, And see thy face and sing thy love." An end, a full end, will have been made of all that is corruptible, all that distresses, all that defiles, all that death can in any way touch; but it shall not be a full end of us, rather shall it be the beginning of a life so holy, so blessed, that all the past shall seem to have been no life at all. Look, then, at the two companies which have been brought before us. There are those whom God's judgments are making an end of, and there are those whom those judgments cannot touch - God's reserve of mercy. Look at these latter again; they are clothed in white robes, and they have palms in their hands. For they have come "out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple They hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither doth the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Therefore, O Lord, make us to be numbered with thy saints now and in glory everlasting. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.WEB: For thus says Yahweh, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end. |
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