Jeremiah 16:19-21 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth… I. THE CONFESSION WHICH THE GENTILE NATIONS ARE HERE PROPHETICALLY DESCRIBED TO MAKE. "Surely our fathers have inherited lies," etc. Need I say, that the produce of "lies" must be "vanity and things wherein there is no profit"? It may be granted, that if we only esteem things by the partial and short-sighted standard of this present world, falsehood may sometimes bring its gain; there are pleasures of falsehood and gains of falsehood. But then the pleasures of sin are but for a moment; the day is shortly coming, when falsehood shall be found as a rope of sand, as a quicksand on which any structure may have been based; and therefore if it be true that the heritage of the heathen is a heritage of "lies," it follow that it is a heritage of vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. II. THE PURPOSES OF GOD RESPECTING THESE IDOLATERS. You have here the repetition of God's purpose. He is not satisfied with stating once, "I will cause them to know," but He adds a second time, "I will cause them to know My hand and My might; and they shall know that I am the Lord." There is a distinctness and a certainty upon this matter which is most refreshing to a humane and considerate mind. The intimation of this design is here presented to us as the distinct purpose of God. "Therefore" — since man admits that he has inherited lies, since he sees that he is destitute of any resources in himself, and since the allotment which father has given to son during many an elapsing century, since all the property that could descend from sire to son as ages rolled away was only "falsehood, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit" — since all that this accumulated mass of human skill and industry bestowed, was based on falsehood — now that the confession is made, — "I will cause this people to know My hand and My might." And how was the hand of God to be known? Was it to be the hand of power, crushing to perdition the sinner whose heart was disaffected and his intellect degraded? No; He was to stretch out His hand to heal and to save. There is no power so great, and no power so beautiful in nature, as this hand of God, when it is stretched out to heal. There are needful accompaniments of this wonderful accomplishment of Divine mercy and love to man. There are the ministers of His Gospel. By the instrumentality of these human communications, does the Spirit of God act; and when therefore God says, "And they shall know that I am Jehovah," it is meant that to these nations shall be sent the records of the Scriptures; that to them shall go the heralds of peace; that among them shall the voice of mercy be heard; that amidst their thronged population shall the accents of salvation come forth, from lips which He has touched with a coal from the altar, and made to be the bearers of kind sayings to their poor suffering and degraded sinners. This is God's declaration. III. THE GENEROUS CONSOLATION WHICH THE MIND OF THE PROPHET DERIVES FROM THIS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S GRACIOUS DESIGN IN FAVOUR OF THESE GENTILES. "O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction." When beat down by sorrow, when prostrate in calamity, when standing amidst the decay of national comforts, and amidst the manifestation of God's righteous judgments, he turned for rest to God; God was his strength, God was his fortress God opened to him an asylum whither the wicked could not follow him, whither Satan could not follow him. (G. T. Noel, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. |
    |