Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name… I. WHAT WAS THE PRIZE WHICH JEREMIAH DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS HAVING FOUND? It was the Word of God. "Thy words," says he, "were found" — just as a man, on digging in the ground, might find beyond his hopes a treasure there; or as a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls, might find unexpectedly one of greater price than any he was looking for. When men find the Word of God, they find also their duty and calling. They make a grand discovery of the will of God concerning them. II. WHAT USE HE MADE OF THIS DISCOVERY. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them." So then he made the words of God his food — he made a meal of them — not only did he "hear, read, mark, and learn," but he "inwardly digested them." It is dealing with them as the hungry man does with food. It is converting the Word of God into wholesome nourishment. The Word is thus "hid in the heart," as the food we eat is in the body, and becomes, as it were, a part of us — the very life blood of the soul. III. THE HAPPINESS WHICH HE ACQUIRED IN CONSEQUENCE. "Thy Word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart." A noble testimony this to the efficacy of God's Word. How sweetly it went down (Song of Solomon 7:9); how blessed its effects upon the prophet's heart, when "joy and rejoicing" were the consequences! David also "ate" God's words; and what is his account of it! (Psalm 119:103; Psalm 19:10.) Hear what is the voice of the whole Church without exception (Song of Solomon 2:3). Not a single member of Christ's Church but is ready to declare with the prophet that the precious Word of God, when fed upon by faith, is "the joy and the rejoicing of his heart" — his "songs in the house of his pilgrimage." (A. Roberts, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. |
    |