I. MEN DOUBT THIS. Reasons are: 1. Long impunity has made them bold. 2. Such findings of them out as have taken place, in defilement of conscience, hardening of the heart, loss of peace with God, etc., they do not care for. They only care for public exposure and punishment. 3. They see others go on in sin unpunished. 4. The power which we all have to believe what we wish to believe. 5. The direct agency of the devil in fostering such false belief. II. BUT THE DECLARATION OF GOD ON THIS MATTER IS NEVERTHELESS TRUE. 1. The Scriptures affirm it (cf. all those which teach the omniscience and omnipresence of God). 2. Conscience attests it. 3. There is nothing in sin to show wherefore it should not be. 4. The revelation of the future life distinctly provides for it. 5. And even now it is continually being proved true. A man's sin finds him out in many ways - in body, mind, estate, reputation, etc. And in one or more of these sin does ever find a man out, even now. 6. The apparent exceptions are accounted for on the ground of (1) God's long-suffering to the sinful; (2) God's purpose to test and exercise the faith of his own people. III. A DEEP AND ABIDING CONVICTION OF THIS TO BE GREATLY DESIRED. 1. What restraint it would exercise on the will! (cf. "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"). 2. How exceeding sinful it would make sin appear! 3. What force it would lend to all endeavors after the reclamation and reformation of the sinful! IV. AND SUCH CONVICTION MAY BE HAD. It is the sacred and salutary power of prayer thus to make God real to us. In prayer we look to him and we see him looking upon us; we speak to him and he speaks to us; by aid of it we walk with him and he walks with us. He who thus lives in daily fellowship with God can never be without the conviction spoken of. V. BECAUSE SIN IS SURE TO FIND US, LET US AT ONCE SEEK AND FIND CHRIST. - C.
I will send for many fishers;...I will send for many hunters. These refer to the successive invaders of Judea. As to "hunters," see Genesis 10:9. Nimrod, " the mighty hunter," the first founder of an empire on conquest. The Chaldees were famous in hunting, as the Egyptians, the other enemy of Judea, were in fishing.(1) "Fishers" expresses the ease of their victory over the Jews as that of the angler over fishes.(2) "Hunters" indicates the keenness of their pursuit of them into every cave and nook. It is remarkable the same image of "fishers" and "fish" is used in a good sense of the Jews' restoration, implying that just as their enemies were employed by God to take them in hand of destruction, so the same shall be employed for their restoration (Ezekiel 47:9, 10). So, spiritually, those once enemies by nature (fishermen many of them literally) were employed by God to be the heralds of salvation, "catching men" for life (Matthew 4:19).(A. R. Fausset, M. A.) People Israelites, JeremiahPlaces Egypt, JerusalemTopics Concealed, Cover, Evil-doing, Face, Hid, Hidden, Iniquity, Kept, Secret, SinOutline 1. The prophet, under the types of abstaining from marriage, 8. from houses of mourning and feasting, foreshows the utter ruin of the Jews; 10. because they were worse than their fathers. 14. Their return from captivity shall be stranger than their deliverance out of Egypt. 16. God will doubly recompense their idolatry. Dictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 16:17 1020 God, all-knowing Library Some General Uses from this Useful Truth, that Christ is the Truth. Having thus cleared up this truth, we should come to speak of the way of believers making use of him as the truth, in several cases wherein they will stand in need of him as the truth. But ere we come to the particulars, we shall first propose some general uses of this useful point. First. This point of truth serveth to discover unto us, the woful condition of such as are strangers to Christ the truth; and oh, if it were believed! For, 1. They are not yet delivered from that dreadful plague of … John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life The Jews Make all Ready for the War; and Simon, the Son of Gioras, Falls to Plundering. Degrees of Sin Healing the Centurion's Servant. Jeremiah Links Jeremiah 16:17 NIVJeremiah 16:17 NLT Jeremiah 16:17 ESV Jeremiah 16:17 NASB Jeremiah 16:17 KJV Jeremiah 16:17 Bible Apps Jeremiah 16:17 Parallel Jeremiah 16:17 Biblia Paralela Jeremiah 16:17 Chinese Bible Jeremiah 16:17 French Bible Jeremiah 16:17 German Bible Jeremiah 16:17 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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