Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame? Sermons
I. WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF SUCH CHEERLESS THINKING AND SPEAKING? We reply: 1. Temperament has a great deal to do with it. Some are born with a sunny, bright, cheerful disposition; let them go down on their knees and give God thanks for it, for it is a better gift to them, more surely secures their happiness, than thousands of gold and silver. But others are born with a temperament the very reverse-pessimists from their mothers' womb, always seeing the dark side of things, melancholy, foreboding, complaining. It Is a positive disease, and calls for mingled pity and careful discipline. 2. But more often still it is, the continued and sore pressure of sorrow. So was it with Job and here with Jeremiah. And it is still the bitter disappointments, the miserable failures, "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," trouble upon trouble, - these are prolific sources of the sad views of life of which we speak. 3. But most of all, sin - moral evil - is the real cause. The "philosophy of melancholy" finds its true parentage there. It is this which causes that unrest and torment of soul, that hiding of the face of God and uplifting of the scourge of conscience, which throws all life into shadow and blots out the sun from the heavens. It is this which leads it to be said of and felt by a man, that it had been better for him that he had never been born. II. WHAT IS THE TRUTH ON THE MATTER? Such conclusion as that of the pessimist never can be right, for our deepest moral instincts teach us that, if life were more of a curse than a blessing, he who is the God of mercy and righteousness would never have given it; and that if it were better for a man that he had not been born, he would not have been born. Life must be a blessing or it would not be given. 1. Universal instinct says so. See how men cling to life. The law of self-preservation is the first law of nature. 2. The summing up of the hours in which we have enjoyed peace and satisfaction, and of those which have been darkened by pain and distress, would probably in all lives show a vast balance on the side of the former. Let any one honestly make the calculation for themselves. 3. The laws of life all tend to produce happiness; "In keeping of God's commandments there is great reward." 4. Good men who may have held dark views of life have done so "in haste," as Psalm 31:22 and Psalms 116:11; or through looking at one point of their lives only (cf. the joyous praise of ver. 13; what a contrast and contradiction to the verses that follow!); or in ignorance of the truths and consolations which the gospel has introduced. Thus was it with Job and the Old Testament saints generally, and, of course, with all pagan nations. 5. Evil men are not to be credited. They have themselves poisoned life's springs, and whilst they speak truly enough concerning their own life, they are not competent witnesses as to what all life is. 6. Then "it is the Lord that hath made us, and not we ourselves," and because of this all lands are bidden "be joyful in the Lord" (Psalm c.). Now, how could this be if life were not worth living? 7. The future which Christ has prepared. Let that be taken into view and quoestio coedit. Life is but the porch way to that which is life indeed - the eternal life. Our afflictions, therefore, which here we suffer are light, and "but for a moment," and so, "not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed." (1) Then, "Sursum corda," "Lift up your hearts;" "Be joyful in the Lord," because he hath made us. (2) Be reticent of such thoughts and words as these of Jeremiah. How far short he falls of the apostles of our Lord! They rejoiced in tribulations. Jeremiah had better not have so spoken; better have copied him who said, "If I speak thus I shall offend against the generation of thy children." (3) Pray to be kept from temptation so to speak or even think, for such temptation is hard to overcome. - C.
An my familiars watched for my halting. In these verses we have two distinct aspects of human experience. Within this brief section Jeremiah is on the hill top and in the deepest valley of spiritual dejection. How much depends upon circumstances for man's estimate of life! That estimate varies with climate, with incidents of a very trivial nature, and with much that is only superficial and transitory. Life is one thing to the successful man, and another to the man whose life is one continual series of defeats and disappointments. It is well, therefore, that all men should have a touch of failure, and spend a night or two now and then in deepest darkness that cannot be relieved: such experience teaches sympathy, develops the noblest faculties, brings into beneficent, exercise many generous emotions, and in the morning, after a long night's struggle with doubt, there may be tears in the eyes; but those tears denote the end of weakness and the beginning of strength. The year is not one season, but four, and we must pass through all the four before we can know what the year is. So with life: we must be with Jeremiah on the mountaintop, or with him in the deep valley; we must join his song, and fall into the solemn utterance of his sorrow, before we can know what the whole gamut of life is. How impossible it is to realise all the conflicting experiences at once, and to be wise. There is an abundance of information, there is a plentifulness of criticism that is detestable; but wisdom — large, generous wisdom, that understands every man's case, and has an answer to every man's necessity — oh, whither has that angel-mother fled? We need now and again to come into contact with those who know us altogether, and who can speak the word of cheer when we are cheerless, and the word of chastening when our rapture becomes riotous. Consider the vanity of life, and by its vanity understand its brevity, its uncertainty, its fickleness. We have no gift of time, we have no assurance of continuance; we have a thousand yesterdays, we have not one tomorrow. Then how things disappoint us that were going to make us glad! The flowers have been blighted, or the insects have fallen upon them, or the cold wind has chilled them, and they have never come to full fruition or bloom or beauty; and the child that was going to comfort us in our old age died first, as if frightened by some ghost invisible to us. Then the collisions of life, its continual competitions and rivalries and jealousies; its mutual criticisms, its backbitings and slanderings; its censures, deserved and undeserved: who can stand the rush and tumult of this life? Who has not sometimes longed to lay it down and begin some better, sunnier state of existence? And the sufferings of life, who shall number them? — not the great sufferings that are published, not the great woes that draw the attention even of the whole household to us in tender regard; but sufferings we never mention, spiritual sufferings, yea, even physical sufferings; sufferings that we dare not mention, sufferings that would be laughed at by unsympathetic contempt — but still sufferings. Add all these elements and possibilities together, and then say who has not sometimes been almost anxious to "shuffle off this mortal coil," and pass into the liberty of rest. Jesus Christ understands us all. We can all tell Jesus, as the disciples did, what has happened. He can listen to each of us as if His interest were entranced and enthralled. He knows every quiver of the life, every throb of the heart, every palpitation of fear, and every shout of joy. Withhold nothing from Him. You can tell Him all, and when you have ended you will find that you may begin life again. In your hope is His answer.(J. Parker, D. D.) (J. Parker, D. D.) But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one. (as a mighty terrible one): — As a strong giant, and mine only Champion on whom I lean. Here the spirit begins to get the better of the flesh, could Jeremiah but hold his own. But as the ferryman plies the oar, and eyes the shore homeward where he would be, yet there comes a gust of wind that carrieth him back again; so it fared with our prophet (vers. 14, 15).(John Trapp.) Cursed be the day wherein I was born. Job and Jeremiah were alike in wishing they had never been born. They were both men of sorrow.I. A PREFERENCE ALIKE IRRELIGIOUS AND IRRATIONAL. 1. Good men should not for a moment think that non-existence is preferable to life and being. These were both good men, children of God; existence was therefore a blessing to be prized, not an evil to be mourned over. Had they been versed in the design and results of Divine dispensations, as Paul, they would have said, "Our light affliction," etc. With such a destiny before them, instead of cursing the day of birth, they would have blessed it as the dawn of an eternal existence, to be hereafter crowned with a glory that fadeth not away. 2. Ungodly men may with some degree of reason prefer non-existence; because in trouble they have no Divine support, in death no good hope, in eternity no expectation but the penalty of sin. II. NON-EXISTENCE IS PREFERABLE TO EXISTENCE UNLESS EXISTENCE POSSESS MORE PLEASURE THAN PAIN. 1. If every ungodly man lived out threescore years and ten, and the whole was spent in pleasure, yet, as that period is but momentary as compared with his eternal existence, and as that existence is to be one of pain, he might curse the day of his birth. 2. Existence, eternal existence, is a blessing to all unfallen ones, and also to such fallen ones as are redeemed by the death of Christ. 3. But perpetuity of existence can be no blessing to "the angels who kept not their first estate," nor to those of the human race who by impenitence and unbelief reject the great salvation and bring upon themselves the double condemnation of the law and the Gospel. III. HELL AND HEAVEN ARE TWO GREAT TEACHERS. 1. Hell teaches — the folly of wickedness, the full enormity of sin in the penalty it has entailed, and leads all its victims amid the consequences of their depravity to curse the day they were born. 2. Heaven teaches — the wisdom of holiness, the full benefits of redemption in the felicity it has secured, and leads all the ransomed to bless the day of their birth as the morn of their noontide of glory. IV. GOD IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD HAVE OCCASION FOR PREFERRING NON-EXISTENCE. 1. He has devised and carried out a costly plan by which the existence of fallen ones might be made an eternal blessing. 2. Every man who now wishes for a glorious existence has only to look to Jesus and be saved. (D. Pledge.). People Benjamin, Immer, Jeremiah, Magormissabib, PashurPlaces Babylon, Benjamin Gate, TophethTopics Body, Consumed, Forth, Labor, Labour, Mother's, Pain, Shame, Sorrow, Spend, Spent, Toil, Trouble, Wasted, Wherefore, Womb, YeaOutline 1. Pashur, smiting Jeremiah, receives a new name, and a fearful doom.7. Jeremiah complains of contempt; 10. of treachery; 14. and of his birth. Dictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 20:18 5952 sorrow 5067 suicide Library The Revelation to which the Scripture of the Old Testament Owes Its Existence. "O Lord, . . . Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed."--Jer. xx. 7. The understanding of the Holy Spirit's work in Scripture requires us to distinguish the preparation, and the formation that was the outcome of the preparation. We will discuss these two separately. The Holy Spirit prepared for Scripture by the operations which from Paradise to Patmos supernaturally apprehended the sinful life of this world, and thus raised up believing men who formed the developing Church. This will seem very … Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit The Revelation of the Old Testament in Writing. One Thing is Needful; The Baptist's Inquiry and Jesus' Discourse Suggested Thereby. The Hindrances to Mourning Jeremiah, a Lesson for the Disappointed. Meditations for the Morning. The Ninth Commandment Jeremiah Links Jeremiah 20:18 NIVJeremiah 20:18 NLT Jeremiah 20:18 ESV Jeremiah 20:18 NASB Jeremiah 20:18 KJV Jeremiah 20:18 Bible Apps Jeremiah 20:18 Parallel Jeremiah 20:18 Biblia Paralela Jeremiah 20:18 Chinese Bible Jeremiah 20:18 French Bible Jeremiah 20:18 German Bible Jeremiah 20:18 Commentaries Bible Hub |