Jeremiah (1-31) 11:6 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 11:6

Comments

‘Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.’ Here is the very clear direction to Jeremiah, to exercise a public ministry, a very widespread public ministry. Before God acts in judgment, the people are to be quite clear about the nature of their sin. It is the words of God’s covenant with Israel that are to be rehearsed before them, the covenant which they have broken, so that when judgment comes, they will know why. ‘For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.’ They were called to obedience, and they responded to the call. The blessings on the physical seed were conditional on their continued obedience. They must obey outwardly, even though, without regenerate hearts, they were unable to obey inwardly. They must worship the Lord to the extent that they were able to do so; they must certainly not worship the gods of the nations around them, but keep themselves separate. It was this that they had promised to do at the start (Exodus 24:7), and it was this that they had been constantly reminded to do by the prophets. God represents himself as ‘rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.’ Rising early is figure for approaching any task with zeal and energy. The prophets had carried out their work with great earnestness. But the result was a complete failure on Israel’s part to obey. ‘Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart.’ What was required of them for God to continue to bless them was not perfect obedience – as unregenerate men and women, that was impossible – but a reasonable level of obedience, an outward conformity to his law. However, they failed even to produce this reasonable level of obedience which was within their power, and this is what finally led to the fall of Jerusalem and exile in Babylon. To say that Israel, as a nation, was required to reach an outward level of obedience, is not to say that they could be justified by doing so. As individuals, they must exercise faith as Abraham did. But the terms of blessing on the nation were an outward conformity to the law, and they failed to do even this.

Application

Believers bring up their children to obey their parents. This is very helpful to the children, but it is not conversion. The parents know that their children still have fallen hearts, and until they exercise repentance and faith in Christ they remain unjustified before God. This does not stop the parents commending their children at times for their good behaviour, even though they know that they have not yet entered the kingdom of heaven. It will be a safeguard to the children which will hold them back from extremes of sin until God may call them to himself in due time through the parents’ instruction and prayer. But those who throw off all authority over them are in great danger.

The preacher is called, not to small group ministry, not to doing things on a small scale, but to proclaiming on a wide scale and reaching as many as he can. It is perfectly true that it is a very noble thing for people to get a band of people together at home, and witness to them. But when we are thinking of making known the gospel, and reaching out to a community we are going to do it on the biggest scale we possibly can. Getting in children into Sunday school: we are going to have as many classes as we have got capable teachers to teach them. All the time we are thinking we must be reaching people. This is what we learn from Jeremiah. The command of God to him, and he obeyed it, was to minister as widely as possible, and to do as much as he possibly could. And he was warned too that it was a twofold ministry. It was not only a ministry for souls, but it was a ministry of warning, and so is ours. It is not just that God is gathering out his elect, and we are willing to plead with and expostulate with and remonstrate with lost souls, but it is more. The very judgment of God will employ our ministry. We are warning people also, and it is the warning word which comes in this passage. We are warning people on the widest scale we possibly can. That is a principle. Are we doing as much as we can? Are we gathering in as many as we can?

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Jeremiah (1-31) 11:6 Commentary and Bible Study