Jeremiah (1-31) 14:1 Commentary and Bible Study

‘The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth’, or famine. It is God’s comment on the famine given through his prophets, reflecting on what it means for the nation, and particularly what they should read into it regarding the attitude to God towards them. Nothing is said about the time of the famine or about other circumstances. It is evident that it is sent upon the nation as a discipline, for Jeremiah’s response to it in verse 7 is to confess their sins. Since it is from the Lord, Judah must think carefully about why God should do this, and even about the details of the hardship involved. The believer is right to interpret the events of life as sent by the Lord, for he has the promise that all things work for his good. Although he cannot understand much, and God moves in a mysterious way, when God sends a discipline into the lives of his people, their consciences will confirm that it is a discipline, and they are not wrong.‘Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.’ Judah is forcibly brought into a state of mourning because they would not mourn voluntarily as they ought to have done. The gates of the cities of Judah languish, that is, they are weak, exhausted, drooping. This seems to be a figure of speech describing those who go in and out of the cities. They have lost all hope because of the severity of the situation. ‘They are black’, may be translated ‘they lament’, or ‘they mourn’, the verb meaning literally to be black, but understood as a sign of mourning. Jerusalem also cries out in its anguish; it cries to God, but will he hear it?^‘And their nobles have sent their little ones [their servants] to the waters’ to fetch water for them. Of course they have not gone themselves, being nobles. But the wells and the pits were without water, and they returned home empty – a further picture of hopelessness. ‘They were ashamed and confounded’ that they were unable to preserve their own lives in the famine and the drought. They were ashamed that they had gone in hope of finding refreshment for them and their families, and returned home with nothing. ‘Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.’ The ploughmen were also ashamed because their labour was in vain. The plough turned over the dry dust, but no crop was ever going to come from this parched ground.‘Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it.’ All this detail would not be given unless Judah was to use it for their own instruction. God intends that they make a comparison between themselves and all these animals brought into such straits. But if it is a discipline on the nation, why do the animals suffer for man’s sake? Because God wills to teach us through what happens to our fellow creatures. For the sake of Adam’s sin, the earth was cursed, and death came into the world, and ‘the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, ²¹ Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now’ (Romans 8:20-22). In his mercy he allows us to see what might happen to us if we do not repent, and lets us grasp in our imagination the calamity that awaits us if we continue in our rebellious path. We can learn this through the animals without actually experiencing it ourselves. The hinds forsake their own young, because they are unable to find sufficient grass to survive. The wild asses stand on the cool hilltops and sniff the wind, hoping to detect moisture, but the dry winds only tell them that they are going to die. Both of these are pictures of hopelessness, which the believer needs to take to heart. These animals represent God’s people. The animals suffer through no fault of their own, but the lesson for unbelieving Judah is that they too will find themselves bereft, because they have departed from God.