Jeremiah (1-31) 21:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 21:8

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This is what Jeremiah sets before them. ‘And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord.’ This has been a verse possibly a little plucked out of context, but very worthily, for many a gospel sermon – ‘Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.’ Now it has somewhat limited meaning for Judah. It's a matter of literal survival or dying. There is more to it than that, because among the survivors; there would then be the long captivity, and the remnant of their descendants would one day return to Jerusalem and Judah, and the line of the Seed Royal, the Messiah, would be preserved. So it is the way of life in a sense. ‘He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out,’ – surrenders, falls to the Chaldeans, to Nebuchadrezzar – ‘and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.’ The modern translations will say ‘a booty’, or spoil. It is a strange word to use, but if you fall to the Chaldeans, you will be your own spoil of battle; you will keep your life; you will get your reward, as it were: your life. So life and death are put before them. Jeremiah is going to prophesy repeatedly from now on that all those people who go to the enemy and seek mercy, and are taken by the enemy shall go into Babylonia and – he adds, later on – will be able to farm and build homes and live relatively free lives, but they will never be free to return home. He goes on later on in the book to speak of the seventy years captivity, and after that the remnant shall return. But all this message is now given to Zedekiah. ‘I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire’, because it was supposed to be the place of worship and privilege and revelation, and therefore sin in that place was all the more serious than in the towns and the villages round about.What is going on? God is going to judge the city, and the people who most identify with the city. He is not going to judge all the people, and that is important for future application. A church may lose its lampstand, but if people, any people, are truly saved, then by the doctrine of perseverance they will be preserved with the Lord. Here we see this literally in the ‘church’ of old. So it is the city that is going to be judged.

Application

So Jeremiah has seen two great encouragements. Firstly, conviction comes into him as a great consolation, the realisation that all he is saying and all he knows is true. And secondly, opportunities come up, which he never expected have: the opportunity to speak to the king via his messengers. We value these things and we must think of them ourselves. When you are under pressure, when you are repudiated, when people say things against you, in every hard and difficult situation for a Christian, have you ever thought of valuing the degree of conviction and certainty that God has given you with regard to the truth of the gospel? Do you count and remember and value special opportunities that come up to you, even in the midst of all this? They are from God. They are not only for you to serve him, but they are to encourage you; they are to lift you up. They are evidences that he is using you. When Jeremiah got right down and was indeed quite insolent to the Lord, the response that he got – and presumably he repented – was not a verbal message of comfort, but a tremendous opportunity arose to confirm to him that the Lord was with him.

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Jeremiah (1-31) 21:8 Commentary and Bible Study