Jeremiah (1-31) 4:28 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 4:28

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‘For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.’ How can puny human beings avoid the judgment that God has assigned to them? What steps can they possibly take to avoid what he has determined should come upon them? God’s purposes are fixed and sure. He has taken everything into consideration in decreeing what will take place. To make oneself the enemy of God is to invite certain defeat. What he has purposed must come to pass, and although the Lord represents himself as repenting of the evil that he will do in response to human repentance, Judah’s sin was altogether too far gone and only the remnant would now be saved.‘The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowman.’ This is interesting language – ‘They shall go into the thickets.’ What good will that do them? To hide from murderous Chaldean troops, chariots and cavalry, in the thickets? This is absurd. Doesn't it remind you with sadness, when you are witnessing, and people will run into thickets. They will flee into all kinds of little walls of protection around them, protection from the Lord, protection from the challenge of the gospel. They will adopt absurd ideas, rather than turn to the living God. ‘And climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.’ There will be total disruption of Judah’s cities, and they must see this as the judgment of God upon them. Sin has consequences.‘And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee.’ Who are they? The Egyptians, yes, they were among them, and various others with whom the people of Judaea, in the time of Jeremiah, desperately tried to make treaties: that if they were attacked, Egypt would come to their aid; others would come to their aid. What is all this about dressing up? Well with great charm offences they sent ambassadors to these hoped-for allies, to make these alliances. ‘We can pay you well.’ They put themselves across as being a wealthy nation, possessing riches. It will be much in your interests to help us defend ourselves. Egypt took the money and never did a thing, and similarly the others. The ‘lovers’, so to speak, of this woman let her down. Then Jeremiah switches this illustration to the enormously sad last verse: ‘For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail [expecting a child], and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.’ What is this poor lady going to do when the invasion takes place? She will not be able to look after her babe. She will be in such a lamentable condition; she can only spread our hands and weep. And Jeremiah says, that is the nation: running in all directions for cover, and the weakest poor things just desolate and abandoned, because they have wilfully been against God.

Application

The soul winner, like Jeremiah, must identify with the lost. It is probably the hardest duty for Christian people: to really identify with the lost, because we have been enabled to see the wilfulness of sin, and the treachery against God. We are called to try to show men and women the seriousness of this, and we bear the brunt of so much rejection, particularly preachers all round this land at the present time. There is so much hardness against God, and yet we have to identify with the people to whom we preach, and we have to take ourselves in hand, and not let the view we have of unbelief, get into us so much that we push people away from us. You can't pray for them, you can’t desire for them, you cannot be zealous for them, if that gets into you.

I remember a missionary from Italy some years ago, who had worked in Rome and other cities. He related that he invited a very well-known preacher to come and preach, and he would interpret. When the well-known preacher came with his family his great concern was to see the sights. All he wanted to do was to be taken to this place, that place, and the other place. The missionary couldn't believe it; he was horrified. He could understand that he would be interested in some sites that related to the history of the gospel, but he just wanted to see the artworks, everything. That was his consuming passion. He wasn't interested in the work in Italy; he didn’t want to talk about that. We have to take ourselves and hand, and to pray for sympathy and concern and desire. There are God's people there in whose heart he will work, and we have to be ready to represent God with all the feeling we can. People are going to be judged by what they hear. They better have heard it and the promises of God and the cause of the gospel, earnestly expressed. You can't have perseverance and endurance without feelings. Jeremiah is troubled by the judgments he sees, deeply troubled and shocked. He would do anything, if God gave him the smallest part, to deliver the people or even some of them from this. That is how we have to be. If anyone is going to be called into ministry, this is top of your agenda: to give all your life, and all your time, and all your thoughts, and all your concerns, and all your feelings to this work of soul winning. Jeremiah actually hears the cries of the people and lets his mind dwell on it. Be ready even to contemplate what it is like for a lost soul dying.

What is the effect? I cannot hold my peace. This is a test: if I was not in a family of God’s people urging me on, could I let it all slide? I must go home and ask the Lord to grant me strong feelings. Maybe I can’t speak, but I will pitch my energies in as well as I can to help God’s people. The atmosphere in the New Testament is something like being in a constant state of emergency, with a permanent slightly heightened excitement for the work of God. We cannot be cold. The right way is that you would tend to come at people too strongly, and bowl them over, and you have to hold back. How terrible that we can talk as if this was any other subject!

Jeremiah is armed with illustrations and arguments. Feeling never lets us go in unprepared. We need to talk to people, persuade them, listen to gospel services, argument’s, illustrations. Some say gospel preaching must get boring for believers. Of course not! It is the highest part of our witness – not tame, matter of fact explanations of gospel, but heartfelt presentation of the arguments. If you don’t feel concern for souls, your strong feelings will all be directed to the wrong things – appearance, surroundings, offences, vortex of despair, antagonistic thoughts, so that you have no feelings available for the things of God.

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Jeremiah (1-31) 4:28 Commentary and Bible Study