Jeremiah (1-31) 4:5 Commentary and Bible Study

We come now to the vital feelingful passage. Jeremiah seems to see more fully now in a vision from God just what is going to take place, and he is deeply moved by it. ‘Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land.’ This is about messengers, who are to warn the cities and tell them to blow the trumpet of warning. The enemy that we thought would not come – the Chaldeans, Nebuchadnezzar – they are coming, and Jeremiah sees it very clearly. ‘Cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.’ There were many of them: many cities that had walls in Judah, between forty and fifty walled cities. Get into the walled cities from the countryside. The villages were the typical units of occupation, but now they have all got to get into the cities, and hope they will be safe there, because the marauders are coming through the land.‘Set up the standard.’ They evidently had particular flags that would be flown from mastheads, signalling to where the people would be safe. ‘Retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.’ It is going to come and Jeremiah now sees it unmistakably.‘The lion is come up from his thicket.’ In the British Museum you can see the great winged lions that were placed at the gates of the Assyrian Palace of Nimrud, that was excavated 150 years ago. The lion was also a symbol adopted by the Chaldeans. ‘The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles.’ That means the one who destroys the Gentile nations has now turned his attention to Judah, and ‘he is on his way’. He has gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate, to punish and to destroy, to take the people and to repopulate with Chaldeans. ‘And thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.’ It is about to happen.