Jeremiah (1-31) 5:26 Commentary and Bible Study

‘For among my people are found wicked men.’ There is a new class of person mentioned here, the real ringleader in all the problems. It should be shocking to find them among the people called to be holy. ‘They lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men’, and most of my people are fallen into it, God seems to say. But I have especially got my eye upon the ringleaders. They bear the heaviest responsibility, for they have taken upon them the privilege and kudos of leadership, but they do it to serve themselves, not the people. They have an eye on their own gain and their position gives the opportunity to practise their schemes on their fellow men and women. ‘As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.’ The picture is of birds unnaturally crowded together. Where they would normally disperse, they are held in by the cage. In the same way the wicked leaders of the people have gathered together in their hearts an unnatural number of deceits and evil schemes. How do they retain them? By rehearsing them and dwelling on them and going over the details again and again so that they do not fade; by planning how they are going to carry them out without detection; by justifying them to themselves; by anticipating the gain that they will bring to them. All this work of the mind on their deceits concentrates them together and holds them ‘They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked.’ The word ‘overpass’ is translated ‘surpass’ by the NKJV, indicating that, not content with behaving like other wicked men, they go even further than them in their evil deeds. They seem to be straining to out do them. They become rich by their ministries.‘They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.’ It is their calling to uphold justice, to defend those who are not strong enough to defend themselves, and who are likely to be taken advantage of by extortioners around them. These look to the judges for justice, and their appeal has great force, for God himself watches over them. ‘For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: ¹⁸ He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment’ (Deuteronomy 10:17-18). These false judges worry about their own prosperity first and foremost, while others are allowed to suffer. It should be the exact reverse.^‘Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?’ Is it not utterly reasonable that I should judge such flagrant injustice, says the Lord. He again solicits their agreement, and appeals to their sense of right, over and against their own practice. In other words, they are invited to condemn themselves, and this is what we must immediately do if we are to escape the judgment of God.