Jeremiah (1-31) 6:21 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.’ All sources of comfort will be removed when God acts against the nation. None will be excluded from judgment. What is coming is so all encompassing that there will be no escaping it. The Babylonians will come from the north – that was the direction that those coming from the east via the fertile crescent always approached Israel. ‘A great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth’, raised up by the Lord, who will not fail to put within them the necessary motivation to make them come. They will come from the sides of the earth, or from the extreme parts of the earth. The point seems to be that however far they have to come, God will make sure it happens, for this does not depend on the will of man, but on the will of God who is determined to punish his people. Let not men comfort themselves with the idea that judgment will never come, because it is unlikely to happen. This has nothing to do with what is likely or not; it is about what God has said is going to happen, and his word cannot be broken.‘They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion. ²⁴ We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. ²⁵ Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.’ God has chosen Babylon to be the scourge of Judah, just because they are so lacking in mercy. Judah had exhausted the mercy of God by their long refusal to repent, and so now it was fitting that they should be punished by a nation that was known for its cruelty. They would be a terror to the daughter of Zion, and everything about them was calculated to inspire panic: their voice, their speech, the great horses on which they rode, and their war clothing. They were ready to destroy, and Judah was powerless to prevent it. The effect on the nation was to fill them with such anguish, because all ability to defend themselves was emptied out of them. Their knees trembled and shook so that they could not begin to fight back. They became like a woman about to give birth, who is consumed by her birth pangs. It is, as Gill comments, sudden and sharp pain, an image of what they would suffer at the hands of Babylon. ‘Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.’ The safe places and the pleasant places have been transformed into places of danger, which are to be avoided at the cost of life. No one goes there anymore. The enemy is walking freely through the land, and Judah no longer has control of its own highways. All comfort is removed and fear is on every side. This is all described most realistically, before it comes. That description is to be believed and acted upon, because the reality is certain to follow. Even now, Jeremiah is urging individuals to repent.‘O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.’ Sackcloth was put on in association with repentance. Deep humility was called for, but without any indication that God would hear at this late stage. Nevertheless, it was the right thing to do. To wallow in ashes was to perform an act of extreme self-abasement in recognition of sin. We must come to the Lord in repentance, even when we have little assurance that we are going to be forgiven. The more serious the malady, the stronger the medicine needed. The mourning required of them is compared to the mourning seen in response to the death of an only son. It is inconsolable.