Jeremiah (1-31) 8:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 8:10

Comments

These words are addressed particularly to the leaders and teachers of the people, the prophets and the priests. There is an additional guilt attached to them, because they have failed to deliver God’s message to the people, or to set an example to them. Instead, they have seen their position as an opportunity to enrich themselves, and they have forgotten the great responsibility that rests upon them as the servants of God’s people. Therefore God will bring an especially painful judgment on them. Their fields which they have inherited from their fathers will be taken from them and become the inheritance of others. God had given them the land to pass on to their children for generations to come, but now this chain of inheritance will be disrupted by their enemies. Even their wives, linked by that sacred bond, would be taken from them and given to others. What could be more terrible?‘For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.’ This is the reason. How seriously God takes the commission which he gives to the leaders of his people! They are appointed to instruct, to protect, to nurture and feed the flock. What an aberration if they forget all of this, and just go and feed themselves! Yes, they said something to the people, but it was worthless. It was a message of flattery, of false peace. It lacked any authority or truth. It told the people the opposite of what God wanted to say to them. God had some hard things to say to them, but it was too much trouble for the priests to deliver that message. It would rebound on them if they did so, and the people would not like to hear such things, and they would lose their popularity. The people were hurt; they were wounded by sin. The only remedy was to expose the wound, and clean it, and pour in healing ointment, not to cover it over and pretend it was not serious, or to treat it in a superficial way with a sticking plaster of platitudes. Peace with God is what the gospel gives us, but first there has to be genuine repentance. There is nothing more cruel that to promise peace, when God has not promised peace. He promises peace on his own terms and only on those terms. Woe betide the man who waters down this message for the sake of his own convenience.

Application

How many preachers there are who water down the gospel! They are afraid to speak of sin, and if it features in their sermons at all, it is a brief passing reference, which is completely insufficient to expose the real problem. In essence, they are ashamed of God and of his gospel. They fear man more than God. They cannot bring themselves to deal faithfully with a man’s conscience, because they anticipate human discomfort at having the conscience disturbed, and they identify more with their hearers and their sensitivities, than with God. What use is such a message? No one is really healed by it. The wound of sin continues to fester, and the infection continues to spread.

The true minister of God is dealing with matters which are of eternal consequence. How can he add to the message or modify it in any way? Does he have any power or wisdom or authority to tell his fellow human being anything? He is a retailer of God’s message. He cannot add to it or take from it. Any message which he concocts is worthless, because of his ignorance. The faithful minister sticks closely to what God has told him to say, not only because God has commissioned him, but because the only message that can help is one that comes from Almighty God, who alone knows what it takes to heal the wounds of sin.

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Jeremiah (1-31) 8:10 Commentary and Bible Study