JEREMIAH
18
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2003 James Melough
18:1. “The word
which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,”
18:2. “Arise,
and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my
words.”
Jeremiah may have wondered
why it was necessary for him to go to the potter’s house to receive a message
from God, but as the sequel discloses the truth of the message was emphasized
far more dramatically by what happened there than it would have been if
conveyed simply in words. This confirms the need of looking beyond the
literal language of the OT in an effort to find the deeper spiritual truth
being conveyed in its typological language.
18:3. “Then I
went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.”
18:4. “And the
vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made
it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
The potter shaping the lump
of clay is clearly a type of God Himself working with Judah which is portrayed
here under the figure of clay in the hand of the potter. The vessel that
became marred while the potter was shaping it, is a type of Judah become
marred and corrupted through idolatry and countless other sins; but it is to
be remembered that the marred lump of clay represents that generation of Judah
addressed by the prophet, and that was about to be destroyed.
The same lump of clay taken
off the wheel represents that present generation of Judah about to be taken
off the wheel of time and carried away in death. Its removal from the wheel,
and its return to the potter’s hands, represents the end of God’s dealings
with that particular generation; but his putting it back on the wheel portrays
His taking up another generation of Judah, out of which He will yet make
another perfect vessel, that vessel being the repentant believing remnant that
will emerge from the Great Tribulation as the new Israel that will inherit
millennial blessing.
18:5. “Then the
word of the Lord came to me, saying,”
18:6. “O house
of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as
the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”
The prophet was to remind
that generation of Judah that rebellion against God was utter folly, for their
refusal to be obedient and therefore blessed, made them the objects of His
righteous anger, but in no way hindered Him from taking up another generation
that would be obedient, thereby glorifying Him, and making themselves the
heirs of eternal blessing.
18:7. “At what
instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck
up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;”
18:8. “If that
nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of
the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
This is the simple
declaration of the fact that all a nation or an individual has to do to avoid
becoming the object of God’s judgment is to heed His warning, repent, and
forsake the sin that has provoked His anger; but it is to be noted that the
repentance must come within the time that God has allotted. Repentance
delayed beyond that time limit is worthless, as it is written, “My Spirit
shall not always strive with man,” Ge 6:3, and again, “He, that being often
reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without
remedy,” Pr 29:1. Rebellious Judah had crossed over that invisible line, and
had thereby sealed her doom.
Relative to God’s repenting,
the mention of it is an anthropopathism, i.e., the ascription of human
passions or feeling to a thing or being not human, e.g., God. He never has to
repent, for the need of repentance implies a former wrong judgment, something
impossible to the omniscient God. His perfect foreknowledge of all things
renders impossible His ever making a wrong judgment.
18:9. “And at
what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to
build and to plant it;”
18:10. “If it do
evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good,
wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
This is the converse of the
predication discussed above. Even though God may have spoken good concerning
a nation, it has to be always understood that blessing is contingent on
obedience. Disobedience nullifies every Divine promise of blessing.
18:11. “Now
therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold I frame (am preparing) evil
against you, and devise a device (preparing a plan) against you: return ye now
every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”
This has to be understood in
context. It does not mean that that generation of Judah might even at that
late date have saved themselves by repenting. As discussed already it was too
late to save themselves from physical destruction, but those individuals who
would repent would save their souls, and undoubtedly some of them did. An
example of such salvation is that of the convicted murderer awaiting
execution, who repents and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior,
thereby ensuring the salvation of his soul, but not delivering him from having
to die physically, the legal penalty of his crime.
18:12. “And they
said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will
every one do the imagination of his evil heart.”
“And they said ...” is used
here, not as the declaration of something already said, but as the expression
of what God foreknew would be their response. The people would ignore the
warning, mock God’s messenger, and continue to live according to the dictates
of their own evil minds, until the moment when the foretold judgment overtook
them - when escape would be impossible, and repentance worthless because
coming too late.
18:13.
“Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard
such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.”
Not even the heathen were
guilty of dishonoring their imaginary gods. The very thought of doing
anything against the perceived wishes of those gods would have struck terror
into the hearts of their votarists; yet Israel, whom God had espoused to
Himself to be His bride, had no compunction about impudently treating Him with
contempt, and thus exposing Him to the contempt of the heathen.
18:14. “Will a
man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or
shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?”
Judah’s madness is likened
to that of a man who would be so foolish as to depart from the fertile land of
the plains at the foot of Lebanon, the melting snow of which furnished an
unfailing supply of clear cold water for that land.
“... the rock of the field”
is a synonym for Lebanon which is here likened to a rock rising up in the
middle of a field; and the “waters that come from another place,” i.e.,
Lebanon’s waters coming from “another place,” the mountain sides, in sharp
contrast with those from the usual place: the other streams which dried up in
summer when the water was most needed.
The mighty Lebanon mountains
are a figure of the eternal omnipotent God; and their never failing supply of
water, a type of His assured blessings poured out on all who obey His “good,
and acceptable, and perfect” will.
18:15. “Because
my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have
caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths,
in a way not cast up;”
Judah had forgotten God and
all His past goodness, and had turned aside from the path of obedience to give
to idols - mere figments of their evil imaginations - the worship that
belonged to Jehovah alone. Judah’s idolatry was worse than that of the
heathen because Israel was the only nation that had been given the knowledge
of God, and she had deliberately chosen to abandon that knowledge.
It is unclear whether the
“they (who) caused them to stumble” were the idols, their own wicked minds, or
their evil prophets and priests, and the matter isn’t important, though it
seems that the reference is to their own evil prophets and priests. What was
a matter of life or death was that they had forsaken God Who had the power to
bless or destroy them eternally.
“... in a way not cast up”
was a bypath instead of a constructed or well marked highway, the highway
being a type of the way laid down in Scripture; and the bypath, a type of the
way which sinful men prefer to that way of righteousness.
18:16. “To make
their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; everyone that passeth thereby
shall be astonished, and wag his head.”
The people’s disobedience
would cut off God’s blessing so that their land would become a desolate waste
that would cause any who passed through it to be horror-struck, or to express
their derision of the people whose sin had caused Jehovah to send such
destruction.
“... perpetual” as used here
usually means “for ever,” and is therefore hard to understand in view of the
fact that in the Millennium the land is to be exceedingly fruitful. The
meaning therefore may be that the hissing will continue until the end of this
age, the Millennium being as it were the prelude to the eternal state in which
there will be a new heavens and a new earth.
18:17. “I will
scatter them as with an (the) east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the
back and not the face, in the day of their calamity.”
The east wind mentioned here
was the dreaded destructive scorching Sirocco that blew in from the desert,
and it is used here to portray the devastation that would result from the
invasion of the land by the Babylonians. Desolation and death would lie
everywhere in their wake. And as Judah had turned their backs upon God when
He had blessed them, so would He turn His back to them when their continued
rebellion compelled Him to exchange judgment for blessing.
The lesson in this is that
he who fails to repent and avail himself of God’s mercy within God’s allotted
time, dooms himself irrevocably to eternal destruction.
18:18. “Then
said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law
shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from
the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give
heed to any of his words.”
The first part of this verse
is also translated, “Let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah,” “Let us get rid
of Jeremiah,” and the second part, “We shall not fail to get advice about it
from the priests;, or counsel from the sages, or some inspiration from the
prophets,” “The priest will not run short of instruction without him, nor the
sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word,” “We have our own priests and
wise men and prophets,” “There will still be priests to guide us, still wise
men to advise, still prophets to proclaim the word.”
The second sentence is also
translated, “Let us make use of his words for an attack on him,” “Let us hit
him with his own tongue; let us listen carefully to every word he says,” “Let
us smite him with the tongue, making a charge against him to the king, and let
us not pay any attention to his words,” “Let us invent some charges against
him....”
No spiritual mind will have
difficulty seeing in this the foreshadowing of the evil plotting of the Jewish
rulers against the Lord Jesus Christ.
18:19. “Give
heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.”
These are the words of
Jeremiah imploring the Lord to take note of the evil being plotted against him
for no other reason than that he had been faithful in proclaiming God’s truth
to the sinful people, as was the Lord Jesus Christ in a later day.
18:20. “Shall
evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul.
Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy
wrath from them.”
He pleads that their
purposed evil against him might not be permitted since he had never sought
anything for them except good, and he reminds the Lord how he had pleaded on
their behalf that the judgment purposed against them might be withheld. This
surely recalls the Lord’s cry from the cross on behalf of His tormentors and
murderers, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” Lk 23:34.
18:21.
“Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood
by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children,
and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain
by the sword in battle.”
Everything Jeremiah prayed
for was granted in terrible measure when the Babylonians invaded the land; and
when this age of grace is succeeded by the seven year Tribulation era which
will conclude the age of law that has been interrupted by the past two
thousand years of grace, there will be the same awful requittal of rebellion
against God.
18:22. “Let a
cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon
them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.”
18:23. “Yet,
Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their
iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be
overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.”
This continues to portray
the dramatic difference between what was fitting for the age of law, and what
is appropriate to this age of grace, see Mt 5:43-48.
The cry that was soon to
ring out from their houses was that of terror and lamentation as they found
themselves brought face to face with death at the hand of the merciless
Babylonians. What they had planned for God’s servant came upon themselves in
far more terrible measure than they could ever have imagined. And so will it
be with every sinner who dies unrepentant, the cries of terror first uttered
on their departure from earth and arrival in hell, will echo eternally in the
terrible torment of the lake of fire.
[Jeremiah
19]