mones quos scripserat Baruch ex ore Jeremiae, dicendo,
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS as the word {,}עצורotsur, is taken elsewhere for a captive or one bound, we may indeed draw a different conclusion. However, I will not contend on such a point. I have already explained what I most approve, --- that Jeremiah was prohibited by a secret revelation, as Paul was forbidden to go to Bithynia. (Acts 16:7) It is certainly not probable that he could escape from the king's prison, except it be said, that he was not so confined but that he thought himself free to escape when he saw that it was God's will, or that though Jeremiah would not have departed from prison, he yet privately escaped from the present rage of the king, because he was forced.
However this may have been, we ought to notice the words, that God hid them
Jeremiah no doubt accepted the counsel given to him, to take care of his life; he however now acknowledges that he had been preserved by God's kindness, as though he had said, that though there may be many ways by which we may escape from our present dangers, yet our life is in God's hand, so that he hides and conceals us; for we ourselves would run headlong unto death, were we not covered by the shadow of his hand. But the rest to-morrow.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou dost daily invite us kindly to thyself, and dost also terrify us in order to correct our tardiness and sloth, --- O grant, that we may not obstinately resist thee and thy word, but be so allured by thy condescension and subdued by thy threatenings, that in real fear we may flee to thy mercy, and never hope for any other remedy, except we obtain salvation through being reconciled to thee, and that we may so seek thee in true penitence and by true faith, that thou mayest come to our aid, and be propitious to us through thine only-begotten Son our
Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture One Hundred and forty-Fourth
Jeremiah 36:27-28
27. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
27. Et fuit sermo Jehovae ad Jeremiam postquam combusserat rex librum et sermones quos scripserat Baruch ex ore Jeremiae, dicendo,
28. Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.
28. Conversus accipe tibi volumen aliud, et scribe in ipso cunctos sermones prioris, qui fuerunt in volumine priori, et quod combussit Joiakim rex Jehudah.
By these words the Prophet shews what the ungodly gain by contending against
God; for however hard and refractory, they must necessarily be broken down by
God's power. This happened to King Jehoiakim. We saw in yesterday's Lecture how furious he was when he cut and burned the volume, and also ordered the Prophet to be slain. But it now follows, that another volume was written.
Now God deals in different ways with the rebellious. For at one time he passes by or leaves timre, when he sees that he spends in vain his labor in admonishing them.
He then sends no more his Prophets to reprove or threaten, but silently executes his judgments. And for this reason it is said,
Spirit shall no more contend with man, because he is flesh.'' (Genesis 6:3)