Chapter 7: The Swelling of Jordan
Chapter 7: The Swelling of Jordan
(JEREMIAH 12:5)
"So they two went closer down To the River-side,
And stood in the heavy shadows, By the black, wild tide.
"But when the feet of the Lord
Were come to the waters dim,
They rose to stand, on either hand.
And left a path for Him."
EZEKIEL AND OTHER POEMS.
BETWEEN THE INCIDENTS already described and the subject of the present chapter, a crushing calamity had befallen the kingdom of Judah. In the face of urgent remonstrances, addressed to him from all sides, Josiah, perhaps desirous of emulating the heroic faith of Hezekiah and Isaiah, led his little army down from the mountain fast-nesses, to attack Pharaoh-Necho, who was marching up by the coast route to participate in the scramble for the spoils of Nineveh, then in her death-throes. The two armies met at Megiddo, at the foot of Carmel, on the extreme border of the plain of Esdraelon, which has so often been a decisive battlefield. The issue was not long in suspense. Josiah's army was routed, and himself mortally wounded.
"Have me away, for I am sore wounded," said the dying monarch, and his servants bore him from his war chariot to another in reserve; but he died after a few miles drive, at Hadadrimmon. His death was the signal for such an outburst of grief throughout the land, that it became in after years the emblem of excessive sorrow. Zechariah could find no adequate expression for the anguish of Jerusalem when the people shall look on Him whom they pierced and mourn, than that it should be like "the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon," when the land mourned, every family apart. It has been compared to the grief of Athens, when tidings came that Lysander had destroyed her fleet; and to that of Edinburgh on the evening of Flodden. Jeremiah composed an elegy on the death of his king and friend, which has not been preserved; and at once the fortunes of Judah were overcast with darkest gloom (2 Chron. 35:20-27; Zech. 12:11).
The next king, Josiah's son Jehoahaz, reigned but three months, and then was led off with a ring in his nose, like some wild beast, to Egypt, where he died. Necho instituted his brother Jehoiakim in his stead, as his nominee and tributary. But the four last kings of Judah reversed the policy of Josiah. They did evil in the sight of the Lord, and of Jehoiakim it is recorded that he wrought abomination (2 Chron. 36:1-8).
At the death of Josiah, the large party that favoured idolatry again asserted itself. Of what use was a religion that had not saved its chief promoter from such a disaster? The reformation promoted by the good king had never struck its roots deeply in the land; and the vigour with which he had carried out his reforms now led to a corresponding reaction. The reformers fell under the popular hate, much as the Puritans did in the days of the Restoration; and Jeremiah especially came in for a large share of it. He had been the friend and adviser of the late king, and had not scrupled to denounce in the most scathing terms the idolatry and licentiousness of his age. He had uttered terrible predictions of coming disaster, which were beginning to be fulfilled. Then arose the mutterings of a coming storm of hatred and murder. Unknown to him, his countrymen were devising devices against him, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."
The symptoms of this rising storm were less likely to reach him, because he had been commanded to itinerate among the cities of Judah, as well as the streets of Jerusalem; and had probably started on a prolonged tour throughout the land, standing up in the principal market-places, and announcing everywhere the inevitable retribution that must follow on the breach of the Divine covenant (xi. 8). The issue of that tour was profoundly disappointing. A conspiracy was found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers; each city had its tutelary deity, each street its altar to Baal. And the conviction was wrought into the prophet's heart that intercession itself was useless for a people so deeply and resolutely set on sin. They had sinned the sin unto death, for which prayer is in vain (xi. 14; 1 John 5:16).
Disappointed and heart-sick, Jeremiah retired to his native place, Anathoth. He was unsuspicious of danger, as a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. Surely among his brethren, in the house of his father, he would be safe, and able to find the sympathy and affection for which his sensitive heart hungered, but which evaded him everywhere else. But it was not to be. In this also he was to be like the Lord Jesus, who came unto his own, but his own received Him not, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. There was treachery in the little village. The sacred tie of kindred was too weak to restrain the outbreak of fanatic hate. The priestly houses had winced beneath the vehement denunciations of their young relative, and could bear it no longer. A plot was therefore set on foot, and under the show of fair words they conspired to take the prophet's life. He had not known of his danger but for Divine illumination: "The Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it; then Thou shewedst me their doings" (xi. 18).
Stunned with the sudden discovery, Jeremiah turned to God, with remonstrance and appeal. Conscious of his own rectitude and the rectitude of God, he was for a moment caught in the outer circles of the whirlpool of questioning, which has ever agitated the minds of God's oppressed ones, concerning the unequal distribution of earthly lots. "Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead with Thee. Yet would I reason the cause with Thee: wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they at ease that deal very treacherously?" (xi. 20; 12:1, R.V).
I. THE APPEAL OF THE MALIGNED AND PERSECUTED SOUL.-
(I) He was Conscious of his own Integrity.—Without doubt, Jeremiah was profoundly conscious of his unworthiness. He must have had as deep a conviction of sinfulness as any of the great prophets and psalmists of Israel. None could have lived as close to God as he did without an overwhelming sense of uncleanness. What Job felt, and Moses, and David, and Isaiah, must have been constantly present to his consciousness also. But in respect to this special outburst of hatred, he knew of nothing for which to blame himself. He had not hastened from being a shepherd, nor desired the woeful day, nor taken pleasure in the disasters he announced, nor spoken in the heat of personal passion. The sins of the people had procured the evils he predicted; and he had only sought to warn the reckless mariners of the rocks that lay straight in their course.
When we ate reviled and hated, we should carefully search our hearts to see if we have given any just cause to those that hate and persecute us. The only suffering which comes within the circle of Christ's beatitude, is that which is inflicted falsely, wrongfully, and for his sake. The man who 'endures griefs, suffering wrongfully, alone can claim to be following in the steps of the Master, and to be offering a sacrifice which is acceptable to God. He only can count on God's delivering aid.
The bursting storm should lead the captain to see that there is peace amongst his crew, and amity with the other ships of the fleet! We have no right to complain of the wrong-doings of others, unless we are sure that, so far as we are concerned, we have given no just cause. But if we have done so, there is no option but to agree with our adversary quickly, though it involve leaving our gift at the altar. Every moment of delay aggravates the case, and increases the difficulty of reconciliation. The course of justice is so rapid, from the adversary to the judge, the judge to the officer, and the officer to prison (Matt 5:22-25).
(2) He was Perplexed at the Inequality of Human Lot.—Every word of good Asaph's complaint in Psalm lxxiii might have been appropriated by Jeremiah. He had never swerved from the narrow path of obedience; at all hazards he had dared to stand alone, bereft of the comforts and alleviations that come in the lot of men; he did not scruple to bare his heart toward God, knowing that to the limit of his light he had done his bidding. But he was hated, persecuted, threatened with death; whilst the way of the wicked prospered, and they were at ease who dealt very treacherously. Surely it was in vain that he had cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocency. It was too painful for him. His feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped.
It is the question of all ages, to be answered only by remembering that this world is upside down; that the course of nature has been disturbed by sin; that the prince of the power of the air is god of this world; and that the servants of righteousness fight, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, the wicked spirits in heavenly places.
(3) He was Anxious for God's Character.—There is a touch of apparent vindictiveness in his cry. "Let me see thy vengeance on them; pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter." We are disposed to contrast these words with those that Jesus breathed for his murderers from the cross, and that Stephen uttered as the stones crashed in upon him; and we think that there is an alloy in the fine gold, a trace of dross in the saint.
It is possible to adopt the suggestion that the prophet was predicting the fate of these wicked men, or that he was the Divine mouthpiece in this solemn pronouncement of coming doom. But a deeper and more correct conception of his words appears to be, that he was concerned with the effect that would be produced on his people if Jehovah passed by the sin of his persecutors and intending murderers. It was as though the prophet feared lest his own undeserved sufferings might lead men to reason that wrongdoing was more likely to promote their prosperity than integrity and holiness. Josiah was the one God-fearing monarch of his time, but he was slain in battle; he was the devoted servant of God, and his life was one long agony: was it the best policy then to fear God? Might it not be wiser, safer, better, to worship the gods of the surrounding peoples, who seemed well able to defend their votaries, and to promote the prosperity of the great kingdoms that maintained their temples? As Jeremiah beheld the blasting influence of sin, how the land mourned, and the herbs were withered, and the beasts and birds consumed, his heart misgave him. He saw no limit to the awful evil of his times, so long as God seemed indifferent to its prevalence. Therefore he cried for vengeance—not for the gratification of his own feeling, but for the sake of Israel.
(4) He also Rolled his Cause on God.—So might 11:20 be rendered: "On Thee have I rolled my cause." Ah, this was wise! And it is our only safety in times of great soul anguish. The Divine Sufferer did this on the cross. "When reviled, He reviled not again; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." In his steps we must plant our feet. When men malign and plot against us, when friends forsake, when difficulties like Atlantic breakers threaten to engulf us—we must roll our anxieties from ourselves upon the blessed Lord, our burden-bearer, and leave them with Him. The care ceases to be ours when it has been committed to Him. He will see to all for us with a love so strong and tender and true, that we need have no further cause for fear. Roll thyself, thy burden, and thy way, on the Lord.
II. THE DIVINE REPLY.—Cod stooped over his life, and said: "Do you not remember when I first called you to be my prophet that I foreshadowed the loneliness and isolation, the difficulty and persecution, which were in store? Do you not remember that I told you that you would have to be a brazen wall against the whole people? Have you already lost heart? Are you so soon discouraged? Has the first brush of opposition mastered your heroic courage? You have as yet run with footmen; presently you will encounter horses: you are now in the land of comparative peace, your native village, where those surround you who have known you from your childhood, and yet you are dismayed; but how will you do when a tide of sorrow conies upon this land, as when the Jordan leaps its banks, and swells over the low-lying land around, and drives the wild beasts from their lair—how then?"
Does not God ever deal with us thus? He does not put us at once to contend with horses, but tests us first with footmen. He does not allow any one of us with frail and fainting courage to meet the overflowing floods of Jordan; but He causes us first to be tested in our homestead—the land of peace, where we are comparatively secure amidst those who know and love us. God graduates the trials of our life; He allows the lesser to precede the greater. He gives us the opportunity of learning to trust Him in slighter difficulties, that faith may become muscular and strong, and that we may be able to walk to Him amid the surge of the ocean. Be sure that whatever your sorrows and troubles are at this hour, God has allowed them to come to afford you an opportunity of preparation for future days. Do not be discouraged, or give up the fight, or be unfaithful in the very little. Do not say you cannot bear it. You can.
There is sufficient grace in Him; appropriate it, use it rest upon Him. Be very thankful that He has given you this time of discipline and of searching; and now, taking to yourself all that He waits to give—the grace, and comfort, and assurance—go forward! He cannot fail you. What He is in the lesser He will be much more in the greater. The grace He gives to-day is but as a silver thread compared to the river of grace He will give to you tomorrow. If you start back now, you will miss the greater discipline that will surely come; but in missing it you will also miss the greater revelation of Himself that will accompany the discipline. Be true to God! Trust in God, and remember that when He brings you to the swelling of Jordan—not necessarily death, but some awful flood of sorrow—that then, for the first time perhaps, you will meet the ark, and the Priest whose feet, when they dip in the margin of the river, will cause it to part, and you will go over dry-shod. When Jordan overflows its banks, God brings his chosen people to the brink, and it is then that He cleaves the path through the heart of the river, so that they are not touched by its descending torrent.