Jeremiah 8
Fearful scenes of desolation and woe are promised in the closing verses of chapter 7 and the opening verses of chapter 8. Does God love to take vengeance? It is far from His desire; but though merciful and compassionate and loving the sinner (how has He not shown His great love, in giving His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life?) the day of reckoning must cone. The day of the Lord will come, as says Peter in his Second Epistle (3:10), though men choose to ignore the testimony God has given.
In that day, of what avail will be the false gods which man has made for himself, or the delusions he has cherished concerning the future? Revelation 6:15-1715And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:15‑17) affords a striking picture of the very beginning- of judgment yet to be on earth; at the end there will be no caves, no rocks for hiding places (Revelation 20:12,1312And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. (Revelation 20:12‑13)).
In natural things, men falling, rise again; turning away, they return (verse 1). There is recovery, as when a man blunders in his course he turns back on seeing his mistake. But it was not so with Judah in their relations with God. They had become confirmed in their self-chosen path; they refused to return to God. The race is no different today, wherever the gospel has gone and men have become hardened to it.
God proclaims Himself a listener (verse 6), Ah, what does He hear from the lips of many of His creatures of the stock of Adam in our days! God's humble creatures, to which we attribute very little intelligence, put man to shame (verse 7); they are wiser than men, for they know when the time has come, as winter draws near, to fly away to warmer clinics; but the human race (and not only Judah) know not the judgment to come.
The rejection of God's word carries in its tram every evil, and we are not surprised that deceit (verse 5), and its close relative lying (verse 8) and covetousness (verse 10) are mentioned as characteristic of the people who professed God's name, but cared naught for Him. As they deceived others, they were also self-deceived (verse 11): Hardened in sin (as those become who are under the sound of the gospel and reject it) they are unashamed, but their judgment is set (verse 12).
In verses 14 to 16 the prophet's interest in his people, wayward and laden with sins, deaf to his entreaties, leads him to anticipate their feelings when the Babylonian instruments of God's judgments should appear in the land. In verse 19 he sees them as already in the country of their captivity, and turns to express Jehovah's indignation against them. Again he speaks for Judah, the "harvest" of God's bountiful dealing with them over, the "summer" with its pleasures, ended—opportunity gone and the cold blasts of "winter" anticipated for which they are not prepared: "we are not saved."
Why not? is a question which comes to the mind; why not saved? Jeremiah's use of the word was in connection with the prospect of the coming of Nebuchadnezzar's army, but its New Testament use in connection with the gospel of God's grace is before us now
The disease with which 'Udall was afflicted was beyond human remedy; none but Jehovah could heal them, and they refused His mercy. Such is man, the dupe of Satan and the prey of his own folly. Well might Jeremiah weep, and the servants of God of our times likewise!
Messages of God’s Love 8/19/1934