Jeremiah 9
JEREMIAH has been rightly termed the weeping prophet; he was the last of the prophets before the Babylonian captivity, for Habakkuk and Zephaniah gave their testimony in Jeremiah's youth, and Ezekiel and Daniel, the prophets of the captivity, were younger than he, beginning their testimony after Nehuchadnezzar's forces had carried away part of Judah to Babylon.
Well might Jeremiah weep, as he thought of his people and the miseries that lay before them! Had they but hearkened to the voice of Jehovah speaking through the prophets, they should have remained in peaceful and happy possession of their land. But they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would have none of His counsel; they despised all His reproof; therefore they were about to eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices (Proverbs 1:29-3129For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: 30They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. (Proverbs 1:29‑31)).
The land was now to be emptied, and Jerusalem reduced to heaps, a dwelling place of jackals (“dragons"); Judah's cities were to be a desolation; without inhabitant. When God determined that His earthly people should be removed from the land He gave them, He so ordered that no others might profit from its fruitfulness.
A far more serious sin than idolatry and its related evils which occasioned the Babylonian captivity (verses 12-16) accounts for the nineteen centuries since Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, during none of which has the land yielded its God-given bounty.
The Jew is a standing testimony to the word of God, and so is the land of his forefathers. Long have they been scattered among the nations because of the rejection and putting to death of their Messiah, and they have been no strangers to persecution in almost every country to which they have gone.
The tendency in the natural heart is ever to vaunt itself at the expense of others, and verses 23 and 24 show the only. true ground of boasting, if the Gentiles are. disposed to scorn the Jew suffering at the hand of God because of a national sin.
Thanks be to God that "understanding and knowing" Him is not limited to the wise, the mighty or the rich; indeed Corinthians 1:26 lets us know that not many of these three classes, in which the world numbers its great ones, know the heavenly calling.
Loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness are Jehovah's delight in connection with the earth; Satan has succeeded in giving quite a different character to this scene, but God still overrules for His own glory and for the blessing of His creatures, particularly for them that love .Him (Romans S:25). The Millenium will he the occasion of the display of Jehovah's loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness as never before shown on earth.
The chapter closes with the promise of judgment particularly upon Judah's neighbors, but reaching out over the whole world. In its full measure that judgment awaits the coming of the true Ruler of this world.
Messages of God’s Love 8/26/1934