Jeremiah 22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that make your nest in the cedars, how gracious shall you be when pangs come on you… I. THE INSUFFICIENCY OF EVERY HUMAN AID, as illustrated by the prophet in the example of the "inhabitant of Lebanon." Lebanon was a noble and a stately mountain, the pride and the ornament of the Eastern world. Its summit was crested with eternal snows, while its sides were adorned with forests of the graceful and goodly cedar. Beneath were slopes of rich pasturage, on which were fed unnumbered flocks and herds. Rivulets gushed from the fissures, and separated among the hills, which afforded refreshment to the fainting traveller, and maintained in native purity of freshness the verdure of the mountain side. No image could more expressively convey to the mind of an Israelite all that man most highly esteems of grandeur, magnificence, and beauty. But the idea of security is also implied. In many human ills, money, as the wise man says, "is a defence"; and the rich man, in a land of commerce like our own, is as the "inhabitant of Lebanon," compared with the dweller in the plain below. The winds may rage, and the storm beat; but his airy dwelling place is unmoved. The enemy may spread themselves over the plain; but his house of defence "is the munitions of rocks." How enviable a condition! you will say, But Ah! "the things that are impossible with men, are possible with God." Lightning from heaven above may blast the towering cedar; the earthquake muttering from beneath may rend the solid rock: or even when the wave reposes without a ripple or an undulation on the surface of the mountain lake, the stroke of death may come suddenly, the strong man's fortress may be powerless in an instant, as a woman in her travail, or as the infant just struggling into birth. II. FOR ALL WHO WILL SEEK IT THERE IS A SURE REFUGE, WHATEVER MAY BE THE DANGER, AND AN INVINCIBLE ARM OF DEFENCE, WHOEVER MAY BE WE ADVERSARY. St. Paul indeed said, in reference to the times of fiery persecution in which his own lot was cast, that "if in this life only they had hope in Christ, believers were of all men most miserable"; but what was then "the present distress," has happily passed away, and godliness is now truly "profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." All creation is redolent of joy and peace to the true believer in Christ Jesus. He knows, that God hath "made with him an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure"; that "all His ways are mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies"; and that no truly good thing "will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." So long, then, as prosperity continues, enjoyment is enhanced by thankfulness; and when adversity comes upon him, suffering is lightened by faith. The "light affliction," which is upon him, will, he knows, "work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," etc. (T. Dale, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail! |
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