Jeremiah 1:4-10 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,… I. CONTRAST. Jeremiah, the prophet of disaster and despondency, could look back to a holy and happy past — the son of the faithful priest Hilkiah, the friend of the godly king Josiah; he fell upon evil and apostate times. Saul had to turn his back upon his old life — count all things but loss that had been gain to him — thus he was ever looking forward, reaching onward — the apostle of faith and hope. II. PARALLEL. 1. Each is elected by God, and therefore trained by his circumstances for his work. The call of Jeremiah, the conversion of Saul, was to each a revelation of a God that had formed him from the womb for his work (cp. Galatians 1:15, 16 with Jeremiah 1:5). 2. The two-fold nature of that work — destructive and constructive. To root out, pull down, destroy; yet to plant and to build. We may almost say this is the work of all whom God has called to labour for Him. This was the type of Christ's work. His coming laid an axe to the root of the tree (Matthew 3:10, see also 15:13). Yet was He the Sower. It may be the teacher, like Jeremiah, does not live to see his work grow — yet who can doubt the effect of Jeremiah upon those who returned purified and repentant from Babylon? The two must go together. Root up error and plant truth. Pull down the strongholds of sin, and build up the temple of Christian holiness. (John Ellerton, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, |
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