Jeremiah 39:1-10 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem… We sometimes act as though we thought that dispensations of light and joy were made to draw us to God; those of darkness and sorrow the reverse; but that is our mistake; our thought must be "God in all." And here God makes the announcement of the chastisement in a manner worthy of Himself — in the midst of judgment He remembers mercy. He commissions Jeremiah to promise circumstances of alleviation and gracious dealing; even though the trouble remain. The trouble and its alleviations were to exist side by side. But now, what are the speakings of this "moreover" to us? 1. It says to us, Reject not bounded chastisement or trial, for you know not how wide God may remove those bounds, when it comes upon you as something rejected by you, but inflicted, whether you will or no, by Him. 2. It says, Be sure that God will carry His own way. Look upon all resistance of His will as madness, as full of mischief for yourself. 3. If we reject what God thus ordains, we may rest assured that we are laying up for ourselves a long period of sad thought, peopled with sad memories. 4. Though the chastisement or the trial God announces be heavy, still let us be assured that it is the lightest possible under the circumstances. 5. Let us believe that God has terrible reserves of chastening dealings. We think that each trial, as it comes, is the worst that can be; sometimes a man in folly and desperation feels as though God could do no more to him; but the reserves of the Lord in this way, as in blessing, are illimitable — take care, "lest a worse thing come upon thee." 6. We may, and must leave it to God to take care of us, when leading us into either discipline or chastisement. 7. Instead of fretting and troubling ourselves unduly, and setting our minds upon finding out fresh and fresh elements in our trial, let us count up some of the "moreovers" of what might have come upon us; some of the "moreovers" of the mercies which are bestowed. 8. Let us be careful to keep ourselves well within the line of God's action with us, and not to subject ourselves to man's. It is not God's purpose to make a full end of us; He means to deal wisely and admeasuredly with us; He means us to taste that He is gracious; to have reason to believe that He is so. (P. B. Power, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. |
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