Jeremiah 14:12
Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague."
Sermons
Pasting Rendered OffensiveJeremiah 14:12
The Severities of Jehovah - Sword, Famine, and PestilenceD. Young Jeremiah 14:10-12
Jehovah's Refusal to Allow Intercession to PrevailC. Keil.Jeremiah 14:10-16














I. THE OCCASION OF THESE SEVERITIES. This occasion is stated in Ver. 10. The people have spoken of Jehovah as a stranger and traveler, which way of speaking gives opportunity for asserting that it is they who are the real wanderers, straying from Jehovah's highway of righteousness and appointed service; and not only have they strayed, but they have loved to stray. The making of a straight path for Jehovah has been very hard and exacting, and the first voice of temptation to turn into an easier road has been listened to. And even now, out of the midst of their agonies, their cry has no repentance in it. They wish God to come into their midst and protect and comfort them, forgetting that if he is to be really in their midst they must turn from their iniquities. They must show clear signs of forsaking their sins before he can relax his severities. Dreadful as this experience of a waterless land is, they must look for the exciting cause of it in themselves. A disobedient child, suffering punishment at the hands of his parent, while he knows that one cause of his pain is the chastising instrument, knows also that it is a cause which only operates because of the wrong that he himself has done. If we would only give due attention, it is within oar own power to keep the worst pains out of life.

II. VAIN DEFENCES AGAINST THE SEVERITIES.

1. The intercession of good men. Jehovah says once again to his prophet, "Pray not for this people for their good." Jeremiah himself, naturally and commendably enough, is prompted to cry on their behalf. But doubtless they themselves also urge the prophet's intercession.

2. Fasting. Outward and visible humiliation; such attire and such attitudes assumed as were congruous with the cry of Vers. 7-9. All this was easy enough without any humbling or chastening of the heart. Fasting is too often followed by feasting. For a little while the fleshly comforts of life are superstitiously put aside; but there is the full purpose of resuming them, and making up for lost time.

3. Burnt offerings and oblations. The people insulted Jehovah by heaping before him the carcasses of slain beasts. An idol was best served, according to the teaching of its priests, by those who made the largest offerings at its shrine. All these doings only emphasized the disobedience of the people. They were very diligent in giving what Jehovah did not want, vainly thinking it might stand in place of what he imperatively required. When God asks us for repentance and obedience, it is the merest trifling both with his expectations and our interests to bring some unusual demonstration of will-worship. Let quality, not quantity, be the first thing. A little of the right is better than the utmost profession of the wrong. A little of the right, firmly rooted, will increase and strengthen with wonderful rapidity.

III. THE SHAPE OF THE SEVERITIES. Sword, famine, and pestilence are coming; coming, plainly set forth as the consuming agents of Jehovah. When Jehovah makes men his sword, it is vain to contend against them. The history of God's people had often shown how a few could be victorious and a multitude vanquished. It is he who can put strength into the arm that wields the sword or take that strength away. These invading armies were, of course, not conscious that Jehovah was wielding them in this way. They had their own selfish aims, which God could subordinate and mould toward his own ends. It is the worst of blasphemy for the leader of an army to talk as if he were going on God's errands. Attila was not the scourge of God because he said so, though God may have used him in ways beyond Attila's power to conceive. Famine. Here was a destroyer which there was no guarding against. The sword could at least be drawn against the sword, however vain the result. But who could stop a general famine? And even supposing a few rich man could store up grain for a while, there was a third foe in reserve - the pestilence. David had his choice as to which of the three dread agents he would prefer; but here they all come together. God has a variety of weapons, and his enemies cannot evade them all. How wise men would be if, instead of vainly trying to shut out alike Divine Law and penalty, they would at once and forever take up the attitude of entire submission to God! Then they would be defended indeed. By sword, famine, and pestilence, these rich men of Judah and Jerusalem were forever separated from their ill-gotten gains. But "who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Assuredly not famine or sword," says the apostle; nor pestilence either, he would have added, if he had thought of it. We may he persuaded that nothing has power to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The mischief is that we reject the protections of that love and all other benefits flowing from it. - Y.

When they fast, I will not hear their cry.
I. PIOUS DEMEANOUR IS NOT WHAT GOD DESIRES, BUT FAITH.

1. God abominates a double and false heart; and the greater the fervour hypocrites display in external rites, the more they provoke Him.

2. Fasting is observed as giving intensity to prayer.

3. They who fast professedly avow that they deprecate God's disfavour.

4. But God values not outward appearance.

II. FASTING IS NOT IN ITSELF A RELIGIOUS DUTY, BUT A MERE INDEX TO A HUMBLE SPIRIT.

1. What is intended by fasting?

(1)That there may be greater alacrity in prayer.

(2)That it may be an evidence of humility in confessing sins.

(3)Indicative of a purpose to subdue lust.

2. What is fasting, apart from these intents?

(1)A frivolous exercise.

(2)A profanation of God's worship.

(3)A superstition, provoking God's wrath.

III. NO VALUE IN FASTING TO MERRY GOD'S FAVOUR.

IV. MOCKING PROFANATION WAS INTOLERABLE, AND SHOULD BE PUNISHED.

1. God shows Himself armed with various kinds of punishment.

2. He forewarns that they who had provoked Him should surely suffer.

3. God does not disregard or reject religious signs; but when what they signify is separated from them, there is then an intolerable profanation.

( J. Calvin.)

People
Jeremiah
Places
Jerusalem, Zion
Topics
Accept, Ascend, Burned, Burnt, Burnt-offering, Cause, Cereal, Consume, Consuming, Cry, Destroy, Disease, Ear, Famine, Fast, Grain, Hearken, Instead, Listen, Meal, Meal-offering, Oblation, Offer, Offering, Offerings, Pestilence, Plague, Pleasure, Present, Rather, Sword, Though
Outline
1. The grievous famine,
7. causes Jeremiah to pray.
10. The Lord will not be entreated for the people.
13. false prophets are no excuse for them.
17. Jeremiah is moved to complain for them.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 14:12

     4843   plague
     5196   voice
     5297   disease

Jeremiah 14:10-12

     5773   abstinence, discipline
     6603   acceptance, divine
     8617   prayer, effective

Jeremiah 14:11-12

     8432   fasting, practice

Jeremiah 14:11-18

     4823   famine, physical

Library
Triumphant Prayer
'O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee. 8. O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? 9. Why shouldest Thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name; leave us not.'--JER. xiv. 7-9.
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

The First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Exod 20: 3. Why is the commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God say, You shall have no other gods? Because the commandment concerns every one, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name. Though we are forward to take privileges to ourselves, yet we are apt to shift off duties from ourselves to others; therefore the commandment is in the second person, Thou and Thou, that every one may know that it is spoken to him,
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Question of the Contemplative Life
I. Is the Contemplative Life wholly confined to the Intellect, or does the Will enter into it? S. Thomas, On the Beatific Vision, I., xii. 7 ad 3m II. Do the Moral Virtues pertain to the Contemplative Life? S. Augustine, Of the City of God, xix. 19 III. Does the Contemplative Life comprise many Acts? S. Augustine, Of the Perfection of Human Righteousness, viii. 18 " Ep., cxxx. ad probam IV. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

A Message from the Crowned Christ
(Revelation, Chapters ii and iii) "The glory of love is brightest when the glory of self is dim, And they have the most compelled me who most have pointed to Him. They have held me, stirred me, swayed me,--I have hung on their every word, Till I fain would arise and follow, not them, not them,--but their Lord!"[64] Patmos Spells Patience. Patience is strength at its strongest, using all its strength in holding back from doing something. Patience is love at flood pleading with strength to hold steady
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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