Jeremiah 16:16
But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.
Sermons
Fishers and HuntersA. R. Fausset, M. A.Jeremiah 16:16
Sin Found OutS. Conway Jeremiah 16:16-21














The striking imagery of these verses teaches us that there shall be no hiding-place, whether by sea or land, where God will not find those whom his vengeance pursues. The sinner may be sure that his sin will find him out.

I. MEN DOUBT THIS. Reasons are:

1. Long impunity has made them bold.

2. Such findings of them out as have taken place, in defilement of conscience, hardening of the heart, loss of peace with God, etc., they do not care for. They only care for public exposure and punishment.

3. They see others go on in sin unpunished.

4. The power which we all have to believe what we wish to believe.

5. The direct agency of the devil in fostering such false belief.

II. BUT THE DECLARATION OF GOD ON THIS MATTER IS NEVERTHELESS TRUE.

1. The Scriptures affirm it (cf. all those which teach the omniscience and omnipresence of God).

2. Conscience attests it.

3. There is nothing in sin to show wherefore it should not be.

4. The revelation of the future life distinctly provides for it.

5. And even now it is continually being proved true. A man's sin finds him out in many ways - in body, mind, estate, reputation, etc. And in one or more of these sin does ever find a man out, even now.

6. The apparent exceptions are accounted for on the ground of

(1) God's long-suffering to the sinful;

(2) God's purpose to test and exercise the faith of his own people.

III. A DEEP AND ABIDING CONVICTION OF THIS TO BE GREATLY DESIRED.

1. What restraint it would exercise on the will! (cf. "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?").

2. How exceeding sinful it would make sin appear!

3. What force it would lend to all endeavors after the reclamation and reformation of the sinful!

IV. AND SUCH CONVICTION MAY BE HAD. It is the sacred and salutary power of prayer thus to make God real to us. In prayer we look to him and we see him looking upon us; we speak to him and he speaks to us; by aid of it we walk with him and he walks with us. He who thus lives in daily fellowship with God can never be without the conviction spoken of.

V. BECAUSE SIN IS SURE TO FIND US, LET US AT ONCE SEEK AND FIND CHRIST. - C.

I will send for many fishers;...I will send for many hunters.
These refer to the successive invaders of Judea. As to "hunters," see Genesis 10:9. Nimrod, " the mighty hunter," the first founder of an empire on conquest. The Chaldees were famous in hunting, as the Egyptians, the other enemy of Judea, were in fishing.(1) "Fishers" expresses the ease of their victory over the Jews as that of the angler over fishes.(2) "Hunters" indicates the keenness of their pursuit of them into every cave and nook. It is remarkable the same image of "fishers" and "fish" is used in a good sense of the Jews' restoration, implying that just as their enemies were employed by God to take them in hand of destruction, so the same shall be employed for their restoration (Ezekiel 47:9, 10). So, spiritually, those once enemies by nature (fishermen many of them literally) were employed by God to be the heralds of salvation, "catching men" for life (Matthew 4:19).

(A. R. Fausset, M. A.)

People
Israelites, Jeremiah
Places
Egypt, Jerusalem
Topics
Affirmation, Afterward, Afterwards, Behold, Bowmen, Catch, Clefts, Crevices, Declares, Driving, Fish, Fished, Fishermen, Fishers, Hill, Holes, Hunt, Hunted, Hunters, Mountain, Net, Numbers, Rocks, Says, Sending
Outline
1. The prophet, under the types of abstaining from marriage,
8. from houses of mourning and feasting, foreshows the utter ruin of the Jews;
10. because they were worse than their fathers.
14. Their return from captivity shall be stranger than their deliverance out of Egypt.
16. God will doubly recompense their idolatry.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 16:16

     4354   rock
     4642   fish
     5342   hunting
     5433   occupations

Jeremiah 16:16-17

     8491   watchfulness, divine

Jeremiah 16:16-18

     5360   justice, God

Library
Some General Uses from this Useful Truth, that Christ is the Truth.
Having thus cleared up this truth, we should come to speak of the way of believers making use of him as the truth, in several cases wherein they will stand in need of him as the truth. But ere we come to the particulars, we shall first propose some general uses of this useful point. First. This point of truth serveth to discover unto us, the woful condition of such as are strangers to Christ the truth; and oh, if it were believed! For, 1. They are not yet delivered from that dreadful plague of
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

The Jews Make all Ready for the War; and Simon, the Son of Gioras, Falls to Plundering.
1. And thus were the disturbances of Galilee quieted, when, upon their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, they betook themselves to make preparations for the war with the Romans. Now in Jerusalem the high priest Artanus, and do as many of the men of power as were not in the interest of the Romans, both repaired the walls, and made a great many warlike instruments, insomuch that in all parts of the city darts and all sorts of armor were upon the anvil. Although the multitude of the young
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

Degrees of Sin
Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous? Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others. He that delivered me unto thee, has the greater sin.' John 19: 11. The Stoic philosophers held that all sins were equal; but this Scripture clearly holds forth that there is a gradual difference in sin; some are greater than others; some are mighty sins,' and crying sins.' Amos 5: 12; Gen 18: 21. Every sin has a voice to speak, but some
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Healing the Centurion's Servant.
(at Capernaum.) ^A Matt. VIII. 1, 5-13; ^C Luke VII. 1-10. ^c 1 After he had ended all his sayings in the ears of the people, ^a 1 And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. ^c he entered into Capernaum. [Jesus proceeded from the mountain to Capernaum, which was now his home, or headquarters. The multitudes which are now mentioned for the third time were not wearied by his sermon, and so continued to follow him. Their presence showed the popularity of Jesus, and also
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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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