Jeremiah 36:3 Sermons: It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."

◄ Jeremiah 36:3 ►

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin."

Sermons

God's Eye to Every Possibility	D. Young	Jeremiah 36:3
It May Be	W. Forsyth, M. A.	Jeremiah 36:3
It May Be	S. Conway	Jeremiah 36:3
Vicarious Ministry in Holy Things	A.F. Muir	Jeremiah 36:1-8
Hearers of God's Word	S. Conway	Jeremiah 36:1-32

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics

"it May Be."

Jeremiah 36:3

S. Conway

We can understand the prophet thus speaking, but how can there be anything uncertain or contingent with God? And yet it is he who here speaks and says, "It may be." We are accustomed to say, "God knows all the past, and all the present, and all the future (cf. Isaiah 46:9-11). Reason and Scripture alike seem to say that there can be nothing probable with God. But yet this is his word. Why does he thus speak? Perhaps -

I. BECAUSE THERE WAS NO LAW, NO DECREE, AGAINST THE PEOPLE'S REPENTANCE. He had made no such law, and man had not. There is no decree of reprobation.

II. IT MAY BE CONSISTENT, AFTER ALL, WITH THE TRUTH OF THINGS FOR GOD THUS TO SPEAK, THOUGH WE CANNOT SEE HOW. We infer certain conclusions from what we read and learn about God, and these conclusions seem to deny the possibility of there being any "it may be" with him. But we may be wrong after all, and the fact that he does thus speak lends to the suspicion that we are.

III. BECAUSE IT WOULD BE ILL FOR US WERE HE TO REVEAL THE CERTAINTIES OF THINGS. If they were to be such as we would desire, we should cease to labour for them. If otherwise, we should sit down in despair. But God desires us to labour and pray, and therefore hides the future from our eyes. Presumption and despair are both great evils; therefore to prevent them, God speaks after the manner of men, if not after the manner of God.

IV. BECAUSE HE INTENDS HIS "MAY BE" TO BECOME "SHALL BE." He would have us fellow workers with him, and therefore he encourages our efforts, but hides from us be that which would lead us to think them unnecessary. And probably the "may be" will become "shall be," though not at the time nor in the manner we expect. Let us, therefore, be ever cheered forward when God says, "It may be." - C.

It may be.

I. THIS WORD SHOWS US THE HEART OF GOD. Displeased because of sin, but longing to show mercy to the sinner. All His counsels and warnings, promises and threatenings, are for good (Deuteronomy 5:29-33; Deuteronomy 32:44-47; Isaiah 1:18-20; Jeremiah 8:7-11; Ezekiel 12:3; Ezekiel 18:31; Hosea 11:1-8; John 3:16, 17; Luke 19:10, 41, 42).

II. THIS WORD REVEALS THE GRAND POSSIBILITIES OF HUMAN LIFE.

1. Earnest attention (ver. 3).

2. Penitential prayer (ver. 7).

3. Moral reconciliation. The hindrances to peace are not with God, but with us.

III. THIS WORD HOLDS OUT ENCOURAGEMENT TO ALL TRUE WORKERS FOR CHRIST.

1. Prayer.

2. Holy endeavour.

3. Missionary enterprise.

(W. Forsyth, M. A.)

People

Abdeel, Achbor, Azriel, Baruch, Cushi, David, Delaiah, Elishama, Elnathan, Gemariah, Hammelech, Hananiah, Jehoiakim, Jehudi, Jerahmeel, Jeremiah, Josiah, Micah, Micaiah, Michaiah, Neriah, Nethaniah, Seraiah, Shaphan, Shelemiah, Shemaiah, Zedekiah

Places

Babylon, Jerusalem, New Gate

Topics

Bring, Calamity, Disaster, Evil, Evil-doing, Forgive, Forgiveness, Hearing, Inflict, Iniquity, Intend, Judah, Order, Perhaps, Plan, Propitious, Purpose, Return, Sin, Thinking, Turn, Wicked, Wickedness

Outline

1. Jeremiah causes Baruch to write his prophesy,
5. and publicly to read it.
11. The princes, having intelligence thereof by Michaiah,
14. send Jehudi to fetch the roll and read it.
19. They will Baruch to hide himself and Jeremiah.
20. The king, Jehoiakim, being certified thereof, hears part of it and burns the roll.
27. Jeremiah denounces his judgment.
32. Baruch writes a new copy.

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Jeremiah 36:3

5917 plans
8106 assurance, nature of

Jeremiah 36:1-4

1431 prophecy, OT methods

Library

Jeremiah's Roll Burned and Reproduced
'Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch ... who wrote therein ... all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire, and there were added besides unto them many like words.'--JER. xxxvi. 32. This story brings us into the presence of the long death agony of the Jewish monarchy. The wretched Jehoiakim, the last king but two who reigned in Jerusalem, was put on the throne by the King of Egypt, as his tributary, and used by him as a buffer to bear the brunt …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Growth of the Old Testament Prophetic Histories
[Sidenote: Analogies between the influences that produced the two Testaments] Very similar influences were at work in producing and shaping both the Old and the New Testaments; only in the history of the older Scriptures still other forces can be distinguished. Moreover, the Old Testament contains a much greater variety of literature. It is also significant that, while some of the New Testament books began to be canonized less than a century after they were written, there is clear evidence that …
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

On the Interpretation of Scripture
IT is a strange, though familiar fact, that great differences of opinion exist respecting the Interpretation of Scripture. All Christians receive the Old and New Testament as sacred writings, but they are not agreed about the meaning which they attribute to them. The book itself remains as at the first; the commentators seem rather to reflect the changing atmosphere of the world or of the Church. Different individuals or bodies of Christians have a different point of view, to which their interpretation …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World

The Secret of Its Greatness
[Illustration: (drop cap G) The Great Pyramid] God always chooses the right kind of people to do His work. Not only so, He always gives to those whom He chooses just the sort of life which will best prepare them for the work He will one day call them to do. That is why God put it into the heart of Pharaoh's daughter to bring up Moses as her own son in the Egyptian palace. The most important part of Moses' training was that his heart should be right with God, and therefore he was allowed to remain …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

The Essay which Brings up the Rear in this Very Guilty Volume is from The...
The Essay which brings up the rear in this very guilty volume is from the pen of the "Rev. Benjamin Jowett, M.A., [Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, and] Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford,"--"a gentleman whose high personal character and general respectability seem to give a weight to his words, which assuredly they do not carry of themselves [143] ." His performance is entitled "On the Interpretation of Scripture:" being, in reality, nothing else but a laborious denial of …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and Interpretation

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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