Jeremiah 41:6
And Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When Ishmael encountered the men, he said, "Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam."
Sermons
Devils IncarnateW. Clarkson, B. A.Jeremiah 41:1-10
Devils IncarnateS. Conway Jeremiah 41:1-10
A Great Crime and its ConsequenceD. Young Jeremiah 41:1-18














1. If ever there was such a one, this Ishmael was of whom these verses tell. His atrocities remind us of the Indian Mutiny, its leader, and the well at Cawnpore (cf. ver. 9). Treachery, ingratitude, murder, massacre, greed, cowardice, - all are gathered in this detestable character (cf. Mr. Grove's article "Ishmael," Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible').

2. And such men are permitted to be. So clearly seen is this, that every drama has its villain; they are recognized as having definite place and function in this poor life of ours. History is full of them. But for them one might almost say there would be no history.

3. Can we explain this permission? Wherefore are such men created and preserved? It is a part of the great question of moral evil, for the full solution of which we must wait. Like as was said to a lad of one of our public schools, who had heard his master say in a sermon in the school chapel that in mathematics there were lines in the same plane ever converging but which never met. The lad heard this, and as he knew something of mathematics himself, he believed and said to a senior in the school that the master was wrong. The senior defended the master, and told the lad of the lines that mathematicians call asymptotes. "But explain," said the astonished lad. "No, I can't," said the other. "You must wait till you get there." The lad had not read on so far in the science as that, and hence there was nothing for it but to believe that, though it was at present incomprehensible to him how such lines as those spoken of could be, nevertheless, when he had read on further, he would see it clearly enough. And so we have to hear and see things which, to fully reconcile with the existence and superintendence of an all-loving and all-powerful God, is beyond our power, and there is nothing for it but that we must "wait till we get there" - there where the reading of these problems will be ready and clear. But the existence of such men as this Ishmael is but one out of the many terrible facts in God's providence, such as plague, famine, earthquake, etc. In regard to such men, we can see some purposes that they subserve.

I. They make evident the hideous capacities of evil which are in our nature, and the need, therefore, for God's restraining grace.

II. They are warnings to increased watchfulness on the part of those in whom the tendencies to like evil exist.

III. They are God's scourges for men's sin (cf. Attila, the Scourge of God).

IV. They weld together the people they oppress in one common league against them, and thus out of scattered tribes a nation is formed.

V. They clear out much that is evil (cf. French Revolution; Napoleon). But sometimes, as here, we cannot see what good they do; and then we can only wait. Conclusion. But we can get above these and all such affiictors of our lives. The fear of God will lift us up above their power.

"Fear him, ye saints, and you will then
Have nothing else to fear." On the wings of the fear and love of God let us mount up; and like as the little birds escape the hawk by keeping above it, so shall we escape all fear of fiercest human evils if we are upborne by the fear and love of God. - C.

And dwelt in the habitation of Chimham.
This is one of the reflections that come to us as we read of the place whither Johanan led his followers, and as we see the events that happened immediately after. This chapter is a record of disappointments. First the hopeful prospects of Gedaliah's governorship, which seemed starting so fairly and happily for all, these are shattered and overthrown by the villainous conduct of Ishmael. Then it is a grievous disappointment that we do not hear of Ishmael's death, only of his escape. That such a wretch should escape with his life seems a reflection upon that justice which generally follows on the track of wrong-doers such as he was, and metes out to them their due. Escape seems too lenient a dealing with them. And now here is another disappointment that Johanan, instead of seeking to follow in Gedaliah's footsteps, should be for leading the people down into Egypt. "At the caravanserai of Chimham, in Bethlehem — the natural halting-place on the way to Egypt — Johanan held a council of war, and then, against the prophet's advice, finally determined to abandon their homes, and to make for the refuge, to which the worldly Israelite always had recourse, across the Egyptian border." It was a bad place to halt at; it was too near that beguiling land, the witchery of which not a few of them had long been feeling and would now feel more than ever. Whenever Israel went thither, it was always a "going down. into Egypt." This was, more true morally and spiritually than even geographically, to which the word down, of course, refers. And the present was no exception. Looking at them there at Chimham, we note —

I. THE RESEMBLANCE THEY OFFER. Are they not like all those who tamper with temptation? They know, as Israel knew, that they are in a forbidden path, and yet they do not keep clear of it. Like moths fluttering around the flame, so men will dally with sin. They know that to yield would be both most wrong and ruinous, and yet they go close to the border.

II. THE REASONS WHICH GOVERNED THEM. THE Jews came to Chimham because their will had already consented to go further — on and down into Egypt. For like reasons men come to such places. There has been already the secret yielding of the will. There was no need of the Jews being at Chimham. It was not the way back from Gibeon. It was a deliberate going into temptation. So those who act like them have, as they, already consented in heart. And the causes of that consent are akin. They falsely feared what the Chaldeans might do, though there was no ground for such fear; and they falsely hoped for good — freedom from war and want — which they never realised. And such persons will ever magnify both the difficulties of the right path and the looked-for pleasures and advantages of the wrong. Thus would they persuade themselves that the right is wrong and the wrong is right.

III. THE RESISTANCE THEY SEEMED TO MAKE. The Jews did not yield all at once. They appeal to the prophet. They ask his prayers. They, make repeated and loud — much too loud: "Methinks he doth protest too much" — professions. They wait patiently the prophet's message. And yet all the while (ver. 20) they were dissembling in their hearts, "regarding iniquity" there (history of Balaam). They would have God on their side, not themselves on God's side. All this is most melancholy matter of fact with those who, of their own accord, go too near the edge.

IV. THE RESULTS THAT FOLLOWED. Of course they went over the edge; such people always do. They showed the insincerity of their prayers by their anger when they were denied (Jeremiah 43:2, &c.). They escaped none of the evil they dreaded; they gained none of the good they expected. "So disastrous did this step appear to the next and to all subsequent generations of Israel, that the day of Gedaliah's murder, which led to it, has been from that time forth and to this day observed as a national fast. It seemed to be the final revocation of the advantages of the Exodus. By this breach in their local continuity a chasm was made in the history, which for good or evil was never filled up." Yes; they who will go so near temptation will go into it, and be borne down by it to their sore hurt and harm.

V. THE REMEDY RECOMMENDED. Jeremiah urged them to return to their own land and stay there (Jeremiah 42:8, &c.), promising them the blessing of God if they obeyed, and threatening His sore anger if they did not. This counsel ever wise. Get away from the border-land back into safety. Think of what will follow on your conduct — the blessing or the curse. "Stay not in all the plain, but escape for thy life." As "the angels hastened Lot" so would we hasten all those who have foolishly and wrongly chosen to go too near temptation's edge.

(W. Clarkson, B. A.).

People
Ahikam, Ammonites, Asa, Baasha, Babylonians, Chimham, Elishama, Gedaliah, Gibeon, Ishmael, Jeremiah, Johanan, Kareah, Nebuzaradan, Nethaniah, Shaphan
Places
Babylon, Bethlehem, Egypt, Geruth Chimham, Gibeon, Mizpah, Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh
Topics
Ahikam, Ahi'kam, Along, Face, Forth, Gedaliah, Gedali'ah, Ishmael, Ish'mael, Meet, Meeting, Met, Mizpah, Nethaniah, Nethani'ah, Pass, Purpose, Weeping
Outline
1. Ishmael, treacherously killing Gedaliah and others,
7. purposes with the residue to flee unto the Ammonites.
11. Johanan rescues the captives, and is minded to flee into Egypt.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 41:4-7

     4221   cistern

Jeremiah 41:4-8

     4542   wheat

Library
Barzillai
BY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D. "There is nothing," says Socrates to Cephalus in the Republic, "I like better than conversing with aged men. For I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom it is right to learn the character of the way, whether it is rugged or difficult, or smooth and easy" (p. 328 E.). It is to such an aged traveller that we are introduced in the person of Barzillai the Gileadite. And though he is one of the lesser-known characters
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

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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