Jeremiah 9:17
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
Sermons
The Terrible Threatenings of LoveS. Conway Jeremiah 9:10-22














God here declares that he will punish those who have walked "after Baalim, which their fathers taught them." Therefore the fact of their having been trained in this sin by their fathers is not held to acquit them of guilt in what they do. Their sin, though hereditary, is real.

I. THIS SEEMS UNJUST. It has often been objected to that because the fathers ate sour grapes the children's teeth should be set on edge (Ezekiel 18:2). Why should I be punished for another's man's sin?

II. BUT IT IS THE DIVINE LAW. The sins of the fathers are visited on the children. "By the offence of one all men were made sinners" (Romans 5.). And in daily life how perpetually we see this law in ruthless operation! - children punished in health, fortune, character, reputation, in mind, body, and soul, all through their fathers' sin. They walk in the ways of Baalim because their fathers taught them. And yet, unjust though their punishment may appear-

III. CONSCIENCE ENDORSES IT. Who knows how much of that strong passionate nature which led David into such dreadful sin may have been inherited? Indeed, he says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity," etc. (Psalm 51.). But this does not hinder him from taking all the blame of his sin upon himself. All the way through we hear his confession - "my sin," "my transgression," "mine iniquity." And never does the con science awakened to a sense of sin think of palliating such sin by the plea of its being the result of inheritance. Thus conscience witnesses to the righteousness of the Divine Law.

IV. AND SO DOES HUMAN LAW. What judge ever pardoned a criminal because he had a bad father? We execrate "bloody Queen Mary" notwithstanding she had a bloodthirsty father.

V. THE EXPLANATION IS:

1. That hereditary sin does not destroy conscience. That speaks in all; it is "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," the inward monitor which ever condemns crime and approves righteousness (cf. Romans 2:14, 15).

2. Nor does it destroy understanding. Teachers of righteousness are on every hand, from whom all may learn.

3. Nor does it destroy the power of will. It may weaken, but it does not destroy. Therefore, in spite of hereditary sin, every man knows, and can choose if he will, that which is right; and therefore he is held accountable before every tribunal - that of God, of conscience, and of man.

4. But there is yet another reason given by St. Paul: "God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all (Romans 11:32; Galatians 3:22). A cruel Roman emperor wished that all Rome had but one neck, that he might kill it with one blow. God hath in his infinite grace gathered up all our humanity into one, even in Christ, so that, as sin had destroyed all by one stroke (Romans 5.), the grace of God in Christ might save all by the one righteousness of the One; so that where sin did abound, grace," etc. That gathering up of humanity into one in Adam, which seems at first sight to have worked such injustice, is altogether met, and far more than met, by the again gathering up of all in One, even in Christ, which works such grace. But that ultimate redemption which is in Christ does not hinder, but that meanwhile, and for a Weary while, hereditary sin may work woeful sorrow and harm. Therefore -

VI. THIS FACT APPEALS:

1. To all parents. Seek to cut off the entail. We may have received such sad inheritance, but let us, as we may, reject it for ourselves, and in so doing refuse to hand it on to others. Again and again has God given grace to some one member of a godless house - as to Josiah, son of that Amen of whom it is said, "But Amen sinned more and more" - who has for himself and those who come after him broken the bad succession and begun a new and blessed departure. When we have done our best, our children will have a sufficiently heavy burden to bear; let us not make that burden heavier, life more terrible, and holiness and heaven far less attainable for them, by handing down to them a legacy of evil example and of unhallowed habits and propensities inherited from ourselves. Do not let us sin so against our children. Yet many do.

2. To all children. Your fathers sin will not excuse yours. God has turned judgment away from many an evil son because he had a godly father, but never because he had an ungodly one. Therefore if yours be the sad and too frequent lot of those who inherit evil from their parents, reject that inheritance, and seek and gain from your heavenly Father, though you may not be helped herein by your earthly one, the better, the most blessed inheritance of the children of God. - C.

Because they have forsaken My law...give them water of gall to drink.
A quaint preacher, addressing miners, drew a picture of two mines. He represented payday at one of the mines, and described the long line of men coming to the cashier's desk to receive their wages. Presently some men came up whom the cashier did not know. "Where have you been working?" he asked. "We were working in the other pit," they answered. "Then that is the place to go for your money." "No," they said, "we like your pay best; we are tired, and we want rest, and we want peace and plenty. At the pit where we have been working they are treating us cruelly, and we get no pay, but blows and hard words. Won't you pay us?" But the cashier says, "No; you chose to work in the other pit, and you must take the wages they pay; you cannot work for one employer and get your wages from another." "That was fair, was it not?" the preacher asked. His hearers answered that it was. "Then," said he, "don't you serve the devil unless you want his wages."

People
Jeremiah
Places
Ammon, Edom, Egypt, Gilead, Jerusalem, Moab, Zion
Topics
Armies, Consider, Cunning, Hosts, Mourning, Says, Skilful, Skillful, Thus, Wailing, Weeping, Wise, Women
Outline
1. Jeremiah laments the people for their manifold sins;
9. and for their judgment.
12. Disobedience is the cause of their bitter calamity.
17. He exhorts to mourn for their destruction;
23. and to trust not in themselves, but in God.
25. He threatens both Jews and Gentiles.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 9:17

     5531   skill
     8365   wisdom, human

Jeremiah 9:17-18

     5419   mourning

Jeremiah 9:17-21

     5899   lament

Library
India's Ills and England's Sorrows
It would seem as if some men had been sent into this world for the very purpose of being the world's weepers. God's great house is thoroughly furnished with everything, everything that can express the thoughts and the emotions of the inhabitant, God hath made. I find in nature, plants to be everlasting weepers. There by the lonely brook, where the maiden cast away her life, the willow weeps for ever; and there in the grave yard where men lie slumbering till the trumpet of the archangel shall awaken
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

"Boast not Thyself of To-Morrow, for Thou Knowest not what a Day May Bring Forth. "
Prov. xxvii. 1.--"Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." There are some peculiar gifts that God hath given to man in his first creation, and endued his nature with, beyond other living creatures, which being rightly ordered and improved towards the right objects, do advance the soul of man to a wonderful height of happiness, that no other sublunary creature is capable of. But by reason of man's fall into sin, these are quite disordered and turned out of
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Characters and Names of Messiah
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. S uch was the triumphant exultation of the Old Testament Church! Their noblest hopes were founded upon the promise of MESSIAH; their most sublime songs were derived from the prospect of His Advent. By faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, they considered the gracious declarations
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

How the Simple and the Crafty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 12.) Differently to be admonished are the simple and the insincere. The simple are to be praised for studying never to say what is false, but to be admonished to know how sometimes to be silent about what is true. For, as falsehood has always harmed him that speaks it, so sometimes the hearing of truth has done harm to some. Wherefore the Lord before His disciples, tempering His speech with silence, says, I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now (Joh. xvi. 12).
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Original Sin
Q-16: DID ALL MANKIND FALL IN ADAM'S FIRST TRANSGRESSION? A: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him, by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression. 'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,' &c. Rom 5:12. Adam being a representative person, while he stood, we stood; when he fell, we fell, We sinned in Adam; so it is in the text, In whom all have sinned.' Adam was the head
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Thoughts Upon Worldly-Riches. Sect. Ii.
TIMOTHY after his Conversion to the Christian Faith, being found to be a Man of great Parts, Learning, and Piety, and so every way qualified for the work of the Ministry, St. Paul who had planted a Church at Ephesus the Metropolis or chief City of all Asia, left him to dress and propagate it, after his departure from it, giving him Power to ordain Elders or Priests, and to visit and exercise Jurisdiction over them, to see they did not teach false Doctrines, 1 Tim. i. 3. That they be unblameable in
William Beveridge—Private Thoughts Upon a Christian Life

The Knowledge of God
'The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.' I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God's glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, A God of knowledges.' Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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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