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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
May 1924
evidence of implacable enmity and an invincible determina tion to persevere in sin. But those that abuse God’s mess engers provoke His wrath and cannot escape.—Horn. Com. They put to death the prophet Urijah, in the reign of Je hoiakim, (Jer. 26:20-23); Jeremiah was bitterly perse cuted by Jehoiakim and also by Zedekiah (Jer. 37, 38). The disease of Sin, deliberate, chosen finally and irrevoc ably, reaches a stage at which it is beyond the power of even the Great Physician. This is the awful time described in the last chapter of Revelation (v. 11) .-^-Peloubet. (V. 17) That is, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, which country came to be called Chaldea when it was con quered by the Chaldeans, whose home was southeast of Babylonia, on the Persian Gulf.—Peloubet. (V. 19) This was a tremendous task, for the stones that must be dislodged were enormous. Some of the stones used in the temple were thirty-seven feet long, twelve feet high, and eighteen feet wide. They weighed from ten tons to sixty tons each.— Selec. (V. 20) Sacred vessels taken, palaces of princes levelled to the ground, fortifications demolished, and predictions fulfilled to the letter. No escape by flight. Zedekiah pur sued, caught and despatched to Riblah. Nebuchadnezzar, with cruelty characteristic of the times, ordered his sons to be killed and his own eyes to be thrust out (cf. Jer. 32:4, Ezek. 12:13). Transgressors cannot escape from appointed judgments. The bitterness of sin is seen in the overthrow which it creates. Since we have not otherwise any guar antee against national humiliation, what1need to have the Lord on our side.-—Horn. Com. (V. 21) A wise law of Moses (Lev. 25:1-7) decreed that Palestine should lie fallow, uncultivated, one year in each seven, the fields and vineyards thus storing up fertility for the other six years. It is very significant that the kingdom lasted about 490 years, up to the beginning of the exile—-or seventy times seven, so that, the law being neglected during most of that time, the land would be in arrears of rest just seventy years. These seventy sabbath-years due to Pales tine were paid the land during the exile. All this was clearly foretold in Lev. 26:34, 35, 43.-+—W. H. Bennett. In our lesson a month ago, attention was called to the fact that the northern kingdom of Israel had nineteen kings, every one of whom was evil. The southern kingdom of Judah also had nineteen kings, some of whom were evil and some good. It was because of the DEVOTIONAL rise and reign of these good kings that COMMENT Judah was permitted to remain in Can- John A. Hubbard aan about 140 or 150 years after the northern kingdom was taken captive into Assyria. The last of the good kings of Judah was Josiah, of whom it is written that “ like unto him there was no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him arose there any like him.” (2 Ki. 23:25). After his death, Judah began again on the downward road, and the decline was rapid. Yet “ the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets” (2 Chron. 36:15, 16). For example, king Jehoiakim, Josiah’s grandson, brazenly took the roll con taining God’s message given through Jeremiah cut it up with his penknife and cast it into the fire (Jer. 26:23). The last king of Judah, Zedekiah .“ humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Moreover, all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen, and pol-
them without exhortation and admonition. He sent His messengers, the prophets, to warn and to plead with them. Jeremiah repeats the messages of those who were before him, (Jeremiah 26:4-5), so that all the former prophets may be considered as speaking through his lips. When God’s people turn aside from the path of righteousness, He makes it as hard as possible for them to travel in the way of their own choosing by placing many barriers before them. The Chaldeans by Divine appointment became the instru ment of punishment against rebellious Jerusalem. The punishment is related to their sin. They were slain in the sanctuary which they had defiled by their idolatrous prac tices. Those that escaped the sword were carried away in captivity to Babylon. Jeremiah had foretold the captivity and while it continued “ the land enjoyed her sabbaths.” Moses had prescribed every seventh year as a sabbath of rest. (Lev. 25:4). The nation’s apostasy had caused the non-observance of these sabbath years. Now for seventy years the land was to have that rest from cultivation of which it had been so long deprived. The long-suffering of God is great but there are limits to it. Unless averted by repentance Divine Judgment fol lows sin. God may be slow to anger but He will in no wise acquit the guilty. If Zedekiah had put his trust in God in stead of foreign alliances and fortifications, both his life and his kingdom might have been saved. Sin is just the same today. It blinds the eyes and binds the soul and its wages is death. Everything came to pass exactly as the prophets had foretold. Prophecy is as sure as history. It is history written beforehand by the finger of Him who sees the end from the beginning. Jeremiah predicted that the exile would last seventy years and that after it was ended there would be a restoration as wonderful as the old-time deliv erance from Egypt. In the distant future he beheld the re-union of Israel and Judah under the rule of a Branch of the house of David who should reign and prosper and ex ecute judgment and justice in the earth, Jer. 23:5-6. (V. 11) Zedekiah. He was another son of Josiah, mak ing the third brother who had served’as king. His original name had been Mattaniah, which had been changed to Zede kiah by Nebuchadnezzar just as Pharaoh Necho had changed Eliakim to Jehoiakim.-—Pract. COMMENTS Com. PROM THE (V. 12) For illustrations of this see COMMENTARIES Jer. 21:1-7; 34:8-22; 37:1-10; 38: V. V. Morgan 17-23. “ The word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah”— This is the common intro duction of Jeremiah’s prophecies. He would not have had the power he had unless he had realized, as Christ did, that the words he spoke were not his own, but the Father speaking through him. The doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture is all through the Biblels-Peloubet. (V. 13) This was another sin of his reign because when he received the kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar he had sworn a vassal’s oath of fidelity. This breach of covenant and frivolous violation of oath was sharply condemned by Ezekiel (Ezek. 17:13).— Snowden. (V. 14) These were the heads of the twenty-four courses of priests who took turns serving in the temple, together with the high priest, twenty-five in all. They were the of ficial religious leaders of the people. The idolatrous wor ship of the nations around Judah, which the Jews had to a large extent adopted, was foul with licentiousness and horrible with such cruelties as the offering of children in sacrifice to their brutal gods. No term could describe such practices better than “ abominations.”— Peloubet. (V. 16) Mocked in words, opposed openly in acts, and ill-treated in life. This affront to God who sent them, an
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