I. GOD'S DEALINGS WITH HIS ANCIENT PEOPLE WERE THOSE OF LOVE. That he should have chosen them and brought them into covenant with himself; that he should have taken such precautions to preserve them in that covenant. See the time selected for its establishment (cf. Ver. 4) - when their hearts were susceptible and softened by his great goodness to them, and therefore the more ready to receive and keep the impression of his will. And how forbearing he had been! For more than a thousand years they had been in possession of the land, though they had so often sinned. See, too, the mighty motives to which he appeals - fear of the curse pronounced on the disobedient, hope of the precious recompenses promised to such as should obey. And he enlists conscience on his side. They all said "Amen" to the covenant of God (Ver. 5). And perpetually he had been reminding them of his covenant (Ver. 7). All this - and it is paralleled by God's dealings with men now - proves the loving solicitude with which God regarded his people.

II. AND THAT LOVE WAS LONG-SUFFERING. It was not alone that he had allowed them so long possession of the land promised to their fathers, though they had often forfeited it; but now, not till his forbearance had (Vers. 8-10) manifestly failed in its purpose and was being even perverted into an occasion for fresh sin, did he "change his way" toward them. And even then, many years' respite was given in which repentance and so forgiveness and restoration were possible. And to further this end Jeremiah was sent to them. And all this is like God's dealings still. Take the history of ancient and of all nations that have fallen, and the several steps of Israel's career will be found to have been trodden by them also: a time of great favor; disobedience; warning, repeated, earnest, continued; respite even at the last; sin persisted in notwithstanding all; then the long-threatened destruction. And it is true of families, Churches, individuals, today as of old.

III. BUT THAT LOVE HAD ITS LIMITS. The ruin that came upon Israel, upon Judah, and has so often come upon those like them, proves this.

IV. WHEN THESE LIMITS WERE REACHED, NOTHING COULD THEN AVERT THE THREATENED PUNISHMENT. (Cf. Vers. 11-17.) Not:

1. The piteous "cry of distress (Ver. 11).

2. Still less (Ver. 12) any appeal to their idol-gods. They shall not save them at all," no, although (ver. 13) throughout the whole land, "in every city," and in every street of every city these idol-gods had their altars, their incense and their worship.

3. Nor even the acceptable prayer of the righteous. (Ver. 14 and Jeremiah 7:16.) How dreadful this!

4. Multiplied sacrifices. (Ver. 15; cf. Exposition.) The prophet's meaning, which is quite obscured in our translation, seems to be to protest against their flocking to the house of God, seeing how guilty they had been - it could do them no good: and also against their thinking that "the holy flesh" of sacrifices would turn away wrath from a people who "rejoiced when they did evil."

5. Nor the fact of past privilege and favor. (Ver. 16.) No, although God had made them as a green olive tree (Ver. 16). Himself "planted thee," yet he will himself kindle the fire that shall rage and devour it.

V. FROM ALL WHICH MEN EVERYWHERE ARE TO LEARN:

1. To dread eyeful sin. For we cannot tell when and where those limits of God's long-suffering are reached. That sin to which a man is tempted may be the overstepping of them so far as he is concerned. If he do that, the word may go forth, "Let him alone" (cf. Revelation 22:11). We are apt to think that any time will do to turn to God. It will not. It is not universally nor commonly true "That while the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return." It is untrue; for the probability of a man then, at the very last, turning his heart to God, when up till then he has ever turned his heart away from God, is small indeed. The limit was passed when the Spirit of God left him, and that may be long before death comes. Probably death has nothing whatever to do with it either way. We should then say to ourselves, when drawn to any sin against which God's Holy Spirit is protesting and pleading, "If I disobey him now he may leave me altogether."

2. To desire God. The clearing of the heart of sin is not sufficient, the heart must be occupied. The house to which the evil spirit came back bringing others worse than himself, was swept and garnished, but it was "empty." So if men's hearts be "swept from ill deeds, yet if they be not occupied, evil will come back. It is when the love of God possesses our heart that there is no fear of our even approaching, still less of overstepping, the limits of his long-suffering love. This is our sure, our only safeguard. - C.

It is futile to pray for those who have deliberately cast off the covenant of Jehovah and made a covenant with His adversary. Prayer cannot save, nothing can save, the impenitent; and there is a state of mind, in which one's own prayer is turned into sin; the state of mind in which a man prays, merely to appease God, and escape the fire, but without a thought of forsaking sin, without the faintest aspiration after holiness. There is a degree of guilt upon which sentence is already passed, which is "unto death," and for which prayer is interdicted alike by the prophet of the new and of the old covenant.

(C. J. Ball, M. A.)