You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion. Sermons
I. SUCH VISITATION IS AN UNDOUBTED FACT. It is plainly declared to be a Divine rule, and that once and again (cf. Exodus 20., etc.). And apart from the Bible - in the manifest law of heredity - there is the dread fact patent to all. Workhouses, prisons, hospitals, asylums, all attest the visitation of God for the fathers' sins. II. IT IS A GREAT MYSTERY. It is one branch of that all-pervading mystery into which all other mysteries sooner or later run up - the mystery of evil. There is nothing to be done, so far as its present solution is concerned, but to "trust," and so "not be afraid." III. BUT NOT WITHOUT ALLEVIATIONS; e.g. 1. If the sins of the fathers are visited on their descendants, yet more are God's mercies. The sins descend to "the third and fourth generation," but the mercies to "thousands" of generations - for this is meant. 2. The descent is not entire. The sins come down, it is true, upon the descendants, but in their fruits rather than in their roots. A father cannot force on his child his wickedness, though he may his diseases and tendencies. 3. The entail may be cut off in its worst part at any moment, and very often is. Coming to Christ may not deliver me from physical suffering, but it will from sin. Grafted into Christ a new life will begin, the whole tendency of which in me and in mine is to counteract and undo the results of the former evil life. 4. And the visitation of the fathers sins is but rarely because of the fathers sins only. The descendants of the age of Manasseh did their works, and what wonder that they should inherit their woes? 5. And it is a salutary law. Children are a means of grace to tens of thousands of parents. "Out of the mouth of babes," etc. For, for their children's sakes, parents will exercise a watchfulness and self-restraint, will seek after God and goodness as otherwise they would never have done. The remembrance of what they will inflict on their children by virtue of this law fills them with a holy fear, as God designed it should. CONCLUSION. 1. Parents. What legacy are you leaving for your children? Shall they have to curse or bless you? O father, mother, "do not sin against" your "child." 2. Children. What have you received? Is it a legacy of evil example, evil tendency, evil habit? God's grace will help you to break the succession. Refuse it for yourselves, determine you will not hand it on to others. But is it a legacy of holy example, tendencies, and habits? Blessed be God if it be so. What responsibility this involves! What blessing it renders possible for you and those who come after you! - C.
I am weary with repenting. I. GOD REPENTING. God condescends to designate His conduct by that name. The expression may be inadequate and defective, but still language had nothing better to describe the idea, nor human experience to represent the fact. When God is pleased to speak of Himself as pitying, repenting, grieving for man's sake, what is evidently intended is, that so intense is His love for man, that were His infinite nature capable of these creature passions, His love would show itself in these very forms.II. GOD PROVOKED TO A DEGREE THAT HE CAN REPENT NO MORE. He is "weary with repenting": worn and tired out with having to cancel threatened sentences so often — as a potentate of earth might be at finding that every fresh display of patience in his subjects masked but deeper hatred to his rule, and every amnesty he declared was but a signal for raising the standard of rebellion anew. What can man do, to move the Author of his being to regard him in this way? We must not speculate; we must let the great God speak for Himself; we must try to gather out of other Scriptures what those things are which are said to weary God, wear out His patience, make Him tired of His forgivenesses, reprieves, and revoked sentences. 1. Among these provocations we may note hypocrisy and allowed formality in religious duty (Isaiah 1:13, 14). 2. We may make God weary by presumptuous and unwarranted calculations upon His mercy (Malachi 2:17). 3. Another thing Scripture teaches us wearies, puts God out of patience, is unbelief, a restoring to creature trust and dependencies, a want of simplicity and unreservedness in accepting His promises, as if we thought He would not pay them in full, or did not mean them to be taken by us, in all their length and breadth, and depth and worth. 4. The awful limit prescribed in the text may be reached, and the Divine forbearance tasked one step too far, by provocations after mercies. (D. Moore, M. A.) 1. That God had often turned from His threatenings, and dealt in mercy with the people. 2. That the Divine mercy had been frequently abused, and the people had gone back again to their sins. 3. That not a change in His being, but only a change of relationship, is expressed by the word "repent." 4. That judgment is alien to God's heart, whereas mercy is His delight. 5. That when God is met with persistent ingratitude, and men relapse continually into sin, He must eventually punish them. 6. That the operations of the Divine mind can only be expressed in human language with difficulty and limitation. 7. That we should be careful not to trifle with or abuse, the patient long-suffering of God. (W. Whale.) (W. Brooke.) People Hezekiah, Jeremiah, Manasseh, SamuelPlaces Jerusalem, ZionTopics Affirmation, Backsliding, Backward, Cast, Changing, Compassion, Declares, Destroy, Destroyed, Destruction, Forsaken, Goest, Hands, Hast, Lay, Longer, Purpose, Rejected, Relenting, Repenting, Says, Stretch, Stretched, Tired, WearyOutline 1. The utter rejection and manifold judgments of the people.10. Jeremiah, complaining of their spite, receives a promise for himself; 12. and a threatening for them. 15. He prays; 19. and receives a gracious promise. Dictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 15:6 1265 hand of God Library The Northern Iron and the SteelThat being the literal meaning, we shall draw from our text a general principle. It is a proverbial expression, no doubt, and applicable to many other matters besides that of the prophet and the Jews; it is clearly meant to show, that in order to achieve a purpose, there must be a sufficient force. The weaker cannot overcome the stronger. In a general clash the firmest will win. There must be sufficient firmness in the instrument or the work cannot be done. You cannot cut granite with a pen-knife, … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871 Hidden Manna Ten Reasons Demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral. The Sins of Communities Noted and Punished. General Notes by the American Editor How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished. What the Scriptures Principally Teach: the Ruin and Recovery of Man. Faith and Love Towards Christ. The Word An Analysis of Augustin's Writings against the Donatists. Jeremiah Links Jeremiah 15:6 NIVJeremiah 15:6 NLT Jeremiah 15:6 ESV Jeremiah 15:6 NASB Jeremiah 15:6 KJV Jeremiah 15:6 Bible Apps Jeremiah 15:6 Parallel Jeremiah 15:6 Biblia Paralela Jeremiah 15:6 Chinese Bible Jeremiah 15:6 French Bible Jeremiah 15:6 German Bible Jeremiah 15:6 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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