Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD, and proclaim it in distant coastlands: "The One who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them as a shepherd keeps his flock. Sermons
I. AS AN EXHIBITION OF DIVINE GRACE AND POWER. (Vers. 10,11.) 1. It betokened the restoration of God's favour. (Ver. 10.) The term of punishment was to draw to a close, and the era of reconciliation to commence. Just as he had "scattered" the Israelites, now he was about to recall them to Canaan. In the one act, as in the other, the Divine intervention and its moral significance would be made manifest. The greatest judgments of God on earth have their limits. "He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever." How carefully should the times of Divine discipline and reconciliation be observed by those who are concerned in them! 2. The power of God would be displayed in it. (Vers. 10, 11; cf. ver. 8.) As Sovereign. The words used, "He that scattered Israel will gather him," would seem to mean - he that scattered Israel would alone know where to discover them again. The figure of a shepherd and his flock is also suggestive of skill and authority. As the restored unity and national life of Israel were to be a marvellous phenomenon, much more would the spiritual unity of God's people throughout the world, of which the former was but the prototype. "The Lord knoweth them that are his." Another proof of the Divine power was afforded in the fact that Israel was to be delivered from one "that was stronger than he." The power of Nebuchadnezzar was to be broken. So the world-power which prevents the true freedom and unity of the Church from being realized will be destroyed. Indeed, already Christ has declared himself as "him that overcometh the world;" and in view of this the "little flock" are not to be dismayed. The day is coming when all enemies will be put under the feet of Christ, the Lord of the Church. II. AS RESULTING IN NATIONAL AND SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY. (Vers. 12-14.) It was not only to be a restoration of the people to their own land. God does nothings, by halves. The industry, social and national development, and the spiritual life of Israel would be abundantly blessed. 1. The well being of God's people is viewed as connected. The spiritual with the material, and the material with the spiritual. There is no austerity in the religion of the restored, and yet their life is full of the spirit and practice of religion. The blessing of God upon the fruits of the earth is gratefully recognized, and as with a common thankfulness the people "flow together" to the great festivals of the temple. It is only as men exhibit this spirit - the spirit of righteousness and thankfulness - that the earth will succeed better than the wicked, even in secular pursuits. "Godliness is profitable unto all things," etc. (1 Timothy 4:8). 2. It is to be complete and glorious. How spontaneous the piety of the redeemed! In the picture here sketched we seem to catch a glimpse of the fulness of the millennial joy. It is a state of overflowing, ecstatic blessedness. The religious and the secular pursuits of men are to be harmonized. Age is to forget its weakness, and the bereaved their grief. The Church is to share in the general prosperity, and, as a consequence of the efficiency and fervour of its ministrations, the people are to be "satisfied with my goodness." When shall this vision of human life in its wholeness and its glory be realized? Our own times exhibit few signs of such a golden age. Yet the Word of the Lord has spoken it, and we should with patience both labour and look for its fulfilment. - M.
Hear the Word of the Lord, O ye nations. I. THE WORD OF THE LORD.1. The sublimity and mystery of the doctrine it reveals. 2. The purity and spirituality of its doctrines. 3. The harmony of its different authors. 4. The fulfilment of its predictions and promises. 5. The enmity that is in the carnal mind against it. 6. The power that it has upon the human heart. II. THE PREACHER'S WORD. 1. To be preached wholly. Doctrine, experience, and practice. 2. To be preached freely. 3. To be preached affectionately and warmly. 4. To be preached constantly. III. THE DUTY OF THE HEARER — TO HEAR. 1. To prepare in the closet for hearing. 2. To believe what is heard. 3. To reduce what is heard to practice. (G. J. Till.) He that scattered Israel will gather him. This is an entirely reassuring message for a nation passing through an ecclesiastical crisis. It tells us that vast upheavals of thought and life have their place in the plan of God, advance under His sovereign leadership, and are compelled to contribute to the carrying-out of His purpose to redeem, remake, and reunite with Himself, the whole race of man. It is a rigid truth, "God scatters Israel"; the Israel He Himself called and created; and his an infinite solace to know that the "scattering" is His and not another's. It is an equally indisputable fact that the God who scatters Israel gathers him again and keeps him as a shepherd his flock. He gathered before He scattered, and He will gather again after He has scattered. Israel will not perish. Never! The social and ecclesiastical moulds in which her life is cast may be broken again and again; but the life endures. God is the God of salvation. He is always mindful of His own. Hope in Him, and hope for evermore! That swift upleap of faith and hope to the summits of clearest vision is vindicated by the whole story of the Exile. The joy that was set before the strong soul of the seer in these days of crushing disaster was realised in the experiences of the succeeding centuries. The prophecy was fulfilled. The crisis was educational, purifying, expanding, uplifting, and unifying; divisive for the day and the hour, but uniting on purer principles and for broader and higher ideals for evermore. As men are educated by their mistakes, and even their sins become as staves in a ladder by which they climb to God, so the Israelites "rose on stepping stones of their dead selves to higher things." The sevenfold blessing of the Exile stands written in the unimpeachable Chronicles of Israel, and the world. But, a greater than Jeremiah, describing the facts of His own day and ministry, says, "The wolf scattereth the sheep." For again, nearly six hundred years after the time of the prophet, mere was another "crisis in the Church" of Israel, and another exile was at the doors. Once more the holy city was to be trodden under foot of men, and the holy people were already seized by the "wolf," and about to be "scattered" to the ends of the earth! The significance of the first exile was forgotten. The lessons of experience were unheeded by the leaders of the Jewish people. Priest, and scribe, and Pharisee had corrupted religion again; taught that the outward rites of worship were of more importance than keeping the commandments of God; substituted ceremonialism for obedience, and the use of the sacraments for loving service of man. And so the sheep were scattered. But this is exactly the same spirit which broke the heart of the prophet Jeremiah until he saw it overtaken by the Divine punishment; and then, passing by the iniquity of the leaders of the people, and looking at the penalty which, because it was inflicted by God, had in it an element of recuperation and of hope, he said, God scatters; but "He that scattered Israel will gather him." These are, then, two ways of regarding two similar crises, and both are necessary to a just and full interpretation of their meaning. Jesus, speaking to the authoritative religious leaders of Israel, who have, sincerely enough, it may be, but mistakenly, made themselves the foes of God and men, seeks to lay bare their guilt, and therefore fixes upon and exposes the wolf-like ravages wrought on the religious life of the people by their absolute want of the veriest shreds of real religion. His aim is to convict these leaders of the wrong they are doing to their God and to their country. Not so Jeremiah: he is anticipating the great word, "Comfort ye My people; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; that she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." But the richest draught of consolation in Jeremiah's Gospel is in the assertion of the principle on which these national and institutional changes proceed. God's goal, he says, is always constructive, not destructive; the gathering together in one the children of God that are scattered abroad, and not the driving them away from home and fatherland. He shatters the social form of Israel's life for the sake of the more perfect and adequate rebuilding of the nobler Israel on the basis of His original redemptive idea. This law is older than all Churches, more fundamental than all States, and as wide and deep as our human life. It is the vital condition of progress. God is at war with the obsolete. He is the living God, and seeks life, and promotes life. The Churches are secondary to the kingdom. They exist for religion, and not religion for them. As words are to ideas, tools to service, so are Churches to the kingdom of God and the service of man, and therefore "the crisis in the Church" is not likely to be inimical to religion in the end. It will promote real religion, expand it, clear it of the accretions of the past, set it free of the false alliances into which it has entered, convert it from its paganisms, and restore it to its original purity and vigour. And now, what is to be our attitude to these crises in the religious life of our country? Surely, not merely one of silent acquiescence in and gratitude for the work of God, but rather of intelligent, prayerful, large-hearted, and wise co-operation. We are called to be co-workers with Him, to fall in with His laws, to take part in the furtherance of His beneficent work of scattering and gathering His Israel. Our first business is to get on the side of His laws, of His justice and righteousness, at all costs; not to seek the pleasant paths of neutrality and indifference, but to accept boldly the responsibilities placed upon us by our subjection to Christ, and by the exposition and application of His Gospel to the manifold needs of our time. We must begin with ourselves. He who would free others must himself be free.(J. Clifford, D. D.) 1. Redeemed them (ver. 11). 2. Remembered them (ver. 20). 3. Loved them (ver. 3). 4. Drew them (ver. 3). II. GOD'S PROMISE TO THEM IN THE FUTURE. He will forgive them (ver. 34). He will forget their sin (ver. 34). He will gather them out (ver. 8). He will keep them near (ver. 10). He will lead them on (ver. 9). He will prosper them in the way (ver. 12). He will satisfy them fully (ver. 14). He will watch over them continually (ver. 28), (C. Inglis.) People Gareb, Jacob, Jeremiah, Rachel, RahelPlaces Corner Gate, Egypt, Gareb, Goah, Horse Gate, Kidron, Ramah, Samaria, Tower of Hananel, ZionTopics Afar, Coastlands, Declare, Distant, Ear, Flock, Gather, Islands, Isles, Keeper, Keeps, Kept, Nations, News, O, Proclaim, Scattered, Scattering, Sea-lands, Shepherd, Wandering, WatchOutline 1. The restoration of Israel.10. The publication thereof. 15. Rahel mourning is comforted. 18. Ephraim repenting is brought home again. 22. Christ is promised. 27. His care over the church. 31. His new covenant. 35. The stability, 38. and amplitude of the church. Dictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 31:10 1220 God, as shepherd Library What the Stable Creation Teaches'If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever.'--JER. xxxi. 36. This is the seal of the new covenant, which is to be made in days future to the prophet and his contemporaries, with the house of Israel and of Judah. That new covenant is referred to in Hebrews as the fundamental law of Christ's kingdom. Therefore we have the right to take to ourselves the promises which it contains, and to think of 'the house … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture What the Immense Creation Teaches August the Twenty-First Satisfaction God in the Covenant The Two Covenants: their Relation The New Covenant Conversion of all that Come. Old Things are Passed Away. Whether the Active Life Remains after this Life? Waiting Faith Rewarded and Strengthened by New Revelations A vision of Judgement and Cleansing Perseverance in Holiness Appendix xiv. The Law in Messianic Times. Conversion --Varied Phenomena or Experience. The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3 The King in Exile "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. " The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6. Exposition of Chap. Iii. (ii. 28-32. ) The Lord's Supper Instituted. The First Covenant Sanctification. Links Jeremiah 31:10 NIVJeremiah 31:10 NLT Jeremiah 31:10 ESV Jeremiah 31:10 NASB Jeremiah 31:10 KJV Jeremiah 31:10 Bible Apps Jeremiah 31:10 Parallel Jeremiah 31:10 Biblia Paralela Jeremiah 31:10 Chinese Bible Jeremiah 31:10 French Bible Jeremiah 31:10 German Bible Jeremiah 31:10 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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