Jeremiah 50:4-5 In those days, and in that time, said the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together… The previous part of this chapter declares the overthrow of Israel's cruel oppressor. "Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces." The Assyrian and Babylonian power had been the great tyrant of the ages, and the Lord had employed it for the chastening of His people, until at last Israel and Judah had been carried away captive to the banks of the Euphrates, and the land of their fathers knew them no more. When, therefore, the Lord deals with Babylon in a way of vengeance it is that He may deliver His own people. See how the two things are joined together in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses. When Pharaoh is drowned, Israel is saved; when Sihon and Og are slain, the Lord's mercy to His people is seen to endure for ever. To-day the power of the adversary is broken, and we may flee out of the Babylon of sin. A greater than Cyrus has opened the two-leaved gates, and broken the bars of iron in sunder, and proclaimed liberty to the captives. We may now return to our God and freely enjoy the holy and happy associations which belong to the city of our God. Every one who is really seeking the Lord desires to be sure that he is seeking aright; he is not willing to take anything for granted, since his soul is of too much value to be left at hazard. He inquires, "Are my feelings like those of the truly penitent? Am I believing as those do who are justified by faith? Am I seeking the Lord in a manner which will be pleasing to Him?" They have so long been as lost sheep, going from mountain to hill, that they have forgotten their resting-places, therefore in their confusion they are afraid of going wrong again, and so they inquire with eager anxiety. Perhaps we may show them from this Scripture how others sought and how others found, and this may be a guide and a comfort to them; for albeit there are differences of operation, and all do not come to Christ with equal terrors, or with equal joys, yet there is a likeness in all the pilgrims to the holy city. I. To begin at the beginning, the Lord's restored ones during the processes of grace were first of all MOURNERS. 1. Oh, after all your sins I will not believe that you are truly coming to God if there is not about you a great sorrow for sin and a lamenting after the Lord. Some seekers are made to drink of this bitter cup very deeply; their sense of sin is terrible, even to anguish and agony. I know that there are others who do not taste this bitterness to the same degree; but it is in their cup, for all that. The clear shining in their case so soon follows the rain that they scarcely know that there has been a shower of grief. Surely, in their case the bitterness is passed; yet is it truly there, only the other ingredient of intense delight in God's mercy swallows up all its sharpness. Oh, you cannot imagine the Jews returning from captivity without bewailing the sins which drove them into the place of their exile. How could they be restored to God if they did not lament their former wicked estrangement? While the heart feels no compunction concerning its wanderings, no mourning over its guilt, no grief at having grieved the Lord, there can be no acceptance with God. There must be a shower in the day of mercy: not always a long driving rain causing a flood, but the soft drops must fall in every case. There must be tenderness toward God if we expect reconciliation with God. 2. Observe that this mourning in the case of Israel and Judah was so strong that it mastered other feelings. Between Judah and Israel there was an old feud. Yet now that they return unto the Lord, we read, "The children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together." Oh, happy union in a common search for God! One of the first results of holy sorrow for sin is to cast out of our heart all forms of enmity and strife with our fellow-men. When we are reconciled to God we are reconciled to men. A penitent sense of our own provocations of God will prevent our being provoked with men. As Aaron's rod swallowed up all other rods, so a sincere sorrow for sin will remove all readiness to take offence against our fellow-sinners. 3. Keeping close to the text, we notice again that the exiles on their return were mourning while marching. Observe the words, "going and weeping." A true heart that is coming to God takes the road by Weeping-Cross: it feels its sin, its guilt, its undesert, and it therefore mourns. The closet is sought out and prayer is offered; but in the supplication there is a dove's note, a moaning as of one sorrowing for love. 4. Turning the text round, we read not only of "going and weeping." but also of weeping and going. The holy grief here intended does not lead to sitting still, for it is added "they shall go." That word "weeping" is sandwiched in between two goings — going and weeping; they shall go and seek the Lord. To sit down and say, "I will sorrow for my sin, but never seek a Saviour," is an impenitent pretence of repentance, a barren sorrow which brings forth no cleansing of the life, and no diligent search after the Lord. The way to repent is with your eye upon the sacrifice, viewing the flowing of the sin-atoning blood, marking every precious drop, gazing into the Redeemer's wounds, and believing in the love which in death opened up its depths unsearchable. All the while we must be saying, "My God, my God, I groan within myself that such a sacrifice should have been required by my atrocious transgressions against Thee." 5. We must not pass over that last word, "They shall go and seek the Lord their God." This shall be a guide to you as to whether your present state of feeling is leading you aright. What is it you are seeking? "I am seeking," says one, "I am seeking peace." May you soon obtain it, and may it be real peace; but I am not sure of you. "I am seeking," says another, "the pardon of sin." Again, I pray that you may find it; but I am not sure of you. If another shall reply, "I am seeking the Lord; for I desire above all things to have Him for a friend, though to Him I have been an enemy; then I have good hope of him. Here is a little child, picked up from the gutter, diseased and filthy, unclad, unfed; and if you ask me to make out a catalogue of what the child wants you must give me a sheet of foolscap paper to write it all down, and then I fear I shall leave out many things. I will tell you in one word what that poor infant requires — it wants its mother. If it gets its mother it has all it needs. So to tell what a poor sinner wants might be a long task; but when you say that he wants his Heavenly Father you have said it all. Oh, souls, you are seeking aright if you are seeking your God. Nothing short of this will suffice. II. Secondly, these mourners became INQUIRERS. "They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward." They knew within a little the quarter in which Zion lay, and they looked that way; but they did not know all about the road: how should they? 1. The saving point about them was that they were not ashamed to confess their ignorance. Minds that the Lord has touched are never boastful of their wisdom. There are many persons in the world who would be converted if they could but consent to be taught by God's Word and Spirit; hut they are such wise people, they know too much to enter the school of grace. 2. It is clear from their asking their way that these inquirers were teachable. "They shall ask the way to Zion": they shall therefore be conscious of ignorance, and they shall be willing to be taught; these are good characteristics, such as God accepts. 3. More than this, they will be anxious although they are right. "They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward." They are travelling in the right direction, and yet they ask the way. He that has never raised a question about his condition before God had better raise it at once. The fullest assurance of faith we can ever attain will never excuse us from the duty of self-examination. 4. At the same time, note concerning those that are coming to the Lord and His people, that they are questioning, but they are still resolved. They ask how they can be right with God, not as a matter of curiosity, but because they mean to be at peace with Him: by God's grace nothing shall turn them aside from their God and His temple, and hence their anxiety to be surely right. True penitents will have Christ or die. 5. Though they ask the way, we may remark further that they know whither they are going. They ask their way, not to somewhere or other, but to Zion; not to some imaginary blissful shore that may be or may not be, but they seek God's own dwelling-place, God's own palace, God's own sacrifice. They ask boldly too, for they are not ashamed to be found inquiring; and when they are informed, their faces are already that way, and therefore they have nothing to do but to Go straight on. May God grant us myriads of such inquirers! III. These inquirers become COVENANTERS, for they. said one to another, "Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten." Oh, that word "covenant"! I can never pronounce it without joy in my heart. It is to me a mine of comfort, a mint of delight, a mass of joy. The doctrine of the "covenant" is a kind of Shibboleth by which we may know the man of God from the false prophet. Let the people of God take no delight in the man who does not delight in the covenant of grace. 1. These inquirers become covenanters, for we read that they seek to be joined unto the Lord. "Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord. Is not this the one thing you long for, that you may be so at peace with God through Jesus Christ that you may be joined with Him? You are a right-hearted seeker, in fact, you have found the Lord already, or else you would not find it in your heart to use such an expression as seeking to be joined unto the Lord. 2. Next, notice for how long a time this covenant is to be made. "Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant." In our English army of late they have enlisted "short time" men. A good brother came to join the Church last week who is in the Reserve, and I said to him, "You are not coming to unite with us for two sixes, the first six with the colours, and the other six as a reserve man, — you have come, I hope, to fight under the colours as long as life lasts." "Ay, sir," he said, "I give myself up to the Lord for ever." No salvation is possible except that which saves the soul for ever. A real man of God has his religion interwoven into the warp and woof of his being; he could not be other than he is whatever his circumstances might be. The covenant of life requires a life-long covenant. We do not take grace upon a terminable lease; it is an entailed inheritance, an immortal, eternal possession. 3. Note, further, that this joining to God these covenanters intended to carry out in a most solemn way. "Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual" — agreement? or promise? No. "Covenant" is the word. It is a profitable thing for the soul to covenant with God. In the ordinance of baptism we have the best visible setting forth of that covenant. Circumcision set forth the taking away of the filth of the flesh; but baptism sets forth the death and burial of the flesh itself; we see in it the emblem of our death and burial with our Lord. The believer thereby says, "Now I am come to an end of my old life, for I am dead and buried," and he becomes henceforth as one who has risen with Christ, to walk in newness of life. 4. Those who came mourning and inquiring, when they became covenanters, felt that they had a nature very apt to forgetfulness of good things, and so a part of what they desired in their covenanting with God was "a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten." God will never forget, yet may you pray, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." The fear is lest you should forget. What is your view of that possibility? Would it not be terrible? ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. |
    |