The Love of Our Espousals
(No. 2926)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 30, 1876.
"Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the Lord: I
remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals,
when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown."
Jeremiah 2:2.
BRETHREN, we may forget the past, but God does not. He says, "I
remember you, the kindness of your youth." God's mercies come to us in
such a constant stream–they are so many and so varied that we are very
apt to have a feeble memory towards them. But the Lord remembers what
He has done for us and He expects a return. He remembers the kindness
which He showed to us in our youth–for so some interpreters read this
passage–and He remembers the love which He manifested towards us in
the days of our espousals. As the husbandman remembers how he plowed
the land– how he dug about the tree and fed it and, therefore, looks
for a better harvest, or a larger crop of fruit, so does God remember
what He did for us in our youth–how some of us were trained in godly
households–sent to schools where the main part of our education was
the fear of God–tenderly kept out of the way of temptation–fostered
and nurtured in every good word and work. God remembers this.
If some now present are making no worthy return–when the Lord looks
upon them for fruit He sees that they are bringing forth but wild
grapes, though they may forget their indebtedness and their
responsibility–let them remember that God remembers all of it and
expects some response from them. Think, too, that there shall come a
day when the Divine memory will touch our sleeping memory into
activity–God will say to us, as Abraham said to Dives, "Son,
remember"–and that remembrance may be the worm that never dies within
the conscience and fuel for the fire that never shall be quenched! If
men and women would but remember now what God did for them in years
gone by, and remember what manner of people they ought to be in
consequence of the mercy which has been lavished upon them, it would
save them many regrets. It might, indeed, save them endless remorse!
I do not, however, think that that is exactly the meaning of the
passage in the Hebrew. Our translators have, I believe, hit upon its
real meaning which is that God remembers what we have done towards Him.
He remembers our kindness and love to Him in the days of our espousals.
He here alluded to the early history of the nation of Israel, when,
under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, they came out of Egypt, passed
through the Red Sea and traveled the great and howling wilderness
wherein were pits and all manner of dangers. Led by the fiery cloudy
pillar, they faithfully traversed the roads which God marked out for
them until they came to be settled in the land which He had given them
by a Covenant of salt.
Those first days of the Israelite nation were heroic times. Most
nations have a grandeur about their early history. Indeed, it is often
so grand that our modern doubters consign the whole of it to the region
of myth and suppose that it is a mass of exaggeration! The early
history of Switzerland and its William Tell, for instance, has been
disputed, though I no more doubt the existence of William Tell than I
do my own. Even the early history of England has come under many clouds
and questions–and all because there was something heroic about it.
The early history of every Christian denomination is also exceedingly
bright. If you take up, for instance, one of modern times, the
Methodists, there is no page of Methodist history that can compare with
the first, when they suffered and yet as boldly proclaimed the Gospel
everywhere with a self-denying zeal worthy of Apostolic times! I think
I might say that it is generally so with almost every church. "You did
run well: who did hinder you?" Under the leadership of some one man
whom the Lord clothes with power, as He did the Judges, one after the
other, in the history of Israel, great
things are done and marvels are worked. But soon there comes
lukewarmness–a gradual slipping back into the ordinary and the
commonplace–alas, I might almost say into declension and backsliding!
Now, as it has been with nations, that they have a great and heroic
history at first and as it has generally been with churches that the
primitive glory is the brightest, so is it often with individual
Christians. "They begin–oh, with what zeal!–with what energy!–with
what prayerfulness!–with what consecration! If they do not begin so,
the more is the pity, for they do not often improve upon their
beginnings. But many do begin so and, after a while, the runner runs
into a wall and the walker sits down, at last, in the Arbor of Ease and
no longer runs with diligence the race that is set before him.
The point I want to call your attention to is this–that the Lord sees
His people when they are in that good state, notes it down and
remembers it, makes a record of it and says, "I remember you as you
were years ago. I remember you, young man, when you were young. I
remember you, woman, when you were yet a girl. I remember you–the
kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals–when you went after
Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." God remembers those
zealous times, those happy seasons, those enthusiastic hours! And if we
have come to an ebb, if we are now cold and almost dead and have
forgotten the better days–God has not forgotten them! He keeps a
record of them for divers uses, some of which us we will try to think
of now as God may help us.
I. Our first head, then, is THE LORD'S COMMENDATION OF THE YOUTH OF HIS
PEOPLE. He commends Israel for what she used to be and He commends each
Believer for what he used to be if he used to be as Israel once was.
God is never slow to commend His children when He can commend them. It
is marvelous how the Lord sometimes seems to shut His eyes to the
faults of His children when He would give them praise. You recollect
Sarah, when she laughed and said, "Shall I have pleasure, my lord being
old, also?" It was an unbelieving, wicked laugh, and yet the Holy
Spirit commends Sarah and says of her that she called her husband
"lord." He puts down that which was the only good point about it and
seems almost to wink at her mocking doubt because she called her
husband, "lord." Sometimes the Lord puts His eyes on what is good in
His children and speaks of only that. As to what is wrong in them,
there are other times when He will bring those wrongs to remembrance
and chasten them in order to put their sin away. But when He is
commending, He will fix His eyes on the pearl and not touch the oyster
shell–He will see the star and say nothing about the black sky in
which it shines!
Well, Beloved, when the Israelites came out of Egypt they were a long,
long way from being what they ought to be. It was difficult to make
them believe in Moses. They were ready enough to quarrel with him when
the count of the bricks was increased and, even after all the miracles,
no sooner did they get out of Egypt than they began to be afraid as
they heard Pharaoh's rattling chariots approaching! Then they were not
far in the wilderness before they began to murmur because they had no
water–and in a short time they murmured again because they wanted
flesh to eat instead of the manna which God had given them. But now,
the Lord seeing them altogether wandering away, looks back even upon
that imperfect condition with something of satisfaction and wishes
that, notwithstanding the faults of that early period, they were still
as they were then. "I remember," He says, "the kindness of your youth."
But has He forgotten their unkindness? Yes–that was His own promise.
"Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.'" He has forgotten
them. Does He not remember when, instead of coming after Him in the
wilderness, they said, "Make us gods which shall go before us"? Yes,
but He does not mention that, for He says, "I will cast all their sins
behind My back." He remembers now only the excellence of their former
state and so, Beloved, He will remember whatever excellence there was
in our first estate when we first came to Christ–in spite of all its
failure and imperfection.
Now what can there be in our early life for God to remember?
Well, I trust there is to be remembered at this present moment the love
of our espousals. Let me call it to your mind. Do you recollect your
first love? Oh, how clear it was–how warm! How undivided! How wholly
given up to Christ! Did you love the Savior? You had been much forgiven
and, oh, you did love Him! You could not be enough with Him, or think
too much of Him, or even say too much about Him. Did you love Him? Why,
if any scoffed at you for His sake, you were pleased beyond measure!
You would have been willing to go to prison for Him! Yes, to have died
for Him. Did you love Him in your first days? Why, you know how you
shared of your substance with great delight for His cause. You
sometimes wished you had a thousand times as much and then you would
have thought it a mere trifle to lay it all at His
feet. There was a great breaking of alabaster boxes in those early days
and often was the house filled with the perfume of the ointment!
You even grew angry if you heard anybody speak a word against Him and
His cause! Sometimes you had a zeal that went far beyond your knowledge
and you did some things in the earnestness of your soul which were not
altogether wise. But you did love Him. Oh, how you loved Him! The zeal
of His House did eat you up–every passion and power that you possessed
seemed to be altogether consecrated to Him! Did you love Him? Why, you
loved the meanest of His people– there was not a lamb in all the flock
you would have disdained to feed. You loved His Book–the smallest
promise charmed you. You loved His House–you used to wish that all the
week were Sundays and that every Sunday lasted a month. You wished to
be in the land–
" Where congregations never break up
And Sabbaths have no end,"
because you could not take your fill of His sweet love. You wanted more
and still more. That was the love of your espousals. God remembers it
and looks back upon it and commends it. And I want you, with whom it
may have been 25 years ago, as well as you with whom it is only lately,
to look back upon it and remember it, too. I hope there are some who
are in the middle of this spiritual honeymoon even now. May it last
forever with you! May you never grow cold. May you never wander from
your Lord. But where it is a thing of the past, remember it and think
of it now with pleasure. Perhaps I might add that some of you should
also think of it with regret and shame.
The Lord commends His people because, in addition to that love, there
seems to have been much exultation and delight and many acts
corresponding to the love. He remembers the kindness of our youth. "I
remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals."
I think it means not only that these people of old loved Him, but that
they showedthat love. Just see them when they have passed through the
Red Sea and, for the first time, set their foot upon the desert sand of
the other side. Miriam takes her timbrel and all the daughters of
Israel go forth in dancing! And they sing, with shouts, "Sing unto the
Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider has He
cast into the sea." "He is my God and I will prepare Him a habitation;
my father's God, and I will exalt Him." Those were high days! How they
exulted in that dear and glorious name! Why, there was not, throughout
all their camp, a dog that dared move his tongue against Jehovah that
day! Even those who worshipped the star of their god Remphan remained
silent. Even the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt who knew not
the Lord kept very quiet. The whole host seemed to be exulting in the
Lord. There was not merely love, but it was love that overflowed. Their
cup ran over. It was love that set the joy-bells ringing and brought
out the timbrel and the harp again and again and again, that they might
praise the Lord who had destroyed their enemies!
Do you remember the experience in your own life that answered to this?
I do, well. I go back in thought to the time when I felt as light as a
feather–when my very soul felt like the dancing snowflakes that fell
around me on that morning when first I was washed in the blood of the
Lamb. Oh, the exultation I had in His salvation! Then did I wish that
rocks and hills would break their everlasting silence to extol Him. No
music then was like His charming name, nor half so sweet to me, nor is
there now, blessed be His Grace! There are some, alas, who have gone
back from that point who must, nevertheless, recollect those times of
ecstatic joy when first they knew the Lord. The Lord remembers it too.
"I remember it," He says, "I remember it." As the husband remembers the
first love of his wife and, perhaps, tells her of it to bring back the
sweet, young, fresh feeling again, so does the Lord remind any of you
who have become cold about those blessed days, in the hope of
compelling you to similar kindness towards Him now.
Then, observe, He goes on to speak about how closely His people
followed Him. He remembers the reality of our fellowship. "When you
went after Me." In those days we said and not only said it, but
actually carried it out into action–
"In all my Lord's appointed ways My journey I'll pursue."
"Where He goes, I go," we said. "Where He bids me go, I go. Only let me
be able by Grace to follow the example of Jesus Christ and it shall be
my delight to put my foot down where He puts His and to tread in His
footsteps with sedulous and anxious care." Do you remember when you
used to feel afraid to put one foot before another lest you should go
aside? And whenever you did anything you always sought His guidance?
How you often took the words out of your mouth and
looked at them before you spoke them, lest you should say anything but
what He allowed. Oh, that was a blessed time! I wish that carefulness,
that watching of your soul, that intense desire to be right before the
Lord even in little things and in nothing to offend the jealous heart
of the Lover of your soul would always continue. We are never healthier
than when we have a conscience quick as the apple of an eye, when our
whole nature is delicately sensitive even to the thought of sin. Just
as the sensitive plant begins to curl up its leaves the moment it is
touched, as at those times our soul is wary, and coy, and tender at the
faintest approach of sin. It was so at first and God commends us for
it, for He says that we followed Him closely. He still commends us for
it, where He finds such Grace abiding.
He commends the people, in fact, because they came out in order to
follow Him. He remembers the steadfastness of our purpose. "When you
went after Me in the wilderness," He says, which signifies that the
ancient people came out from Egypt in order to follow God. Was it not a
grand thing when every Israelite–for there was not one left
behind–left his house and his home for God? It may not have been a
very comfortable home, perhaps, for they had been dwelling among the
pots and among the brick kilns, but everyone left his home. You would
have thought that somebody would have said, "Poor as it is, it is where
my children were born and I do not want to leave it." But they all went
out! Some of them turned all their little property into jewels so as to
make it portable–and came away with the little dough that they had
made up in what our version calls their kneading troughs. "Not a hoof
was left behind," it is said. That is to say, no man left so much as a
lamb, or a sheep, or an ox–they came out, all of them, with all that
they had. It was a wonderful thing that God's power over them led them
to make such a famous and perfect exodus!
But it was also so with us in our first days. We came right out from
the world. Perhaps we were rather noted in worldly circles–we had gone
deep into its pleasures. There were a great many who thought us jolly
good fellows and reckoned that we should never turn Methodist–never.
But we snapped every tie, cut every connection, broke every link and
out we came! You recollect what it cost some of you in those days?
Perhaps you were in a workshop and you had to run the gauntlet of the
sneers of all the men. Everybody knew about it, but you did not care a
button whether all the devils in Hell knew about it! You defied them
all. You gloried in the change. Perhaps you were a man walking in
another rank of society. You thought it rather hard at first, but,
by-and-by, you said, "If this is to be vile, I will be still viler,"
and you came right out. Perhaps you lost friends by your conversion, or
lost prestige–got on the wrong side of the door of society, as they
call it, and found yourself dead to it–no longer one of its world. But
that did not fret you a bit, you would have given up fifty thousands of
such poor wretched worlds as this world to have Christ! You felt sorry
you could not surrender so much as the martyrs did when they went to
prison and to death–you almost wished you could do so, for it seemed
such a blessed thing to come boldly out for Christ. You did not think,
then, about the leeks and the garlic and the onions. Some of your older
brethren have got that flavor in their noses a little and they have
begun to think about the delicacies of Egypt. But in your early days,
in the time of the love of your espousals, what cared you for leeks and
garlic and onions? You were looking after that Heavenly manna! You were
drawing from the eternal fountain, water that flowed from the Rock
which God had smitten for you. You were satisfied, then, with the
unseen things that faith grasped–and you were glad in the prospect of
the good land towards which you had steadfastly set your face. Alas, if
it is not so now!
But still the Lord remembers the reality of our early faith The
Israelites came out with great truthfulness and self-denial. Whatever
they had, whether little or much, they had to leave it all–for what?
Well, for an inheritance, but then the inheritance was all in the
clouds. What did they get? As far as they could see, they were only to
go into a wilderness, into a land that was not sown. Carnal reason
would have met them and said, "Now, you are never going to do it! What?
Going into the wilderness of Zin? It is full of fiery serpents! It is
said to be a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and of the
shadow of death, a land that no man ever passed through and where no
man dwells! Are you going after God there? Why, the experience of God's
people is full of troubles and trials and conflicts. You do not mean to
say you are going after God there'"
Old Atheist, too, perhaps came and met you when you started and said
that there was no Heaven, that there was no brave country such as you
had read of. And those twin brothers, Timorous and Mistrust, said that
there were lions and giants on the way and that you had better go back.
Then came another and he said that it was a rough road and there were
dragons to be encountered, and Apollyon, the arch-enemy, to be fought.
Nobody knew what of evil there was not–everything that was dreadful
was there! "If you want to save your skin, you had better go back. Do
not go
forward," they said. "Why, you ought to hear some of those who have
been pilgrims, talk–they tell dreadful tales. There are some of them
with very long faces and they know, you know. And if they have to
confess such things, well, you had better mind what you are doing." But
the children of Israel, every one of them, followed the Lord into the
wilderness wherein there was no water and plunged right in–a land of
which they knew nothing. They went out boldly because of their faith in
Jehovah that led the way.
Was not that what we did, too, in the days of our espousals? Yes,
blessed be God! We counted the cost and then we said that we would
follow our Lord whatever it might mean. We would watch with Him one
hour, or all hours, and would drink of His cup and be baptized with His
baptism, or do anything and everything if but He would let us be
numbered with His disciples and partake of His Glory at the last! Yes,
we said it deliberately, some of us. We looked over all our prospects
and it did seem like ruin if we followed Him. We saw that many of our
comforts must go and they have gone. We knew that there would be
conflicts and we find that there have been. We knew all that, but we
loved Christ so much that we were something of the mind of holy Mr.
Rutherford who says, in one of his loving letters to his Lord, "If
there were seven Hells to go through to get to You, my Lord, give me
but the word and I will wade through them." That was just how you felt
in those days, was it not? It is how some of us feel now. There are
those who do not feel quite so earnest as they did, but the Lord
remembers the love of their espousals when they went after Him into the
wilderness.
And then He remembers the bloom of our early holiness. "Israel was
holiness to the Lord," and we, too, sought to give to the Lord the
first fruits of our increase. We strove to live near to God and forsake
every false way. Even some professors thought we were too nice and too
precise, but we have learned since that it is not very probable that
any of us shall err in that direction! We made a conscience of our
thoughts, a conscience of our words–and we were always asking this man
and the other, who, we thought, knew better than we did, whether such a
thing might be right or not, for fear we should be mistaken. We desired
in everything to reflect the image of Christ and to be obedient to His
will. Well, now, this is how it was and this is what God remembers with
pleasure and would have us remember, too!
God delights in the thought of the fervent love we gave Him when we
knew first Him, our thoughtful and practical kindness towards His name,
our steadfast resolve to follow Him at all lengths, our faith which
took His least word as a warrant for action and our holiness which
shrank even from the approach of sin. Happy are we if these things
still abide with us. But if we have lost them, the Lord, like some fond
mother recalling the infant days of her children, remembers them and
beckons us back to our first love and our first works.
II. Now, WHY SHOULD WE ALSO REMEMBER OUR EARLY DAYS? That shall make
our second point upon which, however, we will not prolong our
discourse.
Let us hope that to some of us the text may be a word of rebuke. The
Lord remembers what you were. He contrasts it with what you are and He
asks you the reason for this falling off. I hope you noticed the words
while I was reading the chapter. He says, "What iniquity have you found
in Me that you have gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity and
have become vain?" Remember how He rebukes you and says, "My people
have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living
waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no
water." Now, if you have declined like this, Brothers and Sisters,
though you have not given up religion, blessed be God–though you still
dare make a profession and can do it honestly–yet if you are not as
earnest, nor as holy, nor as loving, nor as prayerful as you used to
be, God would chide you! Have you good reason for this? I am sure you
have not and it has a very ugly look, for other people who do not know,
will say, "Ah, you see, the thing is very fine when there is a novelty
about it, and it is very pretty when you do not know much about it. But
these old Christians have gone farther and they have fared worse! They
have got more into the heart of the thing and they have found that it
was not what they thought it was."
Oh, you are like the bad spies–you bring up an evil report of the
land! Your gradual cooling down says to the outside world that Christ
is not what we say He is and so we, poor ministers, suffer very much
because of you! For we may preach hardest, but they do not believe our
exhortations as they believe your lies! I tell you that one backsliding
Christian does more harm to the Church of God than one minister can
ever undo! And the dear children who are living near to God are often
exposed to scorn through those of you that are settled upon your lees.
You are never seen at Prayer Meetings anymore. You do not care much
about an extra service in the week. You are so busy now, although you
are not busier than you used to be–you never speak of Jesus Christ to
others as you once used to do. Is Christ worse than He was? Does He
deserve less at your hands? Do you owe Him less? Are you not, indeed,
more in debt than you ever were to His rich mercy and free Grace? The
more He does for you, are you going to do the less for Him? Because you
are getting older, or have received more mercies, are you going to be
less grateful? Is it to be true that the young people are to outshine
you? The more you know and the more you grow, are you to love the less?
Oh, I beseech you by the love of Jesus Christ and by His heart of
mercy, do not allow it to be so, my Beloved, but pray that, by the Holy
Spirit, you may be brought back to where you were–no, that you may be
carried forward to something far beyond what you used to be when first
you knew the Lord! So our text should come home as a word of rebuke.
Then, this Word of God should be used as a word of warning. Dear young
Christian people, you who have just joined the Church, I think I hear
you say, "Oh, it is dreadful that anybody should have less love to
Christ than they used to have." It is dreadful and I mourn over it. But
I stand in doubt when I hear you say, "It shall never be so with me. If
I forget my Lord and love Him less than I do now, let my right hand
forget its cunning. It cannot be! Why, I shall go from strength to
strength, and I shall love Him more and more! I know I shall, and I
shall do more as my circumstances improve, as my opportunities increase
and as my gifts are multiplied." That is what you say and it is what
you ought to say–but unless you are very careful, it is not what you
will do! Oh, how deceived I have been in some members of this Church.
Not that they have gone into sin. Not that they are any discredit to
the Christian name as far as outward acts are concerned. But there is
not that bottom of deep spiritual life and there is not that growth of
fruitfulness, and there is not that zeal for God that I really thought
I would see in them, especially in those that were great sinners and in
those that have had marvelous joy and deep experience. They ought to
be–ah, well I will not say, "they"–we allought to be very different
from what we are–so do not let us depend upon the strength of
resolution, or on our present emotion, but let us commit ourselves unto
the Lord who alone is able to keep us from falling and to present us
faultless before the Presence of His Glory with exceeding joy!
Rejoice not, O young man, in your spiritual youth. Exult not, O new
convert, in the strength of your love. Ask the Lord to keep these as
strong as they are and to make them infinitely stronger–that you may
really go from strength to strength! But if you at any time trust your
own heart, you will be a fool! I would to God that we might realize
what Christian experience always ought to be, namely, ascending and yet
ascending, and yet still ascending–loving, and then loving so much
that the first love seems to be eclipsed and then loving more till that
better love seems but second-rate! And then loving yet more till all
that went before, when heaped together, seems as nothing compared to
what we have reached! Doing and daring–yielding up and
resigning–exactly as God may call us, each time with greater joy and
greater zest. Having life and having it yet more abundantly. I wish
that Darwin's theory might be carried out in us as Christians until, as
he talks of an oyster developing into an Archbishop of Canterbury, we
who at our conversion were little better than the oyster, should go on
developing, developing and developing in spiritual things until we
should know what John meant, who said, "It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like He, for we
shall see Him as He is." God grant you such development as that and
preserve you from backsliding, and to His name shall be the praise!
I only hope that some of the words I have spoken, if not directly
uttered to the unconverted, may glance in their hearts and lead them to
seek a Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JEREMIAH2:1-19.
Verses 1-3. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Go and
cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD, I remember
you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals when you
went after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel
was holiness unto the LORD, and the first fruits of His increase: all
that devour him shall offend; all shall come upon them, says the LORD.
God remembered what Israel used to be in those good days when the Lord
alone did lead them and there was no strange god among them. Now He
bids them remember from whence they had fallen and repent and do their
first works lest He come unto them in wrath. Oh, Beloved, if you ever
lived near to God–if you ever rested your head on Christ's bosom and
have now wandered away from Him and are spiritually cold and dead,
begin to chide yourself, for the Lord Himself, in the word before us,
does chide you. He calls
you to a sorrowful remembrance of the position from which you have
descended–the heights of Grace from which you have come down! Breathe
the prayer that He would restore you again. "Will You not revive us
again, that Your people may rejoice in You?"
4, 5. Hear you the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel: thus says the LORD, What iniquity have
your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have
walked after vanity, and have become vain?He asks them whether there
was any fault in Him–any failure in keeping His promise–whether He
had dealt unjustly or unmercifully with them that they had thus gone
away from Him and walked after vanity.
6. Neither said they; Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the
land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of
deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of
death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man
dwelt? Ought they not always to have remembered the wonderful
wilderness journey where God seemed to multiply His miracles in the
midst of their great necessities? Some of you have passed through a
wilderness, too, yet you have been richly supplied. You have had to
admire the constancy of the Divine Goodness. God has not ever failed
you, even in your worst circumstances. Do not let it be said of you
that you never say, "Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the
land of Egypt." On the contrary, always fly to Him when you are in time
of trouble. Remember that this is the way to glorify God. "He shall
call upon Me and I will answer him" is one of God's own promises. And
then He adds–"and he shall glorify Me."
7, 8. And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit
thereof and the goodness thereof but when you entered, you defiled the
land, and made My heritage an abomination. The priests said not, Where
is the LORD? And they that handle the law knew Me not: the pastors also
transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and
walked after things that do not profit Was not this very shameful that
in Canaan, which God had chosen beyond all countries for its fertility
that He might give it to His own people forever, there they began to
set up idols and altars to other gods? And the priests, whose lips
ought to have kept knowledge, and the prophets who above all men were
bound to have spoken in the name of the Lord joined the people in their
sin. They even urged them to worship Baal–that dummy deity, unworthy
of a moment's respect who should not have been so much as thought of by
God's people. They ought not even to have taken the name of Baal into
their lips. Do you not see yourselves here, O backsliders? If you ever
knew the Lord and have gone back to the world. If you have submitted
yourselves again to the powers thereof and sinned with a high hand,
have you not acted most shamefully towards your God? And ought you not,
with a blushing countenance and weeping eyes to return to Him and ask
mercy at His hands?
9-11. But I willyetplead with you, says the LORD, and with your
children's children willIplead. Forpass over the Isles of Chittim and
see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there is
such a thing. Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?
But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
How powerfully this is put! No other nation gave up its gods. Though
they were not gods, but mere images of clay or gold, they would not
change them. They stuck to their idolatries with wonderful
pertinacity–but God's people gave up the true God to worship the
demons of the nations round about! And is it not an unhappy thing that
there are now some who at least call themselves God's people who go
back to the world and seem to be more in love with it than ever they
were? It is a horrible thing that is done! I have heard of a chieftain
of an Indian tribe whose nephew was converted to the faith but who,
after a short time, fell into sin and renounced his profession–the old
chief used to always answer all the teaching of the missionary with
this argument–"My nephew tried it and gave it up. He ought to know."
Well, when this was told to the young man, it broke his heart and
happily brought him back to the God he had forsaken! Perhaps there are
some in the world who are gathering excuses for continuing in sin from
the unhappy conduct of such as backslide. "Look at him," they say, "how
hot and zealous he was–and look what he is now." Can you bear the
thought, backslider? If there remains a spark of love to Christ in your
soul, you will feel bitterly the sorrow that others should make an
excuse for blasphemy and for rebellion against Christ out of your evil
conduct. Oh, pray tonight–"Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with Your free Spirit."
12, 13. Be astonished Oyou Heavens at this, and be horribly afraid, be
you very desolate, says the LORD. For My people have committed two
evils–they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed
them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water If a man
should change for the better, his selfishness might be a little excuse
for leaving his old love. But when he changes for the worse–leaves a
fountain for a cistern–a flowing fountain for a broken cistern that
holds nothing–why, there is madness in his sin! "Be astonished, O you
Heavens and be horribly afraid."
14-17. Is Israel a servant? Is hie a home-born slave? Why is he
spoiled? The young lions roared upon him and yelled, and they made his
land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitants. Also the
children of Noah and Tahapanes have broken the crown of your head. Have
you not procured this unto yourself in that you have forsaken the LORD
your God, when He led you by the way? The people of Israel had got into
a dreadful state of poverty and famine and oppression. Their enemies
had so destroyed the land that it was full of lions that even roared in
the very streets where once men and women and children abounded. And
God says to them, "Is not this the result of your own sin? Was it so
when you lived near to Me? Have you not brought this upon yourself by
your sin?" So, child of God, if you are unhappy tonight–if you are
mourning–if you cannot find comfort in the world–no comfort in God,
either, "have you not procured this unto yourself? When you did live
near to God, when prayer was continual, when you did watch your
conduct, when you did go softly asking God to guide you from day to
day, was it not better with you then than now? Then your peace was like
a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. If it is not
so now, have you not procured this unto yourself in that you have
forsaken the Lord your God when He led you by the way?
18. And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the
waters of Sihor? Or what ha ve you to do in the way of Assyria, to
drink the waters of the river?For instead of going to the fountain of
living waters, they were hoping to be helped by the Egyptians or helped
by the Assyrians. Just as there are some Christians who try to drink
the muddy waters of sinful pleasure and of carnal lust, they are
beginning to think the muddy river very sweet and to like the taste of
it. It is a deadly evil when professing Christians begin to do as
others do and to mix with the world and feel pleasure in it. There will
be a blight upon you if you turn from God! Misery will dog your steps
before long if you are, indeed, a child of God.
19. Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall
reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and
bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that My fear is
not in you, says the Lord GOD of Hosts. A very solemn passage. May we
lay it to heart. Not only is there guilt in our sin for which we shall
have to answer at God's Judgment Seat, but there is evil in it which
will come swiftly upon our own heads even here, "Be sure your sin will
find you out." The thing you think will be your strength will be your
scourge. What you dream of as pleasure will prove to be your plague. If
you have ever known the joy of God's service, all this shall be doubly
true of you–you shall never again be able to find satisfaction in the
world and God, the God whom you did once delight in– will let your own
wickedness correct you and your backslidings reprove you because He
wishes you to come back to His side, and to drink again of the living
waters which you have so foolishly forsaken.