The Watchman's Message to Israel
W. D. Horwood. Jeremiah 31:6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God. I. THE MESSAGE OF THE WATCHMEN. 1. The Jewish people had been overthrown, taken captive, and dispersed. They were therefore to all appearance a forsaken people, their land bereft of its inhabitants was desolate, and they were removed from all they held most dear to them on earth, from the glory of their former national independence, and from the temple in which they and their fathers had worshipped through many generations. But they were to be restored to their old places, to the land of all others they held most sacred, to their former worship with all its wondrous beauty, and to the national distinctions and privileges which had so long marked their history. Some effort on their part was however necessary, they were to arise and then go up to Zion unto the Lord their God. And in Him too we find the motive of all our efforts to arise from thoughtlessness and folly, and the object worthy of our life's battle and of our life's journey. We pray you to think upon this. When you are asked to awake out of spiritual sleep, — when you are told the night is far spent and the day of God's judgment is fast coming, — when any public or private duty is urged upon your attention, — when we utter warning voices, in the midst of homes and friends, at the most gladsome times, — it is that you also should arise, and go — not unto the priest alone, not unto the altar alone, not unto the Church alone, but that you first and chiefly should go unto "the Lord your God." 2. It is true this message may be regarded in a prospective point of view. "For," it is said, "there shall be a day," &c. To us the message is a present one. At the birth of Christ a new era of life and liberty commenced for the Gentiles and for all the families of earth. We live amid the ruins of our own inherent depraved nature. We have the evidence within and around us that we are in bonds. But the cry of the watchman is sent to us now: and if we will be only wise enough to exercise our common senses, and rouse ourselves up from our spiritual lethargy, and seek for God's help and mercy, we may arise, and go up among the congregations of His people, and realise in our hearts the great blessedness of His personal favour and presence of love. II. LESSONS. 1. One lesson to be inferred is the groundwork for the present aspiration of the Jew, and we may add, in another sense, the present aspiration of the Christian. The testimony of the prophecies of the Old Testament is supported by the testimony of providence. Even if the Jew should care but little, if anything, about the ancient prophecies, yet he is moved by "the signs of the times." And more, he is influenced by feelings which he cannot account for, but which, when examined by the light of prophecy, receives an explanation in God s interposition by some means either direct or indirect. The Christian knows in a thousand ways that this earth, with all its gold, and honours and pleasures, is not our rest, and therefore how natural, like the Jew, that he should turn the eye of his faith to the city of his love, even in the heavens, the place which God has promised him for evermore. It is but reasonable that he should long for that. 2. Another lesson we are taught by the text is, namely, that the Almighty and Eternal Saviour of His people is to be found in the use of the ordinances of His Church. (W. D. Horwood.) Parallel Verses KJV: For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. WEB: For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.