Jeremiah 25:29 For, see, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should you be utterly unpunished?… I. THE ORDER OF GOD'S JUDGMENT. 1. It begins with his own people. 2. Reasons for this are: (1) The harmony of the Divine rule in the earth. The Church is his own house. It ought, therefore, to be in perfect order first. His authority ought to be recognized among those whom he calls his own. He will therefore deal with them first, and then with better grace address the impenitent and unbelieving world. (2) The purity of God's character. He cannot endure wrong - cannot look upon sin. Yet he is to dwell in the Church, in individual believers. It is necessary, therefore, that they be made pure as he is pure. Their discipline must be immediate if they are to become vessels prepared unto honor. (3) The justice of God. Immediately the sin of the child is worse than that of the stranger, because it is done in the midst of light and privilege. Sharp and immediate chastisement is the only way in which he can show his sense of the wrong done (Amos 3:2). (4) The mercy of God. If it begins with the children of God, it is that they may the sooner be saved. He embitters the breast of the world to wean them (Leighton). It is because he loves he rebukes and chastens. But the grief of sin begins first in the breast of God and in the person of his Son. It is of the nature of Divine love to suffer for the sinful, even to die, that he may be made a child of grace. II. THE EXTENT OF IT. "All the inhabitants of the earth." Thus early - nay, from the first sin onwards - does he begin the judgment of the whole earth. The sin of one is but a symptom of the universal depravity of all. The oneness of the world in its fall and the evolution of its sin, is constantly declared in Scripture. 1. This is demanded by the justice of God. "Should ye be utterly unpunished?" It would be manifestly unfair that the child of God alone should suffer for that which is primarily a sin of all mankind. 2. It is founded upon the solidarity of the race. There is a universal kinship in sins. "In Adam (they) all die" (1 Corinthians 15:22). III. THE MEASURE OF IT. "A sword" (cf. ver. 33). This signifies destruction, death. That which opposes itself to him will be utterly destroyed. He begins his judgment upon his own, but it passes from them and rests forever upon his enemies. The picture painted by Jeremiah (vers, 30-38) is but one of many similar ones in the Bible. The utter holiness of God cannot endure the sinfulness of men; it must consume it and all that identify themselves with it. In the New Testament the horizon widens, and the spiritual world participates with the living upon earth in the sentence of the Judge. The first duty, therefore, of every awakened sinner is to flee from the "wrath to come." Whilst he remains unconverted he is a "child of wrath." Punishment has a different significance to him from what it would have if he were "in Christ." It is the same principle of solidarity which condemned us that now avails for our salvation. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). - M. Parallel Verses KJV: For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts. |
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