Jeremiah 33:1-9 Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying,… The prophet, when the Word of the Lord came unto him, was in a good hearing place, "shut up in the court of the prison." Shut up unjustly, it was no prison to him, but a sanctuary, with God's altar visibly in it, and God Himself irradiating the altar with a light above the brightness of the sun. How hardly shall they that have riches hear the Gospel. Their ears are already filled; their attention is already occupied. What keen ears poverty has I What eyes the blind man has! — inner eyes, eyes of expectation. We should have had no world worth living in but for the prison, the darkness, the trouble, the blindness, the sorrow, which have constituted such precious elements in our lot. There would have been no poetry written if there had been no sorrow. Jeremiah heard more in the prison than he ever heard in the palace. God knows where His children are. There are a thousand prisons in life. We must not narrow words into their lowest meanings, but enlarge them into their broadest significance, He is in prison who is in trouble, who is in fear, who is in conscious penitence, without having received the complete assurance of pardon; he is in prison who has sold his liberty, is lying under condemnation, secret or open; and he is in prison who has lost his first love, his early enthusiasm that was loaded with dew like a flower in the morning. Whatever our prison is, God knows it, can find us, can send a word of His own directly to us, and can make us forget outward circumstances in inward content and peace and joy. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, |
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