Jeremiah 41:1
In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and one of the king's chief officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and they ate a meal together there.
Sermons
Devils IncarnateW. Clarkson, B. A.Jeremiah 41:1-10
Devils IncarnateS. Conway Jeremiah 41:1-10
A Great Crime and its ConsequenceD. Young Jeremiah 41:1-18














1. If ever there was such a one, this Ishmael was of whom these verses tell. His atrocities remind us of the Indian Mutiny, its leader, and the well at Cawnpore (cf. ver. 9). Treachery, ingratitude, murder, massacre, greed, cowardice, - all are gathered in this detestable character (cf. Mr. Grove's article "Ishmael," Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible').

2. And such men are permitted to be. So clearly seen is this, that every drama has its villain; they are recognized as having definite place and function in this poor life of ours. History is full of them. But for them one might almost say there would be no history.

3. Can we explain this permission? Wherefore are such men created and preserved? It is a part of the great question of moral evil, for the full solution of which we must wait. Like as was said to a lad of one of our public schools, who had heard his master say in a sermon in the school chapel that in mathematics there were lines in the same plane ever converging but which never met. The lad heard this, and as he knew something of mathematics himself, he believed and said to a senior in the school that the master was wrong. The senior defended the master, and told the lad of the lines that mathematicians call asymptotes. "But explain," said the astonished lad. "No, I can't," said the other. "You must wait till you get there." The lad had not read on so far in the science as that, and hence there was nothing for it but to believe that, though it was at present incomprehensible to him how such lines as those spoken of could be, nevertheless, when he had read on further, he would see it clearly enough. And so we have to hear and see things which, to fully reconcile with the existence and superintendence of an all-loving and all-powerful God, is beyond our power, and there is nothing for it but that we must "wait till we get there" - there where the reading of these problems will be ready and clear. But the existence of such men as this Ishmael is but one out of the many terrible facts in God's providence, such as plague, famine, earthquake, etc. In regard to such men, we can see some purposes that they subserve.

I. They make evident the hideous capacities of evil which are in our nature, and the need, therefore, for God's restraining grace.

II. They are warnings to increased watchfulness on the part of those in whom the tendencies to like evil exist.

III. They are God's scourges for men's sin (cf. Attila, the Scourge of God).

IV. They weld together the people they oppress in one common league against them, and thus out of scattered tribes a nation is formed.

V. They clear out much that is evil (cf. French Revolution; Napoleon). But sometimes, as here, we cannot see what good they do; and then we can only wait. Conclusion. But we can get above these and all such affiictors of our lives. The fear of God will lift us up above their power.

"Fear him, ye saints, and you will then
Have nothing else to fear." On the wings of the fear and love of God let us mount up; and like as the little birds escape the hawk by keeping above it, so shall we escape all fear of fiercest human evils if we are upborne by the fear and love of God. - C.

Then arose Ishmael.
1. If ever there was such a one, this Ishmael was of whom these verses tell. His atrocities remind us of the Indian Mutiny, its leader, and the well at Cawnpore (cf. ver. 9). Treachery, ingratitude, murder, massacre, greed, cowardice, — all are gathered in this detestable character (cf. Mr. Grove's article "Ishmael," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible)

2. And such men are permitted to be. So clearly seen is this, that every drama has its villain; they are recognised as having definite place and function in this poor life of ours.

3. Can we explain this permission? Wherefore are such men created and preserved? It is s part of the great question of moral evil, for the full solution of which we must wait. But the existence of such men as this Ishmael is but one out of the many terrible facts in God's providence, such as plague, famine, earthquake, &c.In regard to such men, we can see some purposes that they subserve.

1. They make evident the hideous capacities of evil which are in our nature, and the need, therefore, for God's restraining grace.

2. They are warnings to increased watchfulness on the part of those in whom the tendencies to like evil exist.

3. They are God's scourges for men's sin (cf. Attila, the Scourge of God).

4. They weld together the people they oppress in one common league against them, and thus out of scattered tribes a nation is formed.

5. They clear out much that is evil (cf. French Revolution; Napoleon). But, sometimes as here, we cannot see what good they do; and then we can only wait.

(W. Clarkson, B. A.)

People
Ahikam, Ammonites, Asa, Baasha, Babylonians, Chimham, Elishama, Gedaliah, Gibeon, Ishmael, Jeremiah, Johanan, Kareah, Nebuzaradan, Nethaniah, Shaphan
Places
Babylon, Bethlehem, Egypt, Geruth Chimham, Gibeon, Mizpah, Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh
Topics
Ahikam, Ahi'kam, Along, Ate, Blood, Bread, Chief, Chiefs, Eat, Eating, Elishama, Eli'shama, Family, Gedaliah, Gedali'ah, Ishmael, Ish'mael, King's, Meal, Mizpah, Month, Nethaniah, Nethani'ah, Officers, Pass, Princes, Royal, Seed, Seventh, Ten
Outline
1. Ishmael, treacherously killing Gedaliah and others,
7. purposes with the residue to flee unto the Ammonites.
11. Johanan rescues the captives, and is minded to flee into Egypt.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 41:1-2

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Library
Barzillai
BY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D. "There is nothing," says Socrates to Cephalus in the Republic, "I like better than conversing with aged men. For I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom it is right to learn the character of the way, whether it is rugged or difficult, or smooth and easy" (p. 328 E.). It is to such an aged traveller that we are introduced in the person of Barzillai the Gileadite. And though he is one of the lesser-known characters
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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