Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 40

Verse 1

CONTENTS

We have here some of the events which took place at Jerusalem, immediately after the city was taken, the history is carried on.

Verses 1-6

It is blessed to trace the Lord's providences over the Lord's people. Here was Jeremiah enjoying more freedom and happiness from the appointment of enemies, than he had from professed friends. I pray the Reader, however, not to overlook the cause, in the Lord's appointment. How fully was that scripture proved: Proverbs 16:7 .

Verses 7-12

It appears by the appointment of one of their own people among the Jews to be Governor, that the King of Babylon meant kindness to the lower orders of the people, though he had slain their king and nobles. And the gathering of the summer fruits for themselves seems to have been a confirmation of it.

Verses 13-16

We have here the information of a conspiracy: but the accomplishment is not related in this Chapter. In the succeeding one it is. Alas! neither mercies nor judgments; the fear of death nor of hell, find their influence on some men's minds. Oh! what a wretched, fallen, depraved state, hath our nature sunk into by sin!

Verse 16

REFLECTIONS

I BEG the Reader to make a solemn pause over this Chapter, and to remark, how soon a sense of divine judgments lose their effect, except divine grace keep the remembrance of them, with all their blessed consequences, alive in our hearts. Who should have conceived that after so alarming a visitation, in the putting out the eyes of the king, and carrying him and his nobles away into captivity, with all the residue of the people excepting the poor, that rebellion and disaffection should have sprung up among them. But so it is. There can be no change but what grace makes. And much it is to be feared, that if the miserable in everlasting chains, under darkness to the judgment of the great day, were once again to be permitted to come on earth, their minds would be the same, and the sin and malignity of their nature remain unchanged. Lord Jesus! give to thy people that new heart, and that new mind, in which the new birth consists: that by regeneration they may be prepared for the everlasting enjoyment of thee in glory; since thou thyself hast said, without it, we cannot see the kingdom of God!