Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 12

Verse 5

Jeremiah 12:5

The river Jordan was an eminent and appropriate type of death, as being the barrier which parted the wilderness of Israel's sojourn from the promised land of their assured inheritance.

I. The reasonableness of the question in the text will be made manifest by pointing out certain circumstances which make death more appalling than any other calamity. (1) Death must be met alone. We are so constituted that in seasons of danger, difficulty, and alarm nothing is a more comfortable stay for the mind than a resort to the connections with which Providence has surrounded us to the old familiar faces of our kinsmen or our friends. But in death every possibility of resort to human sympathy will be cut off from us; our spirits must encounter the last enemy alone. (2) There is a failure of every former confidence in the hour of death. Every plank of refuge shall be broken up, every mooring which held thee to the shore of life shall be loosened, and there shalt thou be launched alone upon the billows to meet the tempest of the wrath of God. (3) Another circumstance of terror attaching to death is that it ushers us into a new and strange world. The heart of man is constantly turning the energies of its attachments around the house of its pilgrimage. A future sphere of existence will be an untried sphere. Well may flesh and blood shrink from the prospect of being effectually unhinged from all that is usual and accustomed, divested of every material and earthly association. (4) Our great enemy, as in all our trials so in this especially, will be at hand to improve it to our ruin.

II. To every sincere believer in Christ the horror with which circumstances invest death is entirely dispelled. (1) The Christian is not left in the pitiful plight of the worldling and sinner, to encounter death alone. His Redeemer is in spirit with him, Christ's rod and Christ's staff they comfort him. (2) If all earthly stays and confidences be broken up, the Christian has an anchor of the soul sure and steadfast; it is the word and the work of Christ. (3) The Christian's soul has, during life, contracted an acquaintance with the new sphere into which the swelling of Jordan bears him away. Death ushers him into no strange scene, and introduces him to no strange company. (4) The great enemy shall be defeated in his last assault upon the Christian. God shall prepare a table before His people in the presence of their enemies.

E. M. Goulburn, Sermons in the Parish Church of Holywell, p. 51.

References: Jeremiah 12:5 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 635; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 293; G. Dawson, Sermons on Daily Life and Duty, p. 313; B. J. Snell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 312; J. Pulsford, Old Testament Outlines, p. 246. Jeremiah 13:1-11 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1706. Jeremiah 13:13 . Outline Sermons to Children, p. 107. Jeremiah 13:14 . Parker, Christian Commonwealth, Sept. 16th, 1886. Jeremiah 13:15 . Outline Sermons to Children, p. 109; R. Newton, Bible Warnings, p. 239.. Jeremiah 13:15-17 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1748; V. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, vol. i., p. 23.Jeremiah 13:16 . W. T. Bull, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 97; J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 302.Jeremiah 13:20 . A. Davies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 324; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. i., p. 3.Jeremiah 13:22-25 . W. Hubbard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 285.