All, was reality with Jeremiah. The present corruption was a reality to him, for he rebuked it, and mourned over it. The approaching judgment was a reality to him, for he wept at the thought of it, and deprecated it. The final glory was a reality to him, for he laid out his money upon it. He had occasional refreshings of spirit from the glory. His sleep and the dreams that accompanied it, in Chapter 31, was “sweet unto him.” It was a kind of moment in the “Holy Mount” to him—a transfiguration in spirit—for a light for the kingdom visited his soul there. He had revelations, too, of the “Lord our Righteousness,” and could speak and write of Him. But not only as thus occasionally refreshed in spirit, and thus gifted to write and speak; but he was a suffering witness against “this present world;” and he laid out his money on “the world to come;” and it was this that completed his character, which would have been poor and wanting without it. For we may speak of Christ, and teach about the kingdom, but to witness for Him against a rejecting world, and to be “rich toward God,” in the hope of His kingdom; this is to fill out and realize our character as saints.
We may covet these elements of character, some of us, for we are but half Jeremiahs. We can talk of Christ, but can we suffer for Him? We may teach about the kingdom, but can we lay out our money upon it?
The parable of the potter in Jer. 18, was designed to let Israel know that though brought into covenant, they were still within the range of the Lord’s judgments and visitations. And accordingly in chapter 19, the judgment is typically executed. In John Baptist’s time, Israel is found in the same state of self-confidence. They said in that spirit, “We have Abraham to our father.” And so, under the Lord’s ministry, it is still the same-they still boast in the fatherhood of Abraham and of God (John 8). But these boasts were vain, as John and the Lord will tell them. That is, John and the Lord teach them again the lesson of Jer. 18, that they were not, though in covenant bonds, beyond the reach of judgment.
Now, the object of the enemy in Matt. 4, was to get the Lord into the same condition with Israel, i.e., to inspire Him with confidence, in the spirit of disobedience. He partially quoted Psa. 91, citing the promised security, but omitting the required conditional obedience. We know how fully He triumphed over the enemy, citing Deut. 6, where obedience is Israel’s declared ground of security.
Thus the Lord in this feature of character, as in all besides, was the moral contradiction of man or of Israel.
But all this has a lesson for us at this day. Christendom or Babylon has now taken the place of Israel of old. Babylon trusts in security in spite of her moral condition. She says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” (Rev. 18:77How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. (Revelation 18:7)). But Rev. 18 is another action, like that of the prophet in the Potter’s house, or in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, teaching the unfaithful steward that the doom of the shattered vessel awaits him.
God never sanctions disobedience. He did not go into the garden of Eden to accredit Adam’s sin, but to bring relief in the way of grace for it. So in the mystery of the Gospel, He utterly condemns sin, while delivering the sinner; 1 Sam. 4 witnesses this—that God will never sanction disobedience, nor does He commit Himself to His stewards. Ile does commit Himself to His own gifts and calling (Rom. 11), but never to His stewards; they are still answerable to Him, and disobedience works forfeiture, and Christ is the only Steward that ever kept covenant, that ever stood in the conditional place. Matt. 4 shows that He kept his blessings under Ps. 91—and His Israel blessings under Deut. 6; but all others, in their several turns, have failed, and Babylon’s boast is a lie.
We live at a moment when Babylon or Christendom is filling itself afresh with this boast, just previous to her overthrow, when she is to meet the doom of the potter’s vessel or of the millstone.
For this boast is defiance. It is not faith in God, but real disavowal of His claims. It is the denial of her subjection to Him, of her being in the place of the steward’s wife, answerable to Him and his judgment. It is the very characteristic that completes her identification with that Babylon which says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow,” and it leaves her ready for the judgment, as the potter’s vessel in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; so of the millstone in the hand of the Angel in Rev. 18.