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Prophets and Kings
“Why,” the Lord inquired, “is this people of Jerusalem slidden
back by a perpetual backsliding?”
Jeremiah 8:5
. In the language of
the prophet it was because they had obeyed not the voice of the Lord
their God and had refused to be corrected. See
Jeremiah 5:3
. “Truth is
perished,” he mourned, “and is cut off from their mouth.” “The stork in
the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane
and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know
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not the judgment of the Lord.” “Shall I not visit them for these things?
saith the Lord: shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”
Jeremiah 7:28
;
8:7
;
Jeremiah 9:9
.
The time had come for deep heart searching. While Josiah had
been their ruler, the people had had some ground for hope. But no
longer could he intercede in their behalf, for he had fallen in battle.
The sins of the nation were such that the time for intercession had all
but passed by. “Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me,” the Lord
declared, “yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out
of My sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they
say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them.
Thus saith the Lord; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for
the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine;
and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.”
Jeremiah 15:1, 2
.
A refusal to heed the invitation of mercy that God was now offering
would bring upon the impenitent nation the judgments that had befallen
the northern kingdom of Israel over a century before. The message
to them now was: “If ye will not hearken to Me, to walk in My law,
which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of My servants
the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending
them, but ye have not hearkened; then will I make this house like
Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.”
Jeremiah 26:4-6
.
Those who stood in the temple court listening to Jeremiah’s dis-
course understood clearly this reference to Shiloh, and to the time in
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the days of Eli when the Philistines had overcome Israel and carried
away the ark of the testament.
The sin of Eli had consisted in passing lightly over the iniquity of
his sons in sacred office, and over the evils prevailing throughout the
land. His neglect to correct these evils had brought upon Israel a fearful
calamity. His sons had fallen in battle, Eli himself had lost his life,