God's Voice in Judgements. 2
Back to Arthur Pink
"Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am preparing a disaster for you!" (Jer 18:11). That is the language of God unto a kingdom whose overthrow is threatened by His judgments, to whom the dispensations of his providence announce impending ruin. The dark clouds of calamity overhead testify to God's disapproval of a nation's sins. Under such solemn presages of the impending storm of Divine wrath, proud people ought to be tamed and the masses brought to realize what a vain thing it is to fight against the Almighty, and how fearful are the consequences of flouting His authority and treading underfoot His laws. The effects of evil doing are termed by the Spirit "gall and wormwood," but it is not until God brings a nation into external miseries, that they are made to realize the truth thereof. "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the Lord your God and that My fear is not in you, says the Lord of hosts" (Jer 2:19).
"Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am preparing a disaster for you!" The speaker is the Most High God, and none can stay His hand or effectually challenge Him. He framed evil against the antediluvians. "The earth was filled with violence… all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Gen 6:11,12). Warnings of impending doom were given by Enoch (Jude 14,15) and Noah—but none heeded. Then the storm burst: "all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven opened" (Gen 7:11). And what could men do to help themselves? Nothing whatever! God "framed evil" against Sodom and Gomorrah, and what could their inhabitants do, when He "rained fire and brimstone" upon them (Gen 18:24). They were powerless to withstand it. God "framed evil" against Egypt. Her haughty monarch exclaimed "who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?" (Exo 5:2)—but he discovered that God was not to be defied with impunity, when He "took off their chariot wheels" and drowned him and his army in the Red Sea.
When the Almighty sends a devastating earthquake—what can puny man do? When He withholds the rain, and famine ravages a land—who can resist Him? When He visits with a pestilence which cuts off millions in the prime of life—as the "flu" did in 1918, who can withstand Him? When He unleashes the dreadful hounds of war—who can turn them back?
Is there, then, no hope? Yes, if the masses will truly humble themselves beneath the Hand that has begun to smite them. God's judgments are articulate: they call upon all to throw down the weapons of their high-handed rebellion against Him. God takes away their peace and comforts—that they may put away their idols. Calamities are sent upon evil-doers, that they should depart from their wickedness. God is able to destroy the mightiest kingdom in the twinkling of an eye—but usually He spreads His judgments over a period, as in the ten plagues upon Egypt, granting space for repentance and allowing an interval between the announcement of His having "preparing a disaster for you," and the actual and full execution thereof.
Thus it is here in Jeremiah 18:11: after declaring He had devised a disaster against a nation God adds, "So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions." Conversion ought to be the immediate outcome of God's judgments, whether they be threatened, or in actual course of fulfillment. If men would forsake their sins God would soon lay aside His rod. But observe the urgency of the call: "So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions." There is no time for delay: God will not be trifled with. Men are very prone to procrastinate: they put off the day of repentance and defer their reformation. They hope and resolve—yet postpone the same, and the longer they do so—the harder their hearts become and the more completely the Devil obtains possession of them. Agrippa was "almost persuaded," but that was as far as he went: his lusts held him fast. "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Psalm 95:7): if ever there was a time when it was imperative to heed that exhortation, it is now.
"And they said, There is no hope" (Jer 18:12). There are three possible interpretations of those words.
First, they may be regarded as the language of despair: there is no hope for us in God, we have sinned beyond the reach of mercy. But that would necessarily presuppose they were deeply convicted of their guilt, and the remainder of the verse definitely precludes any such concept.
Second, "there is no hope" might be the language of confessed helplessness. There is no hope in us: we are too besotted to reform, too wedded to our sins to break from them; but the remainder of the verse is flatly against this too.
Third, "there is no hope" was the language of blatant defiance. It is useless to preach to us, our minds are fully made up, we are determined to have our own way, and nothing you say can change us. "We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart" they declared. It was the language of open rebellion, whether expressed in words or in deeds.
That this is the obvious meaning of their "there is no hope" is clear not only from the words which immediately follow but also from other passages in Jeremiah. "Yet they didn't listen or pay attention but walked according to their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward" (Jer 7:24). "You said, 'I will not hear!' This has been your manner from your youth—that you obeyed not My voice" (Jer 22:21 and see Jer 44:16,17). They declined to be affected by the heavy clouds of judgment over their heads. They refused to forsake their evil ways. They were determined to persist in their disobedience. They openly defied the Almighty. They were impervious to all expostulations and admonitions. Their hearts were fully set in them to drink their fill of iniquity. "For after all this punishment, the people will still not repent and turn to the Lord Almighty" (Isaiah 9:13). "You struck them, but they paid no attention. You crushed them, but they refused to turn from sin. They are determined, with faces set like stone; they have refused to repent!" (Jer 5:3).
"We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart!" That is, we are quite resolved to continue in sin, and no preaching can change us. We are fully determined to do so, no matter what it may cost us. Of old God sent a severe famine on Israel—but it produced no reformation: "yet have you not returned unto Me, says the Lord." He smote them with blasting and mildew so that their gardens and vineyards were destroyed—but it moved them not: "yet have you not returned unto Me, says the Lord." He sent pestilence among them and slew their young men—but they continued impenitent: "yet have you not returned unto Me, says the Lord." He destroyed some of them by fire—but they persisted in their sins: "yet have you not returned unto Me, says the Lord" (Amos 4:6-10). And history has repeated itself! It is still doing so before our very eyes. The perversity of ancient Israel, finds its counterpart in the willful contempt of modern Christendom. God has given Britain "space to repent," alas, it has to be added "and she repented not" (Rev 2:21), nor is their the slightest indication she will yet do so!
Back to Arthur Pink