Jeremiah 19:1-13

There are several weighty circumstances which strike our m in d, on reading this sermon of Jeremiah. Let the Reader observe in the first place, the Persons whom the Prophet was to gather to hear it: the ancients of the people and of the priests. Is it not rather strange, that in a time of such general departure from the truth, and from the service of ordinances, that the hearts of those men should be inclined to attend the Prophet's ministry? But no doubt, the thing was of the Lord. Reader! if the Lord would incline men in our day to attend a preached gospel, the same would take place now. But what an awful consideration is it, that the word of truth is so evil spoken of, and so little regarded. We may observe further, that the place of preaching was no less remarkable; not the temple, but the valley of the son of Hinnom. So called from Joshua 15:8. See also 2 Kings 23:10. Here, where Israel had provoked the Lord to anger with their idolatries and sacrifices; in the same spot should the Chaldeans put them to shame and destruction by the sword. Never were calamities more striking, nor lamented more bitterly. See Lamentations 4:10. The third observation on this sermon, is the faithfulness of the Preacher. Who can behold Jeremiah thus going on from day to day, undaunted, and without fear, but must admire the firmness of the man, and the glory of the cause in which he was engaged. The fourth remark is, the affirmation the Prophet, at the Lord's command made at the close of his Sermon, in breaking the bottle, to intimate the certainty of it, and as an assurance of what the Lord had said, that as clay in the hand of the Potter: so were the people in the Lord's hands. Jeremiah 18:6. And lastly, to add no more: it should be observed, on the Prophet's sermon, that as the Lord had said, so it came to pass. Jeremiah 52:4.