'I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned
against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have
sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against Me.'--JER. xxxiii. 8.
Jeremiah was a prisoner in the palace of the last King of Judah. The
long, national tragedy had reached almost the last scene of the last
act. The besiegers were drawing their net closer round the doomed city.
The prophet had never faltered in predicting its fall, but he had as
uniformly pointed to a period behind the impending ruin, when all
should be peace and joy. His song was modulated from a saddened minor
to triumphant jubilation. In the beginning of this chapter he has
declared that the final struggles of the besieged will only end in
filling the land with their corpses, and then, from that lowest depth,
he soars in a burst of lyrical prophecy conceived in the highest poetic
style. The exiles shall return, the city shall be rebuilt, its desolate
streets shall ring with hymns of praise and the voices of the
bridegroom and the bride. The land shall be peopled with peaceful
husbandmen, and white with flocks. There shall be again a King upon the
throne; sacrifices shall again be offered. 'In those days, and at that
time, will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto
David.... In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell
safely; and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord
our righteousness.' That fair vision of the future begins with the
offer of healing and cure, and with the exuberant promise of my text.
The first thing to be dealt with was Judah's sin; and that being taken
away, all good and blessing would start into being, as flowerets will
spring when the baleful shadow of some poisonous tree is removed. Now,
my text at first reading seems to expend a great many unnecessary words
in saying the same thing over and over again, but the accumulation of
synonyms not only emphasises the completeness of the promise, but also
presents different aspects of that promise. And it is to these that I
crave your attention in this sermon. The great words of my text are as
true a gospel for us--and as much needed by us, God knows!--as they
were for Jeremiah's contemporaries; and we can understand them better
than either he or they did, because the days that were to come then
have come now, and the King who was to reign in righteousness is
reigning to-day, and His Name is Christ. My object now is, as simply as
I can, to draw your attention to the two points in this text: a
threefold view of our sad condition, and a twofold bright hope.