The judgments must go on. In the text the all-sufficient reason given
is that God has willed it so. But we must take into account all that
lies in that name of 'Lord' before we understand the message, which
brought patience to the heart of the prophet. If a Jewish prophet
believed anything, he believed that the will of the Lord was absolutely
good. Jeremiah's reason for the flashing sword is no mere beating down
human instincts, by alleging a will which is sovereign, and there an
end. We have to take into account the whole character of Him who has
willed it, and then we can discern it to be inevitable that God should
punish evil.
His character makes it inevitable. God's righteousness cannot but hate
sin and fight against it. To leave it unpunished stains His glory.
God's love cannot but draw and wield the sword. It is unsheathed in the
interests of all that is 'lovely and of good report.' If God is God at
all, and not an almighty devil, He must hate sin. The love and the
righteousness, which in deepest analysis are one, must needs issue in
punishment. There would be a blight over the universe if they did not.
The very order of the universe makes it inevitable. All things, as
coming from Him, must work for His lovers and against His enemies, as
'the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.'
The constitution of men makes it inevitable. Sin brings its own
punishment, in gnawing conscience, defiled memories, incapacity for
good, and many other penalties.
It is to be remembered that the text originally referred to retribution
on nations for national sins, and that what Jeremiah regarded as the
strokes of the Lord might be otherwise regarded as political
catastrophes. Let us not overlook that application of the principles of
the text. Scripture regards the so-called 'natural consequences' of a
nation's sins as God's judgments on them. The Christian view of the
government of the world looks on all human affairs as moved by God,
though done by men. It takes full account of the responsibility of men
the doers, but above all, recognises 'the rod and Him who hath
appointed it.' We see exemplified over and over again in the world's
history the tragic truth that the accumulated consequences of a
nation's sins fall on the heads of a single generation. Slowly, drop by
drop, the cup is filled. Slowly, moment by moment, the hand moves round
the dial, and then come the crash and boom of the hammer on the
deep-toned bell. Good men should pray not, 'Put up thyself into thy
scabbard,' but, 'Gird Thy sword on Thy thigh, O thou most mighty... on
behalf of truth and meekness and righteousness.'