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 52:4-11.
Jeremiah 19:1-13
1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the easta gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.