Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.
Reprobate silver - silver so full of alloy as to be utterly worthless (Isaiah 1:22, "Thy silver is become dross"). The Jews were fit only for rejection.
Remarks:
(1) It is suicidal folly to remain without preparation, and in self-indulgent ease, when hell and destruction are close at hand. Wherever unpardoned sin is, judgment is not far off. It will visit the careless ones at the moment when they least expect it, at "noon," or when "the shadows of evening" are lengthening, or "by night" (Jeremiah 6:4-5). The part of true wisdom is to "watch ... for we know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight ... or in the morning; lest, coming suddenly, He find us sleeping" (Mark 13:35).
(2) The natural heart, in man's unconverted state, is like a poisonous "fountain," always "casting out." unwholesome "waters," and yet never empty (Jeremiah 6:7). God loves us so graciously that He is most reluctant to "depart" from the sinner, which He must do at last, unless the sinner come to a better mind by true repentance. While yet the day of grace lasts, His appeal to each one is, "Be thou instructed, lest my soul depart from thee" (Jeremiah 6:8; Psalms 2:12).
(3) So long as the heart is unchanged, men have not the true circumcision, which is inward, in the spirit, and not in the letter" (Romans 2:29). In vain such men hear the word of Gad preached unto them, for "the ear is uncircumcised, so that they cannot hearken;" nay, if the minister of God press them closely in respect to their particular sins, "the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it" (Jeremiah 6:10).
(4) Covetousness (Jeremiah 6:13), which in the word's esteem is not a sin at all, but which in God's estimation is "idolatry" (Colossians 3:5), is a work of the flesh peculiarly provocative of the wrath of God, because it utterly alienates the heart from Him and His word (Jeremiah 6:13). How widely this sinful lust in the present day pervades all classes, "from the least ... even to the greatest."
(5) Ministers need faithfully to warn men that they can have "no peace" with God while they cling to their favourite sins (Jeremiah 6:14). As when Joram asked Jehu, "Is it peace?" when he was on the verge of his doom (2 Kings 9:22), so men whisper to themselves "Peace and safety, when sudden destruction is coming upon them" (1 Thessalonians 5:3). He is no true friend, but your deadliest enemy, who flatters you in your false security, healing your spiritual hurt slightly, instead of probing the deadly disease to its inmost roots, and cutting out the deeply-seated cancer.
(6) If one who has lost his way in a wilderness will not walk onwards without inquiring the right road from those who know it, how much more does it become those who, in respect to their immortal souls, have erred from the old paths of piety and righteousness, to "stand" and "ask" of God in prayer, and of His ministers and His Word, to be instructed how to walk in the narrow way, which, through Christ, leads to heaven. In Christ alone is "rest," in the truest sense, to be found: for it is His gift, and in taking His light yoke and easy burden upon us, and in learning of Him, who is meek and lowly of heart, we shall find rest unto our souls (Matthew 11:28-30).
(7) Ministers are spiritual "watchmen," set to "watch for souls, as they that must give account" (Jeremiah 6:17; Hebrews 13:17). They must sound the "trumpet" of alarm in the ears of the careless. If men through indifference "will not hearken," God will bring evil on the indifferent, "even the fruit of their thoughts" (Jeremiah 6:9). The sin and its punishment will most exactly correspond, so that the transgressors will feel at once the justice and terrible bitterness of their doom, being given up to "eat the fruit of their own way, and being filled with their own devices."
(8) When spiritual privileges are either neglected or abused to purposes of self- righteousness, God in judicial retribution turns them into actual "stumblingblocks" to the unworthy participators in them, making their very table into a snare and trap to them: especially so when men (as the Jews did) substitute ritual observances, which are but means to an end, for spiritual and hearty obedience in thought, word, and deed, which are the end desired (Jeremiah 6:20-21). After warnings, chastisements, and all means of grace have been tried in vain, what more remains to be done, but to consign the "reprobate" to destruction, as "silver" so full of dross as to be incapable of refinement by any process. Let us pray that we may not be rejected by the Lord as "reprobate silver," useless and worthless, but that we may be refined of all dross, and that the "trial of our faith, being much more precious than gold tried with fire, may be found unto praise, honour and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).