Jeremiah 5:18 - Homilies By A.f. Muir

Sparing mercy.

The judgments described as about to be inflicted are very fearful, but they were amply deserved. The wickedness of the people was such as to justify their complete destruction. Yet they were spared ere they were totally extinct! Why this unlooked-for restraint?

I. IT HAS CHARACTERIZED ALL GOD 'S JUDGMENTS OF MANKIND ON EARTH . The Fall, the Flood, the Exodus, etc; the sparing of the remnant of Benjamin, etc.

II. THERE IS BUT ONE EXPLANATION FOR IT . It is the possibility of some turning to him truly in the first instance; and, secondly, through them, of the race being saved in the future. God has never utterly cut off even the most sinful. Love, and not. mere vengeance, behaves in this way.

1. Has he not spared us ?

2. He has never abandoned his purpose of saving " the whole world ." — M.