Jeremiah 47:6-7 - Homilies By A.f. Muir

The sword of Jehovah.

I. A PERSONIFICATION OF DIVINE WRATH . "Sword of Jehovah" is an expression that seems to suggest the Philistines as the sneakers: "for though not bad Hebrew, it has a foreign sound, and makes the impression that the speakers attribute the sword raging against them only unwillingly and hesitatingly to Jehovah" (Naegelsbach). God in his true character is still unknown, but conscience witnesses to him as a dimly realized agent of moral recompense. Such language tells:

1 . How ceaseless and terrible is the judgment of the heathen world. Ezekiel uses the same figure in relation to the Amorites ( Ezekiel 21:30 ). "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;" "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God" ( Psalms 139:19 ); "When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them," etc. ( 1 Thessalonians 5:3 ).

2 . Of ignorance and moral distance from God. He is only conceived of as a God of vengeance—an all but impersonal fate.

3 . Of the helplessness and superstitious dread of sinners. An imperfect knowledge is eked out and distorted by a diseased imagination. All moral strength seems to have gone out of them.

II. EXPLAINED AND JUSTIFIED AS A DIVINE APPOINTMENT . At first the answer of the prophet appears little other than a repetition of the Philistines' thought; but it is far more.

1 . This is not blind fate, but judgment strictly meted out and determined.

2 . It declares, in effect, that the wicked cannot be suffered to remain on the earth. They must be subjects of continual and exterminating judgment. There is no escape. Is this so? Yes, so long as they remain impenitent and at a distance from him. Is it contradictory, then, for Zechariah to prophecy the conversion of the Philistines? The rightful end of judgment is mercy. The sinner is driven into the arms of the Divine love. Our helplessness prepares for the reception of his salvation.—M.