Charles Spurgeon Commentary Jeremiah 14

There had been no rain, so the crops had failed, and there was a famine in the land. Jeremiah describes that famine in striking poetic imagery.

The distress in the land was so great that the city gates, where, in more prosperous times, business transactions took place, and meetings of the people were held, were deserted. There was nothing that could be done while the nation was in such sorrow, and a great cry of agony went up from the capital of the country: The cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

The highest in the land sent their children to hunt even for a little water to drink. They went to the cisterns where some might have been expected to remain, but they found none. They returned with their vessels empty; they were as ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. The covering of the head was the sign of sorrow.

You remember how, in the day of his distress, David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered; and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

The ground had been reduced by the drought to such a state of hardness that it was useless to plow it, for there was no hope of any harvest coming.

Even the wild creatures of the field shared the general suffering. The hind, which is reckoned by Easterners to be the fondest of its young, forsook its fawn and left it to perish because there was no food.

And the wild asses, which are able to endure thirst better than other creatures and are always quick to perceive water if there is any to be found, tried in vain to scent it anywhere. They snuffed up the wind like dragons,—like cobras, or serpents, or jackals, as the word may be variously rendered—but they snuffed in vain. Their eyes became like coals in their head: they did fail, because there was no grass.

What then? Well, the prophet turns to prayer as the only means of obtaining relief.

O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake:

You cannot do it because of any merit of ours.

For our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

Can you not almost hear the good man praying? Notice how he begs the Lord not to be to the land like a mere stranger who passes through it, and cares nothing for it. Why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?

Then he pleads with the Lord, "Why should you be as a man strong, but stunned?"—for that is the meaning of the expression he uses—"Do not be as a mighty man astounded or stunned, who cannot save us; let it not be thought or said that we have come to such a pass that even you cannot help us." This was grand pleading on the prophet's part, and he followed it up by mentioning the close connection that existed between Israel and God.

Yet you, O Jehovah, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; and then pleaded, leave us not. It was a grand prayer; yet, at first, this was the only answer that Jeremiah received to it:–

"You may pray, if you like to do so, for a plague to come upon them as a chastisement for their sins, but do not pray for any blessing for them."