Jeremiah 33:3

Note, Promises are given, not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage prayer. How deplorable the condition of Jerusalem was which made it necessary that such comforts as these should be provided for it, and notwithstanding which its restoration should be brought about in due time (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

Call unto eve, and I will answer thee - To me alone it belongs to reveal what is future; and the stupendous things which are now coming are known only to myself. These idolaters go to their gods to get information relative to the issue of the present commotions; but there is no light in them. Ask thou, O Jeremiah, and I will tell thee the great and mighty things which even thou knowest not.

God's promises are not to slacken, but to quicken the prayers of His people (Ps 132:13, 17; Isa 62:6, 7). mighty things--Hebrew, "inaccessible things," that is, incredible, hard to man's understanding [MAURER], namely, the restoration of the Jews, an event despaired of.

SOME of the most learned works in the world smell of midnight oil. But the most spiritual and most comforting books and sayings of men usually have a savor about them of prison dampness. I might quote many instances—John Bunyan's Pilgrim may suffice instead of a hundred others. And this good text of ours, all moldy and cold with the prison in which Jeremiah lay, has nevertheless a brightness and a beauty about it which it might never have had if it had not come as a cheering word to the prisoner of the Lord shut up in the court of the prison. God's people have always, in their worst condition, found out the best of their God. He is good at all times, but He seems to be at His best when they are at their worst. "How could you bear your long imprisonment so well?" said one to the Landgrave of Hesse who had been shut up for his attachment to the principles of the Reformation. He replied, "The Divine consolations of martyrs were with me." Doubtless there is a consolation more deep, more strong than any other which God keeps for those who, being His faithful witnesses, have to endure exceedingly great tribulation from the enmity of man. There is a glorious aurora for the frigid zone. And stars glisten in northern skies with unusual splendor. Rutherford had a quaint saying that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept his wine there and he began to seek at once for the wine bottles and to drink of the "wines on the lees well refined." They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls. You know, my companions in affliction, that it is so. You whose bones have been ready to come through the skin through long lying upon the weary couch. You who have seen your earthly goods carried away from you and have been reduced well-near to penury.

GOD'S people will never thrive on anything less substantial than bread from Heaven. Israel in Egypt might live on garlic and onions, but Israel in the wilderness must be fed with the manna that came down from Heaven, and with the water that gushed out of the Rock when it was smitten by the rod of God. The child of God, while he is yet in his sins, may, like other men, revel in them, and the pleasures and follies of this world may be his delight.