Jeremiah 50:4

THE previous part of this chapter declares the overthrow of Israel's cruel oppressor—"Babylon is taken, Bel is ashamed, Merodach is broken in pieces." The Assyrian and Babylonian power had been the great tyrant of the ages and the Lord had employed it for the chastening of His people, until, at last, Israel and Judah had been carried away captive to the banks of the Euphrates and the land of their fathers knew them no more. This was the mournful song of the exiles, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion." What a turn would come! In the day when God would reckon with Babylon and punish the haughty people for their cruelties and oppressions, then should Israel and Judah come to their own again. "In those days, and in that time," there would be hope for the downtrodden—the Lord would keep His appointments of Grace to the hour and, at the determined time, Israel would be free. "Surely the least of the flock would draw out the enemy" and escape from his power. God devises means for bringing back His banished ones and among those ways we usually see the overthrow of their conquerors. When, therefore, the Lord deals with Babylon in a way of vengeance it is that He may deliver His own people. See how the two things are joined together in the 18th and 19th verses— "Therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

POSSIBLY someone says, on hearing my text, "I like better to be going and singing." Yes, my Friend, and I do not blame you for making such a choice. As long as you can go and sing in the name of the Lord, let nothing stop you from doing so. It is meet that we who have been redeemed by Christ from destruction and are heirs of Heaven, should make merry and be glad.

POSSIBLY someone says, on hearing my text, "I like better to be going and singing." Yes, my Friend, and I do not blame you for making such a choice. As long as you can go and sing in the name of the Lord, let nothing stop you from doing so. It is meet that we who have been redeemed by Christ from destruction and are heirs of Heaven, should make merry and be glad. We should "rejoice in the Lord always," yet we must not despise others if they should seem to give more prominence to another phase of spiritual experience, namely, "going and weeping," for there are sons of sorrow on earth who will undoubtedly be sons of joy in Heaven. Among the sweetest flowers that bloom in the Savior's garden are those that, like the snowdrops and the lilies of the valley, hang down their heads. It is also possible to be going and singing and yet, at the same time, to be going and weeping, for the mind may be in such a complex condition that while it has abundant cause for joy, it has a sweet well of happy grief within itself. There is such a thing as a bitter sweet—the worldling has that. But there is also such a thing as a sweet bitter—and the Christian often has that—so that while he is weeping, he can also be singing. While his soul is cast down within him, yet does he lift up his horn on high and rejoice in the God of his salvation! It is quite possible to blend these two experiences and the life of God's people thus becomes like a rainbow, consisting partly of the sunshine of Heaven and partly of the raindrops of earth. They sing because of their present and future joy—and they weep because of the sad past and the relics of the Fall that are still about them—and the sins of the age that still surround them. I will not say that "Going and Weeping" is a better motto than "Going and Singing," but sometimes it is the only one we can use. And often it may be joined with the other.

The fall of Babylon is to be immediately followed by the return of the exiles homewards, in tearful procession, because they go as penitents; and yet with joy, because their faces are toward Zion. The cessation moreover of the schism between Israel and Judah is one of the signs of the times of the Messiah Isa 11:12-13, and symbolically represents the gathering together of the warring empires of the world under the peaceful scepter of the Church’s King. Going and weeping: they shall go - Omit the colon; i. e., “they go ever onward weeping.”