Jeremiah 25:5-6 - Homiletics

The chief purpose of prophecy.

Jeremiah here sums up the general purpose not only of his own mission—extending now over twenty-three years—but of that of the whole series of Hebrew prophets. We may thus see the one great aim towards which all their labors were directed.

I. PROPHECY IS PRACTICAL . Jeremiah's summary takes the form of an exhortation. The prophets were preachers, not philosophers. Their aim was not to satisfy curiosity but to affect conduct. In this they are an example to all preachers. The preacher's duty is to lead men, not merely to teach doctrines. Still the exposition of truth is necessary to effect this end. The prophets did not content themselves with simple exhortations to good conduct. These exhortations needed the enforcement of clear conviction. Their authority was not magisterial (a mere command of superior power) nor priestly (an influence of spiritual rank erected on unquestioning faith), but reasonable (the authority of truth seen and felt). Hence their revelations of God and of the future. Yet these were all given for a practical end. The preacher should make his most abstract expositions of truth point towards some course of conduct.

II. PROPHECY IS A CALL TO REPENTANCE . This urgent call rings through the messages of all the prophets. It was revived by John the Baptist ( Matthew 3:2 ), adopted by our Lord ( Matthew 4:17 ) and his apostles ( e . g . St. Peter, Acts 2:38 ; and St. Paul, Acts 17:30 ), and by all great reformers, such as Savonarola, John Knox, John Wesley, etc.

1. Men must be preached to about their own condition as well as about God's will. We want a Divine revelation that we may know ourselves just as much as that we may know God. A large part of the Bible is occupied with revelations of human nature.

2. Together with these revelations there comes the call to turn and change . The result of the exposure of mankind to itself is not satisfactory. This exposure alone is a call to turn from our evil ways. The mere exposure, however, is of little use. A Juvenal is not a Jeremiah. A satirist is not a prophet. There must be the call to a better life, and a declaration of the way to find it.

3. The prophets imply that men not only need to change but can change . The most fundamental change of heart must be through the influence of God. Yet this is only possible when men freely and willingly turn to him in repentance.

4. The special sin denounced was apostasy from God ; the special repentance called for was a return to God. These are always the fundamental elements of sin and repentance.

III. PROPHECY IS A VOICE OF WARNING AND OF PROMISE . Evil is denounced to the impenitent; good is promised to the penitent. This is the simplest form in which the motives to repentance can be put. But the tracing out of it is not simple. It required an inspired prophet to detect the seeds of ruin in riotous prosperity and the dawning of a day of redemption in the stormy night of adversity. The prophets not only detect these facts, they discern the principles that govern them. Thus they speak for all ages. They show us how sin is ruinous; how God has a sure blessedness in store for his faithful children—a blessedness which is eternal.