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| What Jeremiah and Zephaniah Have, by the Prophetic Spirit, Spoken Before Concerning Christ and the Calling of the Nations.
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Chapter 33.—What Jeremiah and
Zephaniah Have, by the Prophetic Spirit, Spoken Before Concerning
Christ and the Calling of the Nations.
Jeremiah, like Isaiah, is one of
the greater prophets, not of the minor, like the others from whose
writings I have just given extracts. He prophesied when Josiah
reigned in Jerusalem, and Ancus Martius at Rome, when the captivity
of the Jews was already at hand; and he continued to prophesy down
to the fifth month of the captivity, as we find from his
writings. Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets, is put along with
him, because he himself says that he prophesied in the days of
Josiah; but he does not say till when. Jeremiah thus prophesied
not only in the times of Ancus Martius, but also in those of
Tarquinius Priscus, whom the Romans had for their fifth king. For
he had already begun to reign when that captivity took place.
Jeremiah, in prophesying of Christ, says, “The breath of our
mouth, the Lord Christ, was taken in our sins,”1188
thus
briefly showing both that Christ is our Lord and that He suffered
for us. Also in another place he says, “This is my God, and
there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him; who
hath found out all the way of prudence, and hath given it to Jacob
His servant, and to Israel His beloved: afterwards He was seen on
the earth, and conversed with men.”1189
Some attribute this testimony
not to Jeremiah, but to his secretary, who was called Baruch; but
it is more commonly ascribed to Jeremiah. Again the same prophet
says concerning Him, “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that
I will raise up unto David a righteous shoot, and a King shall
reign and shall be wise, and shall do judgment and justice in the
earth. In those days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
confidently: and this is the name which they shall call Him, Our
righteous Lord.”1190
And of the calling of the
nations which was to come to pass, and which we now see fulfilled,
he thus spoke: “O Lord my God, and my refuge in the day of
evils, to Thee shall the nations come from
the utmost
end of the earth, saying, Truly our fathers have worshipped lying
images, wherein there is no profit.”1191
But that the Jews, by whom He
behoved even to be slain, were not going to acknowledge Him, this
prophet thus intimates: “Heavy is the heart through all; and He
is a man, and who shall know Him?”1192
That passage also is his which I
have quoted in the seventeenth book concerning the new testament,
of which Christ is the Mediator. For Jeremiah himself says,
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will complete over
the house of Jacob a new testament,” and the rest, which may be
read there.1193
For the present I shall put down
those predictions about Christ by the prophet Zephaniah, who
prophesied with Jeremiah. “Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, in
the day of my resurrection, in the future; because it is my
determination to assemble the nations, and gather together the
kingdoms.”1194
And
again he says, “The Lord will be terrible upon them, and will
exterminate all the gods of the earth; and they shall worship Him
every man from his place, even all the isles of the nations.”1195
And a
little after he says, “Then will I turn to the people a tongue,
and to His offspring, that they may call upon the name of the Lord,
and serve Him under one yoke. From the borders of the rivers of
Ethiopia shall they bring sacrifices unto me. In that day thou
shall not be confounded for all thy curious inventions, which thou
hast done impiously against me: for then I will take away from
thee the haughtiness of thy trespass; and thou shalt no more
magnify thyself above thy holy mountain. And I will leave in thee
a meek and humble people, and they who shall be left of Israel
shall fear the name of the Lord.”1196
These are the remnant of whom
the apostle quotes that which is elsewhere prophesied: “Though
the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a
remnant shall be saved.”1197
These are the remnant of that
nation who have believed in Christ.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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