I was struck by this Matthew Henry Commentary. On Jeremiah 5:21-23
‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
Who have eyes but do not see;
Who have ears but do not hear.
22 ‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the Lord.
‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.
Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
23 ‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
They have turned aside and departed.
From Matthew Henry:
Their understandings were darkened and inapt to admit the rays of the divine light: They are a foolish people and without understanding;
they apprehend not the mind of God, though ever so plainly declared to
them by the written word, by his prophets, and by his providence (Jer. 5:21): They have eyes, but they see not, ears, but they hear not, like the idols which they made and worshiped, Ps. 115:5, 6, 8.
One would have thought that they took notice of things, but really they
did not; they had intellectual faculties and capacities, but they did
not employ and improve them as they ought. Herein they disappointed the
expectations of all their neighbors, who, observing what excellent
means of knowledge they had, concluded, Surely they are a wise and an understanding people (Deut. 4:6), and yet really they are a foolish people and without understanding.
Note, We cannot judge of men by the advantages and opportunities they
enjoy: there are those that sit in darkness in a land of light, that
live in sin even in a holy land, that are bad in the best places.
2.
Their wills were stubborn and unapt to submit to the rules of the divine
law (Jer. 5:23): This people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; and no wonder when they were foolish and without understanding, Ps. 82:5.
Nay, it is the corrupt bias of the will that bribes and besots the
understanding: none so blind as those that will not see.
The character
of this people is the true character of all people by nature, till the
grace of God has wrought a change. We are foolish, slow of understanding, and apt to mistake and forget; yet that is not the worst. We have a revolting and a rebellious heart,
a carnal mind, that is enmity against God, and is not in subjection to
his law, not only revolting from him by a rooted aversion to that which
is good, but rebellious against him by a strong inclination to that
which is evil.
Observe, The revolting heart is a rebellious one: those
that withdraw from their allegiance to God do not stop there, but by
siding in with sin and Satan take up arms against him. They have revolted and gone. The revolting heart will produce a revolting life. They are gone, and they will go (so it may be read); now nothing will be restrained from them, Gen. 11:6.
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