“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.”—Jer. i. 10.
In these words we have set forth the Divine commission given to the prophet Jeremiah. Never before, or since, was such a commission given to mortal man. It is not that Jeremiah is constituted a prophet for his own people, or over his own nation, and country, but he was Divinely appointed and set over the nations and kingdoms of the earth, with an authority “to root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down.” Surely he was rightly named, for the word Jeremiah means the exalted, or appointed one of the Lord. By common consent, the Jews gave him the first place and name among the prophets. Up to the time of the Babylonian captivity he was second, Isaiah being first. But after the captivity, on the re-arrangement of the holy canon, his name was put first, and ever after he was regarded and accepted as the patron saint of Judea. He was born of a priestly family, about 641 b.c., in the priestly town of Anathoth, which was situated a few miles North of Jerusalem, in the territory of Benjamin. His work and commission awaited him, because they antedated his birth,
for he says (chap. i. 4), “Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Jeremiah’s life-work, extent, and devotion, can only find a parallel in the majesty and compass of his commission. It is the extent of this commission that I wish you would specially notice, for it is neither tribal nor national in its limitations. He was ordained a prophet unto the nations. Hear the voice of his wailing (chapter xv. 10), “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth.”
Consistent with the vastness of this commission is the recorded fact that he was forbidden to marry in his own land, for “the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons and daughters in this place” (Jeremiah xvi. 2). The claims of a wife and cares of a family could only have been harshly fitted on to such a work and commission. Indeed, every peculiar fact in the life of Jeremiah may be best accounted for by taking into consideration the greatness of his commission. To discard this is simply to invite confusion, and yet, strange to say, many prefer confusion rather than admit that he performed the rôle assigned him of Heaven. For this very reason writers, even Jewish historians, are at a loss to account for the latter half of the prophet’s life. They do not seem to know where he spent his last days; they know not the time, manner, nor place of his death. And why, you ask? We answer, Because they selfishly and persistently limited his life and labours to his own land. They have not been willing to allow that he was set as a prophet over nations and kingdoms. Then again, they have been willing to allow him to be a puller down and destroyer, but not a builder and planter. To grant that he was a builder and planter, would have obliged them to have found the place of his building and the objects of his planting. These they well knew
could not be found in Palestine, and they were as loath as many are unwilling to-day to permit Jeremiah to leave his own land. A man who would be equal to the Bible must be large-hearted, generous, and free, not fettered and bound by the errors of youthful training, the selfishness of sectarianism, the bigotry of orthodoxy, or the indifference of infidelity, but seek the truth, no matter from whence, or what it upsets or overturns of preconceived ideas. The command is, “Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.” To hear some people talk and lament, you would think that the command was, Prove nothing, but hold hard on to what you have got.
Try now, and reasonably and patiently follow me while I trace the wanderings of Jeremiah to Old Ireland. You will be surprised to find how intimate Irishology and theology are.
Ireland and the Tribe of Dan have a peculiar history, which history only can be made plain by reference to the Bible. Ireland has had much to undergo, yet of it God says, “To the islands He will repay recompense: so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West.”
Ireland’s first name was Scuite’s Land, or the Island of the Wanderers. Her second name was Scotia Major, and Scotland was Scotia Minor, and England was Tarshish, and Dannoii and Baratamac, or Land of Tin. Yar in Eirin means the land of the setting sun. Hibernia is an Hebrew word, and means from beyond the river of waters.
Two colonies settled in Ireland; the first, the Phœnicians, who were the Philistines or ancient Canaanites; the second settlers were the Tuath de Danan, meaning the Tribe of Dan. The words are Hebrew, yet in Irish. For further information let any one read “Pinnock’s Catechism on Ireland.” The Phœnicians were a sea-faring people; pressed by Israel, Egypt, and Assyria, they finally left Canaan, and settled in Ireland. We find nine-tenths of Irish historians agreeing on this. Then the monuments teach the same—ancient inscriptions, one of
which written was, “We are Canaanites who have fled from Joshua, the son of Nun, the robber.” The people who show tourists the seven churches of Glendenlough, say they are Hittites and Hivites. Again, ruins of Baal temples, Cromlechs, round towers, go to confirm the same. Customs—Baal fires, on May eve, in Irish Ninna-baal-tinne; funeral wakes, or cup of consolation, forbidden to Israel when they sought to copy after the Philistines. “Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for father or mother” (Jer. xvi. 7). The Irish language came from the Phœnician, the alphabet of both being composed of sixteen letters originally, the only alphabet in the world so agreeing. From the Irish came the Gaelic, Welsh, Cornwall, and the Manx from them all.