Jeremiah 43:8-13

Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick kiln.

Jeremiah hides the stones in the brick kiln

I. They preached of the historic past.

1. From the soil in which they were found. They were stones of Egypt.

2. The place where they were buried--the brick kiln--must have carried their thoughts back to the hard labour of their ancestors under the lash of the taskmasters (Exodus 9:8).

3. The burial of the stones beneath the ground might have suggested the past condition of Israel in this same land; they were buried under the oppressive tyranny of the heathen monarch and his people, and had been raised, as it were, from a grave of degradation and lifted into a new life as a free people by the mighty hand of God.

II. They prophesied of the future.

1. The only refuge from the displeasure of God is to be found in God Himself.

2. Unbelief in the Divine Word will not prevent the fulfilment of it.

3. The true minister of God will not be deterred by opposition from declaring the judgments, as well as the mercies, of God. (A London Minister.).