Jeremiah 2:2-3

Jer. 2:2, 3. "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase. See verse 21, "Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed." Psalms 68:14. This has not respect to that generation that went out of Egypt, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, that were a very corrupt generation, but the generation of their children spoken of Numbers 14:31, "But your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised." So Deuteronomy 1:39. It has respect to those spoken of Jeremiah 31:2. The people which were left to the sword found grace in the wilderness. The same generation that entered into the land of Canaan, with Joshua, and took possession of the good land, it was the generation that God planted in Canaan, as is evident by Jeremiah 2:21. And the going after God in the wilderness that is here spoken of, is not the going of the children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness of Sinai, but their following God through that dreadful wilderness in which the congregation long wandered after they went back from Kadesh-barnea, which is spoken of Deuteronomy 8:15, "Who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought; where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint." Although this generation had a much greater trial than the generation of their fathers had before they came to Kadesh-barnea, yet they never murmured against God in anywise as their fathers had done. But their trials had a contrary effect upon them, viz. to humble them, and fit them for great mercy. Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 8:3, "And thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee," etc. And Deuteronomy 8:15; Deuteronomy 8:16, "Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, etc. that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good in thy latter end." And therefore it is said, Hosea 13:5, "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought."

This generation were eminent for piety, as appears by many things said of them in the book of Numbers, as especially Joshua. See Joshua 23:8; Joshua 22:1; Joshua 22:2; Deuteronomy 4:3; Deuteronomy 4:4. See also note on Hosea 11:1; Jeremiah 31:2; Jeremiah 31:3; Hosea 9:10; Jeremiah 2:21; Psalms 68:14; Joshua 1, and three last verses. Judges 2:7; Judges 2:17; Judges 2:22. And though there were some wicked men amongst them, they were not like their fathers, unbelieving generation; but believed God, and followed him, and by faith overcame Sihon and Og, and the giants and mighty nations of Canaan. They showed a laudable and fervent zeal for God on several occasions, on occasion of Achan's sin, but especially when they suspected the two tribes and half had set up an altar in opposition to the altar of burnt-offering before the tabernacle. Israel feared and served the Lord all the days that the men of that generation lived. See Notes on Judges 2:7.

Jer. 2:2, 3, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth," etc. It is probable that all those open rebellions, which were in the congregation of Israel during the whole forty years that the congregation was in the wilderness, were what the men of that perverse generation, who were adults when they came out of Egypt, were principally active and leading in, as the rebellion of Korah and his company that we have an account of Numbers16 evidently was, for it was managed by some of the principal men in the congregation, which were wont to be their elders, or elderly men, see verse 2. Their contesting with Moses and Aaron, such aged persons as those that ought to be esteemed equal with them, and other circumstances of the story, show it. And so it is probable was the rebellion at the place where they set up the fiery serpent; Numbers 21; and the rebellion and wickedness in the matter of Peor.; Numbers 25. Those that remained of that wicked generation seem to have led in it; for the heads or chief of the people, which doubtless were some of their elders, had a chief hand in it, and consequently were hung up before the sun. Numbers 25:4. That wicked generation continued their rebellions after that God for their rebelling had sworn in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest, as is implied in Psalms 81:12, "So I gave them up to their own hearts' lust, and they walked in their own counsels." This seems to refer to something in their history as delivered by Moses, as all other passages in the Psalms, concerning the church of Israel in Egypt, and the wilderness, do; but there is nothing else in that history they can refer to but those rebellions that have been spoken of. We may argue in like manner from Acts 7:41-43, "And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch," etc.

Wherein God was grieved by the congregation during the whole forty years in the wilderness, it seems to have been chiefly by that generation, by Psalms 95:10; Psalms 95:11, "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation - unto whom I sware in my wrath," etc. It was their carcasses, chiefly, that fell in the matter of Korah, and by the fiery serpents; and the destruction that was of them in the matter of Peor, seems to have accomplished the threatening, and to have purged the congregation of the remains of that wicked generation, Jeremiah 31:2.

That there was a time of remarkable influence of God's Holy Spirit in the younger generation during the forty years' travel, is confirmed by comparing Nehemiah 9:20; Nehemiah 9:21, and Deuteronomy 32:10, and also Deuteronomy 8:2-5; Deuteronomy 5:15. See also Numbers 31:48, to the end, and Deuteronomy 34:9. A considerable instance of the faith and obedience of that generation was their readily complying with God's command by Joshua in submitting to that painful rite of circumcision, which had been disused for above thirty-eight years; and that, just as they were entering into the land of Canaan full of their strong enemies, being now shut in by the Jordan. It was not only a considerable thing for the whole congregation under forty years at once to submit to what was so painful and disagreeable, but so to expose themselves to their enemies; for, excepting the divine protection, they must in those circumstances have been an easy prey to their enemies, if they had immediately fallen upon them, as the Shechemites were to Simeon and Levi. Their having just entered the country of their gigantic and numerous enemies, of whom they had heard such formidable accounts, and their not knowing what preparation their enemies had made, nor how soon they would fall upon them, tended to make them the more fearful and cautious; but they obeyed God, and trusted in his protection without murmuring against God or Joshua, as Zipporah did against Moses, saying, "Surely a bloody husband art thou to me."

Concerning what the congregation of Israel were to do in order to the taking of Jericho. It was to try the faith, and obedience, and patience of the people; to try whether they would obey, and believe a promise, which in human probability seemed impossible to be performed. They were also proved whether they could patiently bear the reproaches of their enemies, and patiently wait for the salvation of the Lord. Thus by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. Hebrews 11:30. They were commanded to be silent, not to speak a word nor make any noise, verse 10, which intimates their reverent expectation of the event. Zechariah 2:13, "Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord." Exodus 14:14, "God shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." They were to go round the city blowing the trumpet for six days together; and they did so, and seven times the seventh day, verse 14. God could have caused the walls of Jericho to fall upon the first surrounding them; but they must go round them thirteen times before they fall, that they may be kept waiting patiently for the Lord. Though they were newly come into Canaan, and their time was very precious, for they had a great deal of work before them, yet they must linger so many days about Jericho, seeming to do nothing, nor to make any progress in their business. He that believes does not make haste. Go yet seven times before anything appears. 1 Kings 18:43, Henry.

Their faith was further tried in this, that one of the seven days must needs be the sabbath, on which they were commanded to rest. An unbelieving mind would have objected on this account, as the unbelieving Jews objected against Christ's healing, and commanding the man to carry his bed, on the sabbath-day. It is to be noted that it was the same person, even Jesus Christ, who now commanded the people to go round Jericho, and the priests all the while to blow the trumpets on the sabbath, which commanded the impotent man to carry his bed on the sabbath. John 5:11. Compare chap. John 5:13-15 and John 6:2, etc.

A further trial of the people's faith was that all the men of war in going round the city were obliged to leave their camp and all their goods, and their wives and children, every day defenseless, as to any other guard but the divine protection.

This last observed is agreeable to God's proceedings in the course of his providence, in the revolutions of the natural world, and in the revolutions of the world of mankind. Things only seem to go round and round, and return where they were before, as though no progress was made, until God's times comes. But this is through the narrowness of our views. He that looks only on a wheel of a chariot, and sees nothing beyond it, will not see that it does anything but go round, the same spoke rising and falling alternately to the same place. But he that looks beyond the wheel to the world around, may see the progress that is made continually to an appointed journey's end.

This generation failed not of their duty under such temptations as Saul failed under when he was sent to destroy Agag. They destroyed all the inhabitants, cattle, and goods of Jericho, the first city they took; when they were under the greatest temptations greedily to take them to themselves, being lately come out of the wilderness where they had been destitute of all such things for so long a time. None transgressed but Achan; and when he was found out, none stood in his defense, but all Israel stoned him with stones. See how Joshua commands the soldiers of the two tribes and a half, Joshua 22:1-3.

Jer. 2:32