The vanities of the Gentiles - idols (Deuteronomy 32:21).
Rain - (Zechariah 10:1, "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field").
Or can the heavens - namely, of themselves without God (Matthew 5:45; Acts 14:17); they are not the First Cause, and ought not to be deified, as they were by the pagan. The disjunctive "or [ wª'im (H518)] favours Calvin's explanation: 'Not even the heavens themselves can give rain, much less can the idol-vanities.'
Art not thou he - namely, who canst give rain?
Remarks:
(1) Our ordinary mercies, such as the supply of water, are less appreciated owing to their very commonness. Let us seek to be thankful for them to the Gracious Giver, that we may not have to learn to estimate aright His gifts by His withdrawing them from us.
(2) "Nobles" and "plowmen" alike (Jeremiah 14:3) are brought to confusion when God withholds the necessaries of life: want and suffering force men to a sense of their dependence on Him. But the cry of nature in its distress is not to be confounded with the prayer of true penitence and faith.
(3) The believer dreads more God's departure from him than the loss of all creature-comforts, or even necessaries (Jeremiah 14:8). In deprecating God's wrath, and praying for the removal of judgments, the sincere penitent urges as his sole plea the glory of God's name, as involved in His giving an answer to prayer. The believer acknowledges that "his own and his nation's iniquities testify against him and them;" but he rests his hope on the character of Yahweh as a merciful and prayer-hearing God (Jeremiah 14:7). Especially His character in His covenant-relation to His people affords a powerful plea in prayer, "O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble" (Jeremiah 14:8); "Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not" (Jeremiah 14:9). We cannot plead our own doings, or the merit of our faith and love, but we plead the glory of thy name, by which we are "called," and which would be compromised if it should appear that thou art as a "mighty man," ordinarily to help, but new stunued by the greatness of the calamity, and unable to save (Jeremiah 14:9). Therefore not merely visit us as a traveler sojourning "for a night," but according to thy unchangeable promise dwell with us forever (Jeremiah 14:8).
(4) Had the Jews thus prayed for themselves, as Jeremiah prayed for them, doubtless God would have immediately given an answer of peace. But they still "loved to wander," and had not the least inclination yet to "refrain their feet" from wandering from Him; therefore He could not accept them without compromising His own holiness, and seeming to connive at sin, willful and unrepented of. Again, therefore, as before (Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14), He forbids Jeremiah to inter- cede anymore for them (Jeremiah 14:11). Let hardened sinners remember that no prayers of others for them will avail if they will not pray for themselves. Not until the spirit of grace and supplication is poured upon the Jews (Zechariah 12:10) will they "look on Him whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him," and then "the Lord shall go forth in their behalf (Zechariah 12:2; Zechariah 14:3).
(5) How much they have to answer for, who, in the name of God, promise men "assured peace," with-out repentance, faith, love, and obedience! They shall be punished first and most severely. But neither shall their dupes escape; because they guiltily wished to believe a lie, having lost the love of the truth: therefore false teachers were permitted, in God's judicial displeasure, to deceive them. (Compare 1 Kings 22:6; 1 Kings 22:19-11). God in righteous retribution makes their sin their punishment; "I will pour," saith He, "their wickedness upon them" (Jeremiah 14:16).
(6) The pious patriot cannot but feel acutely for his country in her calamity, though incurred by her own sin. Though our intercessions in behalf of those whom we love may not be heard in the form in which we put them, they are not, nevertheless, unheard: they bring a blessing on ourselves. We shall escape incurring participation in the guilt and punishment of others near and dear to us. Ultimately, too, the intercessions of believing Israelites shall be among the appointed means moving God to pour on the nation the spirit of true repentance: they shall then acknowledge their own sin against God, and that of their fathers. Abhorring themselves, they shall beseech God, for His holy covenant's sake, "not" to "abhor" them (Jeremiah 14:20); and renouncing all past earthly stays and idols, they shall "wait" only "upon God," the Almighty Maker of all things (Jeremiah 14:22).