Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 15

The Prophet’s Deep Soul-Exercise

1. The answer (Jeremiah 15:1-9)

2. The prophet’s grief and sorrow and Jehovah’s answer (Jeremiah 15:10-21)

Jeremiah 15:1-9. The preceding prayer is now answered and the Lord tells Jeremiah that if Moses and Samuel, these two great men of intercessory prayer, were pleading, judgment would not be averted. What is in store for those who are appointed to death, for the sword, for the famine, for captivity, will be accomplished. There is no escape. They will be removed among all kingdoms on account of Manasseh’s great sin 2 Kings 21:11-26. The terrors of judgment are described in Jeremiah 15:7-9. Their children will be taken; widows increase; the mother of seven children faints, because they are all taken from her.

Jeremiah 15:10-21. Jeremiah is overwhelmed. He pronounces a “woe” upon himself and declares that his mother has given birth to one who is a man of strife, of contention to the whole land. He has faithfully discharged his duty; he loved his people and they hated him beyond measure. Every one cursed him, as if he were a wicked man. What anguish of soul this implies! But then the Lord was near to cheer and comfort him, as He is near to us when we are in sorrow and all is dark and we are in despair. It would be well with him and with those, who, like Jeremiah, trust the Lord. But the remnant, too, would suffer with the nation’s portion (Jeremiah 15:13-14). This brings out another prayer from Jeremiah’s heart. He pleads for revenge upon his adversaries, and then prays, “Take me not away in Thy longsuffering, know that for Thy sake I have suffered rebuke.” But while he prayed he also used the Word of God. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them.” He fed on the bread of life. The word was unto him the joy and rejoicing of his heart. He knew from the Word that he was called by His Name. And we also can turn to the Word and feed on it. But how few can say, “Thy Word is the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” That Word on which Jeremiah fed, which filled his sorrowful heart, led him to separation. It will lead us also to separation in the evil day of departure from God and the threatening judgment. He sat alone; He refused to have anything to do with the assembly of mockers, those who denied His Word and His Name, who listened to the false prophets with their false message. Jeremiah 15:18 must be interpreted in the sense that Jeremiah speaks as representing the godly remnant of Israel. There was such a remnant then in the midst of the wicked mass, there will be such a remnant again in the future, during the great tribulation, or, as Jeremiah calls that time, “The time of Jacob’s trouble.” They suffer in the trials and judgments; they are fearful, yet trusting. Jeremiah is representative of this remnant. The answer the Lord gives in Jeremiah 15:19-21 must be explained in the same light. Jeremiah 15:21 will find its final fulfillment of the future remnant when the Lord returns and redeems them from the hand of the wicked and the hand of the terrible, the two beasts of Revelation 13:1-18.