Jeremiah;- The man in the middle (ch15)

Jeremiah ch15 should be seen as a continuation of “the word of the Lord concerning the drought” which began in the previous chapter. The word ends with Jeremiah’s complaints about having to be the messenger of these warnings and experiencing popular hatred because of them.

And a prose section on the same theme (vv10-12) has been inserted into the middle of this chapter when the prophecies were collected.
V10 is ostensibly addressed to Jeremiah’s mother, complaining that she has given birth to him and thus made him “a man of strife and contention to the whole land”. We may compare the way that Job curses the day that he was born, because he does not want to commit the sin of cursing God himself.
Everybody curses him, even though he has not lent to or borrowed from anybody. Evidently debtors and creditors were the usual victims of curses, for different reasons.
“So let it be, O Lord, if…”; that is, he would have deserved those curses IF he had neglected to pray for them in their troubles.
The RSV speaks of pleading “on behalf of the enemy” which makes no sense in English. It might be better the other way round; pleading with the enemy on behalf of the people (i.e. for their benefit). But it is not possible to break iron from the north. In other words, perhaps, the invading Babylonians are quite implacable.

In the first half of the chapter, the Lord was saying that he would take no pity on Jerusalem. Very well, but what about taking pity on Jeremiah himself? He wants the Lord to “remember and visit him” and take vengeance on his persecutors (v15). He asks that the Lord should not “take me away”- that is, not allow him to be destroyed.

He has given himself to serve the Lord. He found the words of the Lord and “ate” them (as Ezekiel was instructed to do), and they became a joy and a delight to him. He is called by the name of the Lord- that is the meaning of the “-iah” at the end of the English version of his own name. He did not take part in the companionship of merrymakers and lose himself in their disorders, Instead, he sat alone. The Lord’s hand had been upon him, filling him with indignation against the sins of the people.

So why is the pain of his life developing into an incurable wound? Is the Lord going to let him down, like a stream that runs dry?

V19 “Therefore, thus says the Lord; If you return I will restore you, and you shall stand before me.”
This is the kind of promise which the Lord used to give to his people Israel; if they “returned” to him by repenting, the good relationship would be re-established. However, it’s clear from the context that these words are being addressed to Jeremiah himself. Why should Jeremiah need to “return”? Perhaps he needs to repent of the complaining mood being expressed in vv15-18.

The promise continues, in the sense that he will be allowed to continue the work which he does not like. “If you utter what is precious and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth.”

“They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.” That is, they will give in to his will before he gives in to theirs (by abandoning his work).
“I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze. They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you.” This echoes the promise being made as early as ch1 v18, when his mission began.

God is with him to save and deliver him “out of the hand of the wicked …from the grasp of the ruthless.” The shame is that these people, from whom he needs to be saved, are his own countrymen.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Forgive me, dear Disraeli, but I saw a thread from you about you having been an atheist before, etc. Please take me to that thread, okay?

Easy; How an atheist became a Christian

While I'm at it, I'll link you to my Ten years of Bible threads Index Thread, which is the secret behind finding the other one so quickly.