Jeremiah 15: 15-21: The loneliness of the long distance leader.(click here for todays passage)

Jeremiah’s suffering (15): God fully understood this and Jeremiah knew that He did. Jeremiah was a good man; a faithful man who was persecuted for his faith.

Jeremiah’s delight (16; see Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:4): Jeremiah knew something of the loneliness of ministry. In fact, he experienced more isolation and rejection than most. He received discouraging responses to his preaching during the ‘marathon’ years of his ministry. But he did find strength and joy and encouragement in God’s Word. Eugene Peterson wrote a volume entitled, ‘Eat this Book’. How’s your appetite?

Jeremiah’s loneliness (17): He didn’t marry and he had few friends. He could not join in with the party when he knew that the roof was about to cave in and the whole house come crashing down. He saw more clearly than most of his contemporaries, and he paid dearly for seeing so clearly and for having the courage to speak out what he saw on the horizon. He trod a lonely path. The party- goers saw him as a party-pooper and he was hated.

Jeremiah’s sin (18): I feel sorry for Jeremiah, and so do you. But all that he went through was not an excuse for sin. It is one thing to be honest with God, but it is quite another to say things that are untrue (18b). Jesus taught His disciples to pray these words: ‘’And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ (Matthew 6:13). I understand that it can read: ‘’And do not put us to the test…’’ The truth is that a time of testing can be an occasion for temptation, so we need to be vigilant in it that we do not fall into sin. ‘’Jeremiah here lapses into acute self-pity and launches a bitter attack on God that reaches perilously close to blasphemy.’’ A.E. Cundall.

But God did not write Jeremiah off as a failure. He dealt gently with him as he did with Elijah (1 Kings 19:3-18; see also the story of Peter’s restoration in John 21). ‘’Remember how Peter sinned; but within 50 days he was speaking as the mouth of the Holy Ghost to thousands.’’ F.B. Meyer.

God’s kindness and gentleness (19): We who preach repentance to others will need to repent ourselves at times. We will need to drink the same medicine we prescribe. Jeremiah was a good and faithful man. But he was also sinful. At this time of great pressure his sin nature shone through. He needed to understand that sin could clog up the channel of his ministry, and he needed cleaning out. He particularly needed to repent of the ‘’worthless words’’ he had spoken in (18b; see Isaiah 6:5).

God’s commission (19b): We could say that Jeremiah was recommissioned at this point. (Hear echoes of his initial call in 1:8, 18).If Jeremiah did repent he would God’s ‘’spokesman’’. But although the people might come to him to hear him, he was not to ‘’turn to them’’. He wasn’t to become like them; to be enticed into their ways or squeezed into their mould.’ A faithful preacher of God’s Word will not only carry an authoritative message; he or she will have a distinctive lifestyle. They will be different. That difference also preaches! So if we spend time in the company of unbelievers (and I think the example of Jesus says we should) we should be careful not to take on their moral hues (17). Jesus was with them yet distinct from them, and that’s our challenge.

God’s promise (20, 21; see verse 11 and 1:8; 18): Hold on to what He’s said to you.