Jeremiah 20:9

Then I said, I will not make mention of Him nor speak any more in His name.

Jeremiah discouraged

I. Jeremiah’s momentary rashness. Oh! it was a rash speech--like the rashness of Job, like the petulance of Jonah. It is useful for us to have set before us the failings of the most distinguished of God’s people. We learn from these failings, that after all they were mere men, and “men of like passions with ourselves,” that they were encompassed with the same infirmity, that they carried about with them the same weakness, and that therefore the same grace which was triumphant in them in the result can be equally triumphant in our support and in our ultimate victory.

II. His many and great discouragements.

1. They arose partly from the very nature of his message. His was not a pleasing burden. The message of God’s Word is a message of wrath as well as of mercy; there are denunciations in it as well as promises. And we must be as faithful and as earnest in the delivery of the one as we are in the delivery of the other.

2. The unbelief and opposition which that message experienced.

3. Nor were the hearers of Jeremiah satisfied with the discouragement that would be occasioned by their opposition to and unbelief of the message of the prophet; they added to this bitter reproach, misrepresentation and persecution. What though earth meets us with its opposition? What though calumnies are flung against the cause in which we are engaged? We are not looking for earthly honours; we are not seeking the gratitude and encomiums of the world. Our record is with God; our reward is on high. We appeal to His judgment seat; we labour as in His sight.

III. The perseverance, by which the course of the prophet was marked, notwithstanding all. Mark, then, it was only a momentary fit of despondency. They are the moments of God’s people, that are the seasons of their giving way; it is not the characteristic of their entire life. Though they may now and then say, “I will not make mention of Him nor speak any more in His name,” follow them a little--they are at it again, and again, and again; and on to a dying hour, and with their dying breath, that name is on their lips; and when the tongue is silent, it is still engraven on the heart. (W. H. Cooper.)

Pulpit experience

I. The power of the outward to induce a godly minister to discontinue his work. I will state a few of the things which often induce this depressing state of mind

1. The momentous influences that must spring from our labours. In every sentence we touch cords that shall send their vibrations through the endless future; that shall peal in the thunders of a guilty conscience, or resound in the music of a purified spirit.

2. The incessant draw upon the vital energies of our being. To preach is to teach as well as to exhort and warn; and to teach the Bible requires a knowledge of the Bible, and to know the Bible requires the most earnest, continued, and indefatigable investigation. Physical labour tires some limb, but this labour tires the soul itself; and when the soul is tired, the man himself is tired.

3. The seeming ineffectiveness of his labours.

4. The inconsistent conduct of those who profess to believe the truth.

II. The stronger power of the inward to induce a godly minister to persevere in his work. Look at this inner force; it is like a “fire.” Fire! What a purifying, expanding power! it turns everything to its own nature. So it is with the Word of God. This fire was shut up in the bones of the prophet; it became an irrepressible force. The thoughts that passed his mind about resigning, feel as fuel to increase its force. If a man has God’s truth really in him, he must speak it out.

1. This word kindled within him the all-impelling “fire” of philanthropy. Many waters cannot quench love. All the waters of ministerial annoyance, disappointment, anxieties, and labour, shall not quench this “fire,” if the Word of God is “shut up in his bones.”

2. This word kindled within him the all-impelling “fire” of piety. It filled him with love to God. David felt this “fire” when he said, “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved.” Paul felt this “fire” at Athens, when he “felt his spirit stirred within him.”

3. This word kindled within him the all-impelling “fire of hope.” The Word of God kindles within us a fire that lights up the future world, and makes us feel that what we are doing, however humble, is great, because it is for eternity.

4. This word kindled within him the strong “fire” of duty. “It is giving in trust,” etc. “I am a debtor,” says Paul. (Homilist.)

The soul under discouragement

I. The effects of discouragement as a pious soul.

1. In our labours for the good of others.

2. In our exertions for our own souls. Such apprehension is most enervating.

II. The effect of piety on a discouraged soul.

1. To shame querulous impatience.

2. To resuscitate drooping energies.

Conclusion:

1. Expect discouragements in every part of your duty.

2. Make them occasions for glorifying God the more. (C. Simeon, M. A.)

Ministers, their discouragements and supports

I. Ministerial discouragements distressingly felt.

1. Here is a rash resolution formed.

2. An insuperable obstacle presented to his meditated abandonment of his work.

II. Popular detraction sensitively deplored.

1. Explain the nature of popular detraction.

2. Adduce Scripture precepts respecting the evil of popular detraction.

3. Exhibit Scripture examples of individuals who have felt the scorpion’s sting of popular detraction.

4. Analyse more particularly the ease of the prophet as exhibited in the text.

III. Divine support happily realised.

1. From a sense of the presence and power of God.

2. Expectation of the future failure and confusion of his opposers.

3. From a belief of the omniscience of God.

4. From the efficacy of prayer.

Learn--

(1) To expect detraction.

(2) Follow the Saviour’s rule: speak to the detractor alone.

(3) Cultivate habits of circumspection.

(4) Lay our cause before God.

(5) Anticipate through the merits of Christ a world where there will be no defaming. (J. Redford)

The burning fire

We have sometimes seen a little steamer, like The Maid of the Mist at the foot of the Falls of Niagara, resisting and gaining upon a stormy torrent, madly rushing past her. Slowly she has worked her way through the mad rush of waters, defying their attempt to bear her back, calmly and serenely pursuing her onward course, without being turned aside, or driven back, or dismayed. And why? Because a burning fire is shut up in her heart, and her engines cannot stay, because impelled in their strong and regular motion. Similarly, within Jeremiah’s heart a fire had been lit from the heart of God, and was kept aflame by the continual fuel heaped on it. The difficulty, therefore, with him was, not in speaking, but in keeping silent--not in acting, but in refraining. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

A heart on fire

But, after all, our main desire is to know how we may have this heart on fire. We are tired of a cold heart toward God. We complain because of our sense of effort in Christian life and duty; we would fain learn the secret of being so possessed by the Spirit and thought of God that we might be daunted by no opposition, abashed by no fear. The source of the inward fire is the love of God, shed abroad by the Holy Ghost; not primarily our love to God, but our sense of His love to us. The coals of juniper that gave so fierce a heat to the heart of a Rutherford were brought from the altar of the heart of God. If we set ourselves with open face towards the Cross, which, like a burning lens, focuses the love of God, and if, at the same time, we reckon upon the Holy Spirit--well called the Spirit of Burning--to do His wonted office, we shall find the ice that cakes the surface of our heart dissolving in tears of penitence; and presently the sacred fire will begin to glow. When that love has once begun to burn within the soul, when once the baptism of fire has set us aglow, the sins and sorrows of men--their impieties and blasphemies, their disregard of God, of His service and of His day, their blind courting of danger, their dalliance with evil, will only incite in us a more ardent spirit. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)