Jeremiah 15:15-18

B. The Prayer of Jeremiah 15:15-18

TRANSLATION

(15) You, O LORD, know; remember me, visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors. Do not take me away by deferring your anger. Know that for Your sake I have been bearing reproach. (16) Your words were found and I ate them; and Your words were to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. (17) I have not sat in the assembly of the merry makers, that I might rejoice. Because of Your hand I sat alone, because you filled me with indignation. (18) Why is my pain perpetual and my wound in curable, refusing to be healed? You have surely become unto me like a deceptive stream, like waters that fail.

COMMENTS

In Jeremiah 15:15 the second of the so-called confession of Jeremiah begins. The prophet begins by affirming the omniscience of God, you know, O Lord. The fact that God knows what the prophet has been going through comforts Jeremiah. His petition contains three positive requests and one negative one: (1) He wants God to remember him. (2) He needs to see some visible sign of God's continued care; He wants God to visit him. (3) He asks God to avenge his persecutors. God executes vengeance on behalf of His people. This is why God's people are forbidden to act in a vengeful way toward others. He is asking that these persecutors receive their just deserts. (4) Jeremiah asks that he not be taken away, i.e., that he not be allowed to die an early, premature death. If God continues to exercise long-suffering with regard to the wicked enemies of Jeremiah, the prophet fears that he will be killed.

From petition Jeremiah moves in his prayer to narrative. Even though God knows all, still Jeremiah rehearses before his God the particular difficulties which he has recently been experiencing. First he asks God to take note of the reproach which he bears daily for His sake (Jeremiah 15:15). When the Lord initially put His word in the mouth of the prophet (Jeremiah 1:7) Jeremiah ate them. To eat words means to make them one's own, to digest them, to absorb them, to make them the constant food of one's spiritual life (cf. Ezekiel 3:1 ff.; 1 Timothy 4:14-16). Jeremiah's whole life revolved around the word of God. It was to him a source of great joy to learn that he had been called of God to be His prophet, His messenger (Jeremiah 15:16). But as time went on Jeremiah found out that being God's man had distinct disadvantages. His preaching made him unpopular. This man was filled with God's indignation against sin. His messages centered in the wrath and judgment of God. For this reason he was excluded or perhaps excluded himself from the joyous festivals. He lived a lonely, solitary life because the touch of God's hand had set him apart. The Old Testament contains numerous references to a prophet being touched by the hand of God.[207] The hand of the Lord came upon is an idiomatic expression meaning that the irresistible power of God came upon the life of a man. Because he possessed the prophetic spirit Jeremiah was different. He suffered alone (Jeremiah 15:17).

[207] See 2 Kings 3:15; Isaiah 8:11; Ezekiel 3:14.

Jeremiah 15:18 contains interrogation and accusation. Jeremiah asks the question that many other discouraged saints through the ages have asked, Why? In earlier passages (e.g. Jeremiah 12:1 ff.; Jeremiah 14:8-9; Jeremiah 14:19) Jeremiah was asking how God could finally forsake Israel. But now Jeremiah feels that God has forsaken his servant; and so the question why is renewed but this time with a personal application. Thus far his ministry had not been blessed with success. He had faithfully sown the word of God but had reaped only hatred and opposition. His mental anguish is perpetual, like a wound which will not heal. He would love to preach salvation but instead he must preach damnation. In this moment of anguish and despair he cries out against God: you have surely become to me as a deceptive stream, a brook that runs dry in summer. He had publicly preached that God was a fountain of living water (Jeremiah 2:13); now privately he accuses God of being a dried up stream! He is accusing God of being unreliable, untrustworthy, unfaithful. To soften the thrust of the last part of Jeremiah 15:18, some make this sentence a question. While this is a possible translation there is no real indication that a question is intended. Jeremiah has simply reached the breaking point. In this moment of weakness Satan has placed this blasphemous thought in the mind of Jeremiah.