Jeremiah 1:10

I have this day set thee... — With the gift, and therefore the consciousness, of a new power, there comes what would at first have been too much for the mortal vessel of the truth to bear — a prospective view of the greatness of the work before him. He is at once set (literally, made the “deputy,” or representative, of God, as in Judges 9:28 and 2 Chronicles 24:11, the “officer,” or in Jeremiah 20:1, “chief governor”) over the nations, i.e., as before, the nations external to Israel, and the “kingdoms” including it. The work at first seems one simply of destruction — to root out and ruin (so we may represent the alliterative assonance of the Hebrew), to destroy and rend asunder. But beyond that there is the hope of a work of construction. He is to “build up” the fallen ruins of Israel, to “plant” in the land that had been made desolate. The whole sequel of the book is a comment on these words. It passes through terror and darkness to the glory and the blessing of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31).