CHAPTER 15

(601 B.C.)

JUDAH IS REJECTED AND FACES JUDGMENT

¹Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. (Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, suggests that these two through intercession had persuaded the Lord to change His direction regarding appointed destruction of the people of Israel. It does not mean that God changes His Mind, for He changes not, but that He has designed in His Plan the potential of proper intercession, and, by the proper people, the possibility of a different direction!

Cast them out of My sight, is the command to the Prophet to do what he has been commissioned to foretell, i.e., their expulsion from the Promised Land, and their exile in Babylon.)

²And it shall come to pass, if they say unto you, Whither shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus says the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. (In this Verse, we find that three-fourths of the people were doomed to death, and one-fourth to slavery, and all because of sin!)

³And I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the Earth, to devour and destroy. (The judgment of this Verse was a just one, for the people of Judah worshipped the gods of war, the vultures of the heavens, and the wild beasts of the Earth. And I will appoint over them, means that the full Power of God will be pressed into service in order to bring about the Judgment.)

⁴And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the Earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. (Manasseh repented of his evil conduct, and was wondrously cleansed and forgiven by the Lord, and is today in Heaven; however, the bitter fruits of his evil conduct prior to his humbling before the Lord remained and occasioned the Wrath of God some 80 years later [II Ki. 21:1-16].

Judahs being removed into all kingdoms of the Earth took place several years later upon the invasion of the Babylonians. The kingdoms of the Earth of which the Lord spoke were then ruled by Babylon.)

⁵For who shall have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan you? or who shall go aside to ask how you do? (The implication of this Verse is that Jerusalem would fall, suffering horribly, and no one would care. The surrounding nations not only would not care, but would themselves come to devour [12:9].)

⁶You have forsaken Me, says the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out My Hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting. (I am weary with repenting, refers to the Lord, and not to Judah. He had, over and over again, delayed the Judgment [repented of what He was about to do], and now says He will no longer delay, for the cup of iniquity has long since spilled over, and she must be judged.)

⁷And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My People, since they return not from their ways. (In the gates of the land, refers to the fortresses commanding the entrance into Judah, hence, the people being taken captive into Babylon close by these very fortresses designed to protect them.

Since they return not from their ways, speaks of the cause of not only Judahs problems, but the cause of the problems of the entirety of mankind! Men want their ways instead of Gods Ways.)

⁸Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city. (The spoiler is Nebuchadnezzar. He will come at noonday, referring to his powerful strength, which makes known what he will do, and has the power to carry it out.)

⁹She who has borne seven languishes: she has given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD. (So wholesale would be the destruction of life that a mother of seven sons would not have one left to comfort her. Upon hearing these Prophecies, the people thought them to be lunatic and, therefore, they cursed Jeremiah, as will be proclaimed in the next Verse.)

¹⁰Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole Earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them does curse me. (The Spirit of Christ expresses Itself in Jeremiah. In Christ, the expression is perfect; in Jeremiah, imperfect, because the Prophet was only a man, and sinful. He loved the people, bore their sorrows upon his heart, confessed their sins, suffered in sympathy their judgments; and yet they hated him.

He seems to not be able to comprehend the cause of their tremendous opposition even to the taking of his life, if the Lord had allowed them!)

THE WICKED ARE JUDGED; A REMNANT SPARED

¹¹The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with your Remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to intreat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. (Your Remnant, shows that there were a few who heeded Jeremiahs words and, therefore, followed him, as he followed the Lord. [The Remnant could also refer to the small number left in the land as caretakers after the fall of Judah.]

The enemy was the Babylonians, and they truly would treat Jeremiah well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. He was treated well by these, but not his own, which prefigured Christ being crucified by His Own, but rather received by the Gentiles [Mat. 12:21].)

¹²Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? (The iron is Judah, while the northern iron is the Chaldeans. The figure expresses the impossibility of Judah, at least within their own power, defeating the Chaldeans.)

¹³Your substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders. (This Verse proclaims the substance and treasures of Judah being given as spoil to the Babylonians.)

¹⁴And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not: for a fire is kindled in My anger, which shall burn upon you. (Jeremiah, in this Verse, at least in part, is quoting from Deut. 32:22. To pass with your enemies refers to being taken to Babylon. For a fire is kindled in My anger, speaks of the fire stirred up in the heart of God because of the sins of the people.)

JEREMIAHS PERSONAL LAMENT

¹⁵O LORD, You know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in Your longsuffering: know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. (The Prophet in this Passage prays for the Remnant. In the Spirit of Christ, he calls their persecutors his persecutors, and pleads that God, in His longsuffering to the persecutors, will not allow the persecuted to perish; adding that in his identification of himself with the Remnant he, therefore, suffered reproach. Verse 19 will enlighten this interpretation even more.)

¹⁶Your Words were found, and I did eat them; and Your Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Your Name, O LORD God of Hosts. (The Bible was found in the Eighteenth year of King Josiah, and its Divine Words were the joy and rejoicing of the Prophets heart. In this Verse, the Prophet is a marked Type of Christ.

Your Words were found, and I did eat them, reveals Jeremiahs great love for the Word of God.)

¹⁷I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Your Hand: for You have filled me with indignation. (As his Message was rejected, so was he rejected and, therefore, he sat not in the assembly of the mockers. Mockers mocked his Message and laughed at him; consequently, he was alone, save the small Remnant. Actually, his own family turned against him [12:6], along with all the Priests and Prophets. From this source, there was no encouraging voice.)

¹⁸Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will You be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? (His indignation against sin, his perpetual pain for the sinner, his consciousness of a moral hopelessness of the nation, all marked the energy and intelligence of the Divine life and love in his soul.

When he asked the question, Will You be altogether unto me as a liar?, he was referring to Gods Promises of protection to him. From the anger of the people, who did continually curse him [Vs. 10], he was fearful for his life, and afraid that God had changed His Mind about his preservation. He asked the question, because his future looked hopeless!)

GOD PROMISES TO PRESERVE JEREMIAH IN THE TROUBLE

¹⁹Therefore thus says the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you again, and you shall stand before Me: and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth: let them return unto you; but return not you unto them. (In the last three Verses, the Prophet is addressed as the representative of the Remnant. The Remnant was first to return to Jehovah, thereby separating the precious from the vile; and second, to invite the nation to come over to them but they were not to return to the nation.

As a result, the Remnant should enjoy protection and deliverance. All this, Daniel and his companions found to be true.)

²⁰And I will make you unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD. (In effect, the Lord is saying that as He delivered Jeremiah from these staggering odds, He, as well, could have, and in fact would have, delivered Judah from the Babylonians, if they had only trusted Him and served Him.)

²¹And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible. (These individuals would have killed Jeremiah in a moment but for the Hand of the Lord. Their hearts are so wicked, and their intentions so evil, that the Holy Spirit describes them as wicked and terrible.)