Jeremiah (1-31) 1:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 1:8

Comments

‘Be not afraid of their faces.’ The Hebrew is more, ‘Be not afraid in their presence’, and our translators have gone for faces and it's very effective. It is repeated later in the chapter. Be not afraid at their stony looks, is what comes to our minds, and their resentment or opposition, or the contempt that they may have. Never be afraid, because you are speaking the divine word and it will accomplish whatever God intends. The danger will be great; there will be tremendous opposition: for Jeremiah, mostly from the Jews, but also from others. But God will be with him: ‘For I am with thee to deliver thee.’‘For I am with thee,’ the words are significant. ‘I am with thee to deliver thee.’ In other words, you will be attacked, and Jeremiah certainly was attacked. He was a man of sorrows, he had the most cruel and terrible things done to him, as we shall see. He had to suffer deprivation, and squalid imprisonment in a dungeon and in a pit. He had to go through all kinds of things. The promise of God is that not that he would avoid those things, but that he would be delivered, that is to say, rescued from them. That is what happened, because he was still ministering after forty years! His voice was still being heard. The people were being challenged, and many of the things he predicted had come to pass before the conclusion of his ministry. Jerusalem had fallen - the thing that the occupants never expected to happen had happened. Everything that Jeremiah had said, had come to pass, and he was proved right and he was still standing and ministering, and his opponents all went into captivity. So the promise of God was marvellously carried out. The promise wasn't that he wouldn't suffer, but that he would be delivered through it all.

Application

It is the same with us. If we speak God's word, there will be suffering in some shape or form: resentment, scorn, contempt, rejection. But it will never be allowed to crush us. We may, like apostle Paul, go to prison. There may be physical persecution, but God will see us through and his word will stand at the end, and our work will stand when all our assailants have fallen.

‘Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee.’ How do you avoid fear? How do you avoid the discomfort, and the crushing sensation of being scorned and ridiculed and rejected, set at nought? You keep your mind on this: ‘I am with thee’, and that is everything. That is so powerful; that is such a comfort and such a strength. There is an implicit warning here, ‘for I am with thee.’ Be not afraid of stony faces, hostile faces, indifferent faces, contemptuous faces.

What is more, his word survived the ordeal and the word went out. Of course we have it here now. We have all the chapters of Jeremiah. We have his lamentations also. We have such a large portion of the word of God through his ministry. The promise of preservation applied to him, and to his work. Not everybody is promised preservation: there are martyrs for the cause, but even they do not know death in spiritual terms.

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Jeremiah (1-31) 1:8 Commentary and Bible Study