Jeremiah (1-31) 15:15 Commentary and Bible Study

‘O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors’, and Jeremiah was terribly persecuted, and all tongues were against him. ‘Take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke. ¹⁶ Thy words were found, and I did eat them.’ Ezekiel also ate the scroll. What a wonderful piece of imagery! He ingested them, took them into my very being, ‘and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.’ I was so thrilled and uplifted and I rejoiced. It is a double comfort, says Jeremiah. I have God's own word to me; I take it into my heart, and thereby I have a great sense of belonging to him. ‘I am called by thy name’ – he regards me as his child. ‘I sat not in the assembly of the mockers’ – I separated myself, in effect, he says, from the wrongdoers, and I little realised what a lonely path I was to embark on. Even though he suffered great isolation, God’s word was his consolation and cause him to rejoice, not with the ungodly, but with the saints and with the Lord. ‘I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation’, like Elijah, he was jealous for the Lord of hosts, seeing the terrible things that the people did against God. ‘For thou hast filled me with indignation’, probably referring to the scorn he received at the lips of the people.But then Jeremiah lapses into complaints. ‘Why is my pain perpetual?’ I seem to have no positive encouragement in my ministry and word. Nobody responds. ‘And my wound is incurable which refuseth to be healed’, and it pushes me so far down. ‘Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?’ The language is rather jarring. He is not accusing God of being a liar, but he is saying, ‘Why do you withhold any comfort and glimmer of hope, as though your promises were not true?’ What he means is, will you be to me as a deceptive brook. It is flowing water that is the imagery: a liar in that sense: deceptive water. ‘I am hoping that as I give this word, people will fear and respond and turn, but they don't, and even my God seems to be letting me down – ‘and as waters that fail?’ Jeremiah is beginning to complain at this lonely, lonely ministry.