2.04. Chapter 4 - Discouragement
Chapter 4 - Discouragement
Jeremiah, although timid by nature, has appeared before us with a God-given boldness which sustained him throughout the persecutions. The Spirit of God, however, does not omit in the Word the moments of discouragement through which he passed during his long career. Let us consider some of them as well as the divine answers granted him.
1. Useless Preaching (Jeremiah 8:21; Jeremiah 9:2)
Jeremiah was keenly aware of the distress that was to be the portion of his nation: “For the breach of the daughter of my people am I crushed ... that I may weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jeremiah 8:21; Jeremiah 9:1)
Nevertheless, he knew very well that the cause of the misfortunes about to come down on his fellow-countrymen was their iniquity, their lies, their refusal to listen to God, their malicious criticism, and all of their acts of deceit and wickedness (Jeremiah 9:3-6).
What use is further prophesying, further warning, when no one will listen? “Oh that I had in the wilderness a traveller’s lodging-place, that I might leave my people, and go away from them!” (Jeremiah 9:2). In other words, I’ve had enough of it all; I’d like to flee to a far away place and have nothing more to do with these people.
David experienced the same feelings when he was being heavily pursued by his enemies: “Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away, and be at rest; behold, I would flee afar off, I would lodge in the wilderness” (Psalms 55:6-7). In his bewilderment Jeremiah does not receive a direct answer from God; but the psalmist presents to us some of the divine resources that undoubtedly were offered to him. When David was fleeing before Saul to the cave (Psalms 57:1), he cried out “Be merciful to me, O God ... For my soul trusts in you; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by.” Now he is not seeking the wings of a dove with which to fly away, but the shadow of the wings of the Most High to take refuge under. Thus we read at the end of Psalms 55:1-23, in Psalms 55:22 : “Cast your burden on the Lord and He shall sustain you, He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”
2. In Perplexity (Jeremiah 12:1-3) As we saw in a previous chapter, the first persecutions which the prophet had to suffer were inflicted upon him by his family and the men of his village. His reaction is depicted at the beginning of chapter 12.
Jeremiah is perplexed. The way of the wicked is prospering; those that deal very treacherously are at ease; with their mouths they speak of God, but He is far from their hearts. And yet, He has planted them, they have taken root, they advance, they bring forth fruit (Jeremiah 12:1-2). As for the prophet whose heart is known by God, who has followed the Lord faithfully, who has answered His call - his trials now overtake him, and his family hates him. But why?
Asaph had the same experience (Psalms 73:1-28): The wicked are prosperous, proud, and arrogant; they are scoffers; they deride God, and yet “They prosper in the world; they heap up riches” (Psalms 73:3-12)! He, Asaph, who has purified his heart, who has washed his hands in innocency, is experiencing daily trials. With painful mental exertion he endeavours to penetrate this mystery of the ways of God: “When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me - until I went into the sanctuary of God.” There the Lord gives an answer to His servant. Asaph now understands the end of the wicked. He experiences the constant presence of the Lord who has held his right hand. Trials have not ceased - “My flesh and my heart fail.” But he has the experiential knowledge that God is the rock of his heart and his portion forever: “There is none upon earth I desire beside you ... but as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God” (Jeremiah 12:7-28). For Jeremiah the answer is not so comforting. Instead, it is a challenge. “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?” (Jeremiah 12:5). In other words, if relatively minor trials like those caused by your family are sufficient to weary you, what will you do when greater trials, like charging “horses” or the “swelling of the Jordan,” come upon you? We must learn to endure today’s trials in order to be strengthened for those of tomorrow.
3. Jeremiah, the Object of Painful Opposition (Jeremiah 15:10-21) With time, persecutions increased and Jeremiah had to bear the full brunt of their storm. “Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife … every one. . curses me” (Jeremiah 15:10). What a burden was this task of constantly prophesying judgment while, the false prophets were predicting peace! It got him only cursing and reproach.
However, he says to the Lord: “Your words were found, and I did eat them, and your words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). The rediscovery of the book of the law had been a very great joy for him; the words of God became his constant food. He had parted company with the mockers, with those who refused God’s Word. He “sat alone.”
What is the good of all that? “Why is my pain perpetual ... It refuses to be healed” (Jeremiah 15:18). Turning toward God he wonders whether or not he has been deceived! He asks, Was I right when I obeyed His call to be a prophet? “Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?” Jeremiah’s complaint contains “precious” elements, especially in his appreciation for the Word of God. However, it also contains some “vile” ones (Jeremiah 15:19), such as the distrust that rises in his heart towards the Lord.
Job had cursed the day of his birth. He had profusely reproached God. He had even accused Him. The Lord revealed Himself to His servant, thus bringing him back. Through trial He gave him a deeper knowledge of divine grace, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). In self-judgment Job finds restoration.
What happens in this regard with Jeremiah? What does the divine Word say to him? “If you return, then I bring you back; you shall stand before me” (Jeremiah 15:19). In other words, Turn away from yourself and in My grace I will bring you back to Me again. “You shall stand before me.” You shall have the portion of the prophet who stands “in the council of the Lord, and has perceived and heard his word” (Jeremiah 23:18). Furthermore, “If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth.” Put aside your accusations and doubts; hold fast to the precious, and you will go back to your initial calling: “Behold. I have put my words in your mouth” (Jeremiah 1:9). You “sat alone” - fine, you did well. “Let them return to you; but you must not return to them.” Even if you suffer from loneliness, do not associate with these wicked men. The promises of chapter one are repeated almost word for word. “I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you but they shall not prevail against you for I am with you, to save you and deliver you” (Jeremiah 15:20; cf. Jeremiah 1:18-19).
4. Put to Torture (Jeremiah 20:7-18)
During the rest of the day and throughout the night Pashur had Jeremiah locked in the stocks. He was positioned at the gate of Benjamin, where everybody could see him subjected to torture and sufferings. The passers-by were able to compete with each other in deriding him. What was his reaction?
Jeremiah reminds God that it was not his desire to be a prophet, but that Jehovah had “enticed” him and had prevailed. What had he benefited from it? Nothing but derision and mockery. “For as oft as I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and spoil; for the word of the Lord has become unto me a reproach.” He had said to himself, “I will not make mention of him.” The Word, however, had been in his heart as a burning fire; he became wearied with holding in, and he could not (Jeremiah 20:8-9). From every side they were defaming him. His neighbors (the people of Anathoth) were watching for his stumbling, in order to take their revenge on him.
Nevertheless the prophet regains possession of himself. In the midst of so many trials, the Lord is with him (Jeremiah 20:11-13). The feeling of God’s presence even induces him to sing, to praise, to look forward to the deliverance (Jeremiah 20:13); as also with Paul and Silas in prison much later on. A renewed outbreak of sufferings, however, combined with Satan’s efforts, brings distress back into his heart. “Cursed be the day wherein I was born ... Wherefore came I forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame?” This completes what God has wished to retain in His Word about the state of mind of His servant. Other passages inform us that Jeremiah did not forsake his ministry. The frightful night at the upper gate of Benjamin weighed heavily on his soul. The recollection of this time of distress has been kept for us. Is not the perseverance of the prophet a constant example for us to follow?
5. The Accumulation of Sufferings (Lamentations 3:1-33) The first two chapters in the brief book of Jeremiah’s Lamentations mostly describe Jerusalem and its destruction. In Lamentations 4:1-22 and Lamentations 5:1-22 he recalls the grief and anguish of the siege and the consequences of Nebuchadnezzar’s final victory. At the central point of the book of Lamentations (Lamentations 3:1-66) he relates especially his own trials in language which (as various Psalms) can also apply to the sufferings of Christ. The prophet does not accuse the people and their chiefs of having inflicted on him all the persecutions he endured. Rather, he receives them from the hand of God, saying: “I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.” He recalls the years spent in the darkness of prison (Lamentations 3:2.Lamentations 3:6), the deprivation of freedom (Lamentations 3:7, Lamentations 3:9). He remembers the torture that broke his bones (Lamentations 3:4). He calls to mind the mockeries to which he was subjected. “I am become a derision to all my people; their song all the day” (Lamentations 3:14). His life was consumed “far off from peace”; he has “forgotten prosperity” (Lamentations 3:17); all was affliction, wormwood, and gall. “My soul has them constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.”
How many moments of distress this faithful man of God had to go through! Certainly his career bears some resemblance to that of the One who would come and be a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” who, more than any other, would be “despised, and ... esteemed … not.”
While Jeremiah remembers all his sufferings, he does not fail to mention the encouragement he received (Lamentations 3:21-33). “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23). Throughout the centuries these words have sustained the faith of many believers.
It is necessary to learn and in silence to wait for the salvation of God, and also to receive from His hand the discipline allowed. One must even accept loneliness and remain silent because trials come from Him; and because one can rest assured that “if he has caused grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.”
6. Not Weary
Through all these long and painful years, what is most remarkable is that Jeremiah did not grow weary. Until the end he was faithful to his God, faithful to his prophetic calling, and faithful also to his people despite their rebellion, poverty, and distress. This perseverance is summed up in a few words: “I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows you” (Jeremiah 17:16).
Judah and her chiefs said, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it then come!” You have been announcing judgment for so long, Jeremiah. Let it arrive! We still don’t see the fulfillment of your prophecies! These people resemble the scoffers of our own time, of whom Peter speaks: “Where is the promise of His coming? For from the time the fathers fell asleep, all things remain thus from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4). We know, however, that the Lord Jesus will come again and first take His own away and then judge the earth. Jeremiah said, “Neither have I desired the fatal day.” He did not wish, like Jonah, to see the fulfillment of his prophecy in order to appear credible before the people. He rather persevered humbly in his service as shepherd and prophet because he was following the One who was to be greater than he, greater than Jonah - the True Servant who “shall not faint nor be in haste, till he has established justice in the earth” (Isaiah 42:4).
Later on Paul would rightly say to those Corinthians who had been causing him so much affliction: “Having this ministry, as we have had mercy shown us, we faint not” (2 Corinthians 4:1). Deeply conscious of the grace granted to him to be a servant of the Lord, the apostle was persevering. He further says, “We faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day ... while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen” (v.16-18). Daily inner renewal is necessary for us to persevere. Our gaze must not linger over our earthly trials, but be directed towards what is beyond, towards the things that are not seen and are eternal. The prophet as well as the apostle left us with this testimony of perseverance: through faith the eyes of the believer look steadfastly on the One “who, in view of the joy lying before him ... endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself.” As a result of this contemplation, we will not grow weary and discouraged in our souls (Hebrews 12:3).
Thinking Things Through
1. In times of discouragement, Jeremiah often felt that his preaching was useless, and he was perplexed. What resources did he find in the Lord at such times? In thinking through your own experiences along this line, consider how the Lord has helped you through them.
2. How can we explain the seeming contradictions in some of the passages where Jeremiah expressed his deep grief, and seems to combine praise to God with accusations against God? See, for example Jeremiah 20:7-18.
3. Jeremiah’s love and concern for his people who caused him so much grief, sorrow, and persecution is truly remarkable. Consider this beautiful attitude in the light of some New Testament Scriptures concerning our attitude towards others (Romans 12:10-21; Php 1:1-9).