Jeremiah 15.b. God is not done yet; but it's not what you think.

 God has had enough of Judah’s disobedience, disrespect, and bad behavior. Through Jeremiah, God has revealed a future that few will survive. Here is how events will play out for the people and their families. 

15: 8-9. I will make their widows more numerous   

than the sand of the sea.

At midday I will bring a destroyer   

against the mothers of their young men;

suddenly I will bring down on them   

anguish and terror.

The mother of seven will grow faint   

and breathe her last.

Her sun will set while it is still day;   

she will be disgraced and humiliated.

I will put the survivors to the sword   

before their enemies,”

declares the LORD.

 It sounds like God is bragging about the destruction that he will bring on the people; but a close look here and in other places in the book show that there is a Weeping God behind this Weeping Prophet. Still, the news is dire. It’s like: ‘I hate to tell you this, but you’ve got terminal cancer’. 

 The coming destruction will kill men who usually make up the troops defending the nation, or those who serve as the first line of defense for the village and the home. When they are killed, their wives become widows. 

 Mothers come next as their young sons join the fight and are killed. The result? A mother with seven sons, the perfect family, seven sons! However, she loses them all in a single day. She just wilts and withers away. That morning, things had looked bright; she thought she was in her mid-life glory. However, her day came to an early end. By noon all seven were dead. There will be no lingering afternoon to her life, nor a quiet evening to relax and reminisce. Her life is over at the apex, it’s suddenly downhill. 

 It is all too much for Jeremiah to have to preach these things. The words of God choke in his throat. 

15: 10. Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

 This refrain echoes the words of Job who said, “Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A male is conceived’ (Job 3: 33). Like Job, the prophet asks, ‘What have I done to deserve this? 

 Jeremiah says, ‘I have behaved properly, especially in financial matters. I have cheated no one, but everyone walks past me and spits on the ground’. Will God show up and answer Jeremiah as God did with Job?

15: 11. The LORD said, 'Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress. Can a man break iron—    iron from the north—or bronze?’

God does answer Jeremiah. The cause of his trouble is not God’s ill will toward Jeremiah. In fact, God uses the faithfulness of Jeremiah to reveal the wickedness of the rest of the people of Judah. The phrase about ‘iron’ and ‘bronze’ likely refers back to Chapter 1, verse 8 where God explains what he will do, and looks ahead to a similar phrase in this passage (see Goldingay, 2021, page 389).

“And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall, against the whole land–against kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you” (Jeremiah 1: 18-19).

God tells Jeremiah that these same enemies who contend with you will soon be begging you to pray for them. However, your message will remain the same. What follows now addresses the king (singular ‘you’) and then the people (plural ‘you’). 

15: 13-14.  “Your (singular) wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without charge, because of all your sins throughout your country. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for my anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you (plural).”

 Jeremiah is satisfied that God knows what he is doing and that God knows him. It is enough.

15: 15-18. LORD, you understand;   

remember me and care for me.   

Avenge me on my persecutors.

You are long-suffering—do not take me away;   

think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.

When your words came, I ate them;   

they were my joy and my heart’s delight,

for I bear your name,   

LORD God Almighty (YHWH Elohe Sabaoth)

I never sat in the company of revelers,   

never made merry with them;

I sat alone because your hand was on me   

and you had filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain unending   

and my wound grievous and incurable?

You are to me like a deceptive brook,   

like a spring that fails.

 Jeremiah is hopeful that God understands his pain, being torn between his joy when he receives the word of God and his chagrin that it is always a word of warning about destruction. For that, people avoided Jeremiah and he sat alone. People ridiculed Jeremiah because his warnings had not come true, at least not yet.

Jeremiah is saying, ‘I keep predicting these calamities, but they never happen’. That is what he means by comparing God’s word to a deceptive brook that suddenly disappears into the ground. 

 There are echoes here of Jonah who was reluctant to proclaim punishment on the people of Nineveh because he knew that God is sensitive to repentance and thus may change his mind and not destroy them after all (Jonah 4: 2). 

15: 19-21. Therefore this is what the LORD says: 

‘If you repent, I will restore you   

that you may serve me;

if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,   

you will be my spokesman.

Let this people turn to you,   

but you must not turn to them.

I will make you a wall to this people,   

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you   

but will not overcome you,

for I am with you   

to rescue and save you’,

declares the LORD.

^‘I will save you from the hands of the wicked   

and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel’.

God has Jeremiah’s back. God repeats his claim that he will make Jeremiah a wall of iron and bronze against the complaints of the people. In the end, if the people will not repent, then Jeremiah will certainly be saved from their raging thirst for revenge. It is always better to be on the side of the Lord.