Jeremiah 15 - Judgement and coping with difficulties

The Lord emphasises the inevitability of judgement. Even if Moses or Samuel were praying for them it would do no good. We need to realise that ultimately we are answerable to God and it is God with whom we are dealing. 

Verse 2 is echoed in Revelation 13:10. Then we get the "promise" of four kinds of destroyer. Again there are echoes of this in Revelation. Some months ahead we will be looking at Revelation and it is important to realise how much of the Old Testament prophets Revelation draws upon. Israel would become abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. As an aside there is an interesting interpretation point here. It seems perfectly reasonable to take "all the kingdoms" to mean the kingdoms in the region, not literally all the kingdoms of the earth as nations in other continents had not heard of Israel. There is much debate about whether Noah's flood was literally global or just an enormous one in a regional scale. I don't think the matter is as clear cut as some would make out.

Anyway, back to the text. Since they had rejected God they were totally alone, without any source of help. 

Verse 11 seems totally out of context, a promise of deliverance in the midst of promises of destruction.

At verse 15 Jeremiah then starts thinking and praying about himself again. We all go through testing times and we need to realise that God knows we find it tough, and He is perfectly able to cope with our weakness and our complaints, However, His answer will not be the answer we expect.

Jeremiah had been as faithful to god as he could be, yet seemed to be suffering much. In verse 18 he is effectively calling God a liar, saying He has let him down. It is perfectly normal to think that God has let us down at times. But be prepared for the answer!

It is Jeremiah who needs to repent. We should complain to God (along with Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Job etc), but we need to be aware that it is God will be proved right and it is us who will need to repent.

Jeremiah must remain faithful to God, and, despite all the pressure, he must ensure that it is the people who turn to him, not he to the people. The church today would do well to heed this message. It is only as we remain faithful to God that we can be sure of deliverance.