For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
Defenced city ... - i:e., I will give thee strength which no power of thine enemies shall overcome (Jeremiah 6:27; Jeremiah 15:20; Isaiah 50:7, A type of Messiah, who says, "I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed;" Jer. 54:17 , So Israel, literal, and also spiritual, the believing church; Luke 21:15; Acts 6:10).
Walls - plural, to express the abundant strength to be given him. De Rossi's manuscript read singular [chomat for chomowt (H2346)] - wall, or walls.
People of the land - the general masses, as distinguished from the princes and priests.
Remark: (1) God's call of His servants to special services of usefulness in His Church rests upon His eternal counsel and foreknowledge, for "known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18); and "whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate; moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called" (Romans 8:29-30). He who "formed us in the belly," (Jeremiah 1:5), and "knew" us even "before" that, has from the beginning appointed the particular sphere in which we should be placed, as consecrated to His glory. But besides His providential call, we need His new-creating Spirit to qualify us for His holy service on earth, and for immediate communion with Him, and with His blessed saints and angels in heaven.
(2) Though consciousness of our infirmity and insufficiency should make us humble in going to our appointed work of faith and labour of love, it should not lead us to draw back from the duty to which God plainly calls us. To do the latter would be, not humility, but unbelief; for where God appoints us to any duty He will give us strength for the discharge of it, if only we trust in Him. The all-powerful Spirit can so strengthen the timid and sensitive Jeremiah for the discharge of the function assigned to him, that his adversaries have no more power against him than they would have against a securely "defensed city, an iron pillar, or brasen walls" (Jeremiah 1:8; Jeremiah 1:18). If God be with us, we need not fear, however numerous and mighty may be the foes arrayed against us.
(3) One of the first operations of the Holy Spirit in consecrating any man to God, whether minister or layman, is to touch his month so as to give him a spiritual utterance such as he had not before; and though we are not to expect new tongues of fire, such as alighted on the disciples on Pentecost, nor such special inspiration as was vouchsafed to Jeremiah by the divine touching of his lips, yet we ought to expect, if we be truly born again of the Spirit, that "utterance shall be given unto us, that we may open our mouths boldly to make known the Gospel" (Ephesians 6:19) to those within the range of our influence.
(4) A docile spirit is that best adapted for receiving the impressions of grace; at the same time, we are not to continue to be children in understanding, but must seek to have the strong mind and manly resolution of mature Christians, while we ever retain the humble feeling of the prophet before God, "Ah, Lord God! I am but a child" (Jeremiah 1:6).
(5) While the ungodly flatter themselves that the time of execution of judgment upon them is far off, and that God now takes no heed of them and their ways, He is all the while 'wakeful as to His word to perform it' (Jeremiah 1:12, remark); their "judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" (2 Peter 2:3). Let men be wise in time, and acquaint themselves now with God, and so be at peace; then shall the coming judgment lose all its terrors, and God, as a reconciled Father, will at last receive them forever to be with Himself.