And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall ... - the promise of Jeremiah 1:18-19, in almost the same words, but with the addition, adapted to the present attacks of Jeremiah's formidable enemies, "I will deliver thee out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible." The repetition is in order to assure Jeremiah that God is the same now as when He first made the promise, in opposition to the prophet's irreverent accusation of unfaithfulness (Jeremiah 15:18).
Remarks:
(1) One bad man holding an influential position, such as Manasseh did, can often cause more evil than the intercessions of many good men in a nation can avail to counteract (Jeremiah 15:1-4). 'The evil that men do lives after them is the true sentiment of England's great dramatist. Though Manasseh was long dead, the bad effects of his wicked reign survived. Not even his genuine, though late, repentance could undo the mischief caused by his long previous career of sin.
(2) What a lesson to the young not to put off piety until the close of life! They may never reach old age; and if even they do, it is by no means likely that they will repent then, after having contracted long habits of worldliness, considering the power of habit over us all, which is second nature. For though a true repentance is never too late, a late repentance is seldom true. And if even by a miracle of grace they do repent truly, like Manasseh, in later years, not all their subsequent remorse and tears of regret can undo the bad effect on others of their past evil influence.
(3) Still Manasseh's bad example did not excuse Jerusalem from following him in sin. If the Jews had imitated his since repentance, as they did his sin, they, like him, would have found pardon and peace. But, alas! most men will follow readily a bad pattern who will not follow a good one. Therefore, Jerusalem deserved no "pity" (Jeremiah 15:5). She had richly merited her doom. The facility with which she passed at once from the outward profession of godliness under the pious "Hezekiah's" reign, to the extreme of abominable idolatries under his degenerate "son" Manasseh's reign (Jeremiah 15:4), proved that she was corrupt at heart, and ripe for judgment. God's frequent repentings of threatened punishment, through His tender long-suffering, had not drawn them to repentance, but had only confirmed them in their apostasy. His forbearance now at last gives place to wrath. His "fan" is in His hand (Jeremiah 15:7); the chaff must no longer be allowed to remain with the wheat, but must be given to the fire. "Suddenly," when the "sun" of her fortune seemed at its meridian, it "goes down," leaving her to the blackness of darkness (Jeremiah 15:8-9). So shall it be with all who, having great spiritual privileges, neglect and abuse them: who "despise the riches of God's forbearance and long-suffering," which is designed to "lead them to repentance" (Romans 2:4). "That servant who knows his Lord's will, and prepares not himself, nor does according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes" (Luke 12:47); "The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and at an hour when he is not aware."
(4) It is a great pain to the servants of God that, though they are, by their high calling and in heart, men of peace, they are regarded, because of their faithfulness to Him who has called them, as "men of strife and centention" (Jeremiah 15:10). It was so with their Lord, and they cannot expect to fare better than He. Though he is "the Prince of peace," and angels at His birth sang "On earth peace," yet, through m en's perverse opposition, He foretold the result of His mission would be, not "peace, but rather division" (Luke 12:51-53). But this is not always to be so: the final issue (note, Jeremiah 15:11,) shall be to Christ and His faithful servants "on earth peace." "He shall speak peace unto the pagan" (Zechariah 9:10); and will break the bow-the sword-and the battle out of the earth." Even now often, as in Jeremiah's case, "When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Jeremiah 39:11-12; Jeremiah 40:4-5). However troublesome may be the way, the end of the spiritually upright man is peace (Psalms 37:37).
(5) It is a great comfort to God's servants, when maligned by the worldly, to be able to appeal for vindication of their cause to the Lord, who "knows" their conscientiousness of motive (Jeremiah 15:15). Happy are we if we be reproached for His name (1 Peter 4:14): for then our cause is His cause, and our interests are identified with His. He will see to the vindication of His own honour in our persons.
(6) The believer rejoices at God's Word as one that findeth (Jeremiah 15:16) great spoil (Psalms 119:162). It is not enough to assent to, but we must also appropriate TO ourselves, feed on, and digest God's Word, the proper nutriment of the soul, as one eats wholesome food for the nourishment of the body (Jeremiah 15:16). Thus, there flows into the soul a spiritual joy infinitely above all the joy of carnal feasts (Jeremiah 15:16-17).
(7) But, alas! how variable are the best of us in our spiritual frames of feeling. The prophet passes speedily from the height of joy in the Lord to the depths of depression: giving way to the natural infirmity of a sensitive disposition, wounded by the continual assaults of enemies, he even dares to accuse God of unfaithfulness to His promises. Let us beware of losing much of the joy of religion by yielding to natural fretfulness and impatience under trial, as even Jeremiah sometimes did. God's Word cannot fail: our wisdom, then, is "to return" from distrust, to the believer's true position of implicit trust in Him, whatever discouragements may cloud our path. Then shall we find that, as "God is with us to save and deliver" us, no enemy can "prevail against" us.