Jeremiah
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will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee
out of the hand of the terrible.”
Jeremiah 6:27
;
15:20, 21
.
Naturally of a timid and shrinking disposition, Jeremiah longed for
the peace and quiet of a life of retirement, where he need not witness
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the continued impenitence of his beloved nation. His heart was wrung
with anguish over the ruin wrought by sin. “O that my head were
waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,” he mourned, “that I might
weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! O that
I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might
leave my people, and go from them.”
Jeremiah 9:1, 2
.
Cruel were the mockings he was called upon to endure. His sensi-
tive soul was pierced through and through by the arrows of derision
hurled at him by those who despised his messages and made light of
his burden for their conversion. “I was a derision to all my people,” he
declared, “and their song all the day.” “I am in derision daily, everyone
mocketh me.” “All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Per-
adventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we
shall take our revenge on him.”
Lamentations 3:14
;
Jeremiah 20:7, 10
.
But the faithful prophet was daily strengthened to endure. “The
Lord is with me as a mighty terrible One,” he declared in faith; “there-
fore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they
shall be really ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting
confusion shall never be forgotten.” “Sing unto the Lord, praise ye
the Lord: for He hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of
evildoers.”
Jeremiah 20:11, 13
.
The experiences through which Jeremiah passed in the days of
his youth and also in the later years of his ministry, taught him the
lesson that “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that
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walketh to direct his steps.” He learned to pray, “O Lord, correct me,
but with judgment; not in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing.”
Jeremiah 10:23, 24
.
When called to drink of the cup of tribulation and sorrow, and when
tempted in his misery to say, “My strength and my hope is perished
from the Lord,” he recalled the providences of God in his behalf and
triumphantly exclaimed, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not
consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every
morning: great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my
soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that