Jer 17:16 | KingComments | STEP | Jeremiah knows where to find healing: with the LORD ( ). He also knows where salvation can be found: also with the LORD. It is about support and protection. He wants to be healed of his doubts and despondency and tendency to give up his service. He is wounded in his spirit by the constant opposition and rejection of his preaching. The salvation he asks for has to do with being rescued from the power of enemies and their plans to kill him and be preserved for God’s kingdom. From this prayer his trust in the LORD speaks, for he knows that only the LORD can do what he asks (cf. ). He bases his prayer on the fact that the LORD is his praise. His sickness and misery seem to be caused by the mockery of the people that God’s Word, which he has been preaching for 22 years now, is not coming true after all ( ; cf. ; ). That can start to gnaw, because scoffers don’t know when to stop. And it will continue for another 18 years. The false prophets have been right until now, and so have the mockers. Those scoffers have not been stopped from speaking although the word of Jeremiah has come true. Mockers do not know how to stop nor are they persuaded by the clearest evidence of the truth of God’s Word. Mockers will always be there, they are also there today ( ). Jeremiah appeals to his sincerity, that surely he has not done otherwise than the LORD has said to him and that it was in accordance with His heart ( ). He has been the shepherd that the LORD has wanted him to be and has gone after Him for that. This means that a shepherd does not have to find the way himself, but is content to follow the great Shepherd of the sheep. We then see the beautiful picture of the great Shepherd with shepherds following behind Him and with behind them again the sheep. Love for his people has always been his motive in preaching about the coming judgment. There has been no joy in announcing that day of doom. Everything he has spoken, he has spoken in the consciousness of God’s presence. What passed from his lips came from the presence of God and therefore agreed completely with what he heard from the LORD. We also see this with Paul ( ). Anything may be a terror to Jeremiah and anyone may be against him, provided it is not the LORD ( ; cf. ). It would be a terror to him if the LORD would forsake him or hid Himself from him. That would be intolerable. After all, the LORD is his refuge in a day of disaster. He asks that what he does not wish for himself will happen to his persecutors: shame and dismay ( ). His persecutors do not reckon with the LORD, he does. Therefore, he asks for God’s intervention, that He may judge them. This fits the time in which Jeremiah lives. The double severance Jeremiah asks for means so much as asking that the LORD root out the enemies and that this prospect already confuses them and renders them powerless.

‏ Jeremiah 17:16

Jeremiah’s Plea for Justification

Jeremiah knows where to find healing: with the LORD (Jer 17:14). He also knows where salvation can be found: also with the LORD. It is about support and protection. He wants to be healed of his doubts and despondency and tendency to give up his service. He is wounded in his spirit by the constant opposition and rejection of his preaching. The salvation he asks for has to do with being rescued from the power of enemies and their plans to kill him and be preserved for God’s kingdom. From this prayer his trust in the LORD speaks, for he knows that only the LORD can do what he asks (cf. 2Tim 4:18).

He bases his prayer on the fact that the LORD is his praise. His sickness and misery seem to be caused by the mockery of the people that God’s Word, which he has been preaching for 22 years now, is not coming true after all (Jer 17:15; cf. Isa 5:19; Amos 6:3). That can start to gnaw, because scoffers don’t know when to stop. And it will continue for another 18 years. The false prophets have been right until now, and so have the mockers. Those scoffers have not been stopped from speaking although the word of Jeremiah has come true. Mockers do not know how to stop nor are they persuaded by the clearest evidence of the truth of God’s Word. Mockers will always be there, they are also there today (2Pet 3:3-4).

Jeremiah appeals to his sincerity, that surely he has not done otherwise than the LORD has said to him and that it was in accordance with His heart (Jer 17:16). He has been the shepherd that the LORD has wanted him to be and has gone after Him for that. This means that a shepherd does not have to find the way himself, but is content to follow the great Shepherd of the sheep. We then see the beautiful picture of the great Shepherd with shepherds following behind Him and with behind them again the sheep.

Love for his people has always been his motive in preaching about the coming judgment. There has been no joy in announcing that day of doom. Everything he has spoken, he has spoken in the consciousness of God’s presence. What passed from his lips came from the presence of God and therefore agreed completely with what he heard from the LORD. We also see this with Paul (2Cor 2:17).

Anything may be a terror to Jeremiah and anyone may be against him, provided it is not the LORD (Jer 17:17; cf. Job 6:4). It would be a terror to him if the LORD would forsake him or hid Himself from him. That would be intolerable. After all, the LORD is his refuge in a day of disaster.

He asks that what he does not wish for himself will happen to his persecutors: shame and dismay (Jer 17:18). His persecutors do not reckon with the LORD, he does. Therefore, he asks for God’s intervention, that He may judge them. This fits the time in which Jeremiah lives. The double severance Jeremiah asks for means so much as asking that the LORD root out the enemies and that this prospect already confuses them and renders them powerless.