Jeremiah 15 … Consider His Correcting Commands

Originally posted: 5/16/2021

Therefore, thus says the Lord,
“If you return, then I will restore you—
Before Me you will stand;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become My spokesman.
They for their part may turn to you,
But as for you, you must not turn to them,” (15:19).

I often wonder what criteria was needed to be one of the privileged who were chosen as a spokesman for God. I know God is Sovereign and His Ways inscrutable, but still it makes me wonder. And perhaps you do too.

How did God decide to choose His spokesmen? Certainly it was not their flawless character, for Scripture has recorded the unfortunate failings of many. And it was not that their faith never wavered, for we also have several examples of those who wrestled with doubt.

And this is just where we find Jeremiah today. And really, who can blame him? If we ever get caught up in feeling like God has put some weighty demands on our life, a good remedy for that would be to stop and think about Jeremiah.

But Jeremiah had been chosen, even before birth, and appointed to be a spokesman in one of the darkest periods of Israel’s history.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations,” (Jeremiah 1:6).

But this was not an appointment to privilege or prestige, at least not according to the world’s prescription. And Jeremiah felt it; for he had been born for contention and strife.

Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me
As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land!
I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me,
Yet everyone curses me, (15:10).

Jeremiah, continually derided by his countrymen, lived a lonely and painful life, and the relentless pressure was taking its toll; even though God had assured him that His purposes for Jeremiah were for his ultimate freedom and good.

The Lord said, “Surely I will set you free for purposes of good;
Surely I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you
In a time of disaster and a time of distress,” (15:11).

But, as we all know, it is a strain to look past the pain of the present into the promise of tomorrow. And today, we find Jeremiah in this place of uncertainty, wondering if he had been deluded in his hard and fast obedience to the message God had given him to proclaim.

I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers,
Nor did I exult.
Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone,
For You filled me with indignation.
¹⁸ Why has my pain been perpetual
And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream
With water that is unreliable? (15:17-18).

And his perpetual pain just didn’t make sense. Jeremiah had not allowed himself to be influenced by the enticing pleasures of the world, but had based his whole life, his entire ministry, on God’s Word. Jeremiah’s pleasure was found in seeking and consuming and delighting in God’s Word that had filled him and marked him as one who was called by the Almighty Lord of Hosts.

Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts, (15:16).

And even though commitment to God’s Word and to the God of His Word was Jeremiah’s life, he felt forgotten, as though the reproach he endured for his obedience was somehow being overlooked.

You who know, O Lord,
Remember me, take notice of me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away;
Know that for Your sake I endure reproach, (15:15).

But in response to Jeremiah’s words of woe, that some may contend were birthed out of confusion and others out of self-pity, God did not come to coddle His beloved prophet with soothing words; rather He came to right Jeremiah’s thinking and perspective, capsized by the storms of life, with His Correcting Commands.

Consider His Correcting Commands

Therefore, thus says the Lord,
“If you return, then I will restore you—
Before Me you will stand;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become My spokesman.
They for their part may turn to you,
But as for you, you must not turn to them,” (15:19).

We can hear His Commands in this verse; Commands that will never be imposed by force; Commands that offer us a choice. And if we will choose to adhere to His Commands, He will Correct our erroneous thinking and clouded perspective that have been tossed and capsized in the storms of life, right us afloat in His Truth, and free us for His good purposes.

• His Correcting Command: Listen to Him
  Therefore, thus says the Lord…
  • “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you;
    O Israel, if you would listen to Me!” (Psalm 81:8).

  • And now do not carry on as scoffers,
    Or your fetters will be made stronger;
    For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts
    Of decisive destruction on all the earth.
    ²³ Give ear and hear my voice,
    Listen and hear my words, (Isaiah 28:22-23).
    And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³ “Listen to this!…” (Mark 4:2-3).

• His Correcting Command: Return to Him in Repentance
  If you return…
  • “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “Return to Me with all your heart,
    And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
    ¹³ And rend your heart and not your garments.”
    Now return to the Lord your God,
    For He is gracious and compassionate,
    Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
    And relenting of evil, (Joel 2:12-13).
  • From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” (Matthew 4:17).

• His Correcting Command: Believe in Him
  then I will restore you…
  • The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?” (Numbers 14:11).
  • “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).

• His Correcting Command: Stand in Faith
  Before Me you will stand…
  • But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent,”  (Exodus 14:13-14).
  • Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, (1 Corinthians 16:13).

• His Correcting Command: Distinguish Between Good and Evil
  And if you extract the precious from the worthless…
  • You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, (Leviticus 10:10 ESV).
  • Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect, (Romans 12:2 ESV).

• His Correcting Command: Become Who He Has Called Us to Be
  You will become My spokesman…
  • “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth,” (Deuteronomy 14:2).
  • But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, (1 Peter 2:9).

• His Correcting Command: Stay Immovable
  They for their part may turn to you,
  But as for you, you must not turn to them.
  • Those who trust in the Lord
    Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever, (Psalm 125:1).
  • Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord, (1 Corinthians 15:58).

How do we respond to His Correcting Commands?

The truth is, even when we love Him and desire to obey, the storms of life continually attempt to stonewall our progress. And the choice is ours: the choice to Listen to Him, Return to Him in Repentance, Believe in Him, Stand in Faith, Distinguish Between Good and Evil, Become Who He Has Called Us to Be, and Stay Immovable.

The Lord has faithfully provided all that is needed to sustain our willingness to choose. As we submit to His Holy Spirit and to the Truth of His Holy Word, He will Correct our erroneous thinking and clouded perspective that have been tossed and capsized in the storms of life, right us afloat in His Truth, and free us for His good purposes as He empowers us to obey His Correcting Commands.

• Let us ask Him to empower us to Listen to Him, that He would keep us from drifting away from His Truth.
  • For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it, (Hebrews 2:1).

• Let us ask Him to empower us to Return to Him in Repentance, that He would equip us to bear fruit.
  • “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance,” (Matthew 3:8).

• Let us ask Him to empower us to Believe in Him, that He would enable us to wait on His goodness.
  • I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
    In the land of the living.
    ¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
    Be strong and let your heart take courage;
    Yes, wait for the Lord, (Psalm 23:13-14).

• Let us ask Him to empower us to Stand in Faith, that He would strengthen us to resist every scheme of the enemy.
  • Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm, (Ephesians 6:11-13).

• Let us ask Him to empower us to Distinguish Between Good and Evil, that He would establish us through constant training in His Word.
  • But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil, (Hebrews 5:14 ESV).

• Let us ask Him to empower us to Become Who He Has Called Us to Be, that He would use us as His ambassadors.
  • Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NKJV).

• Let us ask Him to empower us to Stay Immovable, that He would deepen our desire to build our lives in treasuring and obeying His Words.
  • With all my heart I have sought You;
    Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
    ¹¹ Your word I have treasured in my heart,
    That I may not sin against You, (Psalm 119:10-11).
  • “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock,” (Matthew 7:24-25).

As we choose to adhere to His Correcting Commands, we can rest in His Corrections, knowing He will be faithful to accomplish His good purposes in us as He conforms us to His image.

Let us also remember that God has chosen us to be His spokesman to a lost and dying world. When the enemy is attacking, when life is painful and lonely and doesn’t seem to make sense, we must choose to remember that God is for us and He will give us all we need in His Correcting Commands to be set free and prevail in His good purposes.

The Lord said, “Surely I will set you free for purposes of good;
Surely I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you
In a time of disaster and a time of distress,” (15:11).

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. ³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:28-32).

Let’s Grow Together!