Jeremiah Discouraged
W. H. Cooper. Jeremiah 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name… I. JEREMIAH'S MOMENTARY RASHNESS. Oh! it was a rash speech — like the rashness of Job, like the petulance of Jonah. It is useful for us to have set before us the failings of the most distinguished of God's people. We learn from these failings, that after all they were mere men, and "men of like passions with ourselves," that they were encompassed with the same infirmity, that they carried about with them the same weakness, and that therefore the same grace which was triumphant in them in the result can be equally triumphant in our support and in our ultimate victory. II. HIS MANY AND GREAT DISCOURAGEMENTS. 1. They arose partly from the very nature of his message. His was not a pleasing burden. The message of God's Word is a message of wrath as well as of mercy; there are denunciations in it as well as promises. And we must be as faithful and as earnest in the delivery of the one as we are in the delivery of the other. 2. The unbelief and opposition which that message experienced. 3. Nor were the hearers of Jeremiah satisfied with the discouragement that would be occasioned by their opposition to and unbelief of the message of the prophet; they added to this bitter reproach, misrepresentation and persecution. What though earth meets us with its opposition? What though calumnies are flung against the cause in which we are engaged? We are not looking for earthly honours; we are not seeking the gratitude and encomiums of the world. Our record is with God; our reward is on high. We appeal to His judgment seat; we labour as in His sight. III. THE PERSEVERANCE, BY WHICH THE COURSE OF THE PROPHET WAS MARKED, NOTWITHSTANDING ALL. Mark, then, it was only a momentary fit of despondency. They are the moments of God's people, that are the seasons of their giving way; it is not the characteristic of their entire life. Though they may now and then say, "I will not make mention of Him nor speak any more in His name," follow them a little — they are at it again, and again, and again; and on to a dying hour, and with their dying breath, that name is on their lips; and when the tongue is silent, it is still engraven on the heart. (W. H. Cooper.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. WEB: If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't [contain].