(20) I will make thee unto this people . . .--It is significant that the promise reproduced the very words which the prophet had heard when he was first summoned to his work (see Note on Jeremiah 1:18-19). Jehovah had not been unfaithful to His word, but, like all promises, it depended on implied conditions, and these the faint-hearted, desponding prophet had but imperfectly fulfilled. Let him "return" to the temper of trust, and there should be an abundant deliverance for him.
15:15-21 It is matter of comfort that we have a God, to whose knowledge of all things we may appeal. Jeremiah pleads with God for mercy and relief against his enemies, persecutors, and slanderers. It will be a comfort to God's ministers, when men despise them, if they have the testimony of their own consciences. But he complains, that he found little pleasure in his work. Some good people lose much of the pleasantness of religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they indulge. The Lord called the prophet to cease from his distrust, and to return to his work. If he attended thereto, he might be assured the Lord would deliver him from his enemies. Those who are with God, and faithful to him, he will deliver from trouble or carry through it. Many things appear frightful, which do not at all hurt a real believer in Christ.
And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall,.... As he had promised him, when he first called him to his office, Jeremiah 1:18, and so would not be as a liar to him:
and they shall fight against thee; by words and blows, by menaces and imprisonment:
but they shall not prevail against thee; so as to cause him to call in his words, and contradict his prophecies; or so as to take away his life:
for I am with thee, to save thee, and deliver thee, saith the Lord; the presence of God with his ministers is sufficient to save and deliver them out of all their troubles, and to protect and defend them against all their enemies; see Matthew 28:20.
and they shall fight against thee; by words and blows, by menaces and imprisonment:
but they shall not prevail against thee; so as to cause him to call in his words, and contradict his prophecies; or so as to take away his life:
for I am with thee, to save thee, and deliver thee, saith the Lord; the presence of God with his ministers is sufficient to save and deliver them out of all their troubles, and to protect and defend them against all their enemies; see Matthew 28:20.