And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.
God ends Jeremiah's commission with a warning, not with a promise of quiet. Kings, priests and people will all come against this young prophet. Verse 19 sets two facts side by side: they will fight, and they will fail. The reason lies outside Jeremiah himself.
Conflict Promised, Defeat Denied
The verse promises no escape from attack. It promises the outcome of the attack.
The Lord renews His promise, "I am with you … to deliver you." The people and their rulers will certainly fight against the prophet. Persecution and suffering will come, but "they shall not prevail against you."
One writer draws the practical edge: the danger is less in the trouble than in how we answer it.
In the last verse God warned Jeremiah, "They will fight against you." We need not be afraid of the difficulties that cross our path. What we may well fear is our own reaction to them.
Fortified Before the Fight
This confidence rests on what God has already made him, one verse earlier. He hands a frightened young man three images. Each one is aimed at his own nation, not set on its side.
So that he would not be afraid, God gives him three objects designed to build his confidence: a strong city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls. But He makes one thing clear to Jeremiah. The boldness He gives is not in favour of the land and its princes. It is "against" the kings of Judah, the priests, and the people of the land.
Each image carries its own strength, and together they cover the work God gave him.
Iron is the strongest of all metals. Bronze stands in Scripture for divine righteousness. The prophet was called in relation to the preservation of the things of God in that city. The city speaks of administration… the pillar speaks of support: we need to be strong in support of all the interests of God. The walls speak of shutting out everything contrary to the mind of God, and enclosing everything precious to Him.
"I Am With You"
God says these words twice in one chapter. They are the hinge of the whole promise.
God says "I am with you" to him twice (vv. 8 and 19). Every servant of the Lord should have some sense of this, along with a settled conviction of the foreknowledge of God. This gives stability in trials and testing… The faithful servant may have to meet great difficulties and fierce foes. But God encourages him as He encouraged Jeremiah, who is again told twice not to fear (vv. 8 and 17). The greater the foe, the greater becomes faith's victory.
Tested and Proved in His Life
The promise was not decoration. King Jehoiakim killed another prophet of that time. Jeremiah faced the same threats and survived them.
Jeremiah (Jer. 22:13-19) and other prophets pour out the Lord's warnings on [Jehoiakim]. He pays no attention. He kills Urijah, a prophet who prophesied against Jerusalem and against Judah, but who, lacking faith when faced with the king's murderous plans, fled to Egypt (Jer. 26:20-23). Jeremiah also runs the same dangers, but this man of God trusts in the word of the Lord… The Lord watches over him according to this word. In his unbelief the king cut up the roll of Jeremiah's prophecy with a knife and threw it into the fire. Then he tried to seize the prophet and his faithful companion, Baruch. We are told that "the LORD hid them."
God's keeping did not make his life easy. Jeremiah's own later words show a man near collapse, restored each time.
We often find this honoured servant faltering afterwards, yet he still pursued the path to the end. He might say to the Lord, "Woe is me"… "Why is my pain perpetual?"… But the Lord reminds him once more, "I am with you to save you" (Jer. 15:20)… His faith becomes strong again, and he says, "The LORD is with me" (Jer. 20:11)! Tossed and tried, opposed and persecuted, he still laboured on to the end of his long, hard journey.
The Lesson for Any Servant
Two pressures push a servant off course, and the presence of God answers both at once.
There is a deep practical lesson here for all the servants of God. Two things produce it: the fear of man's anger, and the hope of man's favour. The servant of the living God should regard neither the one nor the other. What is the anger or favour of a poor mortal worth to someone who holds the divine commission and enjoys the divine presence? In the judgement of such a person, it weighs less than a speck of dust on the scales.
Summary
- With you — called. God says "I am with you" twice in this one chapter. That word is the settled ground of a servant's stability under testing.
- With you — fortified. Before the battle God makes him a city, an iron pillar and bronze walls. That strength is aimed against kings, priests and people, not given in their favour.
- With you — opposed. God promises attack, not escape; the real danger to watch is our own reaction to it.
- With you — unbeaten. Persecution and suffering will come, yet they will not prevail; the greater the foe, the greater faith's victory.
- With you — kept to the end. Urijah fled and died. The LORD hid Jeremiah, who faltered and grieved, yet laboured to the finish.