1 Then the Lord said to me, a“Even if bMoses and cSamuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.
2 And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord: a“Such as are for death, to death; And such as are for the sword, to the sword; And such as are for the famine, to the famine; And such as are for the bcaptivity, to the captivity.” ’
3 “And I will aappoint over them four forms ofdestruction,” says the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, bthe birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
4 I will hand them over to atrouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of bManasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5 “For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?
6aYou have forsaken Me,” says the Lord, “You have bgone backward. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; cI am1 weary of relenting!
7 And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land; I will abereave them of children; I will destroy My people, Since they bdo not return from their ways.
8 Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas; I will bring against them, Against the mother of the young men, A plunderer at noonday; I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them asuddenly.
9 “Shea languishes who has borne seven; She has breathed her last; bHer sun has gone down While itwas yet day; She has been ashamed and confounded. And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword Before their enemies,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah’s Dejection
10aWoe is me, my mother, That you have borne me, A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole1 earth! I have neither lent for interest, Nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me.
11 The Lord said: “Surely it will be well with your remnant; Surely I will cause athe enemy to intercede with you In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.
Chapter 15 records Jeremiah's second complaint. Here, the prophet experiences a crisis as major—if that could be—as the crisis Judah's king and people were experiencing. Jeremiah's was a crisis in belief so dangerous that it threatened his position as God's prophet. Chapter 15 opens with what can only be characterized as a sensational word-picture of God's rejection of Judah. Indeed, only a man after God's own heart, with a super-robust conviction of God's ultimate beneficence, could stomach such a mammoth calamity, seeing God's hand in it.
The church has been purposely scattered by God. Nothing of this magnitude occurs without His permission! If He has given Satan His permission to be the actual "instrument of scattering, it still would never have happened if God did not agree that it needed to be done. Some think, "Satan came up with this idea, got into the flock, and scattered it." Could Satan do anything like this without God giving His permission? Impossible! And, if God gave His permission, then it was His will that it occur. Satan became merely an instrument of God's sovereign judgment.
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