Jeremiah 1:8

Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. BE NOT AFRAID - (, "Be not afraid of their words, nor dismayed at their looks"). I AM WITH THEE - (; , "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor foresake thee")....

We may learn from this verse that Jeremiah, when he observed the heavy and hard conflicts he had to undertake, was greatly disturbed; for he had not courage enough firmly and boldly to assail enemies so many and so violent. He indeed saw, that he had to do with a degenerated people, who had almost all departed from the law of God: and since they had for many years shaken off the yoke, and were petulantly exulting in their freedom, it was difficult to bring them back to obedience, and to a right course of life. It hence appears that the Prophet was restrained by this difficulty, so as not to venture to undertake the prophetic office. But God applied a suitable remedy to his fear; for what does he say? _Fear not their face _It appears, then, that when Jeremiah said that he was a child, he had in view, as I have already hinted, the difficulty of the undertaking; he could hardly bear to carr...

1-10 Jeremiah's early call to the work and office of a prophet is stated. He was to be a prophet, not to the Jews only, but to the neighbouring nations. He is still a prophet to the whole world, and it would be well if they would attend to these warnings. The Lord who formed us, knows for what particular services and purposes he intended us. But unless he sanctify us by his new-creating Spirit, we shall neither be fit for his holy service on earth, nor his holy happiness in heaven. It becomes us to have low thoughts of ourselves. Those who are young, should consider that they are so, and not venture beyond their powers. But though a sense of our own weakness and insufficiency should make us go humbly about our work, it should not make us draw back when God calls us. Those who have messages to deliver from God, must not fear the face of man. The Lord, by a sign, gave Jeremiah such a gift...

Verse Jeremiah 1:8. _BE NOT AFRAID OF THEIR FACES_] That is, the _Jews_, whom he knew would persecute him because of the message which he brought. To be _fore_-warned is to be half armed. He knew what he was to expect from the disobedient and the rebellious, and must now be prepared to meet it....

EXPOSITION AN ACCOUNT OF THE CALL AND CONSECRATION OF JEREMIAH TO THE PROPHETIC OFFICE, FOLLOWED BY TWO EXPRESSIVE SYMBOLS OF THE MATTERS WHICH HE HAS TO ANNOUNCE. JEREMIAH 1:1 There are some indications that the original form of the heading has been somewhat modified. Notice (1) that the words with which Jeremi

BE NOT AFRAID OF THEIR FACES,.... Their stern looks, their frowning brows, and angry countenances, which would threaten him with destruction and death: FOR I AM WITH THEE, TO DELIVER THEE, SAITH THE LORD; out of their hands, when in the most imminent danger. The Targum paraphrases the words thus, "my Word shall be thine help to deliver thee:'' which is true of Christ, the essential Word of God....

Jeremiah 1:1. _The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month._ Jeremiah was a young man when he was called to the prophetic office; and he was sent of God, as a young prophet, to help the young king, Josiah. His public life, therefore, opened somewhat happily. But, after the death of Josiah, wicked kings sat upon the throne, and it was the painful lot, and yet in some respects the choice privilege, of this weeping prophet to be sent upon his Master's errand, time after time, to a disobedient

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE CALL TO REPENTANCE, THE IMPENITENCE OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED CHAPTER 1 The Call of the Prophet _ 1. The introduction (Jeremiah 1:1) _ 2. The divine call (Jeremiah 1:4) 3. The renewed call and the first visions (Jeremiah 1:11) Jeremiah 1:1. The first three verses introduce us to the person of the prophet, to the time the Word of the Lord came unto him, and to the sphere of his ministry. Jeremiah's father, Hilkiah, was a priest of the line of Ithamar; his home was Anathoth of Benjamin. (See general introduction.)...

THE PROPHET'S CALL. The account of this should be compared with similar accounts of the calls of other prophets (see Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1:1 to Ezekiel 3:3; Amos 7:12 ff.) and the characteristic differences should be noted. Probably all such experiences, whilst ultimately due to moral and religious conviction, involved abnormal psychical elements; _e.g._ Jeremiah believed that he heard an external voice, and felt an outward touch. On the general nature of the prophetic consciousness, see H. W. Robinson, _Religious Ideas of the OT,_ pp. 113ff, and the article on Old Testament Prophecy in the present work. Jeremiah is told that Yahweh predestined him for a particular life-work before he existed; he was a thought of God (Duhm) befor

BE NOT AFRAID, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 3:12; Deuteronomy 31:6). App-92. Compare Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:6); Paul (Acts 26:17). SAITH THE LORD. [is] Jehovah's oracle....