Jeremiah 15:19

Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. God's reply to Jeremiah. IF THOU RETURN, THEN WILL I BRING THEE AGAIN. Jeremiah, by his impatient language, had left his proper posture toward God; God saith, "If thou wilt return (to thy former patient discharge of thy prophetic function), I will bring thee back" to thy former position: in the Hebrew there is a play of words, "return ... turn again" (; ). THOU SHALT STAND BEFORE ME - minister acceptably to me ...

From this answer of God we may gather more clearly the design of the Prophet, for his purpose was, in order more fully to prove the people guilty, to set before their eyes as it were his own perverseness. Had he spoken only according to the heroic elevation of his own mind, so as not to appear touched by any human feeling, they might have derided him as hardhearted or a fanatic, for so we find that the proud of this world speak and think of the faithful servants of Christ. They call them melancholy, they consider them as unfeeling, and as they neither dread death, nor are drawn away by the allurements of this life, they think that all this proceeds from brutal savageness. Had then the Prophet only performed the duties of his office, the ungodly might have derided his insensibility, but he wished to set forth his own infirmity, his sorrows, his fears, and his anxieties, that he might thus...

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....

Verse Jeremiah 15:19. _IF THOU RETURN_] By repentance unto me, - _THEN WILL I BRING THEE AGAIN_] Restore thee to thy own country. But some think the words are spoken to the prophet in reference to his ministry. He had greatly repined because of the persecutions which he endured. The Lord reprehends him, and is about to take from him the prophetic gift; but exhorts him first to take the _precious_ from the _vile _- not to attend to the deceitful words of the people, but boldly declare the message he had given him; not to return unto the people, but let the people return unto him. And then he should be as _God's mouth _- his words should appear to be what they were, the genuine words of God; and the people should be obliged to acknowledge them as such....

Jeremiah had questioned God’s righteousness (see Jeremiah 12:1 note); he is told, “If thou return,” if thou repent thee of thy doubts, and think only of thy duty, “then will I bring thee again, then will I cause thee again to stand before Me.” To stand before a person means to be his chief officer or vicegerent. It implies therefore the restoration of Jeremiah to the prophetic office. IF THOU TAKE FORTH THE PRECIOUS FROM THE VILE - i. e., if thou cause the precious metal to come forth from the dross. Jeremiah was to separate in himself what was divine and holy from the dross of human passion. Let him abandon this mistrust, this sensitiveness, this idea that God did not deal righteously with him, and then “he shall be as God’s mouth, i. e., as the organ by which God speaks. Let them ret

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 15:1 Second rejection of Jeremiah's intercession; awfulness of the impending judgment. JEREMIAH 15:1 THOUGH MOSES AND SAMUEL, etc. It is a mere supposition which is here made; there is no allusion to any popular view of the intercession of saints (see my note on Isaiah 63:16). If even a Moses or a Samuel would intercede in vain, the ease of the Judahites must indeed be desperate. For these were the nearest of all the prophets to Jehovah, and repeatedly prayed their people out of grievous calamity (comp. Psalms 99:6). Jeremiah had alr

THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD, IF THOU RETURN,.... From thine unbelief, diffidence, and impenitence, and repent of them; expressed in the preceding verses: THEN WILL I BRING THEE AGAIN; or, "restore thee s"; pardon his sin, and return him to his post and place, to his office and ministry in it, and confirm and establish him therein: AND THOU SHALT STAND BEFORE ME; not only as a petitioner for the people; see Jeremiah 15:1, but as a servant of the Lord, attending to his word, and waiting his orders, and ready to execute them. It denotes his stability in his office: AND IF THOU WILT TAKE FORTH THE PRECIOUS FROM THE VILE; take precious truths, comparable to gold, silver, and precious stones; truths more valuable and desirable than thousands of gold and silver, from those doctrines which are worthless and contemptible, comparable to wo

CHAPTER 15 The Prophet's Deep Soul-Exercise _ 1. The answer (Jeremiah 15:1) _ 2. The prophet's grief and sorrow and Jehovah's answer (Jeremiah 15:10) Jeremiah 15:1. The preceding prayer is now answered and the Lord tells Jeremiah that if Moses and Samuel, these two great men of intercessory prayer, were pleading, judgment would not be averted. What is in store for those who are appointed to death, for the sword, for the famine, for captivity, will be accomplished. There is no escape. They will be removed among all kingdoms on account of Manasseh's great sin 2 Kings 21:11. The terrors of jud

THE SORROW AND STRENGTH OF PROPHETIC SERVICE. The experience of the prophet, as described in the following section, may be the result of his unpopularity at the time of the drought, and therefore be rightly placed after Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 15:9; but it would suit many other occasions of his life. On the great importance of this and similar passages, both for a true conception of Jeremiah's personality, and for his special contribution to _religion, see_ Introduction, § 3. The present passage is interrupted by the irrelevant verses, Jeremiah 15:13 f., which occur again, more correctly and in their proper place, in Jeremiah 17

STAND BEFORE ME: i.e. as My servant. Compare 1 Kings 18:15; 2 Kings 3:14. TAKE FORTH THE PRECIOUS, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 10:10)....