The Agony and the Iron: A Prophet's Honest Prayer Text: Jeremiah 15:10-18
Introduction: The Offense of a Faithful Ministry
We live in an age that prizes niceness above all other virtues. The modern evangelical church, in many quarters, has traded the sharp sword of the Spirit for a soft, therapeutic pillow. The goal is to be winsome, palatable, and inoffensive. But the problem is that the Word of God is inherently offensive to fallen man. A true prophet is not a motivational speaker; he is a prosecuting attorney for the court of heaven. His job is to declare the whole counsel of God, and that counsel includes not just sweet promises but also hard indictments and severe warnings of judgment.
Jeremiah was such a man. He is often called the weeping prophet, and for good reason. His heart broke for his people. But his tears did not dilute the strength of his message. He was called to be a man of strife and contention to the whole land, not because he had a quarrelsome personality, but because his faithfulness to God put him at odds with a culture that had abandoned God. When a man stands on the unchanging rock of God's truth, he will necessarily be a source of friction to a world that is sliding headlong into the abyss.
In our text today, we are given a raw, unfiltered look into the prophet's soul. This is not a polished and sanitized prayer suitable for a Hallmark card. This is a man in agony, wrestling with God, wrestling with his calling, and wrestling with the profound loneliness that comes with a faithful ministry. He is cursed by everyone, feels abandoned, and even accuses God of being unreliable. And the astonishing thing is that God includes this in Holy Scripture. God is not afraid of our honest, agonized prayers. He is not looking for flattery; He is looking for faith, even if it is a faith that is crying out from the depths of a furnace.
This passage teaches us a crucial lesson about the nature of prophetic ministry, the reality of suffering in the service of God, and the kind of rugged, honest relationship God invites us into. It is a rebuke to our shallow, smiley-faced Christianity and an encouragement to those who have ever felt the crushing weight of standing for truth in a hostile world.
The Text
Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land! I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me. Yahweh said, "Surely I will set you free for purposes of good; Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you In a time of disaster and a time of distress. Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze? Your wealth and your treasures I will give for plunder without cost, Even for all your sins And within all your borders. Then I will cause your enemies to pass it over Into a land you do not know, For a fire has been kindled in My anger; It will burn upon you." You who know, O Yahweh, Remember me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away; Know that for Your sake I endure reproach. Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your words became for me joy and gladness in my heart, For I have been called by Your name, O Yahweh God of hosts. I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers, Nor did I exult. Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone, For You filled me with indignation. Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable?
(Jeremiah 15:10-18 LSB)
The Prophet's Lament (v. 10)
Jeremiah begins with a cry of despair that echoes the lament of Job. He curses the day of his birth.
"Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land! I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me." (Jeremiah 15:10)
Jeremiah's suffering is not the result of some personal failing or foolish business deal. He makes it clear: "I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me." In that culture, disputes over debts were a common source of strife and curses. Jeremiah is saying that his conflict with the people is not over something as mundane as money. The conflict is theological. The strife is covenantal. He is hated not for what he has done, but for what he has said. He is a man of contention because he speaks the truth of God to a people who prefer lies.
This is the cost of faithfulness. When you declare God's Word, you are setting a plumb line down in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation. And when people see how far they are from the line, they have two choices: repent and straighten up, or get angry and try to smash the plumb line. Judah chose the latter, and Jeremiah was the target of their rage. Every pastor, every Christian elder, every parent who takes a stand on the Word of God in our day should expect to feel some of this heat. If you are never a man of strife or contention to this world, it might be because you have made a silent peace treaty with it.
God's Hard Assurance (v. 11-14)
God responds to Jeremiah's woe, but it is not with a soft word of sentimental comfort. It is a hard, iron-clad assurance.
"Yahweh said, 'Surely I will set you free for purposes of good; Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you In a time of disaster and a time of distress. Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?'" (Jeremiah 15:11-12 LSB)
God does not promise to remove the conflict. He promises to vindicate Jeremiah in the midst of it. The very enemies who curse him now will one day come to him for a word from the Lord. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah and his officials secretly sought out Jeremiah during the final siege of Jerusalem (Jer. 21:1-2; 37:3). God then asks a rhetorical question. Can you smash northern iron or bronze? This was the strongest metal known at the time. The answer is no. God is telling Jeremiah, "I have made you like this northern iron. They cannot break you, because I will sustain you."
But this strength is for a purpose, and that purpose is to announce an unbreakable judgment upon the people. Their wealth and treasures, the very things they trusted in, will be given as plunder to their enemies. Why? "For all your sins." The coming disaster is not an accident of geopolitics; it is the righteous anger of God against covenant-breaking.
"Then I will cause your enemies to pass it over Into a land you do not know, For a fire has been kindled in My anger; It will burn upon you." (Jeremiah 15:14 LSB)
This is a terrifying promise. The fire of God's anger has been kindled, and it will not be quenched until it has accomplished its purpose. God's assurance to Jeremiah is simultaneously a sentence of doom upon the nation. Jeremiah's personal deliverance is tied to the nation's corporate destruction. This is a hard providence, and we must not try to soften it. God is sovereign, and His judgments are righteous altogether.
The Prophet's Plea (v. 15-18)
Hearing this, Jeremiah turns back to God with a raw and desperate plea. This is where the prayer gets truly uncomfortable for our modern sensibilities.
"You who know, O Yahweh, Remember me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away; Know that for Your sake I endure reproach." (Jeremiah 15:15 LSB)
Jeremiah begins by appealing to God's omniscience. "You who know." God sees his suffering. God knows his faithfulness. On this basis, he asks for three things: remembrance, notice, and vengeance. This is an imprecatory prayer. Jeremiah is asking God to bring justice upon those who are persecuting him for righteousness' sake. This is not a sinful prayer of personal revenge. Notice the reason: "Know that for Your sake I endure reproach." The attacks on Jeremiah are attacks on the God who sent him. His cause is God's cause. To pray for God to vindicate His own name by judging His enemies is a profoundly righteous prayer.
He then reveals the source of his strength and his sorrow. The Word of God is both his greatest joy and the reason for his isolation.
"Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your words became for me joy and gladness in my heart, For I have been called by Your name, O Yahweh God of hosts. I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers, Nor did I exult. Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone, For You filled me with indignation." (Jeremiah 15:16-17 LSB)
This is a beautiful picture of what it means to love the Scriptures. Jeremiah did not just read God's words; he ate them. He internalized them. They became a part of him, nourishing his soul. And this brought him immense joy. But this same Word that brought him private joy brought him public misery. The message God gave him was one of indignation against sin, which meant he could not join in the frivolous parties of a culture dancing on the edge of a cliff. Faithfulness to God's Word will always lead to a certain kind of separation from the world. If you are perfectly comfortable in the circle of merrymakers, you should probably check to see if you have eaten any of God's Word lately.
This tension leads to his final, agonizing question to God.
"Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable?" (Jeremiah 15:18 LSB)
This is the cry of a man at the end of his rope. He feels that his suffering is endless and his wound is fatal. And then he levels a staggering accusation at God. Will you be like a "deceptive stream"? In that arid land, a traveler might see a wadi that looks like it should have water, but it is dry. It promises life but delivers death. Jeremiah is asking, "God, are You a liar? Are Your promises an illusion?" This is the dark night of the soul. It is the wrestling of Jacob with the angel. It is Christ in the garden crying out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" And God is big enough to handle it. He does not strike Jeremiah down for blasphemy. He answers him, as we will see in the following verses, by calling him back to his post, calling him to repent of his despair and to once again speak God's Word.
Conclusion: The Reliable Rock
What are we to make of such a raw and painful passage? We must see, first, that a faithful life is often a hard life. If you set your face to follow Christ, do not be surprised when the world, and sometimes the church, curses you. Jesus promised it. "If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20).
Second, we learn that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. God made Jeremiah like northern iron, not so that he would not feel the blows, but so that he would not be broken by them. Our sufficiency is not in ourselves, but in Him.
Third, we see that God invites our honest prayers. He is not a fragile deity who is offended by our questions and our pain. He is a Father who can handle the cries of His children, even when those cries are filled with confusion and doubt. He would rather have us wrestle with Him in honest anger than drift away from Him in polite indifference.
And finally, we see the ultimate answer to Jeremiah's question. Is God a deceptive stream? The answer is a resounding no. The stream may seem to run dry for a season, but the Fountainhead is eternal. Jeremiah's pain was perpetual, his wound seemed incurable, because he was a signpost pointing to another. He pointed to the one true Man of Sorrows, Jesus Christ, whose pain was truly perpetual and whose wound was truly incurable, apart from the resurrection. On the cross, Jesus endured the full fire of God's anger. He was cut off from the land of the living. He cried out in agony. And He did it so that we, who were faithless, could be brought near to a God who is utterly faithful.
God is not a deceptive stream. He is the Rock of our salvation, and the water that flows from that Rock is the water of life eternal. When you find His words and eat them, they will be your joy. And when that joy leads you into conflict with the world, you can cry out to Him honestly, knowing that the one who made you like iron will never, ever let you be broken.