Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
The verse records persecutors mocking Jeremiah by challenging him to produce the word of the Lord and demanding that it be fulfilled at once. Such taunting demands for God's messengers to prove their message immediately have always occurred and will continue. Those who taunt act from the same spirit as the priests and leaders who mocked Christ on the cross by demanding that He save Himself as proof that He was the Son of God. That same spirit stirs hatred against those who refuse to join in evil and who reprove wrongdoing.
In the verses that follow, Jeremiah answers that he has faithfully served as a pastor in following God, has not desired the woeful day, and has spoken what was right before God. He holds to the Lord as the hope of Israel and the fountain of living waters, declaring that all who forsake Him shall be ashamed and written in the earth, and he asks for healing and salvation. He looks to the Lord as his hope in danger and in the day of evil, praying that God will not let his persecutors shame or frighten him, but that they will be confounded and dismayed and brought to double destruction while he is spared.
This Old Testament figure and representation has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in present history in the churches, beginning with leaders who must humble their souls before God, confess their sins, and become truly converted.
The verse records persecutors mocking Jeremiah by challenging him to produce the word of the Lord and demanding that it be fulfilled at once. Such taunting demands for God's messengers to prove their message immediately have always occurred and will continue. Those who taunt act from the same spirit as the priests and leaders who mocked Christ on the cross by demanding that He save Himself as proof that He was the Son of God. That same spirit stirs hatred against those who refuse to join in evil and who reprove wrongdoing.
In the verses that follow, Jeremiah answers that he has faithfully served as a pastor in following God, has not desired the woeful day, and has spoken what was right before God. He holds to the Lord as the hope of Israel and the fountain of living waters, declaring that all who forsake Him shall be ashamed and written in the earth, and he asks for healing and salvation. He looks to the Lord as his hope in danger and in the day of evil, praying that God will not let his persecutors shame or frighten him, but that they will be confounded and dismayed and brought to double destruction while he is spared.
This Old Testament figure and representation has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in present history in the churches, beginning with leaders who must humble their souls before God, confess their sins, and become truly converted.