NOTES for Jer 15:1-21

We hear the question "where are we to go?" asked by sinners in Old Testament times. Centuries will pass, and this same question, though in another form - "to whom shall we go?" - will be asked of Christ by Peter on behalf of the apostles and, in essence, on behalf of all believers. After all, the Lord coerces no one and forces no one to follow Him into life. But those who have consciously turned away from Him will go into death. Not because the Lord wants to destroy them - He wants them to live - but because the steps of those who have made their choice are directed toward death. So go where you yourselves have chosen to go, but you have been warned that nothing good will be found on that path. Those who refused to believe this will have to learn it directly from bitter experience.

Yet even to those who have already set out on this path, the Lord, who does not desire the death even of those who have deserved it, offers the possibility of repentance. Here this possibility can appear to be offered personally by Jeremiah, but we know that a prophet is one of those through whom the Lord speaks. Jeremiah, however, was not chosen for his difficult and risky ministry only as a separate individual. He is a small part of his people, with whose fate his life is inseparably bound.