I WILL NOT MAKE MENTION OF HIM

"Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." (Jeremiah 20:9)

MANY OF GOD’S PEOPLE have been called to minister under grievous circumstances. Their labors were not attended by great public success, like those of Joshua and John the Baptist. Jeremiah was such a person. He certainly did not have a "career" some half-hearted person would seek! The people to whom he ministered held him in contempt. They said, "Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words" (18:18). The whole matter was deeply discouraging to Jeremiah, and he made strong intercession to the Lord against his opponents (18:19-23). The Lord then directed the prophet to stand in the court of the Lord’s house and proclaim the coming Babylonian captivity. It would be harsh and painful, and would come to them "because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear My words" (19:15).

WHEN A MAN NAMED PASHUR, son of the priest and chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying, he "had Jeremiah the prophet beaten, and put him in the stocks." The next day, in an act of political mercy, Pashur released Jeremiah from the stocks. Jeremiah was not silent. He had evidently been musing while in the stocks. He burst forth in a fiery prophecy that began with the words, "The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib" (terror on every side). The Lord, Jeremiah said, would make Pashur a terror to himself and his friends. He would see his enemies delivered to the sword before his very eyes, as God would hand over rebellious Israel "to the king of Babylon" (20:4).

IT WAS IN THE MIDST OF THIS PROPHESY that our text is found. It was an explanation of a past circumstance, when Jeremiah had become discouraged because of the hard-hearted people to whom he spoke in the name of the Lord. Every day he had shouted out the message God had given him, "proclaiming violence and destruction" (NIV). And, every day his word brought him "insult and reproach all day long" (v 8,　 NIV). The whole experience finally became too burdensome, and the wearied prophet said, "I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name." That certainly would relieve some of the pressure the people were putting upon him. Needed relief at last!

HOWEVER, THERE IS ANOTHER KIND OF PRESSURE that was much stronger than that of the people. The Word of God was like a "fire shut up in" his bones. He could not forget the word God had given him, and it was a word that had to be spoken. He could not quench the fire it sparked, and it wore him out to keep silence. Finally, after being beaten and put into the stocks, wicked Pashur saw and hear the fiery Word of God erupt from Jeremiah’s mouth. He "could not stay," or hold it in, any longer.

IF EVER THE WORD OF THE LORD can get into the heart of those charged with delivering it, it will exert an inner force that is unparalleled. It will burn within until the messenger can keep silence no longer. Opponents and circumstances will prove powerless to keep it from being spoken in power.

– Given O. Blakely