Jeremiah 20:1-18

20:1-2 | Pashur’s response of beating and imprisoning Jeremiah reflects the kind of persecution and opposition that the prophet experienced throughout his ministry. Places of confinement and imprisonment play a prominent role in the story of Jeremiah from here until the fall of Jerusalem in Chapter 39.

20:2 | The meaning of the term stocks is not clear. It may refer to a device used to restrain the prophet or, more likely, indicates a sell or dungeon (2 Chron. 16:10).

20:3-6 | Magor-Missabib means “terror on every side” and is a recurring phrase in the book to refer to the disasters that accompany God’s judgment. Judah’s national disaster would extend to Pashur’s family because of his opposition to Jeremiah; there are serious consequences attached to rejecting God’s Word (Isa. 39:6).

20:7-10 | Jeremiah complains that God has deceived and overpowered him in calling him and subjecting him to such intense suffering and persecution. The Lord allows the righteous to bring their negative emotions to Him in prayer, and this type of accusatory language toward God appears in more than a third of the Psalms.

20:9 | Jeremiah’s calling instilled a compelling urgency to proclaim God’s Word even when he wanted to retire from ministry. Paul expressed this same urgency in the NT: “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (Acts 18:5; 1 Cor. 9:16).

20:14-18 | Jeremiah’s wish that he had never been born recalls Job cursing the day of his birth because of his intense suffering (Job 3:3). Some of the greatest saints in history have suffered from moments of despair, even depression (1 Kgs. 19:4).

20:17-18 | Jeremiah’s wish that he had never come forth from his mother’s womb is a reminder that the Lord’s call is never a guarantee of an easy life (Lam. 3:1).