Brethren, be not afraid of the faces of men. 

Necessary exhortation! For, oh, how the face of man can make one’s heart quail. The face of a brother, a father, a mother, a spouse, a friend. Or the face of a powerful one in the church or in the world. It is our wretched idolatry to quiver before the face of man, for we regard the truth of God less than the face of man. Who wants to stand face to face with such a one and confess God and Christ and grace and truth over against that beloved? To look into the face of the powerful and to say to him, “You are wrong”? To see the face of our beloved cloud with shock and anger and bitterness and hatred? To see the heart of the powerful harden toward us, as reflected in the hard look of his face? And to know that the price of standing face to face with such a man is the loss of all of one’s name and all of one’s life?

So it was for Jeremiah. God called him to speak God’s hard words of rebuke to the hard-hearted church members of Judah and Jerusalem. God told Jeremiah that the kings, the princes, the priests, and the people would fight against him. And so they did. Jeremiah’s own family in Anathoth plotted to kill him; when the people ever deigned to listen to his rebuke, they took personal offense at it; the priests and the prophets laid hold on him and accused him; men threw him into prison and clapped him in the painful, limb-twisting stocks; the princes demanded his death; the king connived at his being cast into the pit; the people kidnapped him and brought him to Egypt. So many faces arrayed against him for forty years!

So many faces arrayed against you from now until your death.

But, brethren, be not afraid of the faces of men.

They are only men! Dear men, close men, powerful men. They can break your bones and break your body and break your heart. But they are only men.

After all, what saith Jehovah? “I am with thee to deliver thee!”

Jehovah too has a face. In his face he reveals his thoughts. Just as a man’s heart can be read on his face, so Jehovah reveals all the content of his heart on his face. And what is upon Jehovah’s face as he looks upon his elect people in their sorrows and persecutions? This: He makes his face shine upon them and is gracious unto them. He lifts up the light of his countenance upon them and gives them peace. He is with his people, and his face is upon them. Therefore, nothing shall overcome them, not even the gates of hell. They are bathed forever in the light of the grace and favor of their God. This face of God is revealed in the holy gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

Brethren, be not afraid of the faces of men. “For I am with thee to deliver thee,” saith Jehovah.