Jeremiah 1:19 marks the second time God reassures His young prophet that he has nothing to fear in facing life’s battles. Dearman observes, “As the book will eloquently display, Jeremiah is not immune from human suffering or doubt; his security does not reside in his cleverness or physical stamina, but in the fact that God is with him.” The verse reads, “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.” That phrase—“I am with you”—is the same divine comfort that echoes from Genesis to Revelation. It found its fullest expression centuries later when an angel appeared to Joseph, saying, “They shall call his name Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). God was not only with Jeremiah. He is with us. The same God who stood beside a trembling prophet stands beside His people today, even when the odds are overwhelming.
The word “with” does a lot of heavy lifting in English. You can fight with your brother (against him), or fight with courage (in a certain manner), or fight with a machine gun (using it). But here, “with” means alongside—as in, “I’m with you all the way.” That is what God meant to Jeremiah, and that is what He means to us. Paul put it plainly in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The question is rhetorical because the answer is obvious—no one. F. F. Bruce explained it beautifully: “To be united to Christ by faith is to throw off the thralldom of hostile powers, to enjoy perfect freedom, to gain mastery over the dominion of evil—because Christ’s victory is ours.” We may not face invading armies, but we all fight our own daily battles—temptations, worries, losses, and doubts. Knowing that God is not just watching but standing with us changes everything. Life may bruise us, but it cannot break us.
Ecclesiastes reminds us that “to everything there is a season,” and those seasons come and go like Nebraska weather. The bad times, thankfully, “shall come to pass,” but so will the good ones. Yet beyond this constant cycle lies the permanence of victory already secured. Spurgeon wrote, “Faith believes that she has her request, and she has it. She is the substance of things hoped for.” In Christ, the battle is already won. Paul declares, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Jeremiah was promised deliverance, and so are we—not from trouble, but through it. For the same Lord who stood beside Jeremiah walks beside us still—Immanuel, God with us.