In Job 19:10, Job said - "He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath He removed like a tree."

 

What he was saying here was that he felt like a tree that had been uprooted by a violent shaking from every side or as a house broken down on all sides. He felt torn apart piece by piece...broken down...or battered. Everything around him - his substance or estate as well as his family - was destroyed. He was left with nothing.  

 

 

"I am gone" - In other words, I am at a loss, ruined, withered, near death, and undone for this world. 

 

"...mine hope hath He removed like a tree" - As far as the hope or restoration of life and happiness...an honored old age...or any future comfort, affluence, authority, respect, and prosperity - it was all destroyed. He felt like a tree which was dug up on all sides - yanked up by the roots - having no hope of growing again. All expectations - of good ever happening again - were gone.

 

In Jeremiah 1:10, the Prophet was called by God to do a most unusual thing - "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant."

 

Everyone wants God to send them on a mission "to build" and "to plant." But what about the strong commission to go to a people and "root out," "pull down," and "destroy"? Who is ready to volunteer for that particular task?

 

Jeremiah was given the assignment from God to declare His awful judgments on the rebellious nations. In his attempt to reform the people, he would go forth with a "word" from "on high" - intending to destroy anything which the Almighty did not plant. Also, he was commissioned to "root out" vicious habits and customs, idolatry, wickedness on all levels, as well as those who persisted in wickedness.

 

When he got through with them - after delivering the Word of the Lord - the nation or kingdom would feel like a tree or plant that had been plucked up by the roots. 

 

Lastly, the Apostle Jude applied the imagery of a withered, uprooted tree to the False Prophets and Teachers of his day -  "...trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots" (Jude 1:12). He likened them to the trees in late autumn which are clean of any leaves and fruit. He then added the imagery of being pulled up by the roots - rendering them completely dead. They were dead, dead, dead - spiritually speaking. They had no fruits of holiness in their lives...no vitality in them...and their roots were no longer fixed in Christ Jesus. Their end would be the end of any spiritual "tree" plucked up by the roots - the fire of God's Wrath!