Jeremiah was
appointed by God to be a prophet. He
wrote his prophesies, prayers & discussions with God, all between 626 B.C.
& 586 B.C., after the time of Isaiah, which are recorded in the Bible Book
bearing his name. Jeremiah, his name
means “exaltation of the Lord”.
Ironically, Jeremiah didn’t have much to exalt the Lord about. His prophesies were dark, about the fall of
Israel, God’s wrath, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the exile
to Babylon. Jeremiah knew he was chosen
by God to deliver this message. He did
speak the word of the Lord even though he had threats on his life and would
frequently be beaten for the message. After
one such beating, by a priest no less, Jeremiah poured out his heart to God in
one of the most beautiful, gut wrenching prayers, I’ve ever read.
Jeremiah 20:
7-18 “O LORD, you deceived (persuaded)
me, and I was deceived (persuaded); you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks
me. Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction. So
the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or
speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut
up in my bones. I am weary of holding it
in; indeed, I cannot. I hear many
whispering, ‘Terror on every side!
Report him! Let’s report him!’ All my friends are waiting for me to slip,
saying, ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take
our revenge on him.’ But the LORD is
with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not
prevail. They will fail and be
thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. O LORD Almighty, you who examine the
righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the LORD! Give praise to
the LORD! He rescues the life of the
needy from the hands of the wicked.
Cursed be the day I was born! May
the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very
glad, saying, ‘A child is born to you – a son!’
May that man be like the towns the LORD overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle
cry at noon. For he did not kill me in
the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see
trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?”
I am struck
that Jeremiah could pour out his heart like that; praise God, yet wish himself
dead. Isn’t that like many of us? The Bible has example after example of
people, just like us, who struggle and don’t understand all that God is up
to. In Chapter 15, Jeremiah refers to a
wound that God would not heal. God is so
tender in His response to Jeremiah: “’for
I am with you to rescue and save you,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will save you from the hands of the wicked
and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel.’”
(Jeremiah 16:20b-21) Paul, if you
recall, also had a wound, “a thorn in the flesh”. Paul also asked God to take it away. Both cases, God didn’t. He only reassured. Both Jeremiah and Paul held onto the
reassurance.
2nd
Corinthians 12:7-10 “To keep me from
becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was
given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take
it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Lamentations
3:19-26 “I remember my affliction and
my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have
hope: Because of the LORD’s great love
we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your
faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD
is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks
him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
While
spending time with the Lord in study over last weekend, I asked God what
Jeremiah’s wound was: was it physical,
was it depression? I really would like to
know, but God said I didn’t need to know everything. Ouch…I digress. All I need to know is how God took the
wounds, took the pain, brought it to Himself and nailed it to the cross of
Christ. In the grand scheme of things,
it doesn’t matter. Jeremiah was just
like us. He had hurts, his heart broke,
he was wounded, depressed, hated his life, yet he held on to God with all he
had. God took care of Jeremiah no matter
his circumstances, just as He does us.
Jeremiah was obedient even during times of great distress. He chose to seek God and rejoice in Him. “For in him we live and move and have our
being.” (Acts 17:28a) Isn’t that really what this crazy life is
about, our relationship with God? I
think obedience comes as we get to know God.
Once we are in right relationship with God, we will want to be obedient,
we will want to listen to Him, seek Him, and find ourselves secure in Him. He alone is the only One who can heal our
hurts, our wounds, and our broken hearts.
(Isaiah 60:1-3) It first starts
with responding to His love. He poured
out His life for us at Calvary. It
amazes me that God loves me so much, He gave up His own Son (John 3:16). I can tell you first hand, I didn’t deserve
it at all. In turn, all God wants from
me is to love Him back. It’s astounding,
really. Someone told me not that long
ago that she viewed my life as boring.
Let me tell you it is anything but boring. God has filled my life with love, laughter,
beauty, sweetness, tenderness, learning, knowledge, and truth, just to name a
few. My life with God is much better
than when I tried to live it on my own. I
find that the closer I get to God, the more I want to know Him. The more I want to know Him, the more He
teaches me. The more He teaches me, the
more I want to understand. The more understanding
He gives me, the more I want to know Him.
The more I know Him, the more I love Him. I don’t think I will ever understand all that
God is up to, but I don’t need to. All I
need is God. All I know is that the more
God I have, the more God I want. I can
never have too much God. This is
truth. This is the word of Christ
dwelling in me richly (Colossians 3:16a).
This is knowing the truth and allowing Christ to set me free (John
8:32). This is Christ in me, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27b). God makes my life interesting. He is my heart’s desire. I can honestly stand with Jeremiah, hand in
hand, and say, “The LORD is my portion forever; therefore I will wait for him.” There is nothing on earth better than
God. While all the study and reading are great for
my head and helps increase my faith, it’s no substitute for spending time with
my Savior. Oh, how I love Him.
