30 More Days... Day 27

Jer. 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise.
Jer. 17:15 Indeed they say to me,
“Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it come now!”
Jer. 17:16 As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.
Jer. 17:17 Do not be a terror to me;
You are my hope in the day of doom.
Jer. 17:18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me,
But do not let me be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed,
But do not let me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of doom,
And destroy them with double destruction!

Have you ever had to be the bearer of bad news? You see it on the TV shows... the doctor coming out of the operating room to the family that hopes for the best and fears the worst. Or there are relationships... you are the friend that carries the dreaded “Dear John” message to rejected. The messenger that brings word of catastrophe or trouble.

This was Jeremiah. That was his job. That is what God had called him to do.

This was, kind of, the lot of a prophet. It wasn’t always bad news. Sometimes it was very good news. Sometimes the messages that came were very positive and promising. Yet, Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet and it is not hard by that to guess what kind of news he most often had to deliver. It was news of God’s judgement. It was news, as we saw yesterday, of God’s refusal to listen anymore to this people. It was news that Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians. It was not popular and no wonder. It was not the sort of thing that people wanted to hear. And as happens so often in these cases the messenger becomes the object of anger and ridicule, suffering and injustice.

Shakespeare expressed the idea of shooting the messenger in a couple of his plays. It was the tendency of people bearing bad news to get into trouble for the task given to them. It is such a common idea that it has become a set phrase in our language.

This was the position that Jeremiah finds himself in. He is a messenger. He brings the word of the Lord to the people. And lately what God has had to say has been mostly bad news. At the very least it has not been what the people have wanted to hear. For God’s word is almost always full of promise, but also calls on us to turn from our wrong ways and desires to do what is right. A lot of times people don’t want to hear about that part. Jeremiah has been faithful to bear these messages to the people, but he has also experienced the negative responses to those messages. He is an easy target. You can’t exactly argue with God, but Jeremiah is a good scapegoat for the anger and unease of the people. They label him a troublemaker. He disturbs the peace and incites unrest. At least that is the way they see it.

It is not so different today. People that stand for truth and goodness are often labeled in this way. How many pastors lately have been labeled as “agents of intolerance” simply for preaching the Word of God. How many Christian have been labeled as prejudiced for holding to their beliefs in God’s word. When people don’t like the message they tend to attack the messenger. It is an attempt to bully into silence. It is an attempt to sterilize from one’s life all that they don’t like or wish to accept.

As Jeremiah has stood up and delivered God’s word to the people, he has come under such fire. So he cries out to God. He asks for defense. He asks for deliverance.

As Jeremiah prays he recognizes that he has been hurt. He has suffered damage and fear at the hands of the people. He prays for healing and knows that God can heal. He prays for salvation, knowing that God can save. He has suffered the skepticism of the people. They question his words. Not all that he has said has yet come to pass. While this is good for them, still they mock and challenge. They approach him with disbelief. “Let it come”, they say challenging the veracity of his message. It doesn’t sound so far away from what we see in the world today either.

Jeremiah knows that God’s grace and patience is all that holds back His word from coming to pass. So he prays. He has not spoken his own words or his own opinions. He has been faithful to speak only what God has commanded. He has not been vengeful, nor does he seek vengeance on the people. He speaks not out so much out of anger as he does out of concern (not to mention command). But, he certainly does not “have it in” for this people. His conscience is clear that he has done what is right and has been faithful neither speaking from himself, nor failing to speak what he must.

Having done this he can now ask God to be his help, his protection. He asks God that they not be able to “shoot the messenger”. God is his only possible refuge. So he cries out asking God then just to be faithful to His word. It is for more than his life or protection that Jeremiah is pleading. He is asking God to fulfill His word so that the people may learn and understand the truth. They have held to the errors of their “fathers” believing them rather than God. They follow human ideas, philosophies and logic. Now may they see that God’s truth is above that.

It is the tendency of the world to mock. It looks for any excuse not to believe that what God says is true and best. Yet God says that He will confound the wisdom of the world with foolishness and the strength of the world with weakness. We have a responsibility to speak the truth in love and leave the rest to God. That is what God has called His people to do.

It is hard to Jeremiah to stand in the face of such opposition and disbelief. He has not sought this position or calling. God has placed it on him. But, rather than failing to speak and warn he stands firm. Even when it seems useless he continues to warn the people. So when the times get tough he also cries out to God for strength and deliverance.

Jer. 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise.

Prayer Request
*Pray for Tamara. She has gone through a lot in the past years and has lost so much. She finds herself alone and often going without. But various believers have been able to find ways to help her. She is from a Russian background and so there has been a way for us connect with and help her as well. She has been attending the Baptist group and received a lot of help from them as well. Pray for her understanding of the gospel and for provision for her needs.