A Fruitful Tree Amidst Shrubs: Jeremiah #11
A High Cost for God's Call in Dark Times - Inspired by Jeremiah 16 and 17
Hello everyone a special welcome to new subscribers: As usual I encourage you to read through Jeremiah chapter 15 and 16, to fully benefit from this post. Here we go!
Jeremiah was back on the Lord’s side, he had entered the sanctuary of God both depressed, and full of self pity, yet also with open hands to receive the Lord’s rebuke. In last week’s post we felt the depth of this reality (here). The Lord renewed Jeremiah’s call “to utter what is precious, and not what is worthless …” and to be His mouthpiece.
I like to think that it was being in the sanctuary of God where Jeremiah was prepared for the cost of his calling. He was in his twenties now, a suitable time to be thinking of marriage, and I imagine that he might have fallen in love, his mind often wandering to marriage and the possibility of a family of his own.
“Jeremiah, you shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” The direction from God was clear, and as we look at the following verses, I get the feeling that God (who has no obligation to give a reason ‘why’) wants Jeremiah to see how hard it will be in the years to come. It is one thing to go through hardships on your own, and it is another thing to see you wife and children suffer the same.
So while giving Jeremiah the words to speak, he is at the same time sparing Jeremiah from the heartbreak that will surely come in a time when: “I (God) have removed my protection and peace from them (Judah). I have taken away my unfailing love and my mercy. Both the great and the lowly will die in this land. No one will bury them or mourn for them. Their friends will not cut themselves in sorrow or shave their heads in sadness. No one will offer a meal to comfort those who mourn for the dead … ”
Jeremiah accepts God’s words, and perhaps because the cost reaches to the depths of his own heart … he cries out all the more fervently, with tears in his eyes.
“Just like our Fathers were unfaithful, we have been even worse in following our own evil desires, and hardening our ears to God’s words. And since you have worshiped idols day and night, doing as you please … so God will give you what you want, you will be thrown out of this land - to live as you have been, but now on foreign soil - where He will grant you no favors.”
God’s Witness and Testimony
God had set apart a people for Himself, and they were now setting themselves apart from God. The God who brought His people into a wonderful land in order to be an example and light to the world, yet instead of a light they were reflecting a darkness even darker than the nations around them.
The Lord is angry. Blazing anger that will burn forever. And he looks for light that will still shine for him, an example that can stand witness, as one who trusts in the Lord and does not rely on human strength.
Jeremiah was called to be that light, one man amidst thousands to step out of the celebrations and feasts, to step out from a society that would end in ruin. To be like a tree planted by streams of living water, whose leaves don’t wither:
Who thrives no matter the season, and
Never stops producing fruit.
Next to the tree are those who turn their hearts away from the Lord:
Like stunted shrubs they will be,
With no hope for the future!
SOMETHING GOOD TO HOLD ONTO
Just as certain as their sin (engraved with a diamond point on their stony hearts) will end in deportation to Babylon — Jeremiah, a witness for God in a dark time, says something else that is just as certain. Something that will be talked and spoken of even more than the time of Israel’s Mighty deliverance from Egypt, through the red sea.
Yes, hope for tomorrow: For “As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel back to their own land from the land of the north and from all the countries to which he had exiled them.’ For I will bring them back to this land that I gave their ancestors.”
In a time where sins have defiled the land, evil deeds have flourished, and punishment will come. A time where not one sin escapes the eyes of the Lord, and where there will be no hiding place from His judgement. Hope remains.
There is a way back.
And God, through his prophets, would walk alongside the people in their suffering, to remind them of this certainty.
God is not finished with you Oh stunted shrub, come and trust in Him!
Tune in next time for more stuff from the prophet Jeremiah. Words more relevant today than ever before. If you enjoyed this post, please comment and share so others can too!
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