I have just finished reading the book of Jeremiah right through. I can’t say that I was familiar with the overall story of the book before. This time, the beauty of the whole picture just clicked for me.
Throughout the story, Jeremiah begged Judah to repent and change their ways. Then he warned them that Jehovah had lost His patience completely and there would be no escape from the punishment coming – invasion and capture by Babylon – unless they surrendered to the enemy(!)
You can imagine how popular this message was. Also, the brain explosion that God’s provision for their safety was in surrendering to his discipline. That is a whole other blog post!
Unsurprisingly, this message got Jeremiah indicted as a traitor and sentenced to prison.
Finally, all the dire things Jeremiah had been warning them about came to pass just as he had prophesied.
Being God’s mouthpiece of these wildly unpopular messages came at great personal cost to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was imprisoned, beaten, slandered, destitute, homeless – and that just gets us started. (That will make you pray with caution when you ask to be used by God!)
Jeremiah also wasn’t permitted by God to marry. I am guessing that was probably out of kindness, knowing what was in store for Jeremiah, it would have been cruel to inflict that on a wife and children. Singleness also saved Jeremiah the grief of seeing his potential family being caught up in the coming exile.
Still, Jehovah kept giving Jeremiah these unpopular messages he had to tell the people. At one point, he had enough of the negative repercussions and decided not to speak the messages anymore but then found it was like ‘fire shut up in his bones,’ and he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
But here is where is the click came for me.
In Lamentations 3 (which Jeremiah also wrote) we start to see Jeremiah’s response to all the things that happened to him – and it’s next level beautiful.
“I cry out my splendour is gone! Everything I hoped for from the LORD is lost.
The thought of my suffering and homelessness is beyond all words.
I will never forget this awful time as I grieve my loss
Yet I dare to hope when I remember this, The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease.
Great is His faithfulness: His mercies begin afresh every morning.
I say to myself, the LORD is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in Him.
The LORD is good to those who depend on Him. To those who search for Him.
It is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of His discipline.
For no one is abandoned by the LORD forever: Though He brings grief, He also shows compassion because of His great and unfailing love.”
Lamentations 3:18-25, 27,31 NLT
Jeremiah here not only gives a roadmap of how to walk through suffering but of the beauty on the other side when we lean into it and don’t resist God’s sometimes easily misundertood actions.
He truly gives “a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, and festive praise instead of despair” Isaiah 61:3 NLT
