Tag Archives: jeremiah

Waiting

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Patience is produced in the Christian by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  It is His longsuffering “fruit”, as Galatians 5:22 informs us.  If the Spirit didn’t develop this quality, it might never grow at all.  No doubt the very existence of impatience among us is one of the many ways the Fall of the Human Race has adversely impacted our lives .  When you see Adam punch him.

God understands well our need for this fruit patience and He knows best how to cultivate it.  So He allows us to wait, while we simply have to put up with stuff.  If there is one thing bad about this whole process it is that patience is produced while we’re waiting.

When it comes to waiting Jeremiah was an expert: waiting for someone to listen to him, waiting for the Lord to respond, speak or do something miraculous.  Jeremiah’s vast crop of patience was watered by his tears.  Still, he learned to appreciate it, and to see that waiting for God is good, precisely because God is good to those who wait for Him.

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
     To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
     For the salvation of the Lord.”
                    – Lamentations 3:25-26 (NKJV)

Mercy

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By definition, mercy is something that is not guaranteed.  The American Heritage Dictionary explains mercy like this:

  1. Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one’s power; clemency.
  2. A disposition to be kind and forgiving: a heart full of mercy.

So when it is clearly possible to get something else, and we get mercy instead – compassionate treatment, kindness, forgiveness – we tend to breathe a huge sigh of relief. 

Such was the relief experienced by the prophet Jeremiah after the destruction of Jerusalem.  Babylon had conquered, the city was flattened, the nation was defeated, the captivity had begun – and, tragically, it might all have been avoided.  It was all their own fault and Jeremiah knew this better than anyone; he had been prophesying it all along.

But Jeremiah had also prophesied that the captivity would last seventy years.  As his nation had already been promised an eternal future, he apparently figured that seventy years was, well, doable.  Eternity was a lot longer.

When we consider our own difficulties and disasters, we are wise to listen to Jeremiah.  He knew disaster well.  This doesn’t decrease the reality of our grief.  It increases our appreciation of God.  When we desire Him more than anything else, His mercies will fill our hearts with hope.

This I recall to my mind,
     Therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
     Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
     Great is Your faithfulness.
‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul,
     ‘Therefore I hope in Him!'”
                    – Lamentations 3:21-24 (NKJV)

Unprofitable Prophets

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God has a lot of people who speak in His name without ever first hearing from Him what to say – and He knows it.  These false prophets lead people astray with messages that they have made up.  They say whatever they want and they serve no useful purpose. Normally, they say what people want to hear in order to gain a following.  This is no recent phenomenon, but has actually long been the case.

So it was in the days of Jeremiah.  He was a bona fide prophet – the real thing – and he was especially unpopular.  Prophets were a shekel a dozen in Jerusalem in those days and each of them had a following.  Things were beginning to go badly in Judah, so it was pretty easy to get listeners if you said something that sounded nice.  People were eager to hear pleasant-sounding messages – and to continue in their evil practices at the same time.  Jeremiah, on the other hand, with his continuously unheeded messages of repentance, found it easy to get discouraged.

So the Lord encouraged Jeremiah, His faithful messenger, by offering His personal commentary on these popular, but unprofitable, prophets.  Here’s what He had to say:

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 
But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their doings.”
               – Jeremiah 23:21-22 (NKJV)

Every Christian should make it a point to stick to God’s counsel as found in His word.  We will be more profitable as a result, when the time comes to open our mouths.

Dull-Hearted Shepherds

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Only occasionally do people rise above the level of their leaders.  It happens now and then, to be sure, but not often.  This is especially true in the area of personal character.  Thus, lousy leaders produce pathetic people and together they share the unhappy effects of their common corruption.  This was the problem in the days of Jeremiah and it was the cause of great calamity.

For the shepherds have become dull-hearted,
And have not sought the Lord;
Therefore they shall not prosper,
And all their flocks shall be scattered.”
     – Jeremiah 10:21 (NKJV)

The remedy, of course, is that leaders must lead well.  They must lead with integrity, always setting a good example, and tending to the deepest needs of the people entrusted to them.  Simon Peter understood this and he offers the following counsel.

The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd* the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd** appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. – 1 Peter 5:1-4 (NKJV) ***

May all of us who in any way lead God’s people take the apostle’s advice and see the satisfying results multiplied in many hearts and lives.  

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For those who like to study words, I offer the following tidbits:
* Jesus used this verb form of shepherd when He said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” in John 21:16
** The noun Shepherd is translated “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11.
*** This passage is one of two in the New Testament that bring the three terms shepherd (pastor), elder (presbyter) and overseer (bishop) together, placing them in the same context more or less as synonyms.  The other passage to do so is  in Acts 20; see verses 17 & 28.