Proper 17: Old Testament, Jeremiah 15:15-21                    

Jeremiah 15:15-21

The apostle Paul writes to his protégé Timothy to assure him, “all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Now this “encouragement” is centuries removed from another servant of the Lord who, like Paul, not only taught others this truth, but lived it out. Jeremiah, writing several centuries before the birth of Jesus, was in the center of great controversy between Yahweh and His people. The kind of controversy that moved the Governor of the universe to declare that he was done with His rebellious people and was about to wash His hands of them. “I am weary of relenting,” Yahweh says. “I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people; they did not turn from their ways” (Jer. 15:6b-7).

Now Jeremiah is wondering if the judgment will come to him as well as his rebellious countrymen. While not without sin, Jeremiah has faithfully declared the Word of the Lord to a people who have not the ears to hear. Jeremiah is running headlong into the truth of which Paul warned Timothy. Funny. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

People, even “God’s people” so often want to clamor for, and follow the dictates of their hearts rather than bow to the will of God. And when one is faithful for calling them out, whether they be in the company of the redeemed or not, men’s reactions are predictable. Man may want his way. But he is not Lord. There is another who occupies that chair. And He will have His way. To be faithful to the Lord in speech and/or conduct is costly. It always has been. And until His promised and sure return, such will continue to be the case. Count the cost.