Jeremiah: Introduction

My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring
of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that
cannot hold water (Jer. 2:13).

Jeremiah was an ancient Solzhenitsyn – a hero who stood almost
alone, courageously exposing the evils of a godless state, and living in
constant fear of his life. For forty distressing years (625 – 586 B.C.)
during Judah’s ‘last gasp’, when idolatry and sexual immorality replaced
the pure worship of Yahweh, Jeremiah preached that sacrifices and ritual
were no substitutes for repentance and righteousness. God, he said, is
Israel’s covenant God. The northern kingdom’s adulteries with the Baalim
had compelled God to divorce (that is, exile) her. But Judah, the
southern kingdom, had learned nothing from Israel’s mistakes. Babylon
now controlled western Asia, and Jeremiah made himself very unpopular by
advocating submission rather than rebellion. The leaders of Judah
wouldn’t listen, so the fall of Jerusalem and exile, were inevitable.

Despite Jeremiah’s spiritual anguish he was no pessimist. The Lord’s
mercy is everlasting. Exile is not the final word. A remnant would
return to live under Messiah’s ‘new covenant.’ People would be
righteous because their hearts would be renewed.

The tragedy is that although many of us enjoy the highest living
standards in history, we too have our idols, frantically chasing money
and material things, sex and power. So we too end up with cracked
cisterns that can’t hold water.

A True Prophet

Jeremiah 26

In truth the Lord has sent me to speak all these words (v.15). The
Old and New Testaments give high honour to prophets. They are ‘seers’,
seeing beyond the obvious, and beneath the superficial. They warn us
about our complacency, our trust in secondary things, and our
inclinations to turn away from the law and love of God. But these brave
people are usually despised and rejected. Jesus lamented: ‘Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you!’
(Matthew 23:37). Jeremiah 26 gives us an excellent picture of the role
of the prophet.

Prophets call us to listen to the Lord, and repent of our evil ways.
Their preaching has a note of urgency. It’s a message of both judgment
and hope: judgment about putting one’s trust in things that won’t last –
in this case believing that because the city was spared in the past it
is eternally impregnable. Judah’s national pride and religious
confidence centred on the Holy City, its temple and its officials (‘the
priests and the prophets’). Surely, the people reasoned, seeing God gave
solemn assurances to David and Solomon, these were inviolable? No, said
Jeremiah, unless there is genuine repentance and a commitment to right
living, God would make Jerusalem like Shiloh which it replaced. So
prophets have a nasty habit of touching the religious and patriotic
prejudices of people. Nothing makes us madder! But there’s hope: if/when
we repent the Lord shows mercy.

Prophets live dangerously. Those in power, who have most to repent
of and most to lose, will rarely like the prophet’s message (see
vv.:20-23). But there is often a faithful remnant who accept the word of
the Lord: in this case just one man, Ahikam.

Today we exclude prophets from our church-life; we prefer dogmas and
constitutions we may not stone them, but we won’t commission them (or
invite them back!).

True and False Prophets

Jeremiah 27-28

A prophet will be recognised as one truly sent by the Lord only if
his prediction comes true (Jer. 28:9).

True prophets affirm what is always true: the God of Israel is
Creator, and Lord of history; he is Lord of other nations: even
Nebuchadnezzar is a ‘servant’. But as with all earthly ‘kingdoms’, their
time is limited; if God is working even through a pagan king, to resist
him is to oppose God; if (like Zedekiah) you’re not in touch with God,
you won’t know ‘the things that make for peace’; so the prophet
intercedes with God for the people, and does not feed them false hopes.
False prophets who tell lies will be exposed: there is no ongoing
spiritual and national health without repentance.

True prophets may also announce a specific message: here Jeremiah
says God will resettle the exiles back in their own country, with a new
temple (22b; 24:4-7). But Hananiah, a ‘positive (or wishful) thinker’
contradicted Jeremiah (chapter 28), telling people what they wanted to
hear, and breaking the yoke Jeremiah wore as an acted parable. Jeremiah
agrees in part with Hananiah: God’s people have a future, but no, it
will take longer than two years. So the test of Deuteronomy 13:5 is
applied: Hananiah was not ‘sent’ by Yahweh, and so will be ‘despatched’
himself. Two months later he died.

It took a lot of courage for Jeremiah to say that false
prophets are in the same category as dreamers and occultists. They may
be the voice of the people, or of orthodoxy, or convention, but it is a
distorted voice. In this day of confusion, of uncertainty, whose voices
will we listen to? The voices of the new age/occult or secular world
around us? Or that of the living God? ‘God is still on the throne’: so
when disaster strikes, for no discernible reason, how are we to respond?

Hope Brings Life!

Jeremiah 29

Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried
you into exile I have plans to give you hope and a future (Jer. 29: 7,
11-12).

Jeremiah 29 is a letter to the 10,000 prisoners-of-war
Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon. They included craftsmen, priests
and false prophets. You are going to be there a long time, God was
telling them. Settle down; accept it. Plant gardens, get married,
establish families. You can’t change the situation so make the best –
and the most – of it. Pray for Babylon; seek the welfare of that city.
And be hopeful. Hope is a primal human need. Victor Frankl studied World
War II concentration camp survivors: invariably those who ‘made it’ had
something to live for. Where there’s hope there’s life. That’s because
our God is ‘a God of hope’ (Romans 15:13); those who do not know God are
‘without hope’ (Ephesians 2:12). Hope in the Bible is not simply
optimism. Hope is deep; optimism may be shallow. Optimism says:
‘Everything’s going to be all right!’ Hope affirms: ‘Even though
everything’s awful, God’s in these events!’ Hope doesn’t mean the
absence of trouble; but trusting God in spite of trouble. Hope means God
is with us – in triumph or disaster – as he was with his people in the
past.

Change is hard: it’s a form of grief, a loss of security, an
experience of dislocation. Perhaps we, too, have left a familiar place
and made our home in a strange land, with strange people and strange
customs. (The ‘place’ may be geographical or emotional or spiritual).
Jeremiah’s message to us might be: live with what you can’t change. If
you can’t change it, make the best/most of it.

Lord give me the serenity to accept what I cannot change; courage to
change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference (Reinhold
Niebuhr).

‘I’m On Your Side!’ (God)

Jeremiah 29,30

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will
listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all
your heart, I will be found by you And you shall be my people, and I
will be your God (Jer. 29:12,13, 30:22).

There are two kinds of people who please God: those who serve him
with all their heart because they know him; and those who seek him with
all their heart because they don’t know him.

Jeremiah now moves from being a ‘prophet of doom’ to a ‘prophet of
consolation’. Artists paint him with hopeless eyes and a sombre
expression: but they have read only half his prophecies. The Lord will
rebuild the city and gather his people back to their land: indeed all
things will become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Anguish will be replaced by
salvation; from the turmoil of exile they will enjoy quiet and ease. Not
only will they be saved from afar, they will also be saved from within
(30:17). They will enjoy a theocracy, where God rules – and a theophany,
where God is present among his people. We too, who feel ‘in exile’
sometimes, are invited to love, know and obey God. The saints tell us
that our passion to love him must be greater than our desire to
understand his ways. We come to him as we are, with our pain and even
our rage. We come earnestly desiring God, who cares about us deeply.
‘Ask of me greater things than wealth or knowledge,’ writes Augustine in
several places. ‘Ask of me spiritual things. Ask of me myself!’

If you have God and everything else, you have no more than having
God only. If you have everything else and not God, you have nothing
(Anonymous medieval mystic).

Mourning to Gladness

Jeremiah 30

I have loved you with an everlasting love I will turn their mourning
into gladness, I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow I
will make a new covenant with [them] (Jer. 31:3, 13, 31).

C S Lewis in The Problem of Pain addressed the age-old dilemma: If
God were good, he would wish to make his creatures happy, and if God
were almighty he would be able to do as he wished. But his creatures are
not happy: therefore God seems to lack either goodness, or power, or
both. He astonished his Oxford colleagues by suggesting that God may use
our pains as a megaphone to rouse a deaf world: not only that, we may
appreciate joy only if that experience has pain as its backdrop. Pain
helps us yearn for another realm, so that we do not ‘mistake our
pleasant inns for home’.

Walter Brueggemann, a contemporary Old Testament scholar, echoes
this idea in his writings. For example: ‘Only anguish leads to life,
only grieving leads to joy, only embraced endings permit new beginnings
Such weeping is a radical criticism, a fearful dismantling, because it
means the end of all machismo’ (The Prophetic Imagination, Fortress
Press, Philadelphia, 1985, p.60). People in power, he says, will do
anything to avoid weeping; helplessness (the only way to holiness) is
not in their vocabulary.

Jeremiah would agree: chastened by exile, God’s people will one day
repent. God not only forgives, but a new covenant will offer to all
humankind an experience of spiritual re-creation. Jeremiah, Hosea, Jesus
wept This is the way the Master trod; shall not his servant tread it
still?

So remember you are loved, even though life is hard. And let this
thought echo through your pain today: ‘God does not share his love
between all of his creatures. He gives all of his love to each of his
creatures’ (Hugh of St Victor).

Nothing’s too hard

Jeremiah 32

Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your
great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you (Jer.
32:17).

There are time-honoured principles about buying land. Is the
location a good one? How’s the economy at this point – and in the likely
future? Is there any threat of war or other civil disturbance? And so on
Jeremiah is under ‘house arrest’ within the guard’s compound in the
king’s palace. He can hear the enemy bombarding the city walls. Food is
scarce. The situation, militarily, is hopeless. His home town Anathoth
is overrun by Babylonians. They’ve actually camped on his family’s
property. So Jeremiah’s relatives hold a consultation. All is lost, but
there’s just a chance that Jeremiah might be silly enough to buy some of
our land: he’s the sort of person who says weird things and makes odd
choices (and he hasn’t got a financial adviser nearby). So cousin
Hanamel is despatched on this improbable assignment, and Jeremiah falls
for it! Why? God told him to. Why? Because he was to preach that God’s
judgment is never the last word. There will be a future in this land…
Eugene Peterson, is his book about Jeremiah (The Quest for Life at Its
Best, Marshall Pickering, 1993, p. 177) quotes George Eliot’s Mr.
Tulliver, who ‘considered that church was one thing and common sense
another, and he wanted nobody to tell him what common sense was.’
Sometimes common sense is not ‘godly sense’. (But make sure it’s God
telling you to do something strange. Usually, unless you have a clear
hot-line to heaven as Jeremiah did, it’s best to consult with some wise
friends first).

Judgment is never God’s last word. Resurrection always follows
Calvary. The seed dies to produce life. Disaster isn’t permanent: there
is always, always, hope.

Gratefulness

Jeremiah 33

Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love
endures forever (Jer. 33:11).

Jeremiah is still under arrest – and is thankful! Jesus was about to
die, and at ‘the Last Supper’ gives thanks! In his darkest hour, he
gives thanks! With death almost upon him, he is grateful! (One of the
common words for the Lord’s Supper is ‘eucharist’, ‘giving of thanks’).
How does anyone get to be like that? There is only one answer: Jeremiah
lived in hope that God would fulfil his promises to his people. Jesus
had the kind of relationship with a loving Father which never doubted
that despite trouble and even calamity, God is good; beyond death there
is always resurrection. The saints, along with an awareness of original
sin, have a similar deep awareness of original love as well. They live
as if goodness and mercy follow them all the days of their lives. A
grateful entrepreneur was kidnapped by a thug and threatened with death.
His response: ‘Thanks for not coming sooner!’ A grateful pastor surveyed
the empty pews one stormy Sunday night and prayed ‘Thanks Lord that’s
it’s not always like this!’ And a very grateful American Christian took
the text seriously which encourages us to be thankful in all things. He
made a long list of ‘all things’ for which he was grateful. At the
bottom: ‘When I’m lied about.’ ‘Gratitude is not only the greatest of
virtues, but the parent of all the others,’ claimed Cicero.

G.K.Chesterton, when he wrote his autobiography near the end of a
long and useful life, tried to define in a single sentence the most
important lesson he had learnt. He concluded that the critical thing was
whether one took things for granted or took them with gratitude. A
Benediction: To our gift-giving God, who has done wonderful things for
us; who all our life is near us; who gives us constantly his love and
joy and peace; to this bounteous God be thanks and praise for ever.
Amen.

Free the Slaves!

Jeremiah 34

[They] agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and
no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. But
afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had
freed and enslaved them again (Jer. 34:10,11).

Zedekiah, the vacillating king, had a problem. Babylon’s oppression
was severe. What to do? In line with a long-neglected law that did not
allow keeping fellow-Hebrews as slaves for longer than six years, the
king and nobles decided to release them. In the temple each slave-owner
walked through the two halves of a slaughtered bull-calf, invoking on
himself a similar fate unless he released his slaves. It was a solemn
covenantal rite.

The siege lifted briefly when an Egyptian force appeared. And what
then? The slaves were repossessed. So this wasn’t a genuine repentance
and obedience to God’s law at all.

Humans have great difficulty relinquishing power over others.
History is about power. So is psychology (some psychologists, following
Adler, claim that all behaviour has something to do with striving for
power). Someone has defined power as ‘the ability to make others do your
will even if they would choose not to’. Is power always bad? Not
necessarily: that depends on how it is used. Authentic leadership has to
do with authority: power conferred by others, which results in people
achieving goals they and their leaders are committed to. ‘Empowerment’
is giving away, rather than accruing power.

Let’s think about two things: * There are hundreds of millions of
slaves in our world – in some countries forever paying off ‘debts’ their
forebears incurred. And only one in five individuals in the world’s
200-plus nations enjoys full political and civil freedoms. *
Freedom is many things: every human being is a slave to something. Into
our world of ‘slaves whose wills are free’ comes Jesus, who wants to
free us. Well?

The Recabites (Who?)

Jeremiah 35

Again and again I sent all my servants the prophets to you. They
said, ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your
actions: do not follow other gods to serve them’ but you have not paid
attention or listened The descendants of Recab have carried out the
command their forefather gave them (Jer. 35:15,16).

The Recabites were a metallurgists’ or smiths’ guild. Their nomadic
life was precarious with Babylonians all over the countryside, so they
went to Jerusalem as refugees. Why were they abstainers from liquor? We
don’t know: perhaps it had something to do with the discipline of their
trade – to prevent ‘loose lips’ from ‘sinking ships’! Jeremiah took them
into the Temple and offered them wine, which they refused. He then used
them as an object-lesson for the people of Judah: ‘See, these people
have been strictly obedient to the command of a single ancestor: but the
Lord has repeatedly sent prophets and you haven’t listened’ Now
Jeremiah, while commending their faithfulness, does not necessarily
endorse their asceticism. (Whether or not to drink alcohol – and
Christians are divided on that issue – you won’t find anything here to
guide you either way).

Discipline is an important virtue. Everyone who achieves anything of
significance – artists and athletes come to mind – have to be
disciplined. Captains of ships, pilots of planes, managers of banks:
these and most other vocations require discipline. An old proverb says
‘whoever preaches absence of discipline is an enemy of progress.’
Children, the Scriptures admonish in several places, are to be brought
up in the discipline of the Lord. (Note the connection between the
words ‘discipline’ and ‘disciple’.)

Most people are disciplined in one or more areas of their lives.
Jeremiah might ask us: are you similarly disciplined in following the
Lord?

A King and a Scroll

Jeremiah 36

Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you
Perhaps when [they] hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them,
each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their
wickedness and their sin (Jer. 36:2,3).

It was a cold December day, and the king’s chamber was heated by a
brazier of burning charcoal. Baruch, Jeremiah’s faithful scribe was
reading the prophet’s ‘words from the Lord’. As each section was read,
the king cut the scroll with a penknife, and threw it into the flames C
S Lewis somewhere explains the old prayer-book phrase about being
‘miserable offenders’ by analysing the situation of those who don’t
realise they’re miserable. Passengers on two trains about to collide may
be reading magazines, dozing over a drink, or laughing boisterously.
They don’t feel miserable. But in fact their situation can be described
as utterly miserable. Tell them they’re miserable and they’ll laugh at
you.

The sailor doesn’t avoid perilous rocks by cutting up the chart on
which the rocks are mapped John Bunyan’s classic Pilgrims’ Progress
opens with a man clothed in rags standing in a certain place with a book
in his hand and a great burden on his back. The book was a Bible. The
burden was his sins. The cure? Go to the cross and be released of the
burden Repentance – ‘owning then disowning’ your sins isn’t funny, like
the cartoonists’ little old men with sandwich boards shouting ‘Repent,
the end is nigh!’ Or the mourners’ bench in Charlie Chaplin films. Byron
was wrong in his opinion that ‘the weak alone repent’.

Repentance is about radical change. It’s, agreeing with God about
yourself. It’s not simply remorse – perhaps feeling sorry your sins have
found you out. It’s about turning from what is destroying you and
accepting God’s forgiveness. Not a bad idea, if we know what is best for
us.

Jeremiah in a mess!

Jeremiah 37-38

King Zedekiah questioned [Jeremiah] ‘Is there any word from the
Lord?’ Jeremiah said, ‘There is!’ (Jer. 37:13)

Jerusalem is under attack and would soon fall. But there’s been lull
in the two-year Babylonian siege, and Zedekiah wants to know what’s
going on. There are three characters in this ‘Yes Prime Minister’ type
story: * Irijah the sentry who arrested Jeremiah accusing the prophet of
defecting to the enemy. How else could you explain Jeremiah’s constant
advice to surrender to the Babylonians? In war-time always be suspicious
of pacifists! Irijah was a patriot (‘my country right or wrong’) and a
bureaucrat (‘I’m only obeying orders’; remember Adolf Eichmann?). He
would say he had nothing against Jeremiah personally, he was only doing
his duty. The worst evils in the world are not done by evil people, but
by good people who do not know that they are not doing good. Evil people
need mindless public servants to do their job without asking too many
difficult questions

* Zedekiah the king respected Jeremiah, and probably believed that
Jeremiah’s prayers could save the situation. But even the prophet’s
praying would be neutralised by the people’s disobedience. Zedekiah was
weak, vacillating – like Pilate. He was a ‘yes man’, master of the
cop-out, easily swayed by his ultranationalist hangers-on. Perhaps he
wanted to do the right thing – he initiated some secret consultations
with Jeremiah – but he had no character. He was a pitiable figure, a man
of no substance, spineless, weak.

* Ebed-melech was a foreigner, a black man from Ethiopia, and risked
his life to save Jeremiah. Like the Good Samaritan, he went the ‘extra
mile’. Like many ‘little people’ in the Bible and in history (name a
few) he simply did what he could.

Honestly, now: who do you identify with, and what would you have
done?

God’s Judgment

Jeremiah 39

The Babylonian army captured [Zedekiah] slaughtered the sons of
Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah, then
put out Zedekiah’s eyes set fire to the royal palace broke down the
walls of Jerusalem carried into exile to Babylon the people who
remained in the city (Jer 39:5-9).

It has finally happened. The narrative reaches its terrible climax:
Jerusalem has fallen and is razed. Its citizens are carted off into
exile, leaving only the poor in the burnt-out city. God’s word through
the prophet has been fulfilled.

We talk about judgment with tears in our voice: it is a hard subject
to handle lovingly. Judgment is God’s ‘strange work’. It’s God’s love
in action against what is destroying us. Or, as C S Lewis put it
memorably, God labouring to make us lovable. In The Problem of Pain
Lewis asks about God giving people another chance: ‘If a million chances
were likely to do good they would be given.’ Zedekiah and his hangers-on
had all the chances they needed. But now, disaster. ‘Heaven is above all
yet; there sits a judge/ That no king can corrupt’ (Shakespeare, Henry
VIII).

God is constantly creating, renewing, saving and judging. Franz
Kafka writes somewhere: ‘Only our concept of time makes it possible for
us to speak of the Day of Judgment by that name; in reality it is a
summary court in perpetual session.’ The Jewish Talmud says, ‘We are
judged each moment’. And Albert Camus: ‘I shall tell you a great secret,
my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment, it takes place every day.’
But it’s important to remember that God’s purpose in everything that
happens to us, is to increase our joy.

‘Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ (Genesis 18:25).

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!

Jeremiah 40-41

The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the
Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All
this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not
obey him (Jer. 40:2,3).

Jerusalem has fallen. Only a remnant of the people of Judah
remains. After re-reading these chapters I thought: I’m glad I’m not a
head of state. Kings and rulers are not to be envied. Their nights and
days are ‘uneasy’, and throughout history many (most?) died violent
deaths. (Who said: ‘If God calls you to be a missionary, don’t stoop to
be a king’?) In Westminster Abbey the tombs of kings lie near those of
their enemies. Some ‘great ones’ lying in death near each other are
separated by hundreds of years. But at the Great Judgment all of us are
in it together, the mighty and the lowly. Judgment is a great leveller
of humankind.

The judgment parables of Jesus are mostly about our deeds – or lack
of them. Judgment isn’t about orthodoxy (what you believe) but
‘orthopraxis’, how you’ve behaved. We aren’t judged by what we want to
do and can’t, but by what we ought to do and don’t. John Bunyan said it
well: At the day of Doom we shall be judged according to our fruits. It
will not be said to us ‘Did you believe?’ But, ‘Were you doers, or
talkers only?’

But there’s good news: the Judge is merciful. A Jewish proverb puts
it: ‘When God’s people appear for Divine Judgment, the angels say to
them “Fear not, the Judge is your Father!”‘

My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent
his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the
son he delights in (Proverbs 3:11,12).

Trust and obey!

Jeremiah 42-43

All the people approached Jeremiah the prophet and said to him,
‘Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire
remnant we [will] act in accordance with everything the Lord your God
sends you to tell us. Whether it is favourable or unfavourable, we will
obey the Lord our God (Jer 41:2,5,6).

In their distress the remnant left in the land ask Jeremiah to seek
God’s will for them. They promised to obey, unconditionally, anything
the Lord said to them through the prophet. Words, words, words To
justify their actions, they clothed them with pious words. The worst
kinds of evil are religious. Some evil people love to sing in the choir,
to usher, even to preach, but there’s a heart of evil there ‘Is it right
to go to Egypt?’ Jeremiah waited for God’s word and it was clear: don’t.
But it seems (chapter 43) that they had already decided to go. Down in
Egypt, they thought, we’ll have no trouble. Everything will be fine – no
famine in Egypt, no draft, or war. So off they went, taking Jeremiah and
Baruch with them. So this people, who had been delivered from Egypt 900
years is back there again. Back in the land of bondage.

One would think the overthrow of the city would be enough to turn
the hearts of the people back to God. But not so. This people had not
yet reached ‘rock bottom’. When all else fails, read and follow the
instructions. God knows what is best for us. The Bible is full of
imperatives – commands for our wholeness, our ultimate good. The key
question for any God-follower: ‘What does my Lord, my boss, my Master,
want me to do?’

Think about this: Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be
happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Idolatries old and new

Jeremiah 44

Because you have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed him or
followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations this disaster has
come upon you (Jer 44:23).

This was an act of open defiance, of rebellious insolence, in which
they said to Jeremiah, ‘We don’t care what you say or what God says.
We’re going to do what we want.’ So it comes at last to open, insolent
defiance.

Here is Jeremiah’s last recorded message to the nation. To his
fellow-exiles in Egypt, Jeremiah says ‘You are judged because of your
disobedience.’ Their response: ‘Jerusalem has fallen because of our
failure to worship the Queen of Heaven.’ They are still very slow
learners! The Queen of Heaven was probably the Mesopotamian goddess
Ishtar, at whose shrine incense and sweet cakes were offered. You can
imagine these foreigners saying to the Jewish people: ‘What good has
Yahweh been to you? You’ve been conquered: obviously our gods are
stronger. If you were smart, you’d switch your allegiance to them.’
Idolatry is the worship of anything created, rather than the Creator. It
is the practice of ascribing absolute value to things of relative worth.
In our culture they’re the ‘five p’s’ – popularity, power, prestige,
prominence and patriotism. Add to this mix wealth, physical beauty and
pleasure. Idols are objects of devotion, whether they be the
pound/dollar, sport, drugs, sex, science or whatever. God is jealous for
our good, and so anything that detracts – or distracts – from worship of
him alone is spiritually harmful.

How can we figure out what our idols are? It’s fairly simple,
really. Think of the last time you were on a high. Why? Think about what
you would really like people to think of you. Why? Ask your close friend
or spouse/kids what they think really gets you excited.

So what ‘turns you on’? What gives you a buzz? Talk to the Lord
about that.

Serve – and be great!

Jeremiah 45

Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not (Jer.
45:5).

In this brief chapter are some deep lessons about human nature and
godly ministry. Baruch was a secretary: Jeremiah, his boss, was the
prophet. Prophets seek understanding; the rest of us often want
‘results’ and glory to be highly thought of by others.

Baruch felt terrible. He’d been sent to the temple to read the
words of the Lord, and he expected a revival. So what’s wrong with that?
Quite simply: the motive. Baruch apparently wanted to be exalted before
others as the spokesman of God. Baruch would get the glory. But they
rejected his message and they rejected Baruch, and he went home feeling
awful. His whole ministry was useless.

Ministry to others can be seductive. All ‘ministers’ /
people-helpers should regularly ask themselves: for what non-altruistic
motives am I doing all this? (Most pastors stop pastoring, and
counselors counseling, when they resign). We often do good to feel good:
helping others helps us feel needed.

Jesus had some disciples who had made great sacrifices to follow
him. Their ministry (preaching, teaching – even healing and casting out
demons) had sometimes been ‘successful’. But, when honest, what they
really wanted was to be ‘king on the mountain’, number one in Jesus’
kingdom. (Today, read: bishop, president, famous, invited to
positions/tasks of honour etc.).

Baruch simply wasn’t listening to God. Jeremiah had made it plain:
there would be judgment and exile before revival. Jeremiah perceived the
motives of his heart: when all else fails, Baruch, hear the
instructions! The glory belongs to God, not to you. You’re not called to
be a prophet or a genius, but a servant. It’s a different (and more
common) vocation.

Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you? Pray
that I might have the grace to let you be my servant too.

Now
Hear This!

Jeremiah 46-52

In those days, at that time, the people will go in tears to seek the
Lord their God. They will bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting
covenant that will not be forgotten (Jer. 50:4,5).

The last section of Jeremiah comprises prophecies against nine
Gentile nations at different times during his ministry.

Although Israel has been humbled by Babylon, Israel’s God is still
in control. God uses evil persons and systems for his good purposes.
That does not make them any less evil or God less good. God will destroy
all evil, whether by judgment or by redemption. God is in control, and
God cares for his people. All forms of pride – economic, military,
religious – will be shattered. Nations that neglect God’s moral laws, or
pursue commerce as if there is no God, or who oppress the poor, will pay
a terrible price.

The temporary triumph of evil is no reason to doubt God’s power and
love. Nations will rise and fall, but those who do the will of God are
offered an honoured place within God’s everlasting covenant community:
they will abide forever (1 John 2:17).

As a teenager when Jeremiah was called to be a prophet, God said to
him, ‘Now I have put my words in your mouth. I appoint you over nations
and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build
and to plant’ (1:10). After 40 frustrating years Jeremiah died – in
Egypt, according to Jewish tradition.

Six hundred years later another Jeremiah-like prophet (see Matthew
16:14) came to this same people. He too opposed the religious
establishment and preached repentance. But in a unique way God was in
Christ redeeming the whole world…

A final exercise: Imagine Jeremiah being invited to write an
editorial in one of your country’s major daily newspapers. Using
material from these chapters, imagine what Jeremiah might say to your
nation. (You’ll be surprised how much of it is relevant today!)