"It is only fitting that this book, which begins with a word of judgment (1:14-16), end with a note of hope to those who experience God's judgment. After all, the ultimate goal of the prophetic word is to announce to those who live in despair the reality of God's grace, which offers to them a future and a hope. This is the good news we find in the book of Jeremiah." (Asbury Bible Commentary)I'm sure that I'm overdramatizing when I say that I've felt "exiled" in some circumstances of my life. The words desolate or alone might be more accurate. Those moments when I felt that everything I worked for (at a job or in ministry) had been destroyed by someone else's condemning words. Or the times when we moved and I had to leave behind the relationships and ministry I had built, feeling like my investment would be forgotten. Even the intense feeling of being alone in an experience or being misunderstood has felt like a separation from people. I know these are very small, mere drops in the bucket, compared to Judah's exile. However, I do find comfort that their God is also my God. Their God of hope and grace is my God of hope and grace.
There were several psalms written during this period of Israel's history and they give voice to what my heart feels and my mind thinks:
You walked off and left us, and never looked back. God, how could you do that?...Refresh your memory of us - you bought us a long time ago. Your most precious tribe - you paid a good price for us!...Come and visit the site of disaster, see how they've wrecked the sanctuary.
There's not a sign or symbol of God in sight, nor anyone to speak in his name, no one who knows what's going on. How long, God, will barbarians blaspheme, enemies curse and get by with it? Why don't you do something? How long are you going to sit there with your hands folded in your lap? God is my King from the very start; he works salvation in the womb of the earth.... You own the day, you own the night; you put stars and sun in place. You laid out the four corners of earth, shaped the seasons of summer and winter. (Psalm 74: 1-17)
God! Barbarians have broken into your home, violated your holy temple, left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!....We're nothing but a joke to our neighbors, graffiti scrawled on the city walls.
How long do we have to put up with this, God? Do you have it in for us for good? ... Don't blame us for the sins of our parents. Hurry up and help us; we're at the end of our rope. You're famous for helping; God, give us a break. Your reputation is on the line. Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins - do what you're famous for doing!...
Then we, your people, the ones you love and care for, will thank you over and over and over. We'll tell everyone we meet how wonderful you are, how praiseworthy you are! (Psalm 79)
God, you smiled on your good earth! You brought good times back to Jacob! You lifted the cloud of guilt form your people, you put their sins far out of sight...
Help us again, God of our help; don't hold a grudge against us forever....Why not help us make a fresh start - a resurrection life? Then your people will laugh and sing! Show us how much you love us, God! Give us the salvation we need! (Psalm 85:1-9)God's answer to these cries, these true prayers of dependence:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he came and set his people free. He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives....Just as he promised long ago through the preaching of his holy prophets; deliverance from our enemies and every hateful hand; mercy to our fathers, as he remembers to do what he said he'd do, what he swore to our father Abraham - a clean rescue from the enemy camp, so we can worship him without a care in the world, made holy before him as long as we live. (Luke 1:68-75)
2 comments:
These last few chapters of Jeremiah have given me nightmares! I finally realized that it is the horrors that I've been reading about in the siege of Jerusalem that have been roaming around in my mind at night. So much killing!
And I'm curious - what finally happened to Jeremiah?
Eugene Peterson had a helpful commentary on this topic::
"...Life is ambiguous. There are uncertainties. Loose ends.
It takes maturity to live with the loose-endedness of life. But if we refuse to live with it, we exclude something that may very well be essential and dear: the hazards of faith, the mysteries of God.
The book of Jeremiah ends inconclusively. We want to know the end, but there is no end. We want to know that he was finally successful so that if we live well and courageously, we, too, will be successful. Or we want to know that he was finally unsuccessful, that a life of faith and integrity doesn't pay off, so that we can get on with finding another means by which to live.
We get neither in Jeremiah. He didn't get married, and he didn't get shot. In Egypt, the place he didn't want to be, with people who treated him badly, he continued to be tenaciously faithful, magnificently courageous, and yet heartlessly rejected. All of which add up to a towering life, terrifically lived.
And though we don't know if his ending was happy, we do know that his character was heroic. Maybe that's all we need to know about his story. And maybe that's all we need to know about ours." Conversations, pg. 1253
Something for me to think about today as I think about success, satisfaction, and God's plans for my life. Will my life be in the "heroic" or the safe category?? What is God asking of me today?
Yeah, the mystery encourages me to continue to live by faith, courageously and boldly. To be present where I am today. Because He brought me here.
It's funny before this, all I knew of Jeremiah was the popular 29:11-13 verses. I'm thankful today that the Word is so real. And that it doesn't just give happy endings. Its relatable and personal. Just thankful today.
God, I know You've shown me Your love over and over again in such mighty uncomparable ways, especially by coming down to rescue me. But my sinful self, I just can't keep my eyes on You and consider the cross enough in one day, one minute even. Would you help me Lord to obsess over Your good news and the mystery of Your sovereignty and Your plan? Be close to me now. I just need Your closeness so much.
Post a Comment