Saturday
Jeremiah is going to have to pay the cost for his faith and obedience to the Lord.
In a world where we are all about making ourselves happy, it is hard to imagine such sacrifices that the prophets of the Lord had to endure. Jeremiah is beaten and put into the stocks (20:2) because the priest Pashhur didn’t like the things that Jeremiah was saying.
Pashhur was more than just a priest, he was a high ranking official, he was the chief officer in the temple, and he didn’t want to hear the word from God. Pashhur’s role as chief priest was to maintain order in the temple, and I guess he didn’t want to hear anything that would be considered controversy or upsetting to temple order. But the fact is that sometimes what we have to hear is not what we want to hear. We don’t like to be told that we are acting in opposition to what the bible teaches. We don’t want people telling us that living together before marriage is wrong, or that gambling and doing drugs is harmful. We certainly don’t like people telling us that our eating habits are bad or that we are not treating our bodies and temples. (ouch!!)
But to “kill the messenger” so to speak, is not only the wrong way to react, it can be deadly for us, both physically and spiritually. When we become desensitize to the world’s wrong thinking and even buy into it, we can find ourselves slowly fading away from God. Jeremiah’s message was for the Israelites nearly 3,000 years ago, but I think it is also for today’s world and I fear that if he was giving his message to us, many would want to see him shut up.
I also hope that if I am ever called upon to deliver such a strong message with the possibility of such horrible persecution, that I will be willing to carry my cross (total commitment) for the sake of Jesus.
I pray that as our world spirals downward and away from God, that “Jeremiahs” of our age will be heard and that we will humble ourselves, ask for forgiveness and turn away from our sinful behaviors.
Shalom
Pastor Kathy