Jeremiah…..on holiday???

18/08/2009 by paul.

I have been challenged recently to get to understand and delve further into the Bible, and in particular amongst the Old Testament prophets. So I went off on holiday armed with my Bible and Kidner’s BST commentary on Jeremiah.

It may not have been ideal relaxation reading, but I managed to read through the book and through the commentary. So the prophet Jeremiah is given the courage and the blessing to speak to a nation that is not only on the brink of defeat and total devastation, but one that is not going to listen to God’s words when they do come. God has some strong words for the Israelites. At times you see God’s frustration because of the love he has for the Israelites and their intolerance to him. At times you see God’s righteous anger at the people and their ways of scheming against him. At other times you see the amazing grace that God has the despite the Israelites behavior he will save a remnant for a return to Jerusalem. At other times you see just what God puts his servants through. And finally you see the power of God to be able to use and guide the leading super-powers of the day to lead his people back to him.

So what do I take from Jeremiah for my work and view of church?
The challenge is clearly there in Jeremiah’s call and approach to ministry. Perhaps all minister’s today feel the same call of the word of the LORD: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations‘. The question is whether we come through the questioning of ourselves (Jeremiah questioned his ability and age in the beginning Ch.1v.6-10) and perhaps our struggle with God as in Jeremiah’s complaints to understand that ‘ the word of the LORD has brought me insult and repproach all day long. But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name”, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.‘ (20v8b-9) For Jeremiah knew that the Lord was with him ‘like a might warrior‘ (20v.11) and Jeremiah’s response became ‘Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD!‘. I hope and pray that I might have the same humility to rely on God for all my strength, the same courage to take my trouble and worry to God, the same fire burning in me so that I cannot but speak of the wonder of my Lord and Saviour, and the same joyfulness so as to praise his name all my days.

But apart from the personal message I’ve been reflecting on the church in today’s world, in particular the URC church today. Jeremiah makes it clear that God would use Babylon for a time for his purposes, and that the people would be better going off into captivity. But Babylon would be used by God and then once it had run its usefulness it would be over-run by others. Perhaps we could see formal church religion alongside the invading armies of Babylon in Jeremiah’s day. God has been using them over the last years to bring his people closer to him once more, but perhaps the decline in our church is because formal religion has had its day and its uses within the modern environment, and that the church as we know it is being over-run by others. And so the message of exile is extremely relevant for us today. As we linger in our Babylon are we longing for a return to Jerusalem with its traditional religious laws and regulations amongst a few high priests that let the people get on with being and doing whatever they like, or, are we longing for a return to God in which the priority is the people’s relationship with God which is to be restored, and a hope for a New Jerusalem in which there is no ‘temple’ because the people and God walk side by side on the streets?

Or perhaps we should see the church alongside the resident Jews in Jerusalem. For too long I believe that people in the church have been different from Jeremiah - the word has not been burning inside them, they (and I!) have been happy to leave behind a life worthy of being associated with God or Christ but still use the label CHRISTian. If we truly believe that Christ died for our sin then should we not being doing all we can to ensure the God’s word is in our hearts, our minds and our lives day by day, and that we live Spirit filled lives worthy of God’s name. Perhaps our times are not too different from Jeremiah’s. How long will it be before the foreign army is at the doors of the church? Perhaps he’s already there…

But in the heart of Jeremiah is the hope of chapter 33 (and it was a relief to have reached chapter 33!). Regardless of the picture we have church alongside the people in Jeremiah, a full restoration is the hope for the future. God ‘will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. Then this city (and our church?) will bring me renown, joy, praise, and honour before all the nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.‘. (33 v.6-9)

Come Lord Jesus.
Use me.
Restore your Church to be a people of praise.
Use us to show the world what it means to love you.

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