Jeremiah the prophet was a colossal failure if you measure him by today's feel-good Christianity. No one liked his messages. He was beaten, thrown into a cistern and mocked by the corrupt religious leaders.
But Jeremiah had something that most big-name preachers today lack: His heart was tender, he refused to compromise the truth and he served God in complete obedience. God gave him a tough assignment in the Old Testament – deliver a warning to stiff-necked Judah that unless it turned from its evil ways, Jerusalem would be destroyed and its occupants cast into exile. How bad was it? God said in Jeremiah 15:1 that even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Him, He still would cast Judah out of His sight.
Yet woven into these dark passages are glimpses of God’s mercy. Early on, God said he would pardon Jerusalem if one man could be found who sought justice and truth (Jer. 5:1). Even when Jerusalem’s doom was sealed, God still was looking for someone – anyone – who would yield to His will.
And He found three men: Jeremiah and two friends – Baruch the scribe and Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian eunuch. They were common men whose futures appeared bleak as the Babylonian army prepared to storm Jerusalem. Yet God rewarded them generously for simple acts of obedience. Although Jeremiah was treated roughly by the Jewish leaders, God delivered him from every crisis. Baruch, for his part, wrote Jeremiah’s warnings on a scroll and read it aloud in the Lord's house. Baruch did all that the prophet commanded.
When King Jehoiakim destroyed the scroll and the Lord instructed Jeremiah to prepare another, Baruch had his pen ready again. Here’s where we see God’s mercy. After the first scroll was rejected, God hid Jeremiah and Baruch from the king and his henchmen, who wanted them seized. God also sent a personal word of assurance to Baruch through the prophet – "Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh, says the Lord, but I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go (Jer. 45:5)."
The Lord used Ebed-Melech to save Jeremiah's life during the reign of King Zedekiah. When Jeremiah was thrown into a dungeon and left to die, he alerted the king – probably at risk to his own life – and the order was given to rescue the prophet. God then sent Jeremiah to inform Ebed-Melech that because he had trusted the Lord, his life would be spared in the coming calamity (Jer. 39:17).
Let’s apply that understanding to today. We live in a society that is no less wicked than the house of Judah and the house of Israel in Jeremiah’s day. Psalm 14:2 says, "The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God." The Lord is looking for a few good men and women, just as He did in ancient Israel. And because God never changes, He will continue to extend His kindness and mercy to those who obey His voice, even in the most perilous of times.
Posted by Jeff King at July 25, 2003 09:48 AM