Doing My Part - Wrapping Up Jeremiah

Jeremiah’s Message to Us.

This lesson wraps up a month of Jeremiah. In previous lessons, we have seen that Jeremiah lived an prophesied in the last days of Old Jerusalem, a time when the Babylonian Kings were about to be the instrument of God’s judgment on the people of Judea. Judgment, yes but Jeremiah also brought a message of redemption. Jeremiah proclaimed in graphic fashion, out of which he, himself lived, that God had called Judea to be His people and to have a fellowship relationship with Him.

However, throughout their history, the people of Judea and Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had rebelled against God by their social and economic practices and most detestably by their overt worship of other gods, the gods of the Canaanites, most notoriously, the public o worship of Molech, the demi-god who required the sacrifice of their children n the fire on the “high places.”

Nevertheless, God was, of course not surprised by Judea’s unfaithfulness and had already made a plan to purge them of their sin and then redeem them back to Himself to restore the loving relationship. Jeremiah prophesied both aspects of God’s message to His people.
Jeremiah says the same things to us today. We are just as rebellious as the Judeans, yet God as a plan to redeem us as well. And since we are, since before time, a redeemed people, God calls us to act like it. Jeremiah has taught us that God gives each of us a call, obeying that call comes at a price, Doubt will certainly come and we must learn to deal with it, and yet, to find the blessing of the relationship God wants to give each of us, we must pay that price and do our part in His Kingdom work.

Obey Without Delay – Jeremiah 32:6-9. In this passage, God tells Jeremiah to buy a piece of land from a near relative even though the land is about to become worthless. However, God had a longer-term plan that He had not revealed at that time. The point was that He called Jeremiah to do this act as an exercise of faith. In so doing, Jeremiah exercises his own personal faith and grows stronger in his relationship to God within, yet as an independent subset of, God larger plan. And in this case, as in all cases, God’s larger plan is a part of God’s even larger plan. God’s plans are like Ezekiel’s “wheel within a wheel” or the rings of an archery target. God’s plan, as revealed grow larger and larger. The great mystery of this is that though God’s macro plans grow larger and larger in our sight as He reveals them to us, in a micro sense, they grow smaller and smaller in the sense that they become more and more personal to each of us as individuals. That is the great duality of God’s nature. (It is why I refer to God as “Jehovah – Nike,” the God who runs along side me and talks with me as a friend, yet at the same time, is grand enough to “Just Do it.” This lesson is a clear statement to us that for us to see more of God’s macro and micro plan, we have to obey without delay and let Him reveal it as His wills in His perfect timing.

Yield to God’s Purpose. The author of the lesson asserts that as we begin to obey God, then we begin to yield to God’s purpose within our own hearts. A side point here is that while “as a man thinketh so is he,” when we have a weak will to obey God, but nevertheless are willing to give God our weak will and do what He says and act out of that now God-driven will, God will begin to “reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways,” as Henry Blackaby would say.
A particular question that God asks in verse 27 is whether “there is anything to hard for Me?” That’s a question we can all answer, “of course not.” That is, when we answer with our “Sunday School mind.” In reality, I submit that each of us has at least one thing that we (erroneously, but realistically) aren’t totally sure that God can handle. At least, I confess, I do.
God’s Plan Revealed. Lastly, in 32:37-41, we begin to see that macro will of God revealed. God has told Jeremiah to do this crazy thing of buying the worthless land that is about to be seized by the Babylonians.

Yet, one detail of the command is very important and gives a clue to what God has up His proverbial sleeve. God tells Jeremiah to make sure the deed to the land is “signed, sealed and delivered” to a very safe place, a place safe even from the Babylonians. The reason? After 70 years of captivity, God will free the land and return it to Judean control. At that time, the plot of land would revert back to Jeremiah’s family and they world have the evidence to prove it. Thus, God shows that He is ‘way ahead of Jeremiah and the people here.

The End of Jeremiah. We learn that unlike some of the other prophets, Jeremiah does survive. He is deported to Egypt where he lives out his days. While he did not return, he knew that God world return the people to the land. There is hope for us in that final gift from the Book of Jeremiah. Even if it takes longer than our life-time, God is not “asleep at the switch.” He will bring about His purpose. We can count on it. We can be anchored in it.

In Romans, Paul talks about anchoring our faith in Christ. The word picture that Paul uses is the Greek word for a particular anchor that was typically used by a ship making anchor in deep water outside the port. At low time, the ship could not come into the port because of the rocks and shoals, so to anchor it until high tide, they would dislodge the anchor and physically carry it on its chain in a small boat or dingy, over the rocks and shoals into the water of the port to await the time the tide would rise and the ship would reel itself into the safe harbor. It is that anchor that Jeremiah sees. While he cannot see the safe harbor anchorage, he has sent his dingy over the shoals into it and knows that God has firmly placed the anchor there. The anchorage is secured even though unseen. Jeremiah knows that in God’s timing his “anchor holds and grips the solid rock.

In our lives, we need to hear Jeremiah’s lesson. Send out or anchor, take the bold step to follow God when He calls us until “faith shall be sight.” Then we wait patiently and expectantly for God’s High Tide. It not only WILL happen, it HAS happened.

Epilogue – (The following are some unabashed editorial comments by John. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”) Is there a coded message in Jeremiah for us as “Christian America,” and not just for us in a Sunday School class? Let’s see hmm.
We have always thought of ourselves as the chosen ones, the lost tribe of Judah – true believers. America was founded on Biblical principles. You know, “In God We Trust,” and that sort of thing. But apparently, we can’t trust in God any more or so says the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. So in whom do we trust now? Is it in ourselves? If that is so, is that a new thing? Are we the first people who were God’s chosen people who thought they had a better idea? Jeremiah would not say so – neither would the tens of thousands of Judeans who were force marched into captivity in Babylon.

In the news, we also see some movement on abortion. Since Rowe v. Wade, countless little people have been murdered – in the “high places?” Were they sacrificed on the altar of self? If so, are the first people to do this? (See above.)

In his book, Revolution, George Barna points out, amid a lot of criticism from core church people, that the church as we know it is losing ground fast. We have already seen this in Europe where church attendance has dropped to single digits. Admittedly, church attendance is not the “tell all’ statistic of real spirituality, but like fecal chloroforms to us public health types, it is an indicator of greater problems.

I noted today that the fight for control of Baghdad (modern day Babylon) seems to be spiraling out of control. It seems that Iran (ancient Persia) has or is about to have “the Bomb.” That is an ominous development. Are we, as Bob Dylan might say, “On the Eve of Destruction?” Is judgment sure and coming? Has the “coiste-bodhar” (the Death Coach) already been sent out? Maybe, maybe not. But even if it has, take the final macro look at what Jeremiah says.

Even though God brings judgment, His judgment falls on those whom He loves for the sake of discipline – to bring them back to Him. Even if we fall – He won’t. He will bring us back to Himself. I will close this with some words of Comfort from the pen of Gordon Jensen.

Redemption Draweth Nigh - Written by: Gordon Jensen
Years of time have come and gone, Since I first heard it told,
Of how Jesus would come again some day, If back then it seemed so real
Then I just can’t help but feel How much closer His coming is today
[Chorus] Signs of the times are everywhere, There’s a brand new feeling in the air
Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky, Lift up your head redemption draweth nigh
Wars and strife on every hand, And violence fills the land
Still some people doubt He’ll ever come again, But the Word of God is true
He’ll redeem His chosen few , Don’t lose hope soon Christ Jesus will descend
. . . Lift up your head redemption draweth nigh