jeremiah

likewise. Jeremiah 1 Jeremiah 42 and 43 up to verse 7 In the first chapter, we see that God chose Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations before he was born. He consecrated ( set apart) him in the womb. Jeremiah was an ordinary man. He said that he did not know how to speak for he was but a youth. He was not an older man, an experienced and eloquent speaker Verse 7 God says do not say I am a youth, to everywhere I shall send you, you shall go. Note that Jeremiah, did not argue about this, He got on with it and he knew that for the most part, people would reject what God had to say. V 7 ALL THAT I COMMAND YOU, YOU SHALL SPEAK V9 GOD TOUCHED HIS LIPS. How do we measure success? Jeremiah spoke what God told him to and he was ignored. He did not bring about a great revival. Indeed he was imprisoned, vilified and rejected. God did not call Jeremiah to be successful; he called him to be FAITHFULL We can have our campaigns and see very little success from them. I have participated in many such campaigns. I have learned a lot of life lessons from them. The society we live in thinks we are fools. They think that there is not absolute truth. They think that at best, we are harmless eccentrics and they certainly have no knowledge of Gods word. In some respects, it is similar to the society that Jeremiah confronted. People think we have nothing to say that is of any relevance to them. Nothing could be further from the truth. What we have to say is what God has proclaimed and it is the message of salvation. They will say “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO IMPOSE YOUR VIEWS ON US” yet they will listen to anything else, as long as it does not confront them with sin. They want to hear about how they are loved. A spiritualist will be coming to the town and his advertising indicates that people should come and make contact with their deceased loved ones who will give them positive messages. ( they will believe them, for they want to be pleased and reassured.) but the messages they hear will be the lies of the devil The people in Jeremiahs day were afraid of famine, pestilence and being invaded by Babylon. They reasoned that it would be better to go to Egypt where life would be good. However they ask Jeremiah to pray for them. 42: 5-6 they promised that they would do what God said even if the message was not good. Jeremiah promised them that he would pray for them and that he would deliver Gods message and would not hold back one word from them. What does that remind you of? It reminds me of what God commanded Jeremiah in chapter one God told Jeremiah to speak what he spoke and to the people Jeremiahs words would seem comforting, but they were in fact a warning. He was saying, that he would obey God as he had always done and that he would say what God said, and it may not be pleasing to them. After 10 days God spoke God already knew what the people would do for he says that he has judged them and that they will all die in Egypt, by the sword, Pestilence and famine ( all the things that they wanted to avoid) God told them that if they stayed in the land, he would show them compassion and that the king of Babylon would show them compassion. They did not like that message. They did not want to be ruled by Babylon. It meant that things would be difficult, but God would be with them in difficult circumstances. They should not lean to their own wisdom On the surface they seemed to be turning back to God. I think they had a wrong view of God. Why did they ask Jeremiah to pray for them, if they were not going to obey a negative message? Why did they not pray themselves? Why invest hope in Jeremiahs intercession? I think they thought God would show favouritism. If they had petitioned God, he would be angry with them, but Jeremiah was like a good ambassador. God would do what they wanted if the case was presented by Jeremiah. Remember however, Jeremiah had warned them that he would not hold back one word that God said. Jeremiah then called the commanders of the people and delivered the message. He was accused of lying. They had no good reason to think that. Jeremiah had by that time a reputation for telling the blunt truth at the expense of his own liberty. Note that God said WHEN you go to Egypt, not IF V17 THE MEN WHO SET THEIR MIND TO GO TO EGYPYT. God knew their minds were made up and they were going to go to Egypt. Their minds were set. It was like saying, “God, here is my plan, I want you to protect us and carry out our plan.” They thought God could be appeased and do what they wanted. They send Jeremiah to the lord to pray, but in reality, it was God who sent Jeremiah to them and in so doing, God was Judging them for their disobedience Being set to go to Egypt in their minds was just as good as actually doing it. God has called all of us to faithfulness in all circumstances. He also warns us that disobedience has consequences Recently, I communicated with someone who said that she wanted to return to the lord and she would do anything. That sounded good, but did she do it. NO. We need to throw off all that hinders and keep God in front of us, obeying what he has revealed to us and not picking and choosing what we will believe and what we will not. That is what the people Jeremiah prophesied to did and they were warned that not one of them who went to Egypt would survive. Being faithful may have consequences for us. The society we live in is growing increasingly intolerant of God. They will believe anything but the truth. If we say we do not agree with the redefinition of Marriage we are branded homophobic, or if we say that we believe the bible, they will say, “That may be true for you, but it is not true for me”. Through it all however, Jeremiah did what God commanded him to do. He was faithful. He spoke what God told him to say, and we must do likewise