Jeremiah 15:10-16:13

If you are a believer in Christ you have been entrusted by God with the privilege of serving Him.  We know this because He calls us “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices” (1 Peter 2:5).  Furthermore, every believer is given a gift that motivates and energizes them to serve the body of Christ (Rom. 12:3-8).  We know that God places us in the body where He wants us to be and gives us ministry opportunities (1 Cor. 12:4-7).

Here then is the question: have you ever been in the place where you felt you could not go on in your service for Christ?  Perhaps you have become weary.  Or perhaps you have been so resisted in your ministry that you felt you could not continue.  If you have not, then you are either an exception or you have not really begun to serve in the way the Lord intended.  Challenges to our faithfulness are normal.  We are, in fact, in such a place in the life and ministry of Jeremiah where he is wondering if he can continue to be God’s prophet.

Remember we noted yesterday how God told Jeremiah three times not to pray for the people.  Why did God have to tell him three times?  It seems it never really sunk.  We noted that Jeremiah questioned God’s instructions for the 3rd time with the phrase, “Ah, LORD God.”   Seemed confused that God told him judgment was coming when the rest of the preachers were proclaiming peace.  Even though God had warned Jeremiah in the beginning that his ministry would be difficult it had not really occurred to Jeremiah the extent of the difficulty.

In today’s passage Jeremiah bemoans the fact that when he preaches God’s message, everyone curses him (15:10).  God reassures Jeremiah that he will survive (15:11-14) but this does not satisfy Jeremiah who goes on to plead with God that he has walked uprightly before God (15:15-18), perhaps indicating that he does not deserve this constant rejection.  He asks God, “Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?”

God’s answer is amazing.  Jeremiah must not return to the people, to become one of them (15:19-21).  God again assures Jeremiah that he will be delivered from the hand of the wicked.  But his ministry will not become easy.  And actually God says it will become even harder.  For the sake of a preaching illustration (16:10-13) Jeremiah is denied the privilege of having a wife and family (16:1-4).  God tells him he cannot mourn for the people when they suffer (16:5-7) or rejoice with them in their feasts (16:8-9).

Do we understand this?  God has saved us by grace AND prepared beforehand a path of good works in which we are to walk.  God has designed our path, even as He designed one for Jeremiah, and even as He designed one for His Son, our Savior.  Jesus walked that path faithfully because He knew He must do the Father’s will (John 6:38).  Even in the darkest hour He said, “Not My will but Thine be done” (Matt. 26:39).  Will Jeremiah have this heart?  Will we?